Smiley Face Killers (2020)

Directed by: Tim Hunter | 96 minutes | horror, thriller | Actors: Ronen Rubinstein, Mia Serafino, Crispin Glover, Amadeus Serafini, Ashley Rickards, Garrett Coffey, Cody Simpson, Daniel Covin, Gianna DiDonato, Rachel Crowl, Daniel Dannas, Reese Mishler, Corey Prather, Courtney Friel, Barry Jay Minoff, Kai Caster , Gus Langley, Gary Kapuscilnskiz

Talk about the 90s! None other than Brett Easton Ellis was responsible for the story of ‘Smiley Face Killers’. The American author became world famous thanks to his scandal story ‘American Psycho’. He then scored successes with ‘The Informers’ and ‘Glamorama’. In recent years, the writer’s interest in literature has ebbed and Ellis tries to enter the film world. He co-wrote the script for Lindsay Lohan vehicle ‘The Canyons’. That 2013 film garnered cult status, because porn actor James Deen starred in it and an apathetic Lohan wanted to pull her career out of the doldrums with this sleazy film. Now Ellis tries to turn heads with a more mainstream movie about a gang of serial killers. Enter ‘Smiley Face Killers’.

According to the makers, ‘Smiley Face Killers’ is based on true events. What is fiction and what is reality, however, never becomes clear. Anyway, this movie revolves around Jake Graham (Ronen Rubinstein). This footballer thinks he is being stalked and is slowly losing his mind. After all, there is no one to be seen. But while his friends dismiss Jake’s behavior as paranoia, it turns out that the footballer is actually being chased. A group of serial killers prey on him.

To be short: ‘Smiley Face Killers’ is not a best film. Despite the fairly compact running time of 96 minutes, director Tim Hunter does not succeed in building tension. That is quite a deadly observation for a thriller. In fact, very little happens in this film. Most of the time is reserved for long silences, in which the physical condition of the well-trained Rubinstein is mainly focused on. That homoerotic undertone often characterizes Ellis’s work, so the author’s trademark can certainly be found in this film.

What ‘Smiley Face Killers’ makes painfully clear is that writing a book is very different from writing a script. Ellis’s work revolves around setting the mood and satire. For example, the author effortlessly devoted a page and a half to describing Patrick Bateman’s boring morning routine in which the killer explained in detail the face masks he used and what designer clothes he wore. This summary of superficiality and the enormous void that consumerism can leave behind does well on paper, but it doesn’t work in a movie. ‘Smiley Face Killers’ revolves around the chilly Jake, who is hard to sympathize with. Inner emptiness and the lack of connection are themes that run like a thread through Ellis’s work. This theme does not work in this narration, resulting in a boring, downright distant film. You probably don’t care what happens to the superficial Jake. This man will not be missed.

Another shortcoming is that this film is very slow and it takes a good hour(!) before something happens which can be called somewhat exciting. The acting is flat and that applies to the entire production. Smiley Face Killers might have worked as a book, but not in this form.