Smile gets a surprising amount of mileage out of a simple idea and executes it with real control. The forced smile is immediately unsettling, and the film builds tension through stillness and discomfort instead of just loud scares. Even as the pattern becomes clear, it keeps finding ways to escalate, layering dread rather than repeating itself. Sosie Bacon anchors the whole thing with a performance that makes the spiral feel believable, and the trauma angle adds weight without dragging it down. It’s clean, focused, and consistently effective, the kind of horror that sticks with you after it’s over.

Detention throws everything at the wall and barely pauses to explain any of it. The pacing is chaotic, jumping between genres, timelines, and joke styles at a speed that can feel overwhelming. When it clicks, it’s genuinely funny and inventive, but it’s just as often exhausting. It’s less about narrative and more about constant motion. Messy, hyperactive, and occasionally inspired.