Smiley (2012)

Smiley (2012)

2012 | R | 90 Minutes



Overall Rating

1 / 10
Verdict: Awful

User Review

  • Smiley certainly didn't put a smile on my face. Oh boy. Oh dear lord. Oh for goodness sake. When the director is an apparent well known YouTuber and decides to cast most of his online buddies in a slasher that is nearly as stupid and pointless as the word "lulz", well expect me to rip my own heart out of my chest and devour it senselessly just to generate the tiniest of smirks upon my now bloody face. Honestly, this is by far one of the worst films I've ever watched. Not because of its premise, even though that in itself was as incomprehensibly dumb as Shane Dawson's inability to shroud his sexuality at the time, but due to Gallagher's inexperience in elongating a simple YouTube sketch into a feature film. Urgh. College students go on a Chatroulette-style website where they type "I did it for the lulz" three times and a mutilated Internet mythological serial killer stabs the person in the back.

    That's all there is to it. Towards the end, and I kid you not, I paused the film, glanced at the runtime and realised I only had ten minutes left before the ending that I've been beckoning for an hour arrived. And guess what? Nothing happened in that preceding hour. Absolutely frickin' nothing! Just a plague of unnecessary jump scares embedded in what resembled an amateur student film. The camera movement was woeful, and every scene transition, abrupt cut or the simplest of static camera shots were handled with complete mediocrity. I was tempted to get my partner to say "I did it for the lulz" three times so I could actually end this nightmare.

    I've never seen a camera zoomed in on the actors faces as much as this. Any closer and they'll start spraying their saliva on the lens! I don't want to see half of Toby Turner's face, no wait..., I only want to see half of his face. Good job Gallagher! The final reveal made no sense whatsoever, and I just couldn't understand why no one was using a laptop against a wall. Then ol' Stitchface wouldn't be able to stab 'em, y'know? Oh, and no one could act. Gerard sounded like a squeaky dog toy and bringing in David and Bart was not going to save the film! Yeah. I'm done.