Rather than The Hidebehind, Parker Finn, in his directorial debut, chooses to give short Laura Hasn't Slept the feature length treatment.
Sosie Bacon - Dr. Rose Cotter
Kyle Gallner - Joel
Caitlin Stasey - Laura Weaver
Jessie T. Usher - Trevor
Summary
Dr. Rose Cutter chats with student Laura Weaver, who after witnessing her professor commit suicide, claims only she can see a smiling entity which takes on the form of others.
Laura starts grinning and slits her throat with a broken vase shard.
From hereon in, Rose is terrorised by a malevolent presence and discovers she's contracted a curse.
It looks like people
Right off the bat, this is nothing like Blumhouse's unintentionally hilarious Truth or Dare.
Serious tone and ominous atmosphere are complemented by strong performances and a screenplay that resists slicing cheese.
Impressive sound design helps build tension and boo moments are largely effective.
Undoubtedly the most disturbing sequence is Rose's vision of her brutally stabbing a smiler while a doctor excitedly carves off his face.
Skinless demon's mouth containing a Russian doll-esque nest of grins receives my seal of approval.
While pretty good overall, I have multiple beefs.
Rose's sister's head barely hanging onto neck is virtually identical to a scene in Argentinian spook fest Terrified.
It's revealed the only way to break the chain is to kill somebody in front of a witness and the curse will be transferred.
So apart from whiffing of Ring, Ju-On etc, this reeks to high fucking heaven of cult favourite It Follows.
The only difference is death replacing sex.
If I was David Robert Mitchell, I'd be on the blower to my legal team.
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