Movie Convention Research: SMILE

 Hey, there blogger! I am so excited to be back and researching this movie genre. My group chose horror which we would say is my favorite genre of movie. I feel like we like to scare ourselves and then complain about how scared we were in the end. I recently watched the movie Smile, twice actually. I absolutely freaked out when we watched it but at the same time, it was super cool and extremely well-made. They definitely accomplish the horror aspect and unsettling parts of the genre. This movie specifically has many conventions that create shock the audience. The sounds and props we feel are a huge part of what makes Smile, Smile. Just in the opening of the movie has such diegetic eerie sounds that are hair-grabbing. They also use props such as knives, axes, and guns. The costumes and makeup in the end really depict the horror in the movie. There are also close-ups, reserve shots, and aerial shots which built up the scene, and many camera angles and jumpscares which really build up the movie and created suspense. Personally, I really liked the editing and sounds in the movie. It certainly kept me entertained and thoroughly terrified. The diegetic sounds like glasses of wine dropping that came out of nowhere that they chose to incorporate made me feel like we were in the movie which enhanced the scary experience. The settings were also very good in contribution to the plot. I love how it had different settings that each had to do with a different part of the character's life. The jumpscares in the movie were also a major part of it that we liked. The closeups of the smiles in the movie created a bone-chilling effect that appealed to the plot. The lighting in the movie which was dark at times also contributed to it in a way we hope to do in my final task. The elements that didn't particularly appeal to me in Smile were how parts of the movie were predictable and how sometimes you knew when a jumpscare was coming. You also could predict that the main character would end up dying at the end of the movie and how she would die. I thought maybe they could add more tracking shots for the action aspect of the movie. After researching this movie, now i know what aspects to incorporate in my final task and which to leave out. My group's idea for the final task isn't quite the plot of Smile but we still think we benefited from researching this bone-chilling movie as its conventions definitely appeal to the horror genre.