I just finished Smiley. I was completely underwhelmed. This is straight out of 21st century, by the book, modern horror film 101. Obnoxious characters, endless jump scares telegraphed from a mile away, super-sized portions of wake-up-screaming dream sequences, plot full of holes, etc. And what was the point of the world-weary, I've-seen-it-all  cop scenes? They were obviusly tossed in to pad the running time since they did absolutely nothing to forward or enhance the story. At one hour and thirty six minutes, it already seemed like a running time of around eleven or twelve hours.

Big picture? As JoJo said, I think they were trying for a "message." A take on modern society and the decline of civilization all wrapped neatly within a ho-hum slasher flick. Nice try, but a misguided effort. It was simply too predictable and uninspired. I've been beating the drum about the spate of obnoxious characters in genre films of late. This is a shining example.  Within the first ten minutes, I was introduced to multiple characters that I instantly disliked. We were supposed to be emotionally attached to Ashley, but she was barely fleshed out. A brief scene with her dad and then a few bits of detail about her mother's suicide tossed in like a dash of salt. I can't buy into any sort of threat if I don't care who gets killed. 

And, yes, I thought we could track people down, too!