Smiley
(2012) 95 min.
Rated: R (Gore)
Country: USA
Director: Michael J. Gallagher
Starring: Caitlin Gerard, Melanie Papalia, Shane Dawson, Andrew James Allen, Toby Turner, Keith David
Links: IMDB | Wikipedia
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
If 4chan’s /x/ wrote a script for a horror movie.
Synopsis:
A college student named Ashley (Gerard) becomes friends with Proxy (Papalia). Proxy invites Ashley to a party. She encourages Ashley to get high on weed with her and explains that 4chan is an image board where people can post anonymously.
They make it to the “Anon party” where they meet a guy named Zane (Allen) who hits on them both and insist they have a three-way later. Proxy encourages Ashley to talk to a quiet guy who calls himself Binder (Dawson). His classmates call him Pedobear and mock him for trying to report supposed CP on the board. He leaves in a hurry.
A guy at the computers gets on a chat-roulette-like site called HideAndGoChat and types “I did it for the lulz” three times in the chatbox. A man appears to stab the other user through the back. This causes Ashley to scream in horror. The rest of the party-goers laugh at Ashley. Proxy explains that it’s an urban legend and “who knows” if it’s real since it’s on the internet. She reassures Ashley that it’s probably fake and calms her. Then they enjoy the party and get wasted.
Ashley wakes up late the next day and is able to make it in time for her classes. When she arrives home Proxy shows her another video of one of the party goers in a video getting killed by Smiley. Ashley freaks out and Proxy tells her that even if it were real they don’t know where it is or what the user’s real name is. They decide it’s fake, thinking that the other users are just trolling.
Proxy comes up with the clever idea that if they are to find out if it’s real, they’d have to test it. So they go on HideAndGoChat and see someone exposing their penis on their cam. They decide to kill him and Ashley types the phrase three times. Suddenly Smiley stabs the man, killing him. The girls scream and Smiley waves at the camera.
Ashley is freaking out and Proxy assures her that the best course of action is to pretend nothing happened because if they go to the police it’s more likely that Smiley will find out where they live.
Ashley goes to the library and bumps into Binder. They talk a bit about their theories on Smiley and how Binder believes he’s all the evil of the internet compressed into one being. They exchange awkward smiles and their phone numbers.
At another party Ashley sees Zane and tries to ask him about Smiley. He blows it off as a joke until they are alone and admits that he’s called Smiley to kill someone. Ashley vomits and feels dizzy.
Ashley walks home and sees Smiley chasing her so she runs home, but he’s inside her home slowly approaching… and it’s a dream. She’s in bed. She tries to tell Proxy about the dream, but Proxy ignores her and tells her it isn’t real. Ashley decides to go to see a doctor who writes her a prescription for anti-anxiety medication.
Proxy takes her to Zane’s place. Zane explains that he works as network security, a hacker, and he’s worried because he can’t find out who Smiley really is. Ashley thinks that he’s pure evil and Zane feels hopeless.
She sees Binder again in the library and they talk about Smiley. Binder gets excited thinking about how the internet birthed this new life of sorts and Ashley gets really offended and leaves.
The psychiatrist is worried about Ashley and prescribes one dose of a tranquilizer. Ashley texts Binder and tells her she’s sorry for being upset with him and he responds that he’s scared too.
She has a talk with one of her professors who ends up kind of hitting on her. Ashley goes to the library to work on some paper on her laptop and sees Smiley appear. She ends up having a meltdown and smashing her laptop in public.
She continues to have nightmares about Smiley and finally goes to the police. They don’t believe her because they say there is no body and they feel it’s more likely a prank.
Back at the house, Ashley gets a new computer from Binder and they start to kiss. Proxy interrupts them to let Ashley know she’s leaving for the weekend.
Proxy video chats with Ashley and tells her Zane is late for an online meetup. So Ashley calls Binder, his phone doesn’t pick up, and she goes over to Zane’s house. On the floor is Zane’s body with the words “I DID IT FOR THE LULZ” written on the walls in blood.
Ashley tries to call the police but the phone call drops. She goes home, tells Proxy to summon Smiley since she now has a gun (which she picked up from Zane’s house). Proxy summons Smiley to kill Ashley. She waits for him and sees a shadowy figure try to enter the home. She shoots at it and then realizes it’s Binder. As she goes to him, Smiley appears behind Binder and cuts his throat.
She runs into the house but Smiley keeps appearing. Suddenly she is surrounded by different Smileys in her room and jumps through her second story window, hitting the pavement below. She is apparently dead.
The Smileys take off their masks and it’s revealed that they are Zane, Binder, and the other Anons who basically trolled a noob into dying. They’re a splinter group of /b/ and basically created Smiley as a killer to be mimicked and spread. So the internet legend can live on in real life.
Once the others leave Zane talks to Proxy over video chat. Proxy feels a little bit of regret and Zane laughs it off typing the phrase into the box three times. Suddenly a real Smiley appears and stabs Proxy, killing her and horrifying Zane. The film ends. After the credits Ashley takes a breath and wakes up from the bloody pavement.
Review:
Firstly, this is a low-budget horror that doesn’t seem to take itself seriously. I sincerely doubt any audience could take it seriously for more that a short while. I don’t think I’ll rate it on it’s ability to be scary, because frankly it’s full of cheap jump scares and otherwise isn’t scary at all.
What amuses me mostly is the internet culture references, 4chan, Anonymous, the parallels to an internet urban legend like Slender Man. It’s amusing to hear everyday phrases of the internet used in a movie.
Part of the problem is the movie doesn’t really build suspense well. It resorts to frequent jump scares during dream sequences. It also often breaks suspension of disbelief. The twist ending and then the REAL Smiley, as an example. The idea that all the murders were faked when the very first murder the audience sees is of a random babysitter on the chat site. Even the elaborate planning that it would take to create the group of killers and how the killers happened to decide to make it whoever was Proxy’s housemate. In addition to this the “real” Smiley has no reason for being a killer other than he’s willed into being.
To it’s credit, the movie does try to give Ashley a broken background in place of character development. Her mother committed suicide and so she’s not the most stable person to begin with. She’s a bit of a pushover. The film also doesn’t seem to take itself too seriously.
I would only suggest this film to someone if they knew full well that it’s kind of jokey and not a very scary film. For a more sophisticated take on violence in media and its spread into consciousness I would suggest Videodrome. The format in Videodrome being VHS. If you’d rather just slip into a better urban legend horror film, just watch Candyman.
Note:
Keith David makes a cameo as the police officer Ashley talks to. I love his voice and it’s always great to see him.