Unquiet
Things

To be honest, I am not sure why I watched this one. I guess it’s been on my list since last year, and I must have put it there for a reason—though I sure couldn’t tell you what that reason was.

Rose Cotter is a psychiatrist whose professional life takes a harrowing turn when a new patient, Laura, arrives at her hospital in a state of abject terror. Laura’s frantic description of an entity that manifests as people with unsettling smiles sets the stage for a series of increasingly disturbing events, culminating in her violent suicide right before Rose’s eyes.

In the aftermath of this traumatic incident, Rose finds herself plagued by inexplicable visions mirroring Laura’s experiences. As these apparitions grow in both frequency and intensity, Rose’s grip on reality begins to slip, compelling her to seek answers to the terrifying phenomena she’s witnessing.

Turning to her ex-boyfriend Joel, a police detective, Rose embarks on an investigation that uncovers a disturbing pattern of similar occurrences. Their findings reveal a nightmarish chain of events where the smiling entity seems to transfer from one victim to the next, always targeting those who have borne witness to the previous victim’s demise.

As Rose continues to unravel the truth, the boundaries between her past traumas and her present reality blur. The entity manifests more frequently, often taking on the visage of familiar faces. This freaky, escalating terror is powerfully illustrated during a tense birthday party scene, where the once-celebratory atmosphere becomes a backdrop for Rose’s growing paranoia and the entity’s insidious presence.

Rose’s quest for understanding leads her to a prison, where she interviews a survivor of the entity’s torment, delving deeper into the heart of the mystery. The information gleaned from this encounter propels Rose towards a climactic confrontation with the entity, forcing her to face her deepest fears in a final, desperate attempt to break the cycle of terror.

I’m still trying to decide if the treatment of trauma and mental illness felt gross and messy or actually nuanced kinda nuanced or what, and I don’t even know what I thought about those scenes that took place in the old, abandoned house. Even after writing this, I’m unsure of why I wanted to watch it in the first place or where it falls in my rankings of these things. It feels a little unrankable, actually. I don’t know if I would ever recommend this, but at the same time, I am not sorry I watched it. I am probably not going to share this on social media. I hate the promotional materials and posters for the film; it’s not that they’re unsettling or scary…I just find them not very aesthetically pleasing, I guess? I’m not critiquing the appearance of the person in it, just overall…I hate it?

Day Nine of 31 Days Of Horror in years past: 2023 // 2022 // 2021

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