Jake Graham (Ronen Rubenstein) has it all: a hopeful college career, a great soccer team, and a tight-knit group of friends. Recently, he’s had a feeling like he’s being watched. While his friends seem to think this could be old problems rearing their ugly heads again, Jake swears up and down that something is out there. Unbeknownst to him, a group of black-clad figures have set out on a killing spree, claiming victims by drowning them, and leaving only a graffiti Smiley Face at the scene of the crime. Will Jake find out the secret behind his paranoia? And once he does, will his friends even believe him?
Across ninety minutes or so, this film has a loaded third and final act. Things come to a head in a major way, as the Hooded Figure (Crispin Glover) and his gang finally catch up to Jake and his friends. What follows is a collection of striking violence and shocking death scenes, with some nasty gore and effects to boot. After going nearly an hour without any blood, and with the suggestion that the major kills are going to come via drowning, when the blood starts to spill, it is less a drip and more of a tidal wave.
Even some gratuitous clera doesn’t excuse the trip we take to get to this point. Usually, it is a matter of the journey, not the destination, but not even the point B justifies the trip from point A onwards. The characters are god-awful boring, with the main cast feeling like a bunch of interchangeable twenty-somethings with not a lot of backstory. While part of me wants to appreciate the parallel paths that they and the Hooded Figures take until the 55 minute mark (or thereabouts), and marvel at the fact that the co-eds knew nothing about their existence until it was too late, it meant there was no conflict. It was uncomfortable, which I understand is the premise, but there’s positively no mention of the Smiley Face Killers prior to their reveal. And if they have such a body count behind them, as the opening titles would suggest, shouldn’t Jake and his friends have a clue about who they are?
Going back to the first scenes of the film, what I do appreciate is the use of sound throughout most of this movie, especially in the first eleven or so minutes. The most speaking we hear is someone on their phone, with the score driving much of those opening shots. It creates that unease, that uncertainty, and it is in that subversion that it sets things up well. What it does with that setup is another story, but I can at least grant that things started off promising enough.
Even with the interstitials of “Inspired by True Events,” things kicked off well enough, but sadly, Smiley Face Killers drowns rather than swims. Gruesome only gets a film so far, and there’s not much meat left on the bone once you get past that. There’s hardly a plotline, the atmosphere is more off-putting than moody or brooding, and even as cool as the violent scenes are, they’re just outright mean, and we don’t get much reasoning behind the SFK’s litany of crimes. Despite the name of the film, it left me with a scowl, followed by a frown.
Smiley Face Killers is available now on Blu-ray, DVD and VOD via Lionsgate Home Entertainment.
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