Film Review - Smiley

The fact that the film promotes itself by declaring the number of trailer views rather than something more substantive should have been a warning sign, this is not a great film. The premise is fun, basically Candyman for the internet age. The story is that on what looks like a sanitised Chatroulette type video chat website, people randomly link up with other members of the site. If they type in 'I did it for the lulz' three times then Smiley will kill the person they are chatting with.

The first half of the film is pretty poor, the lead character doesn't fill you with confidence and the acting all round is far from good. The only good thing about the build up is a few ideas from the ethics teacher which lulled me into thinking that actually there was a cool idea behind the rather dull film.

So I kept watching, hoping for a development to rescue what I had seen so far. There are a couple of developments which were interesting, but then the reveal comes and it's so mundane I wondered why they had bothered. There's a final glimpse of something that rescues it a bit, but by then it's too little too late.

Overall it's a poor film, it relies too much on shock for the horror, although there are a few hints at something more sinister. The acting generally is pitiful, but it doesn't even have the B movie horror fun going for it. My advise is to watch Candyman instead, it might be older but it's a much better film.

After discovering an urban legend of a demented serial killer, who has nothing but a carved 'smiley' on his face, a mentally fragile teen must decide whether she is going insane - or will be the next victim.

Smiley is available from Amazon (but it's not very good)