From Paramount Pictures, Smile is the upcoming psychological horror movie with a very creepy premise. Written and directed by Parker Finn in his feature film debut, the film is based on his 2020 short film Laura Hasn't Slept, which won the Special Jury Appreciation Award in the SXSW Midnight Short category. The 11-minute short follows a young woman who seeks help from her therapist after experiencing a recurring nightmare in which she is visited by a terrifying man whose appearance changes with each dream.
Dr. Rose Cotter, a psychiatrist, helps patients at a center. A patient touches a string when she commits suicide in front of Rose during a date. After yelling at something Rose can't see, the young woman's face takes on a creepy smile as she holds a pot shard in her hand. The overlay of the covered body in the trailer suggests that the patient brought a deep smile to her face and neck.
This event begins to take its toll on Rose. Everywhere she goes, she sees someone smiling eerily similar to that of her patient. She wants to know what tormented the girl and now her. As she walks through another patient's room at her work, he has the same smile. When she tries to wake him up from the trance she appears to be in, he begins to sing that she is going to die, apparently telling her where she will end the journey.
In her quest to understand what she's going through, someone helps her find 20 cases of people with similar experiences. Only one of them has survived. When she talks to the survivor, he refuses to see her after discovering that she sees her smile. According to security footage obtained by her friend, the other victims hurt themselves in front of the public, as does her patient.
There are hints in the trailer that Rose will end up hurt before she finds the answer to her question. In one scene, both forearms are bandaged with gauze, though the audience doesn't know why. During an appointment with what appears to be her therapist, she sees her smile and the person she is trying to get help from appears to try to strangle her.