Why Smile 2 Turned Me Off Horror Movies

I grew up in love with horror movies. My parents were not big fans and curated what I watched very closely. For the longest time I was only allowed to watch PG13 movies (and don’t get me wrong some of that is still scary. Have you seen The Ring?). Finally when I got my own laptop I started torrenting movies. And not just campy 80s slashers either. I went big. Cannibal Holocaust. I Spit on Your Grave. Human Centipede too. Anything scary (or even better) disturbing I watched. I even considered myself a connoisseur, Horror movies have always been a big part of my life. When I messaged my boyfriend Justin on Bumble, the first thing I asked was “What is your favorite horror movie?”

Now Justin hates scary movies but he is incredibly supportive. He came with me to see the first Smile movie. So Smile is about a curse: someone goes insane and kills themself in front of a witness. Several days later the witness does the same. And so the curse is passed on. The person who goes insane is driven crazy by hallucinations and horrific images, including a creepy smile that no one else can see. I loved the movie. It had a message about mental illness but it also was scary and kept me on the edge of my seat. The perfect horror movie.

So its funny that Smile 2 (made two years later) was the movie to finally turn me off horror movies. The movie is essentially the same with no characters,a new setting, and a new scenario. And it is just as scary with the right amount of jump scares….but I didn’t like it. I found it disturbing which is odd since I didn’t find the first one disturbing. One reason this might be is that I’ve changed in the two years since the last movie. Maybe when your happy you do not want to be surrounded by darkness. I found it hard not to be reminded of my psychotic episodes where I screamed at my best friend and threatened to jump out of a moving car so I wouldn’t be committed. I’ve experienced horrible hallucinations. I cried during the movie. I sympathized with the main character. It was so hard seeing her scared and all alone. 

When I was young I thought watching disturbing movies made you “brave” or “tough”. Now I see that is a very immature way of looking at things. So unless its a campy 80s horror movie I’m taking an indefinite hiatus from horror movies. It’s weird because for so many years “horror movie fan” has been a staple of my personality. I guess people really do change.