Paramount Players will be giving writer/director Parker Finn’s horror film Smile a theatrical release on September 30th, and with that date just a few weeks away a featurette has arrived online to give us a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the film. You can check it out in the embed above.
Finn and cast members Sosie Bacon (Charlie Says), Kal Penn (the Harold & Kumar movies), Kyle Gallner (Red State), and Jessie T. Usher (The Boys) are interviewed in the featurette, and along the way Finn promises that nothing can prepare you for what’s going to happen in his movie, which he wanted to feel “like an escalating nightmare”. The featurette definitely did its job as far as I’m concerned, because I’m more interested in Smile now than I was before watching it.
The actors mentioned above are joined in the cast by Rob Morgan (Mudbound), Judy Reyes (Scrubs), Caitlin Stasey (Neighbours), and Gillian Zinser (90210).
Smile is based on Finn’s short film Laura Hasn’t Slept, which won the Special Jury Recognition Prize in SXSW’s Midnight Short category. Stasey played the title character in that short, and it seems like she might be reprising the role in Smile (briefly, judging by the trailer), making this a follow-up of sorts.
Smile has the following synopsis:
After witnessing a bizarre, traumatic incident involving a patient, Dr. Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon) starts experiencing frightening occurrences that she can’t explain. As an overwhelming terror begins taking over her life, Rose must confront her troubling past in order to survive and escape her horrifying new reality.
Smile was produced by Temple Hill, with Nathan Samdahl and Natalia Maymi overseeing the project for Paramount Players. Parker Finn will be in attendance for the Fantastic Fest screening of Smile later this month, and according to the festival the film has a running time of 116 minutes.
Are you looking forward to Smile? What did you think of the featurette? Let us know by leaving a comment below.