: An analysis on Moving Pictures Film Club critiques the film's ending as promoting a hopeless message that trauma is "inevitable and unescapable". In Horror Film 'Smile,' Trauma is Contagious
: Some reviewers, such as those at The Harvard Crimson , offer a counter-perspective, arguing the film provides a "shallow treatment" or "inappropriate address" of mental illness by relying on stereotypes of "craziness" for scares.
: An analysis from the Colgate Maroon-News explores how the entity serves as a metaphor for how trauma spreads between people when it remains unprocessed.
: This paper uses Charles Sanders Peirce's triadic sign theory to examine how the film portrays PTSD through visual and textual signs. It argues that the movie successfully depicts an individual's internal struggle with trauma and guilt.
Other insightful analyses and "papers" (in the form of critical essays) include: