[Decades of Horror] HORROR MOVIE SMILES THAT KILL – TOP 10 GRUESOME GRIMACES
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[Decades of Horror] HORROR MOVIE SMILES THAT KILL – TOP 10 GRUESOME GRIMACES

Paramount Pictures is promising a gruesome grinning horror treat with SMILE (2022), opening September 30, 2022, just in time for the Halloween season. Thinking when on horror movies throughout the decades, how many scary, frightening, or just downright ghastly smiles have horror fans encountered? The wordplay was surprising. Seems that a devilish grimace is as scary as the monsters, killers, and ghosts themselves. Let’s take a squint when at some of most fiendish of the bunch.

All this, just in time for SMILE to hit theaters near you! SMILE is written and directed by Parker Finn. The tint includes Sosie Bacon, Jessie T. Usher, Kyle Gallner, Robin Weigert, Caitlin Stasey with Kal Penn and Rob Morgan.

Synopsis: After witnessing a bizarre, traumatic incident involving a patient, Dr. Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon)
starts experiencing frightening occurrences that she can’t explain. As an overwhelming terror begins taking over her life, Rose must confront her troubling past in order to survive and escape her horrifying new reality.

TOP 10 GRUESOME GRIMACES IN HORROR CINEMA

1 – Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance in Stanley Kubrick’s THE SHINING (1980) – Nobody grins like Jack!

2 – Bill Skarsgard as Pennywise from Andres Muschietti’s IT (2017) and IT: CHAPTER TWO (2019) – For some reason all clowns are scary; however, Pennywise is the most frightening of them all.

3 – Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock’s PSYCHO (1960) – Perhaps one of the most spooky ending shots of all horror cinema.

4 – Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger in Wes Craven’s A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (1984) and its many sequels – the man of a million smiles, Englund’s Krueger is literally the stuff of nightmares.

5 – Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter in Jonathan Demme’s SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991) – Lecter’s smile shrivel right through you with Hopkins earning an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role.

6 – Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman in Mary Harron’s AMERICAN PSYCHO (2000) – whether dancing virtually or swinging a bloodied ax, Bale’s Bateman makes smiling dangerous.

7 – Linda Blair as Regan MacNeil in William Friedkin’s THE EXORCIST (1973) – devilishly innocent, the possessed Regan is planning villainous things overdue that smile.

8 – The deceased medium in Mario Bava’s BLACK SABBATH (1963) – this image scares me to this day, there’s something piercing in that frozen grimace that gets under your skin.

9 – Lon Chaney Sr. as “The Vampire” in Tod Browning’s LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT (1927) – the lost archetype illustrates the make-up mastery of the legendary Lon Chaney Sr.

10 – Mia Goth as Pearl in Ti West’s PEARL (2022) – perhaps the most uncomfortable latter credits in any mucosa this year… or ever, Goth’s Pearl may have out-Bates Norman Bates himself.

But, WAIT! There’s more… let’s take a squint at a few honorable mentions! Presented chronologically.

Guy Rolfe as Baron Sardonicus in William Castle’s MR. SARDONICUS (1961)
Harvey Spencer Stephens as young Damien Thorn in Richard Donner’s THE OMEN (1076)
Bruce Campbell as Ashley Joanna “Ash” Williams in Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead franchise.
THE EVIL DEAD (1981), EVIL DEAD II (1987), ARMY OF DARKNESS (1992), ASH VS EVIL DEAD (2015)
Julian Beck as Reverend Kane in Brian Gibson’s POLTERGIEST II: THE OTHER SIDE (1986)
Brad Dourif voicing Chucky in Don Mancini’s CHILD’S PLAY and CHUCKY films and TV series.
Amanda Bearse as Amy Peterson in Tom Holland’s FRIGHT NIGHT (1985)
Nicholas Vince as the Chattering Cenobite in Clive Barker’s HELLRAISER (1987)
Tim Curry as Pennywise in Tommy Lee Wallace’s IT (1990) miniseries
The grinning ghosts of the remoter in James Wan’s INSIDIOUS (2010)
Tim Purcell as The Babadook in Jennifer Kent’s THE BABADOOK (2014)
John Carroll Lynch as Twisty the Clown from AMERICAN HORROR STORY: FREAK SHOW (2015)
David Howard Thornton as Art the Clown in TERRIFIER (2016) and TERRIFIER 2 (2022)
Ethan Hawke as The Grabber in Scott Derrickson’s THE BLACK PHONE 92022)

AND, what well-nigh arguably the most famous smiling villain in the history of cinema, THE JOKER?

The Joker is The Batman’s arch-enemy, seen whilom from The Killing Joke (art: Brian Bolland). With each iteration of Bruce Wayne and Gotham City in mucosa and TV, The Joker is surely set to make a frightening appearance. Batman created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger.
Conrad Veidt as Gwynplain in Paul Leni’s silent mucosa THE MAN WHO LAUGHS (1928) is an early inspiration to the squint of the archetype DC super-villain.
Cesar Romero portrayed The Joker in the campy, fun BATMAN tv series from 1966 – 1969
Jack Nicholson as Joker in Tim Burton’s BATMAN (1989)
Heath Ledger received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor as Joker in Christopher Nolan’s THE DARK KNIGHT (2008)
Jared Leto as Joker in David Ayer’s SUICIDE SQUAD (2016) and then in Zack Snyder’s cut of JUSTICE LEAGUE (2017)
Joaquin Phoenix took home an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his portrayal of Arthur Fleck aka The Joker in Todd Phillip’s THE JOKER (2019)

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