Genre

Horror, female horror

Themes

Smile has many themes: coming-of-age, family, religious sects in society, familial sexual abuse, gender roles in the home, feminism, mother-daughter relationships, wealth and status in social groups, revenge... you name it!

Core theme

It’s sometimes hard to nail this when there are so many themes floating around. This story core could be different for everyone. Smile is a mother-daughter tussle, a teenager’s abuse by her father that is normalised by her oppressive and controlling mother. Ultimately this is about her breaking free of, and at the same time ‘becoming’ her mother, by means she has only dreamt of thus far. For me the film is a coming-of-age family drama with vengeance as secondary theme.

Raison d’être

Female horror is a very interesting space in which to explore themes and issues of now. Female revenge horror is not new, we’ve been watching women take delicious retribution against men throughout cinema’s history using everything from poison to emotional pressure, with knives, guns and hand to hand combat called I for faster dispatch of their target. With the rise of the slasher film in the late sixties, came our fave horror heroine - the final girl. Final straw girl is not acting in self defence but self interest, she is not passively trying to live her life, she wants to actively eliminate anyone in her way.

Smile Characters

Lead: Faith - daughter of Peg and Richard, sister of Grace

Faith is a late-teenage girl who lives with her parents in an oppressive house.

She is rebellious on a small scale outwardly, such as coming home late, but on a large scale inwardly - she longs to be part of society and have friends, but has no clue how to behave socially.

Faith works/volunteers as a tutor and sings in the local church choir (non-specific church e.g.: Anglican). She is allowed these by her parents (read:mother) so she can appear normal. She is strictly forbidden from associating with anyone outside these activities. Neither Faith nor her sister attend school but this is neither here nor there in the story.

Faith’s father has until recently been regularly raping her. This is understood as a ‘special time’ they share for getting closer to god. Her mother is, we feel, aware of this but has her own issues.

Faith feels both protective and resentful of her younger sister Grace, who, although constantly punished by being locked in the basement, has not been targeted by Richard. If it wasn’t for Grace, she could run away. The one thing she is sure of is that she will never leave Grace to the fate Richard and Peg have in store for her.

Faith is sexually curious towards the kids she meets in the cemetery. She longs to be wild and is turned on by their physical closeness.

She is gifted a journal by her choir leader/mentor (perhaps) Mary Quinn. This type of ‘physical evidence’ of her thoughts would be strictly forbidden by her mother. She loves drawing and privately starts a field journal of the nature she sees in the cemetery (where she spends any time she can escape Peg’s clutches). The journal documents her journey from innocent and obedient child to family murderess.

Faith sits in the middle of Grace and Peg. Grace represents her weakness, her oppression, her inability to break away. Although she adores Grace, she also cannot see a future for or with her but will never leave Grace to the fate she knows is her lot. Peg represents the evil Faith is becoming. Peg is strong and determined, on the outside at least and Faith needs to embody her to do what she needs to. Although Peg is cruel to her, Faith seems to tolerate her well.

Peg - Mother

Peg is a beautifully groomed thirty-something. No one would know was poor white trash and treated badly as a child with little education and an absent mother, and they won’t find out if she can help it.

She was a promising gymnast and had won a medal but an incident at a bbq changed her life forever. Her father bragged to his mates about her and rewarded her with beer for showing them her moves. Obviously neglected by her parents, they would have had no money or intention of pursuing her athletic career. Peg was raped by her father’s friends at the bbq. She ran away and never looked back. She met her husband Richard by chance while living on the streets. She was thirteen, he, about twenty-three.

Peg has multiple issues.

The child of abuse, she is aspirational and maintains a spotless house. She believes this transformation will rid her of her demons. It has not. She has not dealt with her ordeal in any way, so cannot deal with the same abuse happening to her daughter by her own saviour. She cooks for charity and church (not the cult) incessantly, is a real whizz in the kitchen and always looks beautiful.

She feels far superior to the local church people. Her and Richard don’t openly admit to being part of the cult. Most of the church women think she is just a bit stuck up and strict in her parenting because she takes the Bible a little too literally. She has joined a women’s group (which she hates) and is determined to show her knowledge of Bible verse ( she has been reading it incessantly for more than twenty years) and wants to keep up her pretence of being a perfect mother in a perfect family. She wears makeup and fashionable (retro) clothing, heels, and has fashion and interior design magazines around, but doesn’t read anything by the Bible. Old Testament is preferred in their sect.

Peggy and Richard haven’t had sex since he started abusing Faith four years ago. She adores him, thinks he is a messiah and is certainly her saviour. Although it has never been discussed, Peg knows what Richard is up to with Faith. Her guilt is manifested as jealousy. She thinks looking beautiful will bring Richard back to her bed, which would solve her problems and let Faith off the hook, and is so focussed she cannot see any other way of stopping what she fears/knows is going on.

Peg sees Faith more as a right-hand or (kooky way) friend than a daughter she should be protecting. Although she is chief punisher of Grace, she adores her, and wants to protect her from Richard.

Peg thinks Grace is her Angel and if she keeps her hidden or quiet, Richard will forget about her. It destroys her when she learns he intends to rape Grace. Not enough that she will do anything about it, her anger is always taken out on Faith. She is Faith’s greatest nemesis, but is a complicated person. Although she is guilty of heinous crimes, with her upbringing and Richard her only influence, it is in some way understandable. Peg in some way believes if she is stricter and meaner with Grace, and doesn’t let her grow up, that Richard will leave her alone.

Richard - Father

Richard is a forty-something failed everything. He comes from wealth but was never going to rise to the expectations of his parents. He rejected their pressure to confirm by joining the cult. His family know he is odd (and don’t want to investigate how odd) and pay him a stipend to keep him away from them.

He and Peg live well, he is trying to rise in the cult to become a leader, maybe get some land and move members into a contained space. Nothing has come of it so far despite his charisma. For all his dirty deeds, Richard is charming and can influence people. He knows he is a fraud, buying self-help books by the dozen. He locks himself into his office and plays with toy cars to assuage his guilt and to distract him from admitting his failure as a human being and a father and husband.

He cannot perform sex with his wife. The only way he can perform sexually is with a pubescent girl. Faith at seventeen or eighteen is too old for him. It’s Gracie’s turn now.

Grace - Sister

Grace is thirteen/fourteen, but looks younger. She has been tortured and infantilised by her parents, and is almost a symbol of Faith’s past in the story, as well as the catalyst for murder!

Grace is sweet, her mother’s Angel (even though she tortures her?) and spends most of her time locked in the basement “For her own good”. She tolerates the ‘grounding’ from her mother easily, and believes when her mother tells her they are sinners and deserve punishment.

She has just started her period. This springs Richard into action. It’s like he can smell her, he’s been waiting on the sidelines. She instinctively hides the bloodstains from her mother, who attacks her when she finds them. Peg is both angry at and terrified for Grace.

Grace adores Faith, her only ally, and sees Faith as more her mother than Peg. She doesn’t feel adored, she just wants to hide from everyone and has started to become very used to being locked away. She is only happy when Faith and her are alone.

Supporting characters

Mary Quinn - teacher/choir leader and mentor to Faith

Mary is a widow, and devotes all her time to the church. She likes Faith and thinks she could blossom if she got out from under her family’s wing. She especially thinks Peggy is too strict with Faith. She would like to see Faith live her own life.

Mary buys Faith the journal. Once Faith takes hold of the journal, she changes.

Mary is also the last person Faith visits. This could be because she is desperate for help after committing heinous deeds, Faith may think Mary gave her the journal for exactly the purpose it ended up serving, or, Mary could be Faith’s next victim. You decide.

The Kids

Cam, Jack and Liz are typical early twenties local kids - good looking, sexed up and bulletproof. Liz and Jack are a couple, but Jack wants Cam around so often they may as well be a threesome... and it may have already happened on a few drunken evenings. Cam is quite taken with Faith, she is the opposite of Liz, but he picks up on her curiosity and desire.

Faith’s Journal

In the journal, Faith has assigned a tree/plant/flower to represent each member of her family. The others are growing and flourishing but she is not, she is in shadow and cannot thrive. As the story progresses, each of the plants die off, allowing more sunlight for her to grow.

She mixes media: drawings, dirt, blood, skin, hair, bugs, leaves and petals.

Her findings are all about the rot in her family and each member, which she draws onto the plants, using more botanical language to describe her situation.

Weapons of Women

We wanted all the murder weapons to be items that ‘women in captivity’ use daily; the iron and ironing board, washing machine, clothesline, vegetable peeler and chef’s knife.

The Colours of Smile

This took a while. I couldn’t feel or see a colour palette for the film, but the idea emerged to give each character a colour. Then the field journal gave us a clue and we decided that the colours would be those that Faith gravitates to, the trees and plants at the cemetery, and that each character would be represented by a plant that she has decided match her family’s attributes. After that it was easy to make the choice that green was the dominant colour and the characters would be similar earthy shades -

Faith is dull green, plain. She blends in

Peg is her opposite, strong bottle green or dark, always there’s a flash of red with her though; shoes, lipstick...

Richard is brown, tan shirt, brown pants.

Grace is yellow and almost like a symbol of innocence rather than a person. She is the numb, silent version of Faith, and Peg is what she’s becoming.

In the journal each character has a plant representing them, that withers and dies as Faith blossoms. And Faith ends the series bright and flourishing, for better or worse!

The Story

Smile begins with Faith singing in the local church choir. The song is “Are you washed in the blood of the lamb”. Mary Quinn is conducting, and encouraging the girls to smile. Faith looks serious and blank until Mary gestures for her to smile, which Faith flashes immediately and holds in a frozen way, trying to sing and smile at once.

Mary stops Faith after practice and says happy birthday, asking how the family will celebrate the occasion. Faith replies there won’t be one, and we begin to understand her oppression, and that the family’s beliefs lay outside the norm.

The song ‘Are You Washed in the Blood of the Lamb’ as motif