Why Smile’s ‘overwhelming, mind-breaking’ monster is a practical effect

Parker Finn’s debut horror film, Smile, Paramount has enjoyed a major theatrical success with the film, even though it wasn’t intended to be shown in theatres. The movie — an eerie metaphor for mental illness — was originally planned as a straight-to-streaming project for Paramount Plus. But test audiences responded so strongly that Paramount opted for a wide release, and the impact the movie’s horrifying villain had on audiences was likely a strong part of that decision.

[Ed. note: This story contains a major spoiler for Smile.]

Paramount Pictures – Photo

SmileRose Bacon, a hospital therapist who is stricken by a mysterious pain-eating entity can transform into any person she has ever met. For most of the movie’s run, she never knows whether a given person in a room with her is the friend she expects them to be, or a monster wearing a familiar face.

However, at the end, the creature literally tears off its mask and exposes something reddish, raw, shiny, and with many toothy grins below its eyes.

“I kept wanting to do something that felt like its reveal would be overwhelming and mind-breaking,” Finn told Polygon in an interview at Austin’s Fantastic Fest, shortly after the film’s world premiere. “I kept leaning into that — I kept explaining to everyone, ‘I want it to be gleefully evil.’ So it leans into the feeling of smiling, and this evil happiness.”

Finn says the image of the creature’s revealed face came to him “very early on, that exact frame,” and he drew a crude version of it to pass on to other creators, so they’d have some idea of what was in his head.

“I’m not a great artist. I’m very rudimentary,” he says. “But I handed that drawing off to a concept designer who was able to do something really special with it. Then we took that art piece and handed it off to StudioADI. Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff Jr. also received the drawing. They’re amazing artists in their own right, and they reinterpreted it with what they do best. The end result is this amazing practical effect that I’m so proud of.”

Finn believed it was crucial to give his monster an actual artifact, rather than just a digital image like so many horror director operating in today’s digital age.

“I grew up on practical effects,” he says. “It’s one of the reasons I wanted to become a filmmaker. Practicality gives something more gravitas. You can interact on-set with the material because it has weight and physics. You can see the difference. You can certainly use VFX to make certain items come to life. But the practical nature of VFX makes it tangible. And not only while you’re physically doing it in production, but I think for the audience as well.

Photo: Walter Thomson/Paramount Pictures

“Unless you have a giant Marvel budget, I think people can always sniff out CGI. Hopefully, they will instead find the right moment to do so. Smile, they’ll be asking themselves, How in hell is this possible? This is how it can be possible.”

Finn said that the 9-foot tall monstrosity was physically a monster and needed a performer to enter it. Puppeteers were required to move its gangly legs.

“I gotta tell you, when we set that up — that image I had drawn, that had been in my brain cooking for so long as a big logistical challenge, just, We are going to pull it off! — It was surreal to be able to be present and shoot it. The entire crew was gathered around to look at this 9-foot monster on set that is doing what it’s doing. It was truly extraordinary. It’s one of those pinch-me moments that’s like, We’re doing real movie magic here.”

Finn says working with the monster was his favorite part of making the film: “It’s something that will live with me forever.”

But the monster itself won’t live with him — he’s not sure where the puppet went after the film was finished. No matter how much he loved it, he wasn’t interested in trying to take it home. He says StudioADI probably has it in a warehouse somewhere — which is just as well, given that transporting it for shooting presented a lot of practical issues. “That thing had to fly from California out to New Jersey,” he says. “I like to think we got it a first-class ticket.”