If you liked 2022’s Smile, you will most likely be interested in Vicious, which was written and directed by Bryan Bertino (known for 2008’s Strangers and 2020’s The Dark and the Wicked).
Arriving on Paramount+ on October 10, 2025, it stars Dakota Fanning (War of the Worlds 2005, The Alienist series) as Polly, Kathryn Hunter (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 2007, Poor Things 2023) as The Woman, Mary McCormack (Deep Impact 1998, 1408 2007) as Mother, Rachel Blanchard (Flight of the Conchords series, Peep Show series), as Lainie, Devyn Nekoda (Annedroids series, Scream VI 2023) as Tara, Klea Scott (Millennium series, Pretty Little Liars series) as Neighbor Woman, Emily Mitchell (Out of My Mind 2024, Ordinary Angels 2024) as Aly, and Michael Abbott Jr. (Killers of the Flower Moon 2023, The Bikeriders 2023), as Polly’s Father’s voice. Featuring an effective soundtrack from Tom Schraeder, the story revolves around a woman (Fanning) who spends the night fighting for her existence as she slips down a rabbit hole contained inside a gift from a late-night visitor (Hunter).
In Smile and Vicious, the curse is not random evil; it is a manifestation of untreated internal wounds. In Vicious’s case, Polly’s trauma was the loss of her dad to cancer. This set off a domino effect of losing herself in her grief, so much so that she shut down to the point where she would have been destitute except for her sister gifting her a rent-free home. Even with no rent hanging over her head, she remains directionless, always talking about aspirations but never seeing them through.
When compared further, Smile and Vicious both show the protagonists facing arbitrary rules that shift, manipulate, and trap them. Vicious has the “rules of the box”…or, lack thereof. Bertino even said this symbolizes being in a toxic relationship where “the rules keep changing no matter how hard you try to follow them.”
Throughout Vicious, clues to the question asked push Polly to choose what she is willing to sacrifice. She is a smoker, so she starts simple by sacrificing her pack to the box. Soon, she realizes the horror feeds on her attempts to rationalize or control it. Suddenly, the TV turns on, and her niece is reciting the “This Little Piggy” poem.
Some people believe you have a personal heaven and hell. Vicious ascribes that you descend into a personal hell, but whether you escape depends on confronting your own reflection. Does Polly learn the key, or does she continue the cycle?
This is the strong point and bane of Vicious, the Psychological Horror of recognition. The scariest part of both is not the monster; it is the moment of understanding when Polly realizes, “This thing knows me. It is me.” The box, as mentioned above, reflects Polly, but the movie is not infallible because it sometimes falls into the trope of Polly making stupid decisions.
Of course, everybody reacts to fear differently, so although it is annoying because of the duh factor, it’s forgivable…does she either transform or get consumed? Both Smile and Vicious stage that battle inside the psyche, with supernatural trappings. If Smile is about the contagion of trauma, then Vicious is about the ritual of control and self-punishment.
Aside from the ubiquitous stupid decisions trope in the transition from second to third act, the psychology of confronting the self and not being able to hide is delicious. That is why, despite what ‘experts’ are saying, Cryptic Rock gives Vicious 5 out of 5 stars.
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