When I read the plot for this film I almost wet myself laughing because it sounded preposterous! I actually ended up quite enjoying it.
When shy and retiring Ashley starts college, she vows to have a good time (and it doesn’t take her long to start mixing with strange boys and smoking pot). Her roommate, Proxy introduces her to some of her online friends who tell her about Smiley, a boiler suit clad killer with a freaky looking slashed up emoticon face-mask. Apparently, when you type “I did it for the lulz” 3 times when chatting to someone through a social networking site, he appears behind them and kills them (I know…it sounds ridiculous). When she decides to try it out for herself, Ashley is then convinced that Smiley is out to get her.
The design of Smiley is amazing. What a fantastic image. The film itself is glossy and has some good jump scares but the aspects which intrigued me were those discussed in class by Roger Bart’s Professor Clayton. It is in its ideas about modern society and fear that Smiley is at its strongest. As a slasher film alone it’s kind of bogus.
OVERALL SUMMARY
In the end, I found this film to be interesting and it held my attention throughout but it’s not amazing. I viewed it as Cry Wolf 2.0 and like that film, I don’t need to see a sequel. It’s worth a watch at least once.
