After seeing the horror thriller “Smile,” I can understand why director Parker Finn based this film on his 2020 shorter work “Lara Hasn’t Slept.” I didn’t get much sleep that night either.

The time and dedication Finn put into “Smile” made it just as he envisioned. Although Finn has just begun his directing career, I can see him on the same pedestal as Christopher Nolan and Alfred Hitchcock.

The plot seems to be everyone’s, mine included, favorite part of the film. Brian Renner of Movie Insider states, “After witnessing a bizarre, traumatic incident involving a patient, Dr. Rose Cotter starts experiencing frightening occurrences that she can’t explain.”

Such a grotesque and odd exposition, followed by out-of-left-field twists and turns, really helps to capture attention throughout the entire film.

A number of my friends enjoyed the film as well. Nic Robinson said, “I thought it was unique in the way that it built the plot; it was very nice and cool.”

There wasn’t a second where something interesting wasn’t happening. If you went to get snacks or use the bathroom at the wrong time, you missed a blood-curdling jump scare or a jaw-dropping revelation. The film does an outstanding job of making you wonder what’s real and what’s imagination.

Friend Ethan Scobee said, “It was difficult to tell what was real and what was a hallucination.”

To say that the scares were creative is an understatement.

Another friend, Luke Perry, said, “(The film) stands out because of its use of creative jump scares, suspense building, and a unique and interesting plot line.”

One of the strongest reasons the film was such a hit was due to a shocking moment in the trailer. As the main character, Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon), sits in her car crying, her sister knocks on her window, and as Rose turns to look, the sister’s head turns 180 degrees straight down. When I saw that scene in the previews for another movie, I knew I had to watch this film in theaters.

The film’s soundtrack adds greatly to the film’s horror.  The music, composed by Cristóbal Tapia de Veer, includes 34 individual tracks, each carefully produced to add to the film’s suspense.

At every corner, Finn found unusual ways to make me jump.