From the very first scene, Smile throws something weird at its viewers; a contagious curse that spreads with a smile. The film does an incredible job of making something as ordinary as a smile feel terrifying. But what really makes Smile stand out is how the curse spreads. It’s not random. In fact, there’s a pattern, and it’s deeply unsettling once you start to notice how it works.
This article takes a closer look at the way the curse travels from one person to the next, and it doesn't work like a typical possession we usually see in a movie. Instead, Smile uses trauma, guilt, and witnessing tragedy as the main vehicles for the curse to jump from one character to another. Let’s break down how this curse works and how it makes its way from one person to the next.
The curse begins when you witness trauma
The curse in Smile passes from one person to the next the moment someone takes their own life in front of a witness. At that very moment, when the person smiles unnaturally, almost mockingly, just before dying, is where the next chain begins. The target doesn't instantly feel the curse cling to them, but soon they realize that something is definitely not right.
It all starts when Rose, a therapist, loses a patient in a brutal and disturbing way. The woman, already convinced something is after her, dies by suicide right in front of Rose, with a wide, unnatural grin frozen on her face. From that point on, Rose becomes the next target. She starts seeing things that no one else can see - strangers smiling at her with that same twisted expression, voices calling her name, and visions that feel as real as life itself.
What’s even more unsettling is how the curse isn’t physical. Unlike a typical horror movie, where you take care of an ancient relic or perform an exorcism to handle the supernatural, there's literally nothing you can do about the curse in Smile. The curse infects Rose's mind, taking over her thoughts and emotions, and slowly, it starts to feed on her fear and distress, growing stronger with every hallucination. The longer it stays with someone, the more it warps their reality, and eventually, it forces them toward the same end as the person before them.
Escaping the curse means making a terrible choice
As Rose investigates the curse, she uncovers a disturbing pattern: every person affected by it dies by suicide, and always in the presence of someone else. That’s how the curse survives. It needs a witness to move forward, and if no one sees the death, the chain ends - at least temporarily.
But there’s another way the curse can move on, and it’s far more horrific. If someone kills another person, violently and publicly, the curse jumps to whoever witnesses that act. One of the characters in the film, who managed to survive, did exactly that. He committed a brutal murder in front of someone else, and just like that, he passed the curse on.
This introduces a painful dilemma - either you die, or you destroy someone else’s life to save your own. The curse manipulates you into reaching a point where you're so desperate, you’d consider doing the unthinkable. And because the trauma must be intense, the death must be shocking enough to infect the next person. It's a calculated, cruel system that turns victims into unwilling participants in the cycle. This is where Smile really sets itself apart. The movie makes us realize what are we capable of when we’re afraid of losing our minds, and how far would we go to escape our deaths.