Half-review because SMILE was an experiment for my eldest kid: how intense was he willing to get? Answer, was, as far as the birthday party scene. If you like jump scares and slow mental torture in your horror flicks – and I am absolutely not sneering at you if you do* – then this movie is gonna be right up your alley. It’s honestly made, and genuinely disturbing.
Moe Lane
*The latter is not my cup of tea, but I can tell when it’s well done, and it’s well done in SMILE.
Define “slow mental torture”.
Building terror, and slowly dawning horror, I’m down with.
The whole “Saw” and “Funny Games” stuff, not so much.
Cat scares are so rarely done well nowadays that I don’t really care for them.
I don’t actively dislike them, just lazy writers, devs, and directors using the technique without understanding or intent.
Speaking of the genre done well, have you gotten around to playing Subnautica yet?
If not, do. It’s brilliant. (It’s not perfect. IMO, the cosmic horror in the latter part of the game falls a bit flat. It’s not that it’s bad per se. It’s just that existential horror about the universe your your precarious place therein, takes a back seat to the risks of drowning and getting eaten.)
I didn’t get all that far in the movie itself, but it was clear that the Bad Thing enjoyed *playing* with its victims. Saw might not be too far from the mark – not that I judge people who like that kind of horror, either. It’s just not my cup of tea.
Subnautica is indeed great, and the followup Below Zero looked like it Didn’t Suck.™
Particualrly if you can avoid getting eating *while* drowning.