Other insightful analyses and "papers" (in the form of critical essays) include:
: A study on MovieWeb discusses the "masking" of pain, where the titular smile represents the societal expectation to hide inner agony.
: 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
: 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.
