3 out of 5

Director: Michael Gallagher

Is it stupid?  Is it smart?  I can’t possibly be the final word on that, but ‘Smiley’ somehow manages to be exactly what I expected and yet a lot better than I would’ve expected at the same time.  I suppose the stupid is in the plotting and structure – this is super typical horror urban-legend stuff, the one crazy character who believes in the unbelievable – in this case “Smiley,” the butcher-faced guy in the back of the poster who will kill your video chat-mate if you type a certain phrase into chat thrice – and then the stock jump scares that fill up runtime while we bounce back and forth between is it real? or is it fake?  Disbelieving police, a wise teacher, a good and evil friend, the inevitable gasp ending… all the normal stuff is here.  And that bad guy – the visual is just on the verge of being spooky, but… still, sorta dumb, right?  Or is that the smart part, winking at us?  Because credit Mike Gallagher with a script that somehow comes across as current (most “current” tech/text-speak movies just skim the surface) and is actually willing to combat the internet meme world in a non-preachy fashion, finding some ponderous elements to whip up into surprisingly intelligent dialogue.  All of the characters are well written and, jesus, the teens act pretty pitch-perfect – even the “dumb” cop Keith David gets a better turn at a realistic response here than he would in 99% of other horror films…  Gallagher makes some weird editing choices and it is low-budget, so don’t expect too much visually, and the final thirty minutes before the climax are TOTAL delay tactics, but if you try to set aside any prejudgements, ‘Smiley’ ain’t a bad slice of indie horror, with an actual dash of something to say.