Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		1.5

Smiley Face Killers Blu-ray Movie Review

American Psychos.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 5, 2020

Somewhere between the obligatory opening moment "inspired by true events" text and the equally obligatory closing copyright disclaimer that Smiley Face Killers is a work of fiction and any resemblance to actual incidents or real life people is merely a "coincidence", most audience members will probably have frankly ceased to care whether the story of college jock Jake Graham (Ronen Rubinstein) is based in truth or not. Aside from the increasingly ludicrous turns the story takes, which almost automatically separates it from "ripped from the headlines" territory, the fact that the very supposed "headlines" this is ripped from are questionable (to say the least) makes this a weirdly uninvolving quasi-horror outing. The "true events" this film is supposedly culled from, and which are (incorrectly or at least misleadingly) doled out in some text explanations as the film opens, involve a series of corpses that have been found near water across the United States which some allege were victims of a serial killer (or killers) who have left drawings of smiley faces near the bodies. This basic thesis has been shot down (no pun intended) by everyone from local police forces to the FBI, but it frankly does make for an interesting enough premise. One of the problems with Bret Easton Ellis' (!) screenplay, though, is very like a problem I personally had with Midsommar: it simply presents things too literally for its own good. This is especially troublesome since this film, perhaps even more than Midsommar, sets up a situation where its focal character's mental imbalance is explicitly addressed. But instead of fostering a "is this really happening or simply the product of an addled mind?" ambiguity, Smiley Face Killers is unabashedly overt in what's going on, thereby robbing the film of considerable suspense.

The film actually opens with some pretty graphic and gruesome imagery of both human and animal deaths, including some stomach churning shots of completely disemboweled beasts. It of course is angst inducing, but it's an attempt to gin up anxiety (probably successful) without providing context or a natural segue to the actual main narrative. There's also a curious scene of two kids finding a body on a beach which is rather amazingly similar to a scene in a little remembered 1993 film I recently reviewed, The Untold Story. Soon enough, though, Jake is introduced as a guy who apparently has it all, including a gorgeous girlfriend named Keren (Mia Serafino*) and a best bud named Gabriel (Amadeus Serafini*), though he also suffers from some emotional disequilibrium which has evidently necessitated both pharmaceutical assistance as well as traditional talk therapy. Jake, it turns out, may have some form of incipient paranoia, since he's absolutely convinced he's being stalked. Except the film makes absolutely no bones about his element, since it shows quite clearly that Jake is indeed being stalked. So, so much for unfounded paranoia.

It's a well worn horror film trope to get as many bodacious babes as naked as possible for often completely unexplained reasons, but Smiley Face Killers seems to have been designed for those who would rather see star Ronen Rubinstein in his birthday suit — repeatedly. A great deal of the film goes off at various points on what is almost a soft porn montage of Jake working out, swimming and having sex. A lot of these scenes unabashedly linger on Rubinstein's at least partially unclothed physique. Later the film goes whole hog (in a manner of speaking) by having a naked Jake run around panicked as he attempts to elude some captors. It's a kind of odd presentational aspect to this film, but I guess it at least sets it apart from some of its "siblings".

Director Tim Hunter has scores of television credits to his name, and he's also well remembered for his feature River's Edge (that film's co-star Crispin Glover is on hand here as one of the bad guys). But there's no real shape to the proceedings, with lots of shots of Jake being chased by a supposedly threatening white van, and fits and starts in the character development and even basic dialogue categories. The Grand Guignol climax at least finally kick starts the film into what is probably its truest horror mode, but the revelations of this sequence may also push the film squarely into camp territory, albeit with the same kind of halting attempts to inject "pagan metaphysics" into things that also played into both Midsommar and the recently reviewed (and similarly derivative) Death of Me.

*The fact that these two very similar and unusual surnames should attract my attention is perhaps even more evidence of how little the actual story in the film affected me.

Smiley Face Killers Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Smiley Face Killers is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. I haven't been able to track down any authoritative information on the shoot, other than the fact that the behind the scenes featurette clearly shows some kind of digital capture camera. This is a generally well defined looking effort, though by design huge swaths of the story play out in kind of hazy, almost gray at times, environments. As such, the palette only really pops during some of the more brightly lit daytime scenes, moments that probably also offer the best overall levels of fine detail. It's obvious that an "arty" (Art-y?) ambience is being aimed for here at times, with various grading choices and maybe slightly self aware framings tending to mask detail by design. There are some pretty graphic flourishes here, so those with squeamish stomachs had best come prepared.

Smiley Face Killers Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Smiley Face Killers features a decent if never overly ambitious DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. Some scenes, as in a couple of parties, do offer nice spill into the side and rear channels, and the beachside material also allows for good surround activity in terms of general ambient environmental effects. Dialogue scenes are presented cleanly and clearly and the almost nonstop score also is splayed throughout the soundstage nicely. Optional subtitles in English and Spanish are available.

Smiley Face Killers Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Behind the Scenes (1080p; 8:24)


• Smiley Face Killers Trailer (1080p; 2:12)

Smiley Face Killers Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

As I mentioned in both the Midsommar Blu-ray review and more recently in the Death of Me Blu-ray review, the whole idea of a vast conspiracy ensnaring some hapless individual to take part in an untoward rite is certainly nothing new, as films as old as The Wicker Man easily prove. You would think a writer of Ellis' acumen could have come up with something a bit more nuanced than what's on hand here, but at least for those of you who would like a horror film to feature a naked male for a change, your request has finally come true. Technical merits are generally solid for those who are considering a purchase.