Home Video
[DVD Review] ‘Smiley’ is a Bottom-Tier Slasher with a Big Ego
Reviewed by Patrick Cooper
Towards the end of film, a crass pretty-boy named Zane delivers a diatribe about how important Smiley is. He asserts that people will obsess over and deconstruct the events that just took place. Smiley, he proclaims, will go viral. The character was talking about the killings in the film but I interpreted this as co-writer/directer Michael J. Gallagher believing the film is a landmark piece of cinema for the Anonymous cyber-age and that people will be discussing it many years form now.
They won’t be. Smiley is a bottom-tier, post-Scream slasher with a big ego. It’s about a masked killer named Smiley (duh) who appears when users of a ChatRoulette-like site type “I did it for the lulz” three times. Ashley (Caitlin Gerard) is a harmless, blonde lamb who’s just started college. Her roommate Proxy (Melanie Papalia) is a generically edgy party girl whose name is fucking “Proxy.” Proxy takes Ashley along to a party filled with smug dudes (including the aforementioned Zane) from an anonymous online forum where they post memes, offensive videos, and probably jpegs of their balls.
Everyone rolls their eyes about how little Ashley knows of the dark side of the internet, so they pop her cyber-cherry by going on the ChatRoulette site and typing “I did it for the lulz” three times. The user on the other end is stabbed to death and this should have been the right time for Ashley to think about finding another roommate. Instead she gets swept up in their online hijinks and the bodies start piling up at the hands of Smiley.
Director Gallagher teases us a bit by treading into psychological horror territory in the vein of Polanski, but then he must’ve realized he doesn’t have the chops for that kinda stuff so he reverts to volleys of cheap jump-scares. They’re the worst kind of jump-scare too. The camera moves like a POV killer, creeps up behind Ashley, then she turns around and OH it’s just my roommate. “Ugh you shouldn’t creep up behind people like that,” she probably said. This happens like 10 times.
This Gallagher guy is 24-years-old but writes dialogue like he’s never heard a person under 30 say a word. Some of the things that come out of Proxy and Ashley’s mouth are laughably bad. One of the worst bits is when Zane and Proxy are trying to explain to Ashley what a hacker does. Ashley practically pulls her hair out listening to these goofs. I almost did too.
The great character actor Keith “I Didn’t Take It Out for Air” David makes a brief appearance to explain to Ashley how ridiculous the Smiley situation sounds. The only other black guy with a speaking role gets one line. He says “Amen, brother!” Roger Bart (Hostel II) plays a logic professor who happens to be the only entertaining aspect of the entire film. He even manages to inject some life into Gallagher’s dismal dialogue.
So no, people won’t be discussing Smiley years from now. It’s a conventional slasher that covers subject matter already well covered by superior films, including Scream and Urban Legend. I get what they were going for by updating this material for the cyber-obsessed age, but there’s no real depth in the film to make it all worth a damn.
Overall Score: 1/5
It was almost one year ago that Warner Bros. brought the entire original A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise to 4K in one massive 7-movie collection, with the limited edition SteelBook version of the set quickly selling out and becoming highly sought after. But we’re happy to report tonight that the SteelBook set is currently back in stock over on Amazon!
While supplies last, grab the Elm Street SteelBook collection for $154.99 right now!!
Orders placed for this re-release are scheduled to begin shipping out September 15, 2026.
[Related] Freddy’s Back: New ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ Movie in the Works at Paramount
From New Line Cinema, the collection includes the original seven films – A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985), A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987), A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988), A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989), Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991), and Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994) – along with the uncut versions of A Nightmare on Elm Street and The Dream Child.
Two BRAND NEW SPECIAL FEATURES for this set include:
- Boiler Room Confessional: The king of slashers, Robert Englund, takes us on a journey through the dream world, sharing what inspired Freddy Krueger, his rise as a cultural icon, and the legacy of A Nightmare on Elm Street, plus his favorite kills, scenes, and more.
- Freddy’s Footnotes: Robert Englund and original A Nightmare on Elm Street filmmakers revisit iconic scenes, revealing the movie magic and chaos behind our favorite nightmares. Pull back the curtain and relive epic moments through the eyes of those who made them.
Here’s the full breakdown of included Special Features for each movie…
A Nightmare on Elm Street
· Ready Freddy Focus Points
· Commentary with Wes Craven, Robert Englund, Heather Langenkamp, Ronee Blakley, Robert Shaye, and Sara Risher
· Commentary with Wes Craven, Heather Langenkamp, John Saxon, and Jacques Haitkin
· Alternate Endings – Scary Ending, Happy Ending, Freddy Ending
· The House that Freddy Built: The Legacy of New Line Horror
· Never Sleep Again: The Making of A Nightmare on Elm Street
· Night Terrors: The Origins of Wes Craven’s Nightmares
A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge
· Freddy on 8th Street
· Heroes and Villains
· The Male Witch
· Psychosexual Circus
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
· Behind the Story: Burnout
· Behind the Story: Fan Mail
· Behind the Story: The House that Freddy Built
· Behind the Story: Onward Christian Soldiers
· Behind the Story: Snakes and Ladders
· Behind the Story: That’s Showbiz
· Behind the Story: Trading 8’s
· Dokken Dream Warriors Music Video
A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master
· The Finnish Line
· Krueger, Freddy Krueger
· Hopeless Chest
· Let’s Makeup
A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child
· Behind the Story: Womb Raiders
· Behind the Story: The Sticky Floor
· Behind the Story: Take the Stairs
· Behind the Story: Hopkins Directs
· Behind the Story: A Slight Miscalculation
Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare
· 86’D
· Hellraiser
· Rachel’s Dream
· 3D Demise
Wes Craven’s New Nightmare
· Commentary with Wes Craven
· NEW – Boiler Room Confessional
· NEW – Freddy’s Footnotes
· Becoming a Filmmaker
· Filmmaker
· An Insane Troupe
· The Problem with Sequels
· Two Worlds
· Welcome to Prime Time: It Really Happened
· Welcome to Prime Time: A Childhood Memory
· Welcome to Prime Time: Sometime in the Early 80s
· Welcome to Prime Time: So It Began
· Welcome to Prime Time: Beauty and the Beast
· Welcome to Prime Time: Making the Glove
· Welcome to Prime Time: Shapeshifter
· Welcome to Prime Time: The Shoot
· Welcome to Prime Time: The Revolving Room
· Welcome to Prime Time: All’s Well that Ends Well
· Welcome to Prime Time: Talalay’s Tally
· Welcome to Prime Time: It Couldn’t Have Happened
· Welcome to Prime Time: Alternate Ending Version
· Conclusion: Where Gothic Plots Come From
· Conclusion: Why We Like Gothic
· Conclusion: Sadomasochism
· Conclusion: Freddy vs. Pinhead
· Conclusion: Freddy’s Manic Energy
· Conclusion: Creating Lasting Characters in Horror
· Conclusion: No More Magic Tricks
· Conclusion: Monster with Personality
· Conclusion: Freddy as Sex Machine
· Conclusion: Campfire Stories
The Elm Street collection is available in this collectible SteelBook packaging (exclusive to Amazon) and as a standard 4K collection that’s also available now over on Amazon.
You must be logged in to post a comment.