The Smile Entity Explained: Why The Horror Movie Monster Makes People Smile

The plot of the "Smile" movies revolves around suicide. If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org

The "Smile" franchise introduces a new horror movie monster rooted in something as mundane as a facial expression. The movies follow different individuals experiencing a strange haunting, which eventually turns into a possession, surrounding a sinister smile. The entity following them causes visual and auditory hallucinations, with affected people seeing their loved ones wearing the uncanny grin, witnessing a death over and over again as well as other things designed to scare them, creating plenty of disturbing moments. The haunted person may even believe they're in control of the situation, particularly as Skye (Naomi Scott) tries to cheat death to defeat the "Smile 2" monster, but time and time again, the smiling mass always shows that it is in charge. 

The connection to smiles is what makes the entity of the series unique. Just before someone dies by suicide, passing the possession onto whoever is witnessing their death, they paste a creepy grin on their face. It makes it difficult to look away when it's on-screen, but after the first occurrence, audiences know what's going to happen when the grin appears. While we understand how the entity continues to spread and what it really looks like, why does the horror movie monster make people smile? Here's what you need to know about the "Smile" entity and how it's related to smiles.

When the entity reveals its true form at the end of "Smile" and the delightfully nihilistic sequel "Smile 2," it has tons of mouths. While more obvious in the original movie, they are within each other, like an infinite hole of mouths, all smiling. It isn't known why the monster wears smiles in this form, but they could be the grins of the people it kills, forever saved and used to make the entity stronger. There's also a theory that the smile itself, as shown on its victims and in hallucinations, is the physical manifestation of the entity and the muscled form is simply another way to cause fear right before it possesses someone. 

Typically, monsters in this genre are faceless, with no real form shown to the audience. It might appear as something or someone else, which does happen with the "Smile" entity. But, revealing its actual form as a skinless body of muscle and mouths shows that it's no mistake that its victims smile just before their deaths. Between the smiling mouths of the muscle form and the idea that the unsettling grins themselves are the entity, it's clear that the monster is inherently connected to smiles, and its power may even derive from them.

The "Smile" entity passes between people through death, but it typically happens as the person the monster is currently possessing wears a sickening smile. It's oversized and uncanny, especially as the person dies by suicide. While watching that in person would be difficult for anyone to come to terms with, as seen by Rose (Sosie Bacon), Joel (Kyle Gallner), and Skye in the first two movies, someone grinning as they do it would add to the emotional turmoil. The monster's connection to smiles might be because it's found that it causes more fear or trauma in individuals, giving it something stronger to latch on to as it moves from person to person.

We typically associate smiles with positive things, so when it's juxtaposed with something more sinister, it evokes different emotions to those witnessing it. Skye crawls backward as fast as she can during Lewis' death, seemingly unable to comprehend what's happening in the moment. Though Rose has likely experienced difficult situations as a therapist in a psychiatric ward, watching a patient die by suicide with a piece of broken glass isn't an every day occurrence and causes her to step backward in shock, tears in her eyes. Both women are truly traumatized and confused in these moments and the smile is when that feeling begins, since it's what begins the sequences the leads to the suicides.