Smile: Paramount has shared the original short film, Laura Hasn’t Slept

After racking up over $200 million at the global box office, the horror film Smile is now available to watch on the Paramount Plus streaming service and to purchase digitally (get it HERE), and will be getting a physical media release on December 13th (pre-order it HERE). Smile was based on writer/director Parker Finn’s short film Laura Hasn’t Slept, which won the Special Jury Recognition Prize in SXSW’s Midnight Short category, and the short will be available as a bonus feature on the Blu-ray release. But if you’d rather not wait and just want to watch Laura Hasn’t Slept right now, you can. Paramount has shared the short film on YouTube, and you can check it out in the embed at the bottom of this article!

Caitlin Stasey (Neighbours) plays the title character in Laura Hasn’t Slept, which shows what happens when desperate to rid herself of a recurring nightmare, a young woman seeks the help of her therapist.

Stasey also plays a character named Laura in Smile, which 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.

Stasey and Bacon (Charlie Says) are joined in the cast by Kal Penn (the Harold & Kumar movies), Kyle Gallner (Red State), Jessie T. Usher (The Boys), Rob Morgan (Mudbound), Judy Reyes (Scrubs), and Gillian Zinser (90210).

Smile was produced by Temple Hill, with Nathan Samdahl and Natalia Maymi overseeing the project for Paramount Players. In another featurette, Parker Finn promised that nothing can prepare you for what’s going to happen in his movie, which he wanted to feel “like an escalating nightmare”.

Our own JimmyO gave Smile a 7/10 review that you can read at THIS LINK. You can watch our interview with Parker Finn over HERE.

Have you seen Smile? If so, let us know what you thought of it by leaving a comment below – and while you’re at it, let us know what you thought of the short film Laura Hasn’t Slept!

Source: Paramount

About the Author

Cody is a news editor and film critic, focused on the horror arm of JoBlo.com, and writes scripts for videos that are released through the JoBlo Originals and JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channels. In his spare time, he's a globe-trotting digital nomad, runs a personal blog called Life Between Frames, and writes novels and screenplays.