Monday, May 20, 2013

"Smiley" Movie Review – I Did it for the LULZ


Rating: R
Length: 90 minutes
Release Date: October 12, 2012
Director: Michael J. Gallagher

Smiley is the current generation's version of Bloody Mary, which is sad because Bloody Mary is awesome and Smiley sucks. The film opens with a young girl learning the story behind the legend. If you video chat with someone and type "I did it for the lulz" three times in a row, Smiley will come out of nowhere and kill the person on screen. After the young girl hears it, her chatter does it and she winds up dead.

We then meet Ashley, a college student who moves in with a girl named Proxy. Proxy is pretty wild and crazy, while Ashley is mellow and a little shy. Proxy convinces her to come to a party and introduces her to a bunch of random guys. They tell her the story of Smiley, which she thinks is lame and just another urban legend. While chatting online with a group of strangers, they decide to cycle through different chat sessions and look at different guys.

They come across a man who flashes them, and they decide that he's their best bet. Ashley types "I did it for the lulz" three times, and Smiley appears on screen before killing the man. Ashley is so freaked out by what happened that she starts thinking she sees him everywhere on campus. She tries asking the police for help and talks to her classmates, but they all think she's playing a prank. Ashley starts getting stalked by the masked figure, leading her to question what is real around her.

I did it for the lulz is one of the stupidest things I've come across in recent years. It reminds me of those stupid acronyms that teens come up with that are supposed to be oh so cool but really just make them sound stupid. Yolo, I'm looking in your direction.

Up until the end, "Smiley" plays as just another teen horror film. The end is what killed it for me. Have you ever seen a movie and after it ended, you felt really pissed off? That's what this one did for me. If you don't want to read any spoilers, you'll want to skip this next section.

*****SPOILER ALERT*****

Ashley comes home and finds a bunch of people wearing Smiley masks in her bedroom. As they approach her with knives to kill her, she decides to jump out the window. They see her dead body on the ground and pull off their masks, revealing them to be her classmates including her roommate. Even the guy she chatted with and "killed" is there. It turns out that they were behind the killings because they wanted to keep the legend going. They also reveal that there are other kids on other campuses doing the same thing.

Why the FUCK would you do that??? What is up with the cattle mentality today? Really, killing people is cool? Some random guy from your school tells you that all the cool kids are killing people today, so you think you should do it too? It doesn't even make sense either! How would they know who people would talk to so they could get there and kill people?

*****END SPOILER*****

So yes, I didn't enjoy "Smiley," and the end made me want to kill someone. It still ticks me off to even think about it, so I don't think I’ll be watching this one again.

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