lexical-62253

Kyle Edward Ball choosing to make a full length feature of his stellar short film Heck makes some sense, but the length makes zero sense. People that know who K. E. B. Is know that he creates video of user submitted nightmares and he's great at it, it's a rabbit hole every horror fan should go down. The visuals of Skinamarink are an improvement of Heck, the atmosphere is an improvement but it seems like he sacrifices viewer experience to stick to his vision. I respect that, but a feature film in theaters has to make the viewer a priority, it's not rock n roll and rebellious to make us sit through extended scenes if nothing, we are paying for this, it sn't his free youtube channel. I hope he learns this because Skinamarink is still good enough for me to watch his next movie.

I'm a huge fan of original horror with unique storylines and this was rumored to check all the boxes, so I was excited to see Smile. What I saw was a movie that is tailor made for casual horror fans, or people that don't usually watch horror movies. This isnt a horrible movie, and considering the modest budget it's actually exceptional for what it accomplished, but it wasn't unique or scary. One thing that I didn't understand about Smile was its score, there were no shocking moments because the score gave them away, eliminating suspense and leaning on jumpscares. The story itself was bland and predictable, using the same horror template found in 98 percent of movies you will watch on Shudder and Screambox. The story is extremely straightforward with no twists and turns and when you wait for the shocking twist it never arrives, it is solved after an hour then just keeps on going. The ending sets up an obvious sequel, but I can't figure out where they can go with this story besides backwards with a prequel since they milk every drop out of the very basic plot. I feel that if there is something to add to the story, they should have added it into the last unsuspenseful 55 minutes. With all of that being said, Smile has a Jumpscare in it that was genuinely scary and unsettling, something rare considering how common jumpscares have become. The entity itself at the end is very well done, truly one of the best evil characters of all time. The entity is genuinely scary, creepy and exudes cold evil and the voice will change your facial expression. I didn't hate Smile and maybe I went in with unreasonable expectations, it definitely didnt leave me in awe or impressed. What it did do was offer something new on a budget and it still stands out among new horror movies. I will watch the next chapter of Smile because for all of its flaws it managed to at least plant the seeds of what could be a scary and creepy prequel. At the end of the day though, this is a cookie cutter date movie, not too gory and not too complicated, Smile set out to please the masses which they seem to have done. Those of us looking for the next great horror story will have to wait though, because this isn't it.