Trivia / Smile (2022)

• The Danza: Rob Morgan as Robert Talley.
• Dueling Works: With Barbarian. Both are solo-directorial horror debuts, released around the same time, that tackle harrowing modern day societal issues, uncomfortable social interactions/relationships, and include a confrontation with a tall, monstrous looking woman near the end. Though Smile is a Psychological Horror film with a clear supernatural edge while Barbarian is a suspense thriller/Horror Comedy with very little supernatural elements.
• Fake American: Caitlin Stasey is Australian but her character Laura is American.
• Promoted Fanboy: Director Parker Finn said that when hiring Amalgamated Dynamics for the practical effects, the Zoom call with the two company owners boiled down to him saying 'you guys don’t understand, you changed my childhood. This is the reason that I wanted to make movies,' and them geeking out for two hours.
• Sleeper Hit: The film opened at #1 domestically with a strong $22.6 million, but managed to play strongly though October and November, buoyed by solid reviews and word-of-mouth. It fell only 18% in its second weekend, the best hold of any wide release in 2022, and the second best hold for a horror/thriller film after Get Out (2017). It stayed in the top ten for over two months and crossed $100 million.
• Viral Marketing: A couple of days before the September 30, 2022 release, actors from the film showed up at various baseball games, sitting behind home plate dead still and smiling while staring into the camera, unmoving despite fans in the audience being understandably concerned, while wearing Smile shirts. Another soon appeared in the background with the crowd during the Today show.
• What Could Have Been: The film was originally planned to be released exclusively on Paramount+, but Paramount Pictures instead decided to release it in theaters thanks to overwhelmingly positive test screenings.
• Working Title: There's Something Wrong With Rose.

---