Review of “The Smiley Face Killers” Mockumentary

Damn you, The Smiley Face Killers creators! I was lured into thinking this was a documentary, when it turns out it was not.

Just call me a #Sucker.

Even though, look. It says it right there on its poster.

Okay, so add #Gullible to my list.

But in my defense, there was no reason not to question its authenticity at first. YouTube started autoplaying it after I finished watching Of Dolls and Murder, an actual documentary.

I didn’t find out The Smiley Face Killers was a mockumentary until I started researching it to write this review.

Red Flags

Even though I didn’t know it was fake until after, the ending raised a major red flag. It’s one of the most surprising, alarming and chilling scenes I’ve ever seen –but it was also suspicious.

Really? Somehow they got the supposed murder of the documentarian on film but no arrests had been made? His body hadn’t been found? What was even happening in the investigation? Had any leeway been made?

Before I knew this was a mockumentary, I was going to write: “I won’t be a bit surprised if Andrew Fitzgerald faked his own disappearance to try and drum up interest in this film.”

If they’d had some kind of info at the end, that would’ve suckered me in even more. You know how a lot of documentaries end with a little wrap up of what’s happened in the case, or to the people involved in whatever story the documentary was about? Even if it had been something short like: “The search for Andrew’s body and killers continues to this day.”

It just seemed off that it ended like it did.

But that wasn’t the only red flag.

The whole mannequin scene seemed fishy to me. I’m not really sure why, but it seemed too casual. Or something. I couldn’t really put my finger on it. It just seemed hokey and random. I couldn’t really see these guys being smart enough to come up with a theory about how the body of that victim should look if he’d fallen off the bridge, much less to think to use a mannequin to test it.

And the dad tossing out the buoy to show how his son’s body should’ve floated? That was bad science. Throw the buoy up a little farther. He threw it out basically adjacent to where he claimed his son’s body had drifted. Of course it was going to go to the other side like it did.

#Lame

Also, the police aren’t that stupid. That really wasn’t sitting well with me. Every police department was going to categorize all these deaths as accidental drownings? Super suspish!

But…you never know. Maybe these boys had uncovered something the cops were overlooking.

Of course now I know they hadn’t.

Pros

Clearly it had a good hook because I kept watching.

Women are almost always the target of serial killers, with a few exceptions. Sadly, gay males have been targets too.

So it was intriguing that straight men seemed to be targeted. I wanted to learn more.

Also, American Horror Story is pretty good about incorporating real life events into its plots. AHS: Cult had a Smiley Face killer gang as part of its season. Had I missed that that was based on real life events? How crazy would that be?

#TooCrazy

They wouldn’t be serial killers. They’d be terrorists.

But I have to give props to the acting. There were a couple of places I thought maybe the people seemed to be a bit phony. Like they almost seemed they were acting. Turns out it was because they were.

However, overall, I thought the parents, detectives, and experts were all who they said they were. They really came off like people being interviewed for a documentary.

Cons

Because it was such a novel plot, I was willing to overlook The Smiley Face Killer’ flaws. Which was namely that it dragged in a lot of spots. Tighter editing could’ve helped that.

Tighter editing also would’ve shortened it a bit too. Not that it’s long. It’s only 1 hour 22 minutes. But 1 hour, or even 45 minutes, would’ve been sufficient to tell the story.

Rating

The Smiley Face Killers is a  The Blair Witch Project / The Fourth Kind wannabe.

It’s a decent effort, but let’s just say I’m glad I watched it for free on YouTube.

Skell says we should give it two and half skulls. That might be a bit generous. If I’d known in advance it wasn’t real, two and a half might seem fair.

Skellie’s telling me to get over it, though. I got suckered. Deal with it.

Okay, Skellie. Two and half skulls out of five it is then.

Watch It

If you haven’t seen it, but are curious, you can watch it on YouTube.