Smile

 

Sosie Bacon's unraveling Dr. Rose Cotter is in nearly every frame of Parker Finn's jolting horror flick Smile, so audiences can watch as the seemingly put-together psycho-therapist morphs from compassionate healer to crazed babbler.

After witnessing a patient's self-inflicted death, Cotter stumbles into what appears to be a series of suicides during which the victim dons a lunatic's grin.

When Cotter gets the stiff arm from her handsome fiance (Jesse T. Usher) and a less-than-helpful response from her boss (Kal Penn), she enlists the services of her police detective ex- (Kyle Gallner) and ends up chasing her own personal demons while a malevolent spirit sets its sights on her.

The nature and origin of the force is unclear, but it feeds on fear and trauma, which Cotter possesses in abundance.

Finn's Smile is not a wholly original enterprise, but it mixes a handful of solid jolts in with the spectral predator hooey.

Don't be like some folks in the screening I attended and leave the kiddies home -- blood and gore and f-bombs from start to credits.