Smiley (2012) Review

The 2012 film Smiley is about an urban legend of a demented serial killer who has nothing but a sliced smiley on his face. After she hears about the carved up psycho, mentally fragile teenager Ashley must figure out if she is going insane – or if she could be the next victim. *Warning: Spoilers ahead!* 

Surprise!

This film was a complete surprise to me. I heard about it while reading Shane Dawson’s book, I Hate Myselfie. He had mentioned Smiley because he starred in it and his friend made the film. Being a fan of horror films and Shane Dawson, I thought I would check it out. I didn’t really know what I was going to think of it, but it was actually really good. I started to read about the film and when I found out it had to do with an urban legend, I was super excited because I really enjoy horror films like these. They seem more scary because they take a story that’s a myth and turn into something very real.

Look Out!

The jump scares in Smiley are great. I’m not an easy person to scare, but for some reason, this film made me jump a lot. At one point, I had to pause the film and just laugh because my adrenaline was going so fast. It’s one of those jump scares that you know is coming but you don’t know when and so you still jump. The film also makes good use of humor. I’m not sure if it was on purpose, but I laughed a few times. I love that the film never let go of that feeling that there is someone behind you.

The Anger… But Also, Not Really?

Smiley was good overall, but I think that if there was one thing to change about this film, I would change the ending. At first, I hated it. But than it had this little twist, which kind of made up for it… but not really. It’s hard to explain because everyone has different tastes. For me personally, I thought they could have had a better ending, but besides that, I think that if you enjoyed the Urban Legend films, than you should also take a look at Smiley.