“Smiley Face Killers” is about a handsome young soccer player, Jake Graham, who believes he is going insane, unable to shake the feeling of being stalked by something, by someone.
I’m a big fan of true crime, I mean who isn’t. The genre is endless for unsolved mysteries and thus wild speculations. Apparently, there’s a theory based on a couple of detective investigations where scores of young men have been found inebriated and drowned in multiple states since 1997. They believe these incidents to be linked to a Smiley Face graffiti that’s found near the scenes in many cases. The majority of investigators don’t give much credence to this thin hypothesis, noting a lack of evidence and the popular smiley face being tagged all over the world.
Loosely based on the theory, “Smiley Face Killers” opens with a young man walking to his car when a large van pulls into frame. After the van pulls away, he’s been abducted and his body is lying dead on a beach. The next evening, two friends are out having drinks and after being briefly separated, one man is perplexed to see his friend gone. Just like it happened earlier, the missing friend is dead on an empty beach. The camera moves across the shoreline zooming in on a pile of rocks that have a large black smiley face crudely drawn in graffiti.
The screenplay is written by the infamous scribe Bret Easton Ellis. Ellis is most known for his novels ‘American Psycho’ and ‘Less than Zero,’ which were adapted into popular films. Tim Hunter directs this film, most known for 1986’s “River’s Edge” and he helmed a few great episodes of “Twin Peaks.” There’s a 1980s feel to the score and themes but nothing overt. I also find it coincidental that all three titles I mentioned happen to center around a dead body found near a large body of water.
Living in Santa Cruz, Jake (Ronen Rubenstein) is a college student who’s recently decided to stop taking his prescribed medication. His girlfriend Keren (Mia Serafino), becomes concerned with his mental health and encourages him to get back into his routine. Unbeknownst to him, there’s a hooded figure lurking in the background, stalking him around the campus. I was wondering why no other students noticed him, perhaps a figment of his imagination or just bad writing. When he gets home there’s an old road map sitting on his bed with those little smiley faces drawn over different locations. This incident disturbs him but he shrugs it off as a silly prank and decides to party with Keren.
Their party is at the beach, which is one of the very few benefits of living in Southern California. Jake is still distracted and distant and the hooded figure’s constant appearance overstays its welcome. Having too many shots of any villain loses its effect. In “Zodiac,” there’s a compelling scene where a young couple has a romantic picnic ruined by the appearance of a masked man. Although that’s what actually happened, it’s a testament to minimizing a killer’s physical presence and the existential dread that manifests. I’ve seen “Zodiac” multiple times but I still get chills during that scene.
The screenplay doesn’t fare much better and the action becomes unintentionally hilarious. One scene, in particular, is where the large van begins chasing Jake on his bike. People may have lambasted “Prometheus” where Theron’s character gets flattened after running in a straight line instead of to the right or left. But this was even more unbelievable since Jake could have just gone on the sidewalk and cut through the suburban yards. The opening beach scenes were a strong, eerie start but the rest of the script is tonally inconsistent. It feels like Ellis couldn’t decide whether he wanted to crap on millennials, big Pharma overmedicating kids, or make a slasher gorefest. Unfortunately, I left the film with a big frown on my face.
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