Smile Movie Ending Explained (All Questions Answered)

Smile is a 2022 horror movie written and directed by Parker Finn. The story follows a therapist who is haunted by visions of people smiling at her after she witnesses a girl commit suicide in front of her, smiling. Here’s a plot and the ending of the movie Smile explained in short; spoilers ahead.

Smile is finally on Paramount Plus, so do check it out if you have access to the platform.

Smile Movie: Plot Explained In Short – What Happens?

Therapist, Dr Rose Cotter, meets with a graduate student named Laura Weaver, who claims she is being terrorized by an entity in the form of smiling people that no one else can see. After Laura kills herself, Rose starts experiencing hallucinations of people smiling at her and begins to suspect she is cursed. 

With the help of her ex-boyfriend, Joel, she learns that witnesses of suicide tend to die by suicide themselves after a few days. And this trail extends to over 15 people. The only way to escape the curse alive is to pass it on by brutally killing someone in front of a witness to traumatize them.

Who is Robert Talley?

Robert is a person who escaped death by brutally murdering someone in front of a witness, passing on his curse to the witness. As a result, he is imprisoned, and Rose meets him to learn that this is the only way to escape the curse and is horrified.

Rose isolates herself in her abandoned childhood home so she can’t pass on the curse. She faces the entity which has taken the form of her mother. Rose manages to set the entity on fire and leaves the burning house free of her curse and trauma, and reunites with her ex-boyfriend, or so the filmmaker makes us believe for a minute.

Smile Movie: Ending Explained: Did Rose Die?

The ending of the movie Smile reveals that Rose defeating and heading to Joel’s place was all a hallucination. In reality, she’s still in her childhood home and gets consumed by the entity. Joel tracks Rose and shows up at the house only to witness her burn herself to death, passing the curse on to him.

Does Joel die?

Joel is the next one marked for death. So unless he murders someone in front of a witness, we can be sure that he will be dead in a week. However, Joel knows much more about the entity and its MO, so the next week of Joel’s life would make for a good sequel.

Frequently Asked Questions Answered

Smile Movie: What is the entity? Is it demonic?

The entity is shown to be a demonic being that thrives by feeding on the trauma of the victims it has possessed and killed over time. We get to see its hideous form right at the end of the film as it takes over Rose’s mind.

Why do they smile in the movie?

The smile is the exact opposite of what the victims go through. The entity feeds on and amplifies trauma to such excruciating amounts that it leaves the victims wanting to kill themselves. The smile that the entity makes them wear as they commit suicide intensifies the trauma of the next witness creating an endless chain.

Smile Movie: How did the cat die?

The entity killed the cat. It is shown that the entity can possess people and get them to kill themselves, but the victims have free will up to that point. It could be that the cat was killed by the entity. How? The entity possessed the cat, and it killed itself. I’m taking a wild guess here; it’s not like the entity can change its MO.

How does the mother die? Did Rose kill her mother?

Rose doesn’t kill her mother but doesn’t save her either. When Rose was young, she found her mother dying from a substance overdose. But Rose had had it with her mother and simply walked away, didn’t call 911, and left her to die. The guilt and trauma of this incident stay with Rose forever, marking her as one of the victims of the entity.

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