Smiley (2012)

After discovering an urban legend of a demented serial killer, who has nothing but a carved "smiley" on his face, a mentally fragile teenager must figure out if she is going insane - or if she could be the next victim.

Director:

Michael J. Gallagher

Writers:

Glasgow Phillips (screenplay), Michael J. Gallagher (screenplay)

Stars:

Caitlin Gerard, Melanie Papalia, Shane Dawson

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Caitlin Gerard	...	Ashley
Melanie Papalia	...	Proxy
Shane Dawson	...	Binder
Andrew James Allen	...	Zane
Liza Weil	...	Dr. Jenkins
Roger Bart	...	Professor Clayton
Keith David	...	Diamond
Toby Turner	...	Mark
Michael Traynor	...	Smiley
Jana Winternitz	...	Maria
Nikki Limo	...	Stacy
Steve Greene	...	Crash
Richard Ryan	...	Kells
DeStorm Power	...	Decepticon
Jason Horton	...	Flasher

Storyline

Ashley goes to her new college while getting over the death of her mother. She meets some new people there including Binder ('Shane Dawson') while at a party and she learns about an urban legend of an online killer that has the nickname "Smiley" who can only be seen on the web and he apparently kills people after they type in "I did it for the lulz" three times. Soon after going to the party Ashley and her flatmate Proxy go online to test it out, with horrific results. She becomes paranoid and she starts to think she sees Smiley all over the place and feels that he may be chasing her, but how can that be if he is not real? Have they somehow released him from the internet?

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Plot Keywords:

urban legend | internet | college | serial killer | student | 

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Taglines:

Evil wears a smile

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Genres:

Comedy | Horror | Mystery | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence, terror, language, some sexual references and substance use by teens

Did You Know?

Trivia

Shanna Malcolm is an actress in that is credited as "Party Guest 1." She is a good friend of actor Shane Dawson, who plays Binder. Both are also YouTubers. They are constantly collaborating on each other's YouTube channels where they do challenges, comedy skits, and much more.

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Goofs

In the opening scene when the babysitter is on chat: "I did it for the lolz" message is typed and is seen on her screen as sent by "You" as if she typed it. But then a few seconds later, we see the screen again and the message was sent by the guy who she's chatting with and then she gets killed.

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Quotes

[last lines]
Proxy: We really killed her!
[last lines]
Zane: Oh come on... she killed herself!
[sees the real smiley standing behind her]
Zane: PROXY?
[sees her being stabbed in the eye]
Zane: Holy shit!
[smiley waves at him then slams down the laptop]

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Crazy Credits

At the very end after the credits are done, Ashley wakes up!

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Connections

References The Truman Show (1998)

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Soundtracks

The Witch
Written by Ben Lamdin & Nathan Pearn
Performed by The Broken Keys

User Reviews

a new Horrid movie

Smiley tells the tale of a city full of the most stupid people in America. There seems to be an internet-based killer slaying many people there, and we can only wish him/ her continued success. So bad is this movie--there really is no "plot"--with its bad acting, bad scripting, and not-very-scary killer at work, the viewer prays for a short viewing time.

With little gore, scares, sex or even action, this is a B movie wanna-be, so if that's what you're looking for, forget it! The only clever thing about this movie is the idea of a killer wearing a twisted smiley-face hood. After you've seen that on the ad for the movie, it's all down hill from there. Its silly "surprise" ending does nothing to compensate the viewer for the previous 85 minutes of boredom. Do yourself a favor and don't watch this movie.

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

12 October 2012 (USA)

Also Known As:

I Did It for the Lulz

Filming Locations:

Glendora, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Level 10 Films, Andrew E. Freedman Public Relations, Paramount Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1