Mat the main character did try to take medication and seek out therapy. She asked her therapist for Risperdal which is an anti- psychotic. The problem with your solution is that just like in the movie no therapist is going to just outright give you medication without first doing a few consultations to determine whether medication is absolutely necessary. That and at least here in the US it takes months sometimes to even get a therapist. So the main character is most likely still going to die.
I think that’s pretty telling of people who actively struggle to get proper schizophrenia diagnosis. often times schizophrenia or relating mental illnesses take a long time to get through and diagnose; to doctors it could be bipolar, BPD ect. that doesn’t change the metaphor of the story, and what mat is saying; the curse, like mental illness, is something you can only get through if you reach out for help and learn to live with it.
@@engiieen334 Yeah, it is definitely not easy. It takes time to diagnose mental health issues, as so many seem similar on short time scales and only can be teased apart when observed over weeks -- but the treatments for them can be completely different. And the medications themselves will induce mental illness as a side effect if given to a health person or someone with a different mental health issue than the medication is for. Even then, even if you get the medication perfectly right for the health issue, the side effects can be horrific. I've personally seen family members have to get rotated through a gambit of anti-epileptic drugs because the side effects of each in turn were life crippling in different ways, including one anti-epileptic that caused extreme hallucinations. I know people like to rag on the health care industry when it comes to mental health, but it is not easy, it is in fact insanely complicated and completely personal. A broken bone is a broken bone regardless of the person, but every single individual's brain is uniquely different and no two people will respond in the exact same ways to mental health drugs -- and that isn't even bringing in dosage! It's a field we need way more research in, yet even researching it is hard -- can't ask a mouse how their mental health is, and can't ethically induce mental health issues in humans to try to develop better drugs.
I work in a hospital which unfortunately ends up as a fall back for a lot of people with mental illness and nowhere else to go. If a person with her symptoms presented to the ED and such a clear case of psychosis (after ruling out drug induced or other medical causes) they would likely leave with a 30 day supply of some kind of antipsychotic and a referral to see someone and get more. It is more complicated of course they would need to be medically cleared, go to another facility for inpatient therapy, and then see the physiatrist their but it would be a much quicker turnaround than just seeing an outpatient doctor. I have seen people head over to our psych facility in as few as about 12 hours.
Not to mention that medication isn't the answer to everything, especially considering how each patient has unique needs that require a unique medication which will have to be determined step by step as the psychiatrist slowly adapts the treatment.
That is a very good point. Especially when the whole point is create trauma for the one cursed. Imagine the individual was taking her meds several times to the point where she believe she was cured. Then after several days the curse strikes showing her the truth that she never once took a pill but was swallowing something worse, in which would drive her insane knowing she has no Avenue of escape and will lead her to do what needs to be done and the cycle continues.
But if the demon can make them hallucinate literally any kind of sensation or action or reality how could she ever be sure she was taking the medicine in the first place? Couldn't the demon just make her think she's taking the medicine when really she's swallowing tic tacs or peppermints or something?
This is one of the reasons why people with schizophrenia can't live alone My grandma has paranoid schizophrenia specifically, and if someone isn't there to make sure she takes her meds her hallucinations with straight up tell her she doesn't need to takes them anymore and she'll believe em
Completely agree. I think his solutions has a lot of holes in it. Even assuming she somehow managed to take the medication (which I doubt would happen), there’s no guarantee the meds will even work against the demons powers.
Most likely, it would require at least a temporary in-patient stay in a psych ward to get going so that you have a second party making sure that you're actually taking the meds & not just believing you have, & maybe after the hallucinations are under control, you could be trusted to live on your own. Of course, this all assumes that the demon/curse is working off of your body's natural brain chemistry, & not just straight up magic to begin with.
she doesn’t even need to swallow tic tacs or peppermints as a replacement, in the movie towards the end we see her drive all the way to joel’s house and have a whole conversation with him, yet every bit of that was just the smile curse screwing with her, so she might as well do nothing and think she’s taken meds
I think Rose was on to something. She didn't *just* isolate herself, she confronted the biggest trauma in her life. We were told that it feeds off of trauma, so if you're able to heal from your own trauma then theoretically it should starve and die. tbh, i thought that was 300iq from her and wish it paid off, would've been a wonderful theme to end the movie with
Honestly the way it ended with the entity failing was way better than just assuming it still lives. If it can't feed off of trauma, then why would it still have any reason to try with its host?
Yeah, that would have been a great pay off, but that twist was also good, it makes you feel the helplessnes of the curse. I truly hate how the guy just watched her die and got cursed despite KNOWING how the curse jumps between people and that he could have just turned around and avoid it.
A problem with killing your two friends is also the fact that that would traumatize *you.* The demon would just come back to you, and you would have two dead bodies to deal with.
@@insertclevernamehere1186 i did think that she would find some way to use people like ones in death row to trick the demon or satisfy the rules of the curse
I hated the ending because it made me sad. I really thought she was gonna make it. She wasn't able to beat her own demon even after confronting it. In the end, she succumbed to it. Maybe what she did wasn't enough? I don't know. But I was really rooting for her specially after recognizing that the smile curse was a methapor to mental disorder. There is a so-called smiling depression. I think my brother had it. He committed suicide in 2021. He was the happiest and most unproblematic person I knew, who would have thought he was suffering deep down.
I think its because she kept running away from various help and seek her own definition of help the best display of that scene was when the mc thought of isolating herself in her old home would do the trick to isolate and starve the monster but she forgot to confront the monster when the challenges get tough that's what she failed to realize when he confronted the physical manifestation of the monster, instead of getting rid of it, she run away from it
This was the best movie I have ever seen the story is so rich the ending is what made the story so beautiful. If she lives this movie goes down as after thought because the main characters in every movie has their protection. However they gave you a great story and you the viewer want her to survive and in the back of your mind understand their is a main character protection. With her passing it makes this movie stand out with such rich story it was a master piece how they set themselves up for second movie.
When I first heard of this movie, everyone was saying how traumatic and horrific it was. I was low key excited to watch it. I suffer with my own mental health. The feeling of hopelessness and helplessness are feelings I know all too well. While watching the movie I immediately understood the underlying message in it, and it just made me sad more than anything. Her crys for help and no one listened. She tried taking matter into her own hands, secludeding herself and cutting off contact. It really was an amazing movie on mental heath and the stigma behind it.
I didn't know this movie was a thing and feel like I want to watch it now. It reminds me of when I was younger and really struggling with my mental health. I thought I was schizophrenic and was even put on antipsychotics for a bit. Now I'm pretty sure that it was environmental stress, anxiety, and lack of sleep thar caused me to hallucinate so much. And my anxiety was so bad I would fly into fits of paranoia. Now that I am medicated and my anxiety is managed, I'm doing much better.
I thought she was just going to K.O herself in an alone area. Since no one was there to witness it, the trauma is erased and thereby the demons stuck. Right?
Second movie spoiler (kinda) I love that you predicted what the second movie does, but it doesn't even work because she's so deep in her hallucinations she can't get help when she realizes she needs it. The monster just lies to her brain, so she's never in the operating room to begin with
If trauma was the pathway into the person’s soul, I bet a sociopath would be the end to this thing. The sociopath would witness the person the demon was possessing die and not feel anything and then that would be it.
Assuming the demon would obey such rules, yeah, that could definitely work. And assuming it doesn't have another means of bringing itself into the world again.
The theory of killing the friend with the curse. Has another issue with the idea of self-imposed trauma because that would likely end up causing the curse to go to you since murder is probably traumatic if not already caused by trauma.
It could theoretically work, as they aren’t killing themselves and you are killing them. However, it is unclear whether if it really needs to spread that way and continue to exist. Unless witnessing their death can also transmit the entity instead of watching them off themselves, it’s debatable.
I'm not entirely sure if matpad is right here? The guy in the prision should theoretically have gotten a self-imposed trauma but he didn't go out of the situation possessed (he should be more traumatised than the wife as he committed the murder). I'm not sure if it's actually the trauma causing the thing to get passed on or just the fact that you witnessed the murder (and no committed it yourself, perhaps? Although you could argue about that idk). Another reason why the entire trauma thing might not be completely true is that the kid should be traumatised because unpacking a dead cat on your birthday? although that's pretty weak evidence I guess
@@kitsune6526 In that situation, the murderer would be in full control and the victims would have pretty much no control, so there is definitely an argument to be made that seeing your husband get murdered and probably thinking you are next is more traumatizing than murdering someone.
For it to work the killer would have to be a psychopath who feels no remorse for killing somebody and therefore they wouldn’t be traumatized by the killing.
Another way to defeat the Smile Curse/Demon is be willing to sacrifice yourself to end it. Don't directly do so within range of anyone else. Another option is transfer it to someone else who has no one else that they care about or cares about them that yet is willing to sacrifice themselves after you leave.
Issue with that is even if you off yourself it's about trauma, the moment someone finds your body if they are traumatized by it they get the curse. So you would have to completely make your body unidentifiable and not do it infront of anyone, also, the curse could easily just make it feel like you offed yourself with more hallucinations
The problem with this is that Rose did all three of those things. It was day 2 when she reached out for help with her therapist to give her Risperidone, which is a drug that can be used for schizophrenia. Her therapist rejected these concerns and told her to wait a week, despite Rose repeating her concerns (especially considering she is also a therapist). So therapy failed. Drugs failed. Even if she got them she'd need to be monitored that she actually took them because the entity could make her think she did but she actually didn't, same with going to therapy. She reached out to everyone around her and the only one who listened was Joel but she was afraid. Even if she confided in him, which she did on day 4, it didn't help, and I don't think doing it earlier could have fixed that. And the third thing "learning to live with mental illness and trauma", she also did this. She faced what she did to her mother, and confessed to Joel about her fears. Even if it was fake, she thought it was real so it has the same affect. So this theory is debunked.
However this is easier said then done She could think she has done it but just falls asleep. If someone some how finds her then it appears and continues.
@@elderassassin9673 This feels so badwards though. The theory that it represents mental illness directly contradicts this "put yourself into isolation" because it's teaching people that if they're struggling to not seek help. I haven't seen the movie in forever so I can't remember specifics, but couldn't she have killed herself either on purpose or accident from what the entity was doing? Which is still losing.
@@ayonixanimations if you take the moral aspect of this helping people who have MH problems. I'm talking about defeating the monster and also saving alot of people in the process.
I mean if your patient out of the blue says that's she wants some tecnically heavy drugs, would you give it to her without question or avaliating her first?
@@mrggonzalez3278 No...? Big Pharma works by overpricing medicine, not by providing it to everyone willy nilly. Don’t be stupid, that’d be bad business.
Idea; get someone to knock you out for two weeks, fed on an IV drip. You'd just need to know what was happening before the curse took full control, and have someone believe you. The curse needs to pass on to survive, that's why it moves so quickly.
You could also simply have someone put you in a straight jacket and lock you away for awhile (or just generally restrain you indefinitely). As stated, it will be important to be fed on an IV drip, but even more importantly to prevent all muscle movement. I'm not sure how this would be done, but I do know that the curse might be able to somehow pass through trauma without killing the host. The face, head, limbs, and fingers will all need to be rendered immobile or otherwise imperceivable in order to prevent traumatizing the caretaker. Contact with the victim and information about the curse should also be very limited as some people are more prone to trauma than others; someone very impressionable could be traumatized by something small that we didn't think of. Since very little is know about the curse, a cult may try to intentionally spread the curse by traumatizing people in the manner that the curse spreads. This is also why information about the curse should be limited to a few people.
There's 2 problems with this. 1. it's nigh impossible to get someone to believe you have a curse specifically, and not Schizophrenia or some other mental disorder. 2. There's no evidence to suggest that it moves so quickly because it needs to do so to survive.
@@nicolaidepue3970 or the government would try to weaponize it. Questions what would happen if you k*ll yourself in a crowd of people or online for millions to see. Would the curse go to one person, several or all.
@@theinsurance2450 Since we see that what is causing the curse is a singular entity, I don't think it could spread to multiple people. In all known cases, the victim/entity smiles and looks directly at the next victim while the current victim dies. This means that, if the victim dies around multiple people, the entity would look at and spread to one person as it kills the current victim. I also don't think the curse would work online. Actually being there and experiencing it is much more traumatizing than seeing it online.
Caitlin Stacey really really nailed the smile, there was no one through out the movie tht had such a terrible smile like her, and it's not even an "evil" smile but just a soul piercing creepy smile, props to her
I think she was on Jimmy Fallon and talked about how much work went into the smile. First finding it, then practicing for months to nail it so no loss of film time was wasted.
Agree, except I thought the girl at the birthday party nailed, also. Really wish they would've kept that more in mind while casting. SPOILER: Especially for the main character. She did a good job in the movie but her smile was weak. Also, was pretty upset they didn't spend a few more bucks so we could see her smiling while she was burning.
@@LetsGoFlyers2011 Not to be completely morbid this is horror genre, but that would've been amazing to see. More spoiler alert Also the schizo guy not having the same smile as the rest was easy to dismiss plot wise; doubt that was on purpose. Cool plot twist for those not paying attention though.
This theory that the victims should have gone to a therapist is pretty compelling. It reminds me of the film Smile (2022), where someone goes to a therapist and gets ganked by a demon, passing on the curse to that therapist; and then that therapist tries to go to her own therapist, and the demon manipulates her reality to prevent her from doing so.
@@robertalter3186 she was 10 yrs old you goon. Everyone has done something to hurt someone especially when they were a kid. He means she isn’t a bad person and wouldn’t be deserving of torment like this. Smartass
I think the other problem here is that treatment in the USA is difficult if not entirely impossible to get. I've been on a waiting list for 6 months already and was expecting a call in November and that's just for outpatient care
What is your insurance? Is it a public or private system (as in, is it government assisted/military or through a job/personally purchased)? How long it takes to get seen varies quite a lot depending on that one factor, plus where you're located, what type of insurance and what doctor you are seeing.
Sadly the curse can make you think that you are taking your medication, but you never actually do. You cannot beat a false perception as you have no mechanism to distinguish those from real perceptions.
Yeah you're probably right I really truly believe there is no way of beating this thing. Even if you went to a hospital and put yourself in a padded room with a straight jacket on, more than likely be a camera in that room as well. And from what we've seen from her patient passing it on to her, when this thing takes over it can pretty much do anything it wants with your body so maybe while she's sitting in a straight jacket her head would literally just spin one way until it snaps her neck, then anybody that would watch that on the camera would be traumatized.
Idk I think if you accept everything is a hallucination & everything as being apart of reality whether it changes/disappears or not. You can beat it in some regards, but idk I'm someone who technically has a type of hallucination so the idea of being helpless to them just doesn't compute.
If your only goal is to stop the curse, one way or another (like say if you don't mind dying) i think it's pretty safe to say the demon will probably try and stop you from ending yourself quietly. However, if, say, you were to constantly and relentlessly hurl yourself off a bridge, over and over, powered by sheer will to jump off that bridge, while the demon is concentrating on making it just a hallucination every time you jump... you may eventually succumb to hunger and dehydration, as all your efforts are focused on that bridge. Nothing else.
@@LucariosayzHi what, you mean the bridge? It doesn't matter if the bridge is a hallucination or not, because if trying to hurl yourself off of it is the one and only thing you're concentrated on, there's no time to eat, drink or sleep, so you die of one of those.
The only thing that bothered me about the movie is, your previously “okay” sister just gave their dead cat to your kid, then panicked. Yes, get your kid out first, but did no one do a wellness check? That’s not what she’d do, if no demon was present she’d need a bloody hug. Great video, thanks for the effort
That bothered me too. I understand that their family has a history of mental illness and that they blame that for their childhood trauma, but that should honestly make her even MORE aware that wellness checks are necessary and should allow her to see that her sister is spiraling. It also really bothered me that the main character was a clinical psychiatrist actively working in a psychiatric ward of a hospital who doesn't know/use any other healthy coping mechanism than controlled breathing AND that she had at no point communicated clearly with THE OTHER PSYCHIATRISTS what she was experiencing.
@@HotGothics Exactly! Just, if your family has the history, and signs are showing, give help and hug or something. Also While I haven’t seen enough to fully add to your second point(I have finished a lot of videos on the movie though), I have BEEN to therapy. Just as a basis I was taught multiple other ways to help myself in stress prone situations, so 100%. That said, in horror I’m not prone to blaming the MC(like say, not communicating). In this case, I believe she probably should have sooner, at least said something, but if you have 4 days and the entire time you’re hallucinating... A realistic person might not do better either even if they are a psychiatrist, it’s to short of a time to be haunted and not initially know you’re haunted.
@@HotGothics The thing that bothered me was the mc going back and forth between not explaining things at all or explaining them so poorly that she just comes across as unhinged. I was so nervous for the first half of the movie, but then got a nice break at the halfway point by getting to rant about this silly movie logic. Ah yeah, need to convince your sister something is actually up? Jibber jabber verbally for a bit before showing her a crimescene photo. Instead of just.... explaining to her that there was a loooong string of suicides and then showing any needed paperwork as proof afterwards. Just... no in between. Still a great movie.
Well she wasn't exactly okay. They still communicated but she was a stubborn person still stuck in the past with trauma resulting them having issues with one another. That was more of a final straw kind of thing.
@@superbadisfunny Which is understandable, but I can still dream or hope that even if a family was dysfunctional they would still have room to care even if I know that’s not how it usually works. If they have a strained relationship and the sister already has trauma and carers fatigue from their previous family she(the sister) won’t have the capacity to give a crap if she wanted to give the world at that point. But, that no one saw a dead cat and MC’s own horror and still insisted on said course of actions bothers me some. The movie is only over a few days-a week of madness so realistically, any friend/loved one/whatever could have gone over after cooling down but it would have been to late. The epilogue would never be about that MC either as she lost, sadly, and this isn’t a tragedy this is a horror.
Also, your suicide will traumatise Family, passing Curse to them. Or Atleast traumatise guy who found your body, also passing Curse. Seem only scp Memetic division can help.
@@greyfaceofaxeI don’t think you get it. The way it gets passed on is IF you witness the afflicted or host of this “Curse” off themselves. It’s exclusively to sight only. After that, it’s game. Sure your death may leave trauma, but it doesn’t automatically give them the trauma just for qualifying for being a host. Even memetics won’t help because it may make you forget, but it won’t make it disappear.
@@apinkcirclefriendswithablu3777 So, you could say that, if you had access to SCP Foundation like amnesties, best case scenario would be that you became asymptomatic, like Typhoid Mary
The thing about this movie is it seems like a massive metaphor. The demon doesn't feed off of trauma, it *IS* trauma. It represents how it can haunt you, isolate you, mess with your mind, and come back after years when you thought it went away. Someone mentioned that in a later scene where her therapist calls her, you can see in the background some sort of letter or sign saying "LAST CHANCE". This is because taking this call would be her last chance to go to therapy and confront her trauma. The way to win is to heal.
yeah and after she gets angry with the therapist its like her hallucinations manifest more frequently and more vividly. This remind me so much of the barbadook
the vast majority of stories have a theme? Mental health is one of the most common themes seen in literature, especially now when everyone is having issues dealing with trauma and mental health.
The thing that is scary about the smile curse/demon is the fact that you can't trust what you see but also what you do so anything you think you're doing to "solve" your plight could be a hallucination in itself and you could be physically doing nothing at all like you see when she thought she beat it or when she was wrapping the gift but actually killed her cat and wrapped that instead so you'd need someone else to help you but couldn't really trust that either so it's one big rabbit hole in itself
Exactly, the only plausible way to win is to have a solid support structure, even then it could make her leave the house because of a hallucinated fire and get hit by a car maybe while someone watched, easy dub for the demon
Rose would have already passed on the curse at the birthday party if following the movie's rules with dead cat gift cause that's pretty traumatising for the atleast one ppl in the party especially kids in the party so essentially she should have Survived after that while making everyone in that party a possible carrier of the curse.
Honestly I was ready the entire movie, waiting for that moment to be revealed as some kind of loophole for the monster. They even did the extra scene of the kid seeing her freak out in her car. I was so sure SOMETHING would call back to that especially after how the sister mentions how much it traumatized her son.
@@Oberky I think that idea was it just wasn't traumatizing enough I mean it scared him and he might have nightmares for a little bit but it didn't truly traumatize him
@@Oberky It could also be something foreshadowing events in future movies where it messed him up a bit, but not enough to fully get the curse. It would be interesting to see them go somewhere with that.
@@kitgames08 that would be cool ! I also think the child is there as a sort of callback to the fact some of the victims (not all - at least it wasn't stated in the movie or I don't remember well enough) already had some childhood trauma before getting the curse (Rose with her mom dying, the girl who gave the curse to Rose with her grandfather dying) So the kid might be a future target, if he witness a killing/suicide later on in his life
A comic book scenario I imagined was the government discovering and brokering a deal with the Smile monster where trained agents would harbor it and pass it on to high-value targets to destabilize rival societies, only to be picked back up by the original government.
It's definitely not going to go away after one defeat... She needed to repeat what she did .. face it and burn it.. but in the end she just lost.. Her acting was Incredible.. the scariest scene wasn't the monster ..it was seeing what was left of her disappear after screaming and suddenly going silent
I feel like at the end when Rose was a about to end it in front of her friend, that might have been his chance. He knew how the demon transmits so if he had run out of the house before she could do the deed, would the curse have been able to pass on? (Of course we don't know because he just stood there like a deer in the headlights)
Although even if he runs, the curse might still go to the next person who finds the body (if they do because she's in a desolate house in the middle of nowhere). And even if he runs he still KNOWS what she did, so would it pass onto him anyway? This concept has so much potential
@@SpooxX I don't think the curse would move to whoever finds the body, as the rules that're outlined in the movie make it seem as though that someone has to be there witnessing the death happen in order for the curse to pass on.
I assumed the demon could root people in place to witness the event, to ensure the curse is properly passed on. Also, if they have to watch every second of it, it would maximize the trauma of the event, thus giving the demon more fuel to torture the poor soul with. That's just my theory tho
@@mycomnithegreat434 I hadn't thought of that. I figured it was the fact that they were caught off guard mixed with the shock of the act that was keeping them rooted
About the isolation theory, I think Mat may have missed one detail from the movie. The curse feeds off of trauma. It is stated multiple times, and even heavily stressed, that no one survives more than four days. In the movie, as it neared the fourth day it is explained that the curse gets more frantic and desperate, all of which implies that the curse can be starved, which also suggests that the curse can die if it doesn't get the trauma it needs within a timeframe. Isolation may not necessarily be a lifetime commitment, just until the curse is starved and dies off.
That makes sense but in the movie it showed that even in isolation, the curse found ways to torment and induce trauma to its victim. I don't think the curse will get starved if it continues to create more trauma to feed on. Also, four days isn't a definite time frame, they said that the victims die within a week and that some die just after four days. I think the curse will continue to keep its host alive as long as it needs to feed. Unless the host dies otherwise
It doesn't get frantic and desperate it gets more powerful and chaotic pushing the boundaries of what was manageable before it won't starve and die it will keep getting more and more horrific until you finally break
@@thiccynikky3805 Oh it'd starve with me no problem. I have total aphantasia. 98% of the population don't have aphantasia, and I have the rarest form. I don't and can't hallucinate even on powerful hallucinogens. It's physically impossible for me to hallucinate. If that sounds like an amazing thing to have, it also means I can't visualize. I can only see what it actually there. I can only hear what sounds are actually audible. It's not that I don't have an imagination, I have quite a vivid one, it's just my imagination does not extend into senses. Rather it's purely conceptual. The most the demon could do to me is cause me to have concepts, but concepts are easy to filter and not at all traumatic to me. In short, if this were real, if you had that demon after you... Pass it on to me. I won't even notice and it'll starve to death on me.
@@BerryTheBnnuy You are the hero we need, but never EVER deserved. (Btw, that's something I have never heard of. Thank you for giving me my next abnormality to look into!)
This is a great theory, but we have no idea how long it takes to die off. It still might be an extremely long time in isolation. It might work, but it could be a huge risk to take.
As much as I like the medication solution, I have to question if it would work. If this thing is genuinely supernatural, would any pharmacology be able to stop the hallucinations it causes? This is why I freaking hate these kinds of horror movies because it's like a life or death version of an imaginary playground fight and the horror is that kid who keeps making up new rules, powers, or gadgets so that he doesn't loose. I do indeed like the idea of having any kind of solution that just completely no sells that kind of shenanigans or even better, make like Yahtzee and, "see how good his 'everything proof shield' is when I take him behind the shed and knock his teeth out with a bicycle chain."
Yes, pharmaceuticals probably won't work. The curse is supernatural and can manipulate your brain. The best way would not be to cause a brain to become schizophrenic, but to manipulate the signals coming from your eyes, ears, etc. This would control your perception directly and make antipsychotics worthless.
Yeah I was having the same thoughts. There’s no guarantee that meds for schizophrenia would help with the hallucinations that the demon causes. Even calling them “hallucinations” downplays the power of the demon pretty hard. When Rose unknowingly gifts the dead animal her perception of reality was warped for who knows how long… I highly doubt some therapy and meds would be able to completely manage this
_make like Yahtzee and, "see how good his 'everything proof shield' is when I take him behind the shed and knock his teeth out with a bicycle chain."_ The best quote
wait with “The Wolfman’s Nards” theory wouldn’t the curse go back to you after killing both friends? you still witness your two best friends getting murder which has to resort to some sort of trauma bringing the curse back to you?
I have been thinking about the moral dilemma of "The Wolfman's Nards" solution and to maybe combat it (throwing all mortality away) is this (please don't throw me onto an FBI list). After killing your the first best friend, activate a premade trap to brutally murder your second best friend without looking, hearing or listening to their death. After two pair of your besties corpses, pull a level to hide their body away and clean up the mess to lessen the risk of the curse reattaching itself to you.
I think thats why mat said take your 2 most expendable friends. Best friends arent expendable. But this 2 people you might hang out with occasionally are
Yeah im not so sure the demon can be killed that way heck I don’t think the demon can be killed, besides the movie showed that the demon can make you think you killed someone but then you realized you were asleep and never moved at all
That a good question. We do not know if it's a one and done deal or not. If it one and done, you presumably have immunity. If it's not one and done, it could come back. Which is probably the fear the man in jail had, that it will come back.
The specific solution I had in mind when I saw this movie in theatres was similar to your idea, basically she would have to go into a padded cell in the hospital where she worked if it was an option. As you covered the monster doesn't have any physical powers which means when it kills you it really needs one thing other than a witness. it needs a means to do the killing. If Rose were to go into a padded cell she would have no means of killing herself and still could have contact with people. Though I will admit that medication is a much more elegant solution. 😂
I think the problem with this theory, is that this demon takes you over completely it can possibly do anything with your body, even in straight jacket, who's to say it can't just spin her head til it snaps her f****** neck in front of some nurse bringing her food in the padded room.
As someone who suffers from mental illness, this theory really spoke to me, I haven't seen the film, I'm a complete wimp when it comes to horror, but Smile really looks like a beautiful allegory, especially with the vagueness of the curse as we all view our issues differently, a cautionary tale of why we need to process our trauma and learn to accept our issues and ask for help, thanks for the theory, it means a lot to people like me, and to anyone reading this who has their own struggles, rest assured, we all can silence our curses
This movie hit too close to home for me. I was able to finish the movie with my girlfriend but I was acting like a little b*tch the entire time. The premise of this movie is the most terrifying thing I can think of. Just pure mental anguish. The first suicide scene was so brutal and scary I should have stopped watching there.
Its a chain. The only way to stop it is to suicide while alone. But they mention more than one chain. I wonder if her nephew, who got traumatized by the cat she killed, wouldn't become the next protagonist.
Matpat at it again with the how can you survive?! My guy I’m gonna die, no matter how many techniques and tricks I use I will fall victim It is a truth that is sad to live with but I have accepted it
Yeah I've accepted that in any apocalyptic or horror movie scenario, I'd be better off just going out on my own terms because ain't no way I'm surviving.
This movie made me realize how sinister smiling can be Edit: also. I think that all of the smiles were practical. None of them were CGI which makes it more scary. What’s hilarious is that some people were hired to go to baseball games and do that creepy smile in order to promote the movie.
What I’m curious about is what happens if the supposed victim isn’t affected trauma wise by the curse. Like the previous victim offed themselves but the new victim kinda just shrugs it off. Or at least isn’t fazed traumatically by it
Yeah, I was thinking that. Like what if the only witness was a sociopath or something whose only reaction was 'well, that just happened. Onto to my knitting"
@@moonlight4665 Then you probably just wasted your time. Honestly the best way of "killing" the curse forevever with the least casulties is unfortunately to commit suicide. Honestly if I had that curse that would be my solution.
I assume the demon would have an idea of its next victim being supernatural n all. Our main character, for example, had some messed up past, making her a perfect victim for the demon to torment.
@@moonlight4665 my understanding is that even the biggest sociopath would be traumatized whether or not if only to an infinitesimal degree. A little bit infected is still 100% infested if it's by a curse with a conscious determined intent and it has full access to read plus control the target mind. It would find a way to hurt its new victim. A slightly traumatizing originating event could be replayed repeatedly in a mind until it was grossly traumatizing and each replay could be magnified and augmented. New fresh hallucinations would play directly against past themes or memories of effective trauma
This theory hits very close to home for me. I'm diagnosed with bi-polar and generalized anxiety. It's nowhere near the levels of high schizophrenia, but it's still a mental illness with no definitive cure. Each day involves me dealing with anger, and the temporary solutions of medication and therapy helps.
There doctors and nurses with schizophrenia… medication and a healthy life style can go a long ways. What works for me is staying away from drugs and alcohol.😊
No person has ever walked into a mental health clinic and walked out without a mental disorder. Mental issues are there for life and there is nothing except long term retrograde amnesia that can eliminate it.
Killing a person with someone watching (therefore giving them the curse) and then also killing person watching doesn't work. This is exactly what happened in the opening scene of Smile 2.
i kinda love that Smile doesn't really wrap up. since it's a movie, we assume our character is special in some way, that maybe she's gonna figure out a way out of it. but Smile could be about ANYONE in the chain of deaths, the lady we follow just so happens to be the lady the movie is about. it makes you more connected to the level of desperation and stress the character is feeling
I wonder if the curse could be broken by hypnotizing the person and totally erase the traumatic event from their mind. No one gets hurt and the demon is stopped.
There's something else... People with aphantasia are resistant to hallucinations. People with total aphantasia are completely immune to hallucinations. I have total aphantasia. If the demon were latched onto me it'd be one of those situations where "I'm not locked in here with you, you're locked in here with me." It'd be completely unable to affect me and have to wait till I die of old age.
@@boezow Do you need a doctor to tell you that you're unable to visualize things? My sister doesn't have aphantasia. She reports having an ability I can't even conceive of... the ability to CHOOSE to SEE something that doesn't exist in vivid full color without reality bleeding through, fully blocking the view of what's there in the real world, like seeing Shaggy and Scooby in the room. I can't. I can't see what isn't actually there. I can't even summon an image of a fuzzy amorphous blob shape. I can only conceptualize that someone could visualize Shaggy and Scooby being in the room and actually see them actually in the room. A doctor can't diagnose you with aphantasia. There's no test. It's not a mental disorder. It's not a mental illness. It's not something to be diagnosed. It's like if someone's missing two legs and is saying they're a paraplegic and you come up like "hey how do you KNOW you're a paraplegic? Did you get properly diagnosed?" I don't need a doctor to tell me I don't have what I don't have, nor that I can't do what I can't do. But yes, a doctor has told me that I have total aphantasia, pretty much using exactly the above. It's not a diagnosis though, it's just a description like "paraplegic". It doesn't go on your medical record at all. It's just I was seeing a doctor and I told him like "hey I think something might be wrong with me" and they told me what it's called and we continued on with the usual session.
Thank You Matt, You have no idea how much this means to me. Mental illness and spreading information about it in a entertaining but healthy way is pure tact. Seriously, I cannot imagine the work you put in to make this. Favourite video of all time.
Can we just agree that this horror movie was one of the best of 2022. I went into the movie theaters to see this movie because of its baseball game promotions and honestly I'm glad I did. This movie made me feel as uncomfortable and as uneasy as possible and every single jump scare got me. I hope this gets a sequel greenlit 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
So true. I have never seen it but it looks really good. It made billions of money than the other horror movies. This movie is a real horror movie because you are dealing with a supernatural being
In the second movie, a character successfully passed the curse by killing someone else in front of a witness. But he ended up dead anyway after getting hit by a car. It's unclear if the demon passed right away or if it only passed after the previous victim was dead tho
The car seems to be just a coincidence, because nothing that happened in the scene you're referring to prior to the car contradicts the lore established in the first movie.
When watching the movie in theaters, I totally thought that her giving the dead cat to the kid was going to be her way out. Her sister even got angry and told her all about how she “traumatized” her son (specifically using the word) - so I really thought that action, or something along those lines - would’ve been enough.
Yeah so I don't think he was traumatized he was certainly scared and he's probably going to have nightmares for a little bit but he's going to eventuallys get over it
My youngest sister has schizoaffective disorder, among other things, and this was her life for many years. It's only gotten (much! 😁) better thanks to loving support and meds/professionals that actually work. Nice to see a movie give a (mostly) realistic look into what it's like to deal with such a living nightmare.
This theory actually almost comes up in the first half of the movie! When Rose sees her therapist the first time, she asks if she could be prescribed Risperdal, which is a common antipsychotic medication prescribed for schizophrenia and other disorders that involve psychotic symptoms, but the therapist insists on more talk therapy before prescribing any medication - I had found it odd while watching the movie that they didn't have Rose, as a trained clinician herself, approach any other mental health professionals for a second opinion and to request the medication be prescribed, though I suppose if they had and this theory would theoretically hold weight, then it would've been a much shorter film 😅
I think that's one of the main ideas in the movie. Like how a lot of people act like they're super supportive of mental health and everything, but when they or someone they know is going through mental trauma, they won't listen to their own advice or be as supportive as they pretend to be.
@@timtimslimjimI think is better to meet an exorcist in a situation like this. They probably be able to help you in some degree, but the way I see it this demon has to have a weakness. However they need to do some more digging about it probably from the ancient times as well
The only problem I see with meds, is that she’d *need* someone to hold her down and force her to take the pills. If the demon can make her think a dead cat is a toy train, then it could easily make her think thin-air is pills. The only way to be sure she’s taking them is for someone else to do it for her.
She would also need to propose this solution every time she sees the guy helping her just to make sure she *really* told it to him, and not a hallucination
As someone who has a family member that helps people with schizophrenia on a daily bases, it is very accurate about the not taking meds thing, and it is really heartbreaking to see. My heart goes out to those with it or their families.
With the killing the two "expendable friends" I also feel like you'd have to live with the guilt of murderering two innocent people, as well as the trauma of actually carrying out the murder
Thank you MatPat for bringing a smile to my face with every upload, your videos are often times an escape from so much stress and chaos going on in my life 😊💚
This is one of my favorite episodes, I'm currently studying psychology and I loved how you guys made everything into a nice little mental health advice. I also liked a lot the movie, it makes you realize sometimes the real monster is just our head.
5:56 My concern might be that, after offing friend number 1, passing the curse to friend number 2, the act (and trauma) of offing friend number 2 and 1 might transfer it back to you, unless it’s explicitly stated to not be able to reinfect a prior host, not to mention “no witnesses” is not necessarily a guarantee. (Edit: he addressed the “what if someone finds the body” concern, so I’ve removed a sentence about that that used to be here). On a similar vein, the news of their deaths might infect one of their family members or loved ones, unless physical proximity is an explicitly stated requirement (it seems to probably be a requirement, sure, but it’s no guarantee). Granted, I haven’t seen the movie, but I’d love to hear other theorists’ thoughts about the mechanics of its transfer
Yeah I was thinking the same thing, that the curse would just be sent back to you, because they never say that the same person can’t get it twice. And the man in prison when he was visited that the curse would be given back to him
Also, it never said that the curse has to be spread by suicide. From what I understood, witnessing the cursed's death, suicide or not, is enough to spread it.
It's spread primarily by death. Not exactly finding the body (unless the curse deems the finder fit) but by witnessing death itself (typically host suicide but by the guy in prison, also host murder). It's likely to be sent back to you, but I imagine it's only if the current host offs itself/kills another infront of you
I honestly thought the main character was just crazy the whole time, even until the end. She and her Mother clearly had a disorder akin to schizophrenia. Genetically, these traits awaken once they’re exposed to traumatic situations. Other people with like-minded illnesses are drawn to one another, which displays the illusion that this is an entity spreading like a diseased or curse… AKA, Mass Hysteria! A lot of subconscious decisions also came into play in Rose’s mind, such as returning back to where her mental illness began (her deceased Mom’s house), where she also faced her “demon”. She also asked her Doctor specifically for Risperdal, a medication that can be used to help schizophrenia. Remember, Rose is a psychologist! This means she knew almost instinctively which medication she needed to take! Also, her Ex-Boyfriend is more of a guy who works with law enforcement, not a psychologist or a demonologist, so he could’ve misinterpreted this mass hysteria as a paranormal occurrence, as people do when exposed to mass hysteria. In the end, he too was inflicted with this illness, being the next viable candidate to receive this madness.
There Are recorded cases of mass hysteria which range from seeing the same thing to dancing Until You die. So this could also explain the suicides And why so many People Are effected.
As someone who is currently in the beginning stages of treatment for suspected schozophrenia, this movie hit me incredibly hard. I went in blind, and was not prepared for the level of what is essentially brain-gaslighting, Rose goes through. Thank you for making this video, and putting a big voice behind mental health struggles, especially to try and remove the massive strigma around it
I haven't seen Smile, but, I was wondering what kind of trauma we are talking about. One way kids deal with trauma is play. They reenact what ever they want to understand it better. This includes death and other unsavory experiences in thier lives.
Well in the case of the Smile curse, the trauma that spreads it is witnessing another person die Usually by the demon assuming control of the person before forcing them to commit unalive in a brutal way in front of somebody
@@dyinginside8716 Fascinating. Even if this is a fictional situation, I do wonder what treatments can be applied or acted on. No mental issue is very really "cured", just handled better so they live a more controlled life. I wonder if the kid given the dead cat had a good talk after to negate the traumatic effects of seeing death as their gift. Meh, I might as well watch the movie to see what I can link with the books.
I’m very glad you also came to the mental health resolution. When i watched the movie i didn’t think much of it until i really thought about it. The lights are always off, her dismissive husband which makes sense for someone whos afraid to commit, her delusions. The smiles which parrot everyones “just be happy” advice “just wear a mask. Fake it till you make it” Everything filed down more and more into the movie being less about an entity and more about the monster that is depression and mental sickness. Its become one of my favorite movies for that fact. You can watch it and believe its all some curse of a demon or you can see whats truly deeper.
in the beginning of the video, I felt a bit called out, at the end I definitely related, I have Schizotypal personality disorder and the worst thing I know is when people don't believe me, my dad literally thinks that it is just something I have made up just to get money from the government, I have to question my reality at all times, because my perception of it, is different then others, I don't have delusions or hallucinations, but I can develop schizophrenia if I'm not careful, it really doesn't help that I have chronic depression, chronic stress, anxiety, social anxiety, childhood neglect "not from my family" and have been socially isolated due to the municipality, believe me, my case files are insane, I've even wrote a book about it.
As someone with a (albeit mild) psychotic disorder, this was a neat episode! Much appreciated! Also, the fact that the demon/curse would still be there, just silenced, is also pretty accurate for schizophrenia, as the consensus about that too is that it can be managed, but not cured
Another problem with the Drug method you didn't mention is how The Entity could just make her think she's taking her meds, when really she's eating lint or thumbtacks or something.
Imagine the monster kills its host in front of only you and you're a murderer so you're not traumatized at all and the monster basically just killed itself
And what happens if the person they're trying to pass this thing on to isn't traumatized at all like they're already psychologically broken but they gained pleasure from saying you brutally vandalized somebody's meat sack it doesn't still get past on to them or does it just end?
I just wanna take a moment and hope Head Editor Dan and from Tom to the members get a chance to see this. I wanna thank you guys for being an inspiration to make theory videos myself. Every time I watch these theories whether its game ,film,or food. You guys do an amazing job with making it all come to life. I looked at every detail and i know it must've took an eternity. But i wanted to thank you guys because in the end its all worth it when watching the video from my view. THANK YOU GUYS FOR ALL THAT YOU DO >3 HUGS TO ALL!
The demon has the ability to literally possess you so if you just take antipsychotic medication to suppress the hallucinations, assuming that the demon can’t simply override the antipsychotics, it could still possess you and force you to cause trauma against someone else.
If you surround yourself with multiple people at all times, does the Demon still make you off yourself? And if so, who is it gonna pass on to if say at least 4 people are watching you do the act?
ngl, I kinda wonder if matpat can enjoy a movie to relax... like, is it possible, or is he just just like- "THE CAT WAS ACTUALLY THE GRANDFATHER'S DAUGHTER'S DAD THE WHOLE TIME! 😱" lol
![⭐️( ลอยกระทง 2024 ) Ver. แดนซ์ Remix BY [ ดีเจกิต รีมิกซ์ ]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/rMWOLhgXUHc/mqdefault.jpg)
Mat the main character did try to take medication and seek out therapy. She asked her therapist for Risperdal which is an anti- psychotic. The problem with your solution is that just like in the movie no therapist is going to just outright give you medication without first doing a few consultations to determine whether medication is absolutely necessary. That and at least here in the US it takes months sometimes to even get a therapist. So the main character is most likely still going to die.
I think that’s pretty telling of people who actively struggle to get proper schizophrenia diagnosis. often times schizophrenia or relating mental illnesses take a long time to get through and diagnose; to doctors it could be bipolar, BPD ect. that doesn’t change the metaphor of the story, and what mat is saying; the curse, like mental illness, is something you can only get through if you reach out for help and learn to live with it.
@@engiieen334 Yeah, it is definitely not easy. It takes time to diagnose mental health issues, as so many seem similar on short time scales and only can be teased apart when observed over weeks -- but the treatments for them can be completely different. And the medications themselves will induce mental illness as a side effect if given to a health person or someone with a different mental health issue than the medication is for. Even then, even if you get the medication perfectly right for the health issue, the side effects can be horrific. I've personally seen family members have to get rotated through a gambit of anti-epileptic drugs because the side effects of each in turn were life crippling in different ways, including one anti-epileptic that caused extreme hallucinations.
I know people like to rag on the health care industry when it comes to mental health, but it is not easy, it is in fact insanely complicated and completely personal. A broken bone is a broken bone regardless of the person, but every single individual's brain is uniquely different and no two people will respond in the exact same ways to mental health drugs -- and that isn't even bringing in dosage! It's a field we need way more research in, yet even researching it is hard -- can't ask a mouse how their mental health is, and can't ethically induce mental health issues in humans to try to develop better drugs.
I work in a hospital which unfortunately ends up as a fall back for a lot of people with mental illness and nowhere else to go. If a person with her symptoms presented to the ED and such a clear case of psychosis (after ruling out drug induced or other medical causes) they would likely leave with a 30 day supply of some kind of antipsychotic and a referral to see someone and get more. It is more complicated of course they would need to be medically cleared, go to another facility for inpatient therapy, and then see the physiatrist their but it would be a much quicker turnaround than just seeing an outpatient doctor. I have seen people head over to our psych facility in as few as about 12 hours.
Not to mention that medication isn't the answer to everything, especially considering how each patient has unique needs that require a unique medication which will have to be determined step by step as the psychiatrist slowly adapts the treatment.
That is a very good point. Especially when the whole point is create trauma for the one cursed. Imagine the individual was taking her meds several times to the point where she believe she was cured. Then after several days the curse strikes showing her the truth that she never once took a pill but was swallowing something worse, in which would drive her insane knowing she has no Avenue of escape and will lead her to do what needs to be done and the cycle continues.
Came here to learn how to be a better Winchester, left learning the power of love and the dangers of mental illness. Nice one, MatPat. Nice one.
Saving people. Hunting things.
@@aaronk8440 the family business
Matpat I love how you make great videos all the time! You are the best. Hope your new TH-cam partner does not change it
Isn’t this just smile dog with a bigger budget
Devil May Need Therapy
But if the demon can make them hallucinate literally any kind of sensation or action or reality how could she ever be sure she was taking the medicine in the first place? Couldn't the demon just make her think she's taking the medicine when really she's swallowing tic tacs or peppermints or something?
This is one of the reasons why people with schizophrenia can't live alone
My grandma has paranoid schizophrenia specifically, and if someone isn't there to make sure she takes her meds her hallucinations with straight up tell her she doesn't need to takes them anymore and she'll believe em
That was my thought exactly 💯🎯. Matpat dropped the ball on this one. Great message, but no real payoff on a solution for the movie's problem.
Completely agree. I think his solutions has a lot of holes in it. Even assuming she somehow managed to take the medication (which I doubt would happen), there’s no guarantee the meds will even work against the demons powers.
Most likely, it would require at least a temporary in-patient stay in a psych ward to get going so that you have a second party making sure that you're actually taking the meds & not just believing you have, & maybe after the hallucinations are under control, you could be trusted to live on your own. Of course, this all assumes that the demon/curse is working off of your body's natural brain chemistry, & not just straight up magic to begin with.
she doesn’t even need to swallow tic tacs or peppermints as a replacement, in the movie towards the end we see her drive all the way to joel’s house and have a whole conversation with him, yet every bit of that was just the smile curse screwing with her, so she might as well do nothing and think she’s taken meds
I think Rose was on to something. She didn't *just* isolate herself, she confronted the biggest trauma in her life. We were told that it feeds off of trauma, so if you're able to heal from your own trauma then theoretically it should starve and die.
tbh, i thought that was 300iq from her and wish it paid off, would've been a wonderful theme to end the movie with
Honestly the way it ended with the entity failing was way better than just assuming it still lives. If it can't feed off of trauma, then why would it still have any reason to try with its host?
You ruined it for me jk
To me this was the best movie I have ever seen the story is so rich
Yeah, that would have been a great pay off, but that twist was also good, it makes you feel the helplessnes of the curse. I truly hate how the guy just watched her die and got cursed despite KNOWING how the curse jumps between people and that he could have just turned around and avoid it.
Yeah same! Wish it ended like that!
A problem with killing your two friends is also the fact that that would traumatize *you.* The demon would just come back to you, and you would have two dead bodies to deal with.
How about two prisoners on Death Row?
@@insertclevernamehere1186 i did think that she would find some way to use people like ones in death row to trick the demon or satisfy the rules of the curse
@@insertclevernamehere1186 how a normal person would find exactly 2 prisoners on death row???
She’s already traumatized from witnessing her patient’s suicide. How can one become traumatized if they are already traumatized?
@@gandrilyoseff515tbf she had a cop friend so she could pull some strings
I love how he just said, "pacifist run" in the context of a story based in more or less reality and none of us even blinked an eye.
*megalovania starts playing*
@@Myrlaxen when you know what megalovania is but never actually played undertale:
How to defeat the oculus mirror
*His theme from undertale starts playing*
Fair
I hated the ending because it made me sad. I really thought she was gonna make it. She wasn't able to beat her own demon even after confronting it. In the end, she succumbed to it. Maybe what she did wasn't enough? I don't know. But I was really rooting for her specially after recognizing that the smile curse was a methapor to mental disorder.
There is a so-called smiling depression. I think my brother had it. He committed suicide in 2021. He was the happiest and most unproblematic person I knew, who would have thought he was suffering deep down.
I'm sorry for your loss.
I think its because she kept running away from various help and seek her own definition of help the best display of that scene was when the mc thought of isolating herself in her old home would do the trick to isolate and starve the monster but she forgot to confront the monster when the challenges get tough that's what she failed to realize when he confronted the physical manifestation of the monster, instead of getting rid of it, she run away from it
This was the best movie I have ever seen the story is so rich
the ending is what made the story so beautiful.
If she lives this movie goes down as after thought because the main characters in every movie has their protection. However they gave you a great story and you the viewer want her to survive and in the back of your mind understand their is a main character protection.
With her passing it makes this movie stand out with such rich story it was a master piece how they set themselves up for second movie.
That's not a good reason to hate an ending
I mean, the only way she could have won realistically is if she had killed herself before anyone could see her, since it only works firsthand.
What about faking a murder in front of someone? Or simply breaking into someone's house? Or empty threats? Trauma isn't exclusive to death.
Yeah, pretty sure there was a quest in the Witcher 3 that already beat this exact curse
Would the curse even move for that? Something as minor as getting rejected for a date could cause trauma.
Why not fake death infront of the person.. That would make them traumatized
No the demon is real smart to screw with you more
As soon as it's proven fake it won't work. People aren't that frail and naive
When I first heard of this movie, everyone was saying how traumatic and horrific it was. I was low key excited to watch it.
I suffer with my own mental health. The feeling of hopelessness and helplessness are feelings I know all too well. While watching the movie I immediately understood the underlying message in it, and it just made me sad more than anything.
Her crys for help and no one listened. She tried taking matter into her own hands, secludeding herself and cutting off contact. It really was an amazing movie on mental heath and the stigma behind it.
I hope you recover soon
I didn't know this movie was a thing and feel like I want to watch it now. It reminds me of when I was younger and really struggling with my mental health. I thought I was schizophrenic and was even put on antipsychotics for a bit.
Now I'm pretty sure that it was environmental stress, anxiety, and lack of sleep thar caused me to hallucinate so much. And my anxiety was so bad I would fly into fits of paranoia. Now that I am medicated and my anxiety is managed, I'm doing much better.
Sigma 🗿
And then the ending happens and any good will I had before got thrown out the window. Ugh...
You ever need to talk, in here ❤
I thought she was just going to K.O herself in an alone area. Since no one was there to witness it, the trauma is erased and thereby the demons stuck. Right?
There are still people she’d leave behind, I assume they’d be traumatized by this?
@@bookbook9495 yea. also if anyone finds her body, theyre definitely gonna be traumatized.
@@HelloThere-nm5pb would a psycho be immune to this curse then?
@@blackairforce13No. Psychotic people still have trauma. It’s about WITNESSING it and having trauma. Not just one or the other.
@@apinkcirclefriendswithablu3777 So if Jeff Dahmer witnessed a murder, do you think he'd get traumatised?
Or hear me out… “Medically Induced Coma”
Yes *
The entity can control the host. It's unclear if the host has to be lucid for it to be taken over, but I'd wager it doesn't.
Good luck convincing doctors to do that to you
SPOILER ALERT
you kinda predicted the second movie, but we still dont know if it would work
Second movie spoiler (kinda)
I love that you predicted what the second movie does, but it doesn't even work because she's so deep in her hallucinations she can't get help when she realizes she needs it. The monster just lies to her brain, so she's never in the operating room to begin with
If trauma was the pathway into the person’s soul, I bet a sociopath would be the end to this thing. The sociopath would witness the person the demon was possessing die and not feel anything and then that would be it.
Assuming the demon would obey such rules, yeah, that could definitely work. And assuming it doesn't have another means of bringing itself into the world again.
But wouldn't that mean that the curse would never get passed into them in the first place?
@@Kurokami112 Yes, but that's the point. If the person who is cursed dies in front of them, there's no one to pass it to. Therefore, it dissipates.
@@Kurokami112 thats the point
That's not true. Sociopaths/psychopaths do feel emotions. They're unable to understand other people's emotions.
The theory of killing the friend with the curse. Has another issue with the idea of self-imposed trauma because that would likely end up causing the curse to go to you since murder is probably traumatic if not already caused by trauma.
It could theoretically work, as they aren’t killing themselves and you are killing them. However, it is unclear whether if it really needs to spread that way and continue to exist. Unless witnessing their death can also transmit the entity instead of watching them off themselves, it’s debatable.
I'm not entirely sure if matpad is right here? The guy in the prision should theoretically have gotten a self-imposed trauma but he didn't go out of the situation possessed (he should be more traumatised than the wife as he committed the murder). I'm not sure if it's actually the trauma causing the thing to get passed on or just the fact that you witnessed the murder (and no committed it yourself, perhaps? Although you could argue about that idk). Another reason why the entire trauma thing might not be completely true is that the kid should be traumatised because unpacking a dead cat on your birthday? although that's pretty weak evidence I guess
@@kitsune6526 In that situation, the murderer would be in full control and the victims would have pretty much no control, so there is definitely an argument to be made that seeing your husband get murdered and probably thinking you are next is more traumatizing than murdering someone.
For it to work the killer would have to be a psychopath who feels no remorse for killing somebody and therefore they wouldn’t be traumatized by the killing.
@@Manic640 but they would never get the curse 🤔
Another way to defeat the Smile Curse/Demon is be willing to sacrifice yourself to end it. Don't directly do so within range of anyone else. Another option is transfer it to someone else who has no one else that they care about or cares about them that yet is willing to sacrifice themselves after you leave.
Issue with that is even if you off yourself it's about trauma, the moment someone finds your body if they are traumatized by it they get the curse. So you would have to completely make your body unidentifiable and not do it infront of anyone, also, the curse could easily just make it feel like you offed yourself with more hallucinations
@@redrose1179 That's why you do it with Fire or a Lye/Acid Bath. But you must do the sacrifice before the Hallucinations get worse.
Yes but will it be a hallucination at the end?
@@purplebubblegum4055 Fair point, but if done soon enough most likely not.
Yeah, I was thinking about it.
The problem with this is that Rose did all three of those things. It was day 2 when she reached out for help with her therapist to give her Risperidone, which is a drug that can be used for schizophrenia. Her therapist rejected these concerns and told her to wait a week, despite Rose repeating her concerns (especially considering she is also a therapist). So therapy failed. Drugs failed. Even if she got them she'd need to be monitored that she actually took them because the entity could make her think she did but she actually didn't, same with going to therapy. She reached out to everyone around her and the only one who listened was Joel but she was afraid. Even if she confided in him, which she did on day 4, it didn't help, and I don't think doing it earlier could have fixed that. And the third thing "learning to live with mental illness and trauma", she also did this. She faced what she did to her mother, and confessed to Joel about her fears. Even if it was fake, she thought it was real so it has the same affect. So this theory is debunked.
She had to take her self out in isolation to beat it the chain breaks
However this is easier said then done
She could think she has done it but just falls asleep. If someone some how finds her then it appears and continues.
@@elderassassin9673 This feels so badwards though. The theory that it represents mental illness directly contradicts this "put yourself into isolation" because it's teaching people that if they're struggling to not seek help. I haven't seen the movie in forever so I can't remember specifics, but couldn't she have killed herself either on purpose or accident from what the entity was doing? Which is still losing.
@@ayonixanimations if you take the moral aspect of this helping people who have MH problems.
I'm talking about defeating the monster and also saving alot of people in the process.
@@ayonixanimations yes she doesn't survive in my solution but saves alot of people lives by doing this.
Something you didn't mention is that rose tried to get antipsychotic medication from her therapist but was denied
I mean if your patient out of the blue says that's she wants some tecnically heavy drugs, would you give it to her without question or avaliating her first?
@@eduardusk5808 isnt that big pharmas whole deal?
@@mrggonzalez3278 No...? Big Pharma works by overpricing medicine, not by providing it to everyone willy nilly. Don’t be stupid, that’d be bad business.
I think he implicitly did when he talked about the fact that she sought after help from people but they didn't listen
@@mulengamulenga6091 then proceeds to talk about clozapine. lol
Idea; get someone to knock you out for two weeks, fed on an IV drip. You'd just need to know what was happening before the curse took full control, and have someone believe you. The curse needs to pass on to survive, that's why it moves so quickly.
You could also simply have someone put you in a straight jacket and lock you away for awhile (or just generally restrain you indefinitely). As stated, it will be important to be fed on an IV drip, but even more importantly to prevent all muscle movement.
I'm not sure how this would be done, but I do know that the curse might be able to somehow pass through trauma without killing the host. The face, head, limbs, and fingers will all need to be rendered immobile or otherwise imperceivable in order to prevent traumatizing the caretaker. Contact with the victim and information about the curse should also be very limited as some people are more prone to trauma than others; someone very impressionable could be traumatized by something small that we didn't think of.
Since very little is know about the curse, a cult may try to intentionally spread the curse by traumatizing people in the manner that the curse spreads. This is also why information about the curse should be limited to a few people.
Nice
There's 2 problems with this.
1. it's nigh impossible to get someone to believe you have a curse specifically, and not Schizophrenia or some other mental disorder.
2. There's no evidence to suggest that it moves so quickly because it needs to do so to survive.
@@nicolaidepue3970 or the government would try to weaponize it. Questions what would happen if you k*ll yourself in a crowd of people or online for millions to see. Would the curse go to one person, several or all.
@@theinsurance2450 Since we see that what is causing the curse is a singular entity, I don't think it could spread to multiple people.
In all known cases, the victim/entity smiles and looks directly at the next victim while the current victim dies. This means that, if the victim dies around multiple people, the entity would look at and spread to one person as it kills the current victim.
I also don't think the curse would work online. Actually being there and experiencing it is much more traumatizing than seeing it online.
Caitlin Stacey really really nailed the smile, there was no one through out the movie tht had such a terrible smile like her, and it's not even an "evil" smile but just a soul piercing creepy smile, props to her
69th like.....
I think she was on Jimmy Fallon and talked about how much work went into the smile. First finding it, then practicing for months to nail it so no loss of film time was wasted.
Agree, except I thought the girl at the birthday party nailed, also. Really wish they would've kept that more in mind while casting.
SPOILER:
Especially for the main character. She did a good job in the movie but her smile was weak. Also, was pretty upset they didn't spend a few more bucks so we could see her smiling while she was burning.
@@LetsGoFlyers2011 Not to be completely morbid this is horror genre, but that would've been amazing to see.
More spoiler alert
Also the schizo guy not having the same smile as the rest was easy to dismiss plot wise; doubt that was on purpose. Cool plot twist for those not paying attention though.
Also she was like the best actor in the whole movie imo. It seriously felt real how she was breaking down.
This theory that the victims should have gone to a therapist is pretty compelling. It reminds me of the film Smile (2022), where someone goes to a therapist and gets ganked by a demon, passing on the curse to that therapist; and then that therapist tries to go to her own therapist, and the demon manipulates her reality to prevent her from doing so.
The video about the film Smile reminded you of the film Smile?
@@extendoduck It's a joke. He's saying Matt's plan wouldn't work because in the movie itself they try to seek a therapist and it doesn't work.
@@Gacha_gaysImagine a cheeky scene when the text therapist sends nothing but :)
This is the most underrated comment of all time! lol
Adding “ganked” to my personal lexicon thanks
Really was rooting for Rose here. She never did anything to hurt anyone and says she’d work her job helping people for free
She intentionally let her mother die. That's doing something to hurt someone.
@@robertalter3186 she was 10 yrs old you goon. Everyone has done something to hurt someone especially when they were a kid. He means she isn’t a bad person and wouldn’t be deserving of torment like this. Smartass
@@robertalter3186 🙄 i hope the smile monster gets you
@@Mole-Esther Just stating facts. Rose didn't deserve to die, but she also wasn't inculpable.
She didn't let her mother die. Her mother was a schizo who committed suicide
I think the other problem here is that treatment in the USA is difficult if not entirely impossible to get. I've been on a waiting list for 6 months already and was expecting a call in November and that's just for outpatient care
I’m in USA and had no problem seeking help and treatment. Maybe it depends on where you live in the US.
@@OcculticRomantic some states have better healthcare systems and it also depends on the specific place you’re going to
And to make things even messier...some physical ailments might have the potential to mimic symptoms of mental health issues, including schizophrenia.
What is your insurance? Is it a public or private system (as in, is it government assisted/military or through a job/personally purchased)? How long it takes to get seen varies quite a lot depending on that one factor, plus where you're located, what type of insurance and what doctor you are seeing.
This is implying the movie is set in the USA.
Sadly the curse can make you think that you are taking your medication, but you never actually do. You cannot beat a false perception as you have no mechanism to distinguish those from real perceptions.
Yeah you're probably right I really truly believe there is no way of beating this thing.
Even if you went to a hospital and put yourself in a padded room with a straight jacket on, more than likely be a camera in that room as well. And from what we've seen from her patient passing it on to her, when this thing takes over it can pretty much do anything it wants with your body so maybe while she's sitting in a straight jacket her head would literally just spin one way until it snaps her neck, then anybody that would watch that on the camera would be traumatized.
Had the same thought
Idk I think if you accept everything is a hallucination & everything as being apart of reality whether it changes/disappears or not. You can beat it in some regards, but idk I'm someone who technically has a type of hallucination so the idea of being helpless to them just doesn't compute.
Long term care where your antipsychotics are the injected kind that the nurses give you ready or not could work.
Yeah the demon is real smart
If your only goal is to stop the curse, one way or another (like say if you don't mind dying) i think it's pretty safe to say the demon will probably try and stop you from ending yourself quietly. However, if, say, you were to constantly and relentlessly hurl yourself off a bridge, over and over, powered by sheer will to jump off that bridge, while the demon is concentrating on making it just a hallucination every time you jump... you may eventually succumb to hunger and dehydration, as all your efforts are focused on that bridge. Nothing else.
But what if that too is a hallucination?
@@LucariosayzHi what, you mean the bridge? It doesn't matter if the bridge is a hallucination or not, because if trying to hurl yourself off of it is the one and only thing you're concentrated on, there's no time to eat, drink or sleep, so you die of one of those.
04:58 thanks for the shout out 👍😊
Woah
32 likes
@@sharkocat2402 33 now.
35
The only thing that bothered me about the movie is, your previously “okay” sister just gave their dead cat to your kid, then panicked. Yes, get your kid out first, but did no one do a wellness check? That’s not what she’d do, if no demon was present she’d need a bloody hug.
Great video, thanks for the effort
That bothered me too. I understand that their family has a history of mental illness and that they blame that for their childhood trauma, but that should honestly make her even MORE aware that wellness checks are necessary and should allow her to see that her sister is spiraling.
It also really bothered me that the main character was a clinical psychiatrist actively working in a psychiatric ward of a hospital who doesn't know/use any other healthy coping mechanism than controlled breathing AND that she had at no point communicated clearly with THE OTHER PSYCHIATRISTS what she was experiencing.
@@HotGothics Exactly! Just, if your family has the history, and signs are showing, give help and hug or something.
Also While I haven’t seen enough to fully add to your second point(I have finished a lot of videos on the movie though), I have BEEN to therapy. Just as a basis I was taught multiple other ways to help myself in stress prone situations, so 100%.
That said, in horror I’m not prone to blaming the MC(like say, not communicating). In this case, I believe she probably should have sooner, at least said something, but if you have 4 days and the entire time you’re hallucinating... A realistic person might not do better either even if they are a psychiatrist, it’s to short of a time to be haunted and not initially know you’re haunted.
@@HotGothics The thing that bothered me was the mc going back and forth between not explaining things at all or explaining them so poorly that she just comes across as unhinged. I was so nervous for the first half of the movie, but then got a nice break at the halfway point by getting to rant about this silly movie logic. Ah yeah, need to convince your sister something is actually up? Jibber jabber verbally for a bit before showing her a crimescene photo. Instead of just.... explaining to her that there was a loooong string of suicides and then showing any needed paperwork as proof afterwards. Just... no in between. Still a great movie.
Well she wasn't exactly okay. They still communicated but she was a stubborn person still stuck in the past with trauma resulting them having issues with one another. That was more of a final straw kind of thing.
@@superbadisfunny Which is understandable, but I can still dream or hope that even if a family was dysfunctional they would still have room to care even if I know that’s not how it usually works.
If they have a strained relationship and the sister already has trauma and carers fatigue from their previous family she(the sister) won’t have the capacity to give a crap if she wanted to give the world at that point.
But, that no one saw a dead cat and MC’s own horror and still insisted on said course of actions bothers me some.
The movie is only over a few days-a week of madness so realistically, any friend/loved one/whatever could have gone over after cooling down but it would have been to late. The epilogue would never be about that MC either as she lost, sadly, and this isn’t a tragedy this is a horror.
If you really think killing two randoms isn’t going to traumatise you and just pass the demon back to you anyways, you’re kidding yourself.
@TheFilmTheorists_1THIS IS A SCAM DONT SEND THEM ANYTHING
Also, your suicide will traumatise Family, passing Curse to them.
Or Atleast traumatise guy who found your body, also passing Curse.
Seem only scp Memetic division can help.
@@greyfaceofaxeI don’t think you get it. The way it gets passed on is IF you witness the afflicted or host of this “Curse” off themselves. It’s exclusively to sight only. After that, it’s game. Sure your death may leave trauma, but it doesn’t automatically give them the trauma just for qualifying for being a host. Even memetics won’t help because it may make you forget, but it won’t make it disappear.
@@apinkcirclefriendswithablu3777 So, you could say that, if you had access to SCP Foundation like amnesties, best case scenario would be that you became asymptomatic, like Typhoid Mary
@@MrMaradok It’s possible, however we don’t know much about it.
The thing about this movie is it seems like a massive metaphor. The demon doesn't feed off of trauma, it *IS* trauma. It represents how it can haunt you, isolate you, mess with your mind, and come back after years when you thought it went away.
Someone mentioned that in a later scene where her therapist calls her, you can see in the background some sort of letter or sign saying "LAST CHANCE". This is because taking this call would be her last chance to go to therapy and confront her trauma.
The way to win is to heal.
This was one of the best movies I have ever seen in my life.
yeah and after she gets angry with the therapist its like her hallucinations manifest more frequently and more vividly. This remind me so much of the barbadook
i’ve heard so many people say that, but i’ve watched that scene 10 times and i don’t see it. where is it?
The entity isnt trauma itself
This scary movie has deep meaning! Thanks for shedding light on this one.
I would say a big chunk of scary movies have a meaning.
@@lilyofluck371yeah like how Bird Box is theorised to be about mental health issues
@@xxtmntxxrae4544 that would make the most sense,given how every crazy person was the ones trying to get people to see the creatures
the vast majority of stories have a theme? Mental health is one of the most common themes seen in literature, especially now when everyone is having issues dealing with trauma and mental health.
The thing that is scary about the smile curse/demon is the fact that you can't trust what you see but also what you do so anything you think you're doing to "solve" your plight could be a hallucination in itself and you could be physically doing nothing at all like you see when she thought she beat it or when she was wrapping the gift but actually killed her cat and wrapped that instead so you'd need someone else to help you but couldn't really trust that either so it's one big rabbit hole in itself
The worst part is my dog has the same smile.
The thing that is scary is that mentally ill people actually go through this in real life
It was the best movie I have ever seen
@@mexreax4493:)
Exactly, the only plausible way to win is to have a solid support structure, even then it could make her leave the house because of a hallucinated fire and get hit by a car maybe while someone watched, easy dub for the demon
Rose would have already passed on the curse at the birthday party if following the movie's rules with dead cat gift cause that's pretty traumatising for the atleast one ppl in the party especially kids in the party so essentially she should have Survived after that while making everyone in that party a possible carrier of the curse.
Nah, the rules state it has to be a witnessing of a killing. The cat was already dead when given as a gift, so it doesn't pass on.
Honestly I was ready the entire movie, waiting for that moment to be revealed as some kind of loophole for the monster. They even did the extra scene of the kid seeing her freak out in her car. I was so sure SOMETHING would call back to that especially after how the sister mentions how much it traumatized her son.
@@Oberky I think that idea was it just wasn't traumatizing enough I mean it scared him and he might have nightmares for a little bit but it didn't truly traumatize him
@@Oberky It could also be something foreshadowing events in future movies where it messed him up a bit, but not enough to fully get the curse. It would be interesting to see them go somewhere with that.
@@kitgames08 that would be cool ! I also think the child is there as a sort of callback to the fact some of the victims (not all - at least it wasn't stated in the movie or I don't remember well enough) already had some childhood trauma before getting the curse (Rose with her mom dying, the girl who gave the curse to Rose with her grandfather dying)
So the kid might be a future target, if he witness a killing/suicide later on in his life
pov: your deaf and you wear a blindfold so the demon has to give you hallucinations through brail
Hahaha as expected from 8-bit main
A comic book scenario I imagined was the government discovering and brokering a deal with the Smile monster where trained agents would harbor it and pass it on to high-value targets to destabilize rival societies, only to be picked back up by the original government.
Except the monster doesn’t need to make any deals to pass itself on.
@@Lleon-io1vv ?
Scp foundation type beat
It feels like good entry for SCP
That's a lot of bodies
It's definitely not going to go away after one defeat... She needed to repeat what she did .. face it and burn it.. but in the end she just lost.. Her acting was Incredible.. the scariest scene wasn't the monster ..it was seeing what was left of her disappear after screaming and suddenly going silent
I feel like at the end when Rose was a about to end it in front of her friend, that might have been his chance. He knew how the demon transmits so if he had run out of the house before she could do the deed, would the curse have been able to pass on? (Of course we don't know because he just stood there like a deer in the headlights)
Although even if he runs, the curse might still go to the next person who finds the body (if they do because she's in a desolate house in the middle of nowhere). And even if he runs he still KNOWS what she did, so would it pass onto him anyway? This concept has so much potential
@@SpooxX I don't think the curse would move to whoever finds the body, as the rules that're outlined in the movie make it seem as though that someone has to be there witnessing the death happen in order for the curse to pass on.
I thought this, when you see her smiling I was almost screaming at him to run
I assumed the demon could root people in place to witness the event, to ensure the curse is properly passed on. Also, if they have to watch every second of it, it would maximize the trauma of the event, thus giving the demon more fuel to torture the poor soul with. That's just my theory tho
@@mycomnithegreat434 I hadn't thought of that. I figured it was the fact that they were caught off guard mixed with the shock of the act that was keeping them rooted
I hate how MatPat always makes things harder than my brain can comprehend and yet it still makes for a fantastic video. Good job!
About the isolation theory, I think Mat may have missed one detail from the movie. The curse feeds off of trauma. It is stated multiple times, and even heavily stressed, that no one survives more than four days. In the movie, as it neared the fourth day it is explained that the curse gets more frantic and desperate, all of which implies that the curse can be starved, which also suggests that the curse can die if it doesn't get the trauma it needs within a timeframe. Isolation may not necessarily be a lifetime commitment, just until the curse is starved and dies off.
That makes sense but in the movie it showed that even in isolation, the curse found ways to torment and induce trauma to its victim. I don't think the curse will get starved if it continues to create more trauma to feed on. Also, four days isn't a definite time frame, they said that the victims die within a week and that some die just after four days. I think the curse will continue to keep its host alive as long as it needs to feed. Unless the host dies otherwise
It doesn't get frantic and desperate it gets more powerful and chaotic pushing the boundaries of what was manageable before it won't starve and die it will keep getting more and more horrific until you finally break
@@thiccynikky3805 Oh it'd starve with me no problem. I have total aphantasia. 98% of the population don't have aphantasia, and I have the rarest form. I don't and can't hallucinate even on powerful hallucinogens. It's physically impossible for me to hallucinate. If that sounds like an amazing thing to have, it also means I can't visualize. I can only see what it actually there. I can only hear what sounds are actually audible. It's not that I don't have an imagination, I have quite a vivid one, it's just my imagination does not extend into senses. Rather it's purely conceptual.
The most the demon could do to me is cause me to have concepts, but concepts are easy to filter and not at all traumatic to me.
In short, if this were real, if you had that demon after you... Pass it on to me. I won't even notice and it'll starve to death on me.
@@BerryTheBnnuy You are the hero we need, but never EVER deserved. (Btw, that's something I have never heard of. Thank you for giving me my next abnormality to look into!)
This is a great theory, but we have no idea how long it takes to die off. It still might be an extremely long time in isolation. It might work, but it could be a huge risk to take.
As much as I like the medication solution, I have to question if it would work. If this thing is genuinely supernatural, would any pharmacology be able to stop the hallucinations it causes?
This is why I freaking hate these kinds of horror movies because it's like a life or death version of an imaginary playground fight and the horror is that kid who keeps making up new rules, powers, or gadgets so that he doesn't loose.
I do indeed like the idea of having any kind of solution that just completely no sells that kind of shenanigans or even better, make like Yahtzee and, "see how good his 'everything proof shield' is when I take him behind the shed and knock his teeth out with a bicycle chain."
Yes, pharmaceuticals probably won't work. The curse is supernatural and can manipulate your brain. The best way would not be to cause a brain to become schizophrenic, but to manipulate the signals coming from your eyes, ears, etc. This would control your perception directly and make antipsychotics worthless.
Yes
Yeah I was having the same thoughts. There’s no guarantee that meds for schizophrenia would help with the hallucinations that the demon causes.
Even calling them “hallucinations” downplays the power of the demon pretty hard. When Rose unknowingly gifts the dead animal her perception of reality was warped for who knows how long… I highly doubt some therapy and meds would be able to completely manage this
_make like Yahtzee and, "see how good his 'everything proof shield' is when I take him behind the shed and knock his teeth out with a bicycle chain."_
The best quote
wait with “The Wolfman’s Nards” theory wouldn’t the curse go back to you after killing both friends? you still witness your two best friends getting murder which has to resort to some sort of trauma bringing the curse back to you?
Ehh not sure? I mean it has to be self game ending to another person for that to work. Not game ending another person with a curse
I have been thinking about the moral dilemma of "The Wolfman's Nards" solution and to maybe combat it (throwing all mortality away) is this (please don't throw me onto an FBI list).
After killing your the first best friend, activate a premade trap to brutally murder your second best friend without looking, hearing or listening to their death. After two pair of your besties corpses, pull a level to hide their body away and clean up the mess to lessen the risk of the curse reattaching itself to you.
I think thats why mat said take your 2 most expendable friends. Best friends arent expendable. But this 2 people you might hang out with occasionally are
Yeah im not so sure the demon can be killed that way heck I don’t think the demon can be killed, besides the movie showed that the demon can make you think you killed someone but then you realized you were asleep and never moved at all
That a good question. We do not know if it's a one and done deal or not. If it one and done, you presumably have immunity. If it's not one and done, it could come back. Which is probably the fear the man in jail had, that it will come back.
As a person diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia this video was extremely motivating. Thanks for providing actual good information on the topic!
So basically, a Sociopath is invincible to the monster
The specific solution I had in mind when I saw this movie in theatres was similar to your idea, basically she would have to go into a padded cell in the hospital where she worked if it was an option. As you covered the monster doesn't have any physical powers which means when it kills you it really needs one thing other than a witness. it needs a means to do the killing. If Rose were to go into a padded cell she would have no means of killing herself and still could have contact with people. Though I will admit that medication is a much more elegant solution. 😂
Biting off her own tongue.
@@J-B4R could work but she’d be under constant medical surveillance so I doubt she would be able to die from it
Theyd need a streight jacket as well so no a cell wouldnt work
I think the problem with this theory, is that this demon takes you over completely it can possibly do anything with your body, even in straight jacket, who's to say it can't just spin her head til it snaps her f****** neck in front of some nurse bringing her food in the padded room.
The point is so she can live a good life this is no different than the isolating yourself part
As someone who suffers from mental illness, this theory really spoke to me, I haven't seen the film, I'm a complete wimp when it comes to horror, but Smile really looks like a beautiful allegory, especially with the vagueness of the curse as we all view our issues differently, a cautionary tale of why we need to process our trauma and learn to accept our issues and ask for help, thanks for the theory, it means a lot to people like me, and to anyone reading this who has their own struggles, rest assured, we all can silence our curses
This movie hit too close to home for me. I was able to finish the movie with my girlfriend but I was acting like a little b*tch the entire time. The premise of this movie is the most terrifying thing I can think of. Just pure mental anguish. The first suicide scene was so brutal and scary I should have stopped watching there.
For real life
Smile is one of the best, most interesting, smartest horror movies in recent memories, and I'm never watching it again.
1:20 The fact that this actually jumpscared me because of that sudden zoom-in makes me feel like I have a soft heart.
the sister knocking on the car window and turning her head upside down got me
@@TheModeler99 me too ngl. The twist of the neck just disturbed me
@@TheModeler99 lmafoo when I saw it it got me aswell 🤧
I’m literally typing this with the video paused, but I’m listening to it with my screen facing the table lol
I totally missed that but uh thx for giving me a heart attack
Its a chain. The only way to stop it is to suicide while alone. But they mention more than one chain. I wonder if her nephew, who got traumatized by the cat she killed, wouldn't become the next protagonist.
Matpat at it again with the how can you survive?!
My guy I’m gonna die, no matter how many techniques and tricks I use I will fall victim
It is a truth that is sad to live with but I have accepted it
I'm sure everyone can agree
Yeah I've accepted that in any apocalyptic or horror movie scenario, I'd be better off just going out on my own terms because ain't no way I'm surviving.
At least u won’t die to smile tho lol
Nah bro, just take your fricking meds.
I would like, but you're at 569 ╯︿╰
I love when MatPat is able to wring a wholesome message or concept out of something abjectly horrifying.
😊
Not to mention being able to do the complete opposite. You know what I’m talking about.
This movie made me realize how sinister smiling can be
Edit: also. I think that all of the smiles were practical. None of them were CGI which makes it more scary. What’s hilarious is that some people were hired to go to baseball games and do that creepy smile in order to promote the movie.
Sinister smiling has been a thing since before this movie lol
Bro these bots I cannot
Bro these bots I cannot
Jim Carrey must've been proud
6:05 that’s what Joel did in smile 2 but he got killed anyway😭
He died to an accident tho
What I’m curious about is what happens if the supposed victim isn’t affected trauma wise by the curse. Like the previous victim offed themselves but the new victim kinda just shrugs it off. Or at least isn’t fazed traumatically by it
Yeah, I was thinking that. Like what if the only witness was a sociopath or something whose only reaction was 'well, that just happened. Onto to my knitting"
@@moonlight4665
Then you probably just wasted your time. Honestly the best way of "killing" the curse forevever with the least casulties is unfortunately to commit suicide.
Honestly if I had that curse that would be my solution.
wasn’t there someone in the movie who wasn’t affected because of this or am i making it up
I assume the demon would have an idea of its next victim being supernatural n all. Our main character, for example, had some messed up past, making her a perfect victim for the demon to torment.
@@moonlight4665 my understanding is that even the biggest sociopath would be traumatized whether or not if only to an infinitesimal degree. A little bit infected is still 100% infested if it's by a curse with a conscious determined intent and it has full access to read plus control the target mind. It would find a way to hurt its new victim. A slightly traumatizing originating event could be replayed repeatedly in a mind until it was grossly traumatizing and each replay could be magnified and augmented. New fresh hallucinations would play directly against past themes or memories of effective trauma
This theory hits very close to home for me. I'm diagnosed with bi-polar and generalized anxiety. It's nowhere near the levels of high schizophrenia, but it's still a mental illness with no definitive cure. Each day involves me dealing with anger, and the temporary solutions of medication and therapy helps.
😂
There doctors and nurses with schizophrenia… medication and a healthy life style can go a long ways. What works for me is staying away from drugs and alcohol.😊
that sounds so frustrating, i hope you're doing okay :)
No person has ever walked into a mental health clinic and walked out without a mental disorder. Mental issues are there for life and there is nothing except long term retrograde amnesia that can eliminate it.
That sounds really difficult. Sorry to hear
man mat-pat seriously helps take away the fear of some horror things with the voiceovers making it easier to watch than it was to watch in theators
Killing a person with someone watching (therefore giving them the curse) and then also killing person watching doesn't work. This is exactly what happened in the opening scene of Smile 2.
i kinda love that Smile doesn't really wrap up. since it's a movie, we assume our character is special in some way, that maybe she's gonna figure out a way out of it. but Smile could be about ANYONE in the chain of deaths, the lady we follow just so happens to be the lady the movie is about. it makes you more connected to the level of desperation and stress the character is feeling
I love movies that are just us peeping INTO the life of someone in their world and less of a “story”
the very true reality of all of this. great theory as usual guys
Link to the Clip :- They finally released this
th-cam.com/video/2EXjRrTzTgQ/w-d-xo.html .
Smile+bird box
3 bots why is TH-cam do nothing with the bots
@@littlevine39 ooooluu ii juuhhggg dirt in eye! And one of them actually responded to me once coherently…
@@littlevine39 I know its insane how bad it is.
I wonder if the curse could be broken by hypnotizing the person and totally erase the traumatic event from their mind. No one gets hurt and the demon is stopped.
Immune to charm
That doesnt erase the trauma tho. Heck trauma itself can cause amnesia
Guys he’s Jerry Smith, he’s already had trauma with his family
hypnosis doesn't work that way in real life!!
There's something else... People with aphantasia are resistant to hallucinations. People with total aphantasia are completely immune to hallucinations.
I have total aphantasia. If the demon were latched onto me it'd be one of those situations where "I'm not locked in here with you, you're locked in here with me." It'd be completely unable to affect me and have to wait till I die of old age.
Blud thinks he is him😈😈. Bro just thank the fact this isnt real and cant get to you or anyone else
How does one know they have aphantasia? You got properly diagnosed?
@@boezow Do you need a doctor to tell you that you're unable to visualize things? My sister doesn't have aphantasia. She reports having an ability I can't even conceive of... the ability to CHOOSE to SEE something that doesn't exist in vivid full color without reality bleeding through, fully blocking the view of what's there in the real world, like seeing Shaggy and Scooby in the room.
I can't. I can't see what isn't actually there. I can't even summon an image of a fuzzy amorphous blob shape. I can only conceptualize that someone could visualize Shaggy and Scooby being in the room and actually see them actually in the room.
A doctor can't diagnose you with aphantasia. There's no test. It's not a mental disorder. It's not a mental illness. It's not something to be diagnosed. It's like if someone's missing two legs and is saying they're a paraplegic and you come up like "hey how do you KNOW you're a paraplegic? Did you get properly diagnosed?"
I don't need a doctor to tell me I don't have what I don't have, nor that I can't do what I can't do.
But yes, a doctor has told me that I have total aphantasia, pretty much using exactly the above. It's not a diagnosis though, it's just a description like "paraplegic". It doesn't go on your medical record at all. It's just I was seeing a doctor and I told him like "hey I think something might be wrong with me" and they told me what it's called and we continued on with the usual session.
@@BerryTheBnnuycan you like calm down cause it was a question it was never that serious. I’m not reading all that
@@boezow Don't ask judgemental questions if you aren't willing to get chewed out for it.
Thank You Matt, You have no idea how much this means to me. Mental illness and spreading information about it in a entertaining but healthy way is pure tact.
Seriously, I cannot imagine the work you put in to make this.
Favourite video of all time.
Can we just agree that this horror movie was one of the best of 2022. I went into the movie theaters to see this movie because of its baseball game promotions and honestly I'm glad I did. This movie made me feel as uncomfortable and as uneasy as possible and every single jump scare got me. I hope this gets a sequel greenlit 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
So true. I have never seen it but it looks really good. It made billions of money than the other horror movies. This movie is a real horror movie because you are dealing with a supernatural being
@@MrMatt-ls3pn it's really good you should def watch it I think it's on hbo max if I'm not mistaken lol
It has some very creepy/intense moments but honestly I was very disappointed with it in the end
@@MrMatt-ls3pn If u have Paramount+ it's available there
@@MrMatt-ls3pn you can't be serious
so the curse kills you using EMOTIONAL DAMAGE
It'll send you to Jesus 😂
No one ever takes defenses against it, I swear.
I have to block the smile???
Theory: Only Steven He can defeat the demon with the power of EMOTIONAL DAMAGE
@CJ_ON32s1.wow mr scam
In the second movie, a character successfully passed the curse by killing someone else in front of a witness. But he ended up dead anyway after getting hit by a car. It's unclear if the demon passed right away or if it only passed after the previous victim was dead tho
well no cause in the first movie the prisoner was still alive cause he passed it on by killing someone else
@@Turtlemmd really? I didnt remember that
The car seems to be just a coincidence, because nothing that happened in the scene you're referring to prior to the car contradicts the lore established in the first movie.
@@Max1996YT yup I had just forgotten it
When watching the movie in theaters, I totally thought that her giving the dead cat to the kid was going to be her way out. Her sister even got angry and told her all about how she “traumatized” her son (specifically using the word) - so I really thought that action, or something along those lines - would’ve been enough.
that kid PICKED UP a dead cat, and held it up in front of a room!!! no way that kid was traumatized!!!
has to be murder
@Ace :D the grinch: “kids today…so desensitized by movies and television.”
Yeah so I don't think he was traumatized he was certainly scared and he's probably going to have nightmares for a little bit but he's going to eventuallys get over it
I think the movie's rules specified that the next bearer of the curse had to witness the current bearer's suicide in order for it to pass
You can say this video put a smile on your face. One way or another. :)
@MeatCaynon 🅥 you’re not a very good bot 😂
@@arkhamadness-5065 i hate those bots, like fr, i can't go in a big channel without seeing "FiNaLlY iTs HeRe yt really gotta fix this bot problem
My youngest sister has schizoaffective disorder, among other things, and this was her life for many years. It's only gotten (much! 😁) better thanks to loving support and meds/professionals that actually work.
Nice to see a movie give a (mostly) realistic look into what it's like to deal with such a living nightmare.
4:26 bro said what
Don't.😂
spit on that thang
say that again…
Nice to have a tutorial on how to survive those crazy demons you just encounter in daily life 😜 Thanks Matt.
How to survive Ohio
@Lamar Productions everyone in this reply section is
im definitely saving this for the next time I run into the smile monster :)
yep
Jesus this comment is a bot fly trap
I love that this theory ends off on a helpful message about the importance of mental health.
Link to the Clip :- They finally released this
th-cam.com/video/2EXjRrTzTgQ/w-d-xo.html .
"Put on a happy face" -Joker
*"I am the happy face"* -Smile
@hope. Ah, I see perfectly what you are trying to say. Me to.
bro that bot is so smart, you only see the 2nd reply instead of the link when look in notifications
This theory actually almost comes up in the first half of the movie! When Rose sees her therapist the first time, she asks if she could be prescribed Risperdal, which is a common antipsychotic medication prescribed for schizophrenia and other disorders that involve psychotic symptoms, but the therapist insists on more talk therapy before prescribing any medication - I had found it odd while watching the movie that they didn't have Rose, as a trained clinician herself, approach any other mental health professionals for a second opinion and to request the medication be prescribed, though I suppose if they had and this theory would theoretically hold weight, then it would've been a much shorter film 😅
I like how as a therapist herself completely ignores all her training and does not take advice from a therapist 😂
She litteraly does that in the movie
@@malikpierre-louis3343that’s what he just said?
I agree but I mean, do you think you wouldn’t ignore your training?
I think that's one of the main ideas in the movie. Like how a lot of people act like they're super supportive of mental health and everything, but when they or someone they know is going through mental trauma, they won't listen to their own advice or be as supportive as they pretend to be.
@@timtimslimjimI think is better to meet an exorcist in a situation like this. They probably be able to help you in some degree, but the way I see it this demon has to have a weakness. However they need to do some more digging about it probably from the ancient times as well
The only problem I see with meds, is that she’d *need* someone to hold her down and force her to take the pills.
If the demon can make her think a dead cat is a toy train, then it could easily make her think thin-air is pills. The only way to be sure she’s taking them is for someone else to do it for her.
She would also need to propose this solution every time she sees the guy helping her just to make sure she *really* told it to him, and not a hallucination
Link to the Clip :- They finally released this
th-cam.com/video/2EXjRrTzTgQ/w-d-xo.html
Dang I wish I saw your comment earlier, I made the same one. It's unbeatable because by the time it takes hold it's too late.
*Thank you for sharing how to Win, the ending was empowering* ❤️
Honestly, receiving a dead cat for my birthday would be enough to traumatize me......
As someone who has a family member that helps people with schizophrenia on a daily bases, it is very accurate about the not taking meds thing, and it is really heartbreaking to see. My heart goes out to those with it or their families.
With the killing the two "expendable friends" I also feel like you'd have to live with the guilt of murderering two innocent people, as well as the trauma of actually carrying out the murder
Exactly, the demon gives you a way out, only to leave you with a ruined life and more trauma. Even a way out leaves you better off dead.
Thank you MatPat for bringing a smile to my face with every upload, your videos are often times an escape from so much stress and chaos going on in my life 😊💚
Very poor choice of words
They bring a smile to Ur face huh?
WHY IS THIS REPLY SECTION RAIDED WITH BOTS..?!
The comments are filled with bots
TH-cam need to fix their bot problem unfortunately they will never will
This movie makes me feel so bad for the people who have schizophrenia.
This is one of my favorite episodes, I'm currently studying psychology and I loved how you guys made everything into a nice little mental health advice. I also liked a lot the movie, it makes you realize sometimes the real monster is just our head.
5:56 My concern might be that, after offing friend number 1, passing the curse to friend number 2, the act (and trauma) of offing friend number 2 and 1 might transfer it back to you, unless it’s explicitly stated to not be able to reinfect a prior host, not to mention “no witnesses” is not necessarily a guarantee. (Edit: he addressed the “what if someone finds the body” concern, so I’ve removed a sentence about that that used to be here). On a similar vein, the news of their deaths might infect one of their family members or loved ones, unless physical proximity is an explicitly stated requirement (it seems to probably be a requirement, sure, but it’s no guarantee). Granted, I haven’t seen the movie, but I’d love to hear other theorists’ thoughts about the mechanics of its transfer
Yeah I was thinking the same thing, that the curse would just be sent back to you, because they never say that the same person can’t get it twice. And the man in prison when he was visited that the curse would be given back to him
Also, it never said that the curse has to be spread by suicide. From what I understood, witnessing the cursed's death, suicide or not, is enough to spread it.
It's spread primarily by death. Not exactly finding the body (unless the curse deems the finder fit) but by witnessing death itself (typically host suicide but by the guy in prison, also host murder). It's likely to be sent back to you, but I imagine it's only if the current host offs itself/kills another infront of you
I honestly thought the main character was just crazy the whole time, even until the end. She and her Mother clearly had a disorder akin to schizophrenia. Genetically, these traits awaken once they’re exposed to traumatic situations. Other people with like-minded illnesses are drawn to one another, which displays the illusion that this is an entity spreading like a diseased or curse… AKA, Mass Hysteria!
A lot of subconscious decisions also came into play in Rose’s mind, such as returning back to where her mental illness began (her deceased Mom’s house), where she also faced her “demon”. She also asked her Doctor specifically for Risperdal, a medication that can be used to help schizophrenia. Remember, Rose is a psychologist! This means she knew almost instinctively which medication she needed to take!
Also, her Ex-Boyfriend is more of a guy who works with law enforcement, not a psychologist or a demonologist, so he could’ve misinterpreted this mass hysteria as a paranormal occurrence, as people do when exposed to mass hysteria. In the end, he too was inflicted with this illness, being the next viable candidate to receive this madness.
There's literally a man in jail who she talked to and experienced the same thing. Hello?
Your theory reminds me of Shutter Island.
@@ZeroOhClock How do you know that conversation was even real? It all could have been hallucinations
There Are recorded cases of mass hysteria which range from seeing the same thing to dancing Until You die.
So this could also explain the suicides And why so many People Are effected.
Did you even watch the movie at all?? LMFAOOOO????
SMILE 2 SPOILER:
So after seeing Smile 2, it seems my theory at 04:58 was ON-POINT! Joel attempts my idea at the beginning of the movie.
I immediately remembered this theory when I saw the movie!
@@Aruna_Shadows nice one haha.
As someone who is currently in the beginning stages of treatment for suspected schozophrenia, this movie hit me incredibly hard. I went in blind, and was not prepared for the level of what is essentially brain-gaslighting, Rose goes through. Thank you for making this video, and putting a big voice behind mental health struggles, especially to try and remove the massive strigma around it
I haven't seen Smile, but, I was wondering what kind of trauma we are talking about. One way kids deal with trauma is play. They reenact what ever they want to understand it better. This includes death and other unsavory experiences in thier lives.
Well in the case of the Smile curse, the trauma that spreads it is witnessing another person die
Usually by the demon assuming control of the person before forcing them to commit unalive in a brutal way in front of somebody
@@dyinginside8716 Fascinating. Even if this is a fictional situation, I do wonder what treatments can be applied or acted on. No mental issue is very really "cured", just handled better so they live a more controlled life.
I wonder if the kid given the dead cat had a good talk after to negate the traumatic effects of seeing death as their gift.
Meh, I might as well watch the movie to see what I can link with the books.
@@blueotter5954 nah, you can "cure" a mental issue.
I’m very glad you also came to the mental health resolution. When i watched the movie i didn’t think much of it until i really thought about it. The lights are always off, her dismissive husband which makes sense for someone whos afraid to commit, her delusions. The smiles which parrot everyones “just be happy” advice “just wear a mask. Fake it till you make it” Everything filed down more and more into the movie being less about an entity and more about the monster that is depression and mental sickness. Its become one of my favorite movies for that fact. You can watch it and believe its all some curse of a demon or you can see whats truly deeper.
I knew the second that he described what triggered the curse that the solution was “Therapy” and “Medication.”
Can we appreciate everyone appreciating how well this was made even though they didn't even watch a minute of it yet
Link to the Clip :- They finally released this
th-cam.com/video/2EXjRrTzTgQ/w-d-xo.html .
*LETS BE HONEST WE ALL REMEMER THIS RECORD:*
th-cam.com/video/0-rj80lMBzc/w-d-xo.html
Why is this comment section full of bots like, BRUH
in the beginning of the video, I felt a bit called out, at the end I definitely related, I have Schizotypal personality disorder and the worst thing I know is when people don't believe me, my dad literally thinks that it is just something I have made up just to get money from the government, I have to question my reality at all times, because my perception of it, is different then others, I don't have delusions or hallucinations, but I can develop schizophrenia if I'm not careful, it really doesn't help that I have chronic depression, chronic stress, anxiety, social anxiety, childhood neglect "not from my family" and have been socially isolated due to the municipality, believe me, my case files are insane, I've even wrote a book about it.
I'm really sorry you have gone through all of those things. I know it won't make any difference but I hope you feel better.
@Chad 007 yeah but I don't have an air fryer and also, you have been waiting a bit too long, the video came out five months ago.
@@laureeeee it's life, it's a nightmare, but I'm used to it.
Thank you 🤗Big Huggies🤗
Wow that's rough man. I'm sorry you have gone through it hope you recover
I'm so sorry you have to go through that. It's disgusting that society works that way. I really hope things get better.
As someone with a (albeit mild) psychotic disorder, this was a neat episode! Much appreciated! Also, the fact that the demon/curse would still be there, just silenced, is also pretty accurate for schizophrenia, as the consensus about that too is that it can be managed, but not cured
Having a mother with schizophrenia I can agree they do stop taking their medication because they believe they don’t need it anymore
hopefully you and your mother are staying strong. prayers for you all!
Another problem with the Drug method you didn't mention is how The Entity could just make her think she's taking her meds, when really she's eating lint or thumbtacks or something.
i was waiting for the.... "whisper : seven days." but it never came
Link to the Clip :- They finally released this
th-cam.com/video/2EXjRrTzTgQ/w-d-xo.html
Imagine the monster kills its host in front of only you and you're a murderer so you're not traumatized at all and the monster basically just killed itself
And what happens if the person they're trying to pass this thing on to isn't traumatized at all like they're already psychologically broken but they gained pleasure from saying you brutally vandalized somebody's meat sack it doesn't still get past on to them or does it just end?
Well now the cursed person is in jail AND has a demon possessing him.
@@Stray0 nah, they won't be possessed.
@@ProjektTaku it passes on through trauma => no trauma, no passing, thus they keep the demon
@@Stray0 oh yeah, guess so.
But what if they pass it on to someone with multiple personalities
I just wanna take a moment and hope Head Editor Dan and from Tom to the members get a chance to see this. I wanna thank you guys for being an inspiration to make theory videos myself. Every time I watch these theories whether its game ,film,or food. You guys do an amazing job with making it all come to life. I looked at every detail and i know it must've took an eternity. But i wanted to thank you guys because in the end its all worth it when watching the video from my view. THANK YOU GUYS FOR ALL THAT YOU DO >3 HUGS TO ALL!
I was seriously expecting a sponsor transition at 3:56 from Hello Fresh or Blue Apron.
We need a new theory for the second film because this wouldnt work
The demon has the ability to literally possess you so if you just take antipsychotic medication to suppress the hallucinations, assuming that the demon can’t simply override the antipsychotics, it could still possess you and force you to cause trauma against someone else.
Smile really disturbed me. The message behind it is “you can never escape your trauma.” And that’s horrifying to someone like me.
If you surround yourself with multiple people at all times, does the Demon still make you off yourself? And if so, who is it gonna pass on to if say at least 4 people are watching you do the act?
I'd imagine it would go to whoever is most affected by the trauma of their past
Yeah I don't remember the exact line but the entity said it liked her mind. Probably from her past issues.
@@Dragon_ValhallaYes, but also no. It can choose, but it’s more likely it would choose a trauma inflicted person.
@@yamiq2996”Your mind is so inviting” or something along those lines.
I love how they tried the double homicide thing in the second movie and it went so horrendously wrong that it was comical.
ngl, I kinda wonder if matpat can enjoy a movie to relax... like, is it possible, or is he just just like-
"THE CAT WAS ACTUALLY THE GRANDFATHER'S DAUGHTER'S DAD THE WHOLE TIME! 😱" lol
The cat and grandfather are the same person..grandfather's daughter, grandfather is the dad of the daughter.. grandfather is cat