Smile, one of the decade's best horror franchises, is streaming on Hulu

The first film of the decade's most promising horror franchise is now streaming on Hulu. Parker Finn’s Smile felt like a miracle when it was released in 2022: an original horror movie plucked from the obscure hell of direct-to-streaming release and turned into a genuine box-office hit.

Built from Finn’s 2020 short Laura Hasn't Slept, the film quickly introduces Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon), a therapist in an emergency psych ward whose steady world begins to crack after a terrified patient, stalked by a grinning, shapeshifting presence only she can see, kills herself in front of Rose.

As Rose digs into the supposed curse, the people closest to her—including her well-meaning but dismissive fiancé Trevor (Jessie T. Usher), her fragile sister, and even her therapist—begin to see her as unstable. Smile combines psychological gaslighting with a deadly ticking-clock curse, inventive gory deaths and a shapeshifting antagonist that gives Pennywise vibes.

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