Halloween being around the corner will put you in the mood to find an index of movies so terrifying that it sticks with you. Video Librarian’s Guide to Halloween can introduce you to a collection of horror movies whether you’re in the mood for campy fun, slashers, or psychological thrillers. But, the best horror films come from scary relatable experiences. There’s nothing scarier than feeling threatened with no one to believe you. That’s what the character of Dr. Rose Cutter goes through in Parker Finn’s Smile which will teach psychology students a thing or two about therapy culture.
In a typical therapy session, a therapist will invite a patient to share what’s going on in their life. They will ask if there is anything bothering the patient and any specific goals they may have. A therapist will take notes as the patient speaks or after. A patient should be able to tell their therapist anything without the worry of being judged or criticized.
Smile places you in the mindset of therapist Dr. Rose Cutter. This psychological horror film is like The Ring and It Follows where you feel like you’re in the presence of a dark entity you cannot escape from. The Sixth Sense is also a similar movie where a therapist is quick to disbelieve the supernatural oddities following a little boy until he gathers evidence later that ghosts do, in fact, follow him. It shows that sometimes therapists really can learn a lot from their patients more than they think.
In one of the first scenes in the movie shown in the trailer, Dr. Rose Cutter meets college student Laura Weaver who reveals that she witnessed her college professor commit suicide and is now followed by a demonic figure with a sinister smile that tells her she’s going to die. Rose doesn’t believe her and is ready to tell her that what she is experiencing isn’t real. But after Laura has a mental breakdown saying she sees the demon in the room, her face slowly turns into the same sinister smile she described, and slices her own throat in front of a terrified Rose.
Rose is severely traumatized by what she’s seen. To make matters worse, Rose ends up cursed the same way Laura was for witnessing this tragic spectacle. She receives visits from seemingly everyday people with the same terrifying smile. As an audience, we have no idea if the hallucinations Rose is experiencing are real or not. But the scares feel as real as anything.
Whenever Rose tries to tell her co-workers or her family what she’s experiencing, they don't believe her. They think what she’s describing is all due to her underlying trauma and that she’s losing her mind. Instead of her peers seeing that as a reason to help her, they turn her away out of fear instead of compassion. Not even her fiancé believes her after she pours her heart into him.
Psychology professors teaching with film can use this horror movie to emphasize the importance of mental health. Rose has no control over her mind anymore because she’s seeing and hearing things that are invisible to the people around her. Being called “crazy” and telling her that what she’s experiencing is “all in her head” does not help or make her terror go away. Smile demonstrates how physical injury tends to be more important than a person's mental health.
According to a Psychology Today article, smiling is a way to minimize a traumatic experience. If you downplay the severity you have been through with a smile, that’s your way of convincing everyone that there is nothing to be worried about. Smiling is supposed to mean you’re happy, right? It’s just like in the scene when Rose puts on her makeup to prepare for her young nephew’s birthday party. She’s giving a forced smile in the mirror so that no one can tell how stressed and scared she is about recent events that have happened to her.
Smile can teach psychology students that just because you can’t see or hear what a patient describes doesn’t mean it’s not real. What they’re experiencing is real to them and your job as a therapist is to help your patient feel at ease. Rose’s struggles show that it can mean a world of difference to have people take you seriously with the right amount of support. If you are an academic librarian or professor, add Smile to your university's movie library for your psychology classes.