Not Much to Smile About
Following the death of her mother Ashley (Caitlin Gerard) is left a bit fragile but heads off to college where she moves in to a house with a girl called Proxy (Melanie Papalia). It is through Proxy that she is told about the urban legend of Smiley who appears at the other end of a video chat and murders the person there if you type "I did it for the lulz" three times. When Proxy and Ashley try out the urban legend and Smiley appears it pushes Ashley over the edge as she can't cope with that has happened but gets told to clear of by the police who thinks the is part of some elaborate prank.
I remember it well; say his name five times whilst looking in the mirror and that Candyman will appear. For those who don't what I am on about there was a horror movie called "Candyman" released back in 1992 where if you said "Candyman" five times in the mirror he would appear and some bad stuff would go down. So with "Smiley" having the update of typing "I did it for the lulz" three times Smiley appears and kills who ever you are video chatting with. It is simply urban legend updated for a new generation and in truth not a very good update with a lot of dumbing down when it comes to what college students know about the internet.
But let me just say that whilst "Smiley" initially seems to be just an update on the urban legend story it has a twist. For some this twist will make "Smiley" great and will make it become original and worth wading through some low budget issues and lack of believable acting, yes this movie has these sorts of issues. But for me this twist didn't work and made it all too far fetched and contrived and yes I know we are talking an urban legend movie so that contrived should be expected but this is just too crazy.
What this all boils down to is that "Smiley" didn't do it for me and I found the whole thing not only too contrived due to the plot twists but also too low budget with acting which never once felt natural.
