Happiness Will Prevail

Writer/director Finn Parker talks about new horror movie Smile

IN 2020, PARKER FINN DEBUTED HIS SECOND short, "Laura Hasn't Slept", about a young woman who seeks the help of a therapist after suffering a series of nightmares. Not only did it scoop the Special Jury Recognition Prize at the South By Southwest film festival, but the word got out that this was something special. "It just started spreading around town like wildfire," Finn tells Red Alert. "And then people started reaching out..."

Smile is not only Parker Finn's first studio film, but his first ever feature, such was Paramount's trust in this promising up-and-comer. And while Smile isn't exactly a big-budget, a full-length remake of "Laura Hasn't Slept", it's certainly a riff on it.

"While I'd been in post[-production] I'd had this idea for a much bigger movie, one that used the short film as a springboard," he reveals. "There are threads of DNA from 'Laura Hasn't Slept' running through Smile."

Anyone who's seen the trailer for Smile will already know how soul-freezingly scary it looks. A doctor is haunted by visions of smiling people, but not the kind that puts a spring in your step or that Katy Perry or Justin Bieber ever sang songs about.