"Smiley" (2012)

I don’t know if it’s too soon to call this a new sub-genre yet, but there have been quite a few horror films within the last few years aimed at the You Tube generation which deal with the darker side of the internet.  Some of them (like “The Den” or “Unfriended”) are told almost entirely from chat screens, while others use elements from pre-existing sub-genres to play with these same ideas.  “Smiley” (2012) for example, uses the slasher formula to tell a story about how urban legends spread on the internet, with the intent of exploring the notion of whether absolute evil can manifest itself in the darkest corners of the world wide web.  An interesting concept for sure, but does it work?

The film centers on a meek & awkward college freshman, Ashley (played by the adorable Caitlin Gerard), who has just arrived on campus, where she meets her new roommate, “Proxy” (played by Melanie Papalia, who would go on to play the lead in another internet horror film, “The Den”, a year later).  Right out of the gates, Proxy immediately gets Ashley stoned (her first time ever), then drags her to a party where she meets Zane (Andrew James Allen), a young man who is doing a study on why people believe in the strange and bizarre (hmmm).  While at the party, Ashley learns all about an internet boogeyman who goes by the name, “Smiley” (because of his round fleshy appearance that features both his eyes and mouth sewed shut, thus resembling a demented looking “smiley” face – a truly disturbing visage for sure) that appears on Chat Roulette whenever he is summoned, so as to kill the random stranger on screen at the behest of the person who types the phrase, “I did it for lulz” three times (ala “Candyman”).

Later that night, Ashley & Proxy decide to do a little experiment themselves to see if the legend of “Smiley” is true, by going onto a chat site and keying in the proper phrase on the first guy they see masturbating on cam (which got me to thinking, it’s a shame Smiley isn’t real, as he might be a great deterrent for all these guys flashing their junk to underage girls on these sites!).  Sure enough, Smiley pops up behind the pud puller and stabs him, but before the girls can log off, Smiley stares into the cam and gets a good look at them.  At this point, Ashley becomes a complete mess and is convinced Smiley will be after them next.

Now, this is where the film suddenly takes a sharp turn by veering away from slasher movie territory and becoming more of a psychological horror film.  We’re left to ponder whether  poor is Ashley really seeing Smiley following her home at night, or if is she starting to lose it and moving herself closer to a complete nervous breakdown over it all? 

Enter Professor Clayton (played by Roger Bart).  When Ashley is not having nightmares (or suffering from really bad jump scares, much like the audience, because the film doesn’t have much scary goodness to offer in the second act), we see her attending a class in “ethics & reason”.  Oddly enough, for me these classroom scenes were my favorite moments of the film, mostly because Bart is the most interesting actor in the whole film, but also because I quite enjoyed these little lectures on the origin of evil and whether it could be somehow infused into technology.  However, the problem with these scenes to me is that they don’t really line up with what is going on, and feel like a half assed attempt at making the film sound like it’s saying more than it really is.  Not only that, but there are blatant lines of exposition dropped by Prof. Clayton that telegraph exactly how this films is going to end, so much so that I was able to predict the entire third act, right up to the start of the end credits in fact.

Because I was able to determine the films course of action so easily, I couldn’t understand why Ashley wasn’t able to see what was dangling right in front of her face?  As a result, I started growing annoyed with her ditziness and found that by the end of the film, I could’ve cared less about her plight (which I attribute to the writing, and not Gerard’s performance, as she does the best with what’s she given).  The ending happens without any surprises, and I’m left feeling a sense of disappointment in a film that I thought showed a lot of promise in its premise.  Sadly, no “smiles’ were to be found on my face as the credits rolled.

5 out of 10 for me.