People everywhere watch horror films, but if you walk into a movie theater showing a horror film odds are you’ll see a younger crowd. Let’s face it, no one wants to see an old mans’ heart give out and literally be “scared to death.” However, you don’t have to be sixty plus to experience this feeling. For example, are you the one who says “Why do I do this to myself?” because you hate being scared. You’d hear these words come from your average teenage girl, yet she is constantly looking for that thrill. No matter how many times she says this, she still goes to Fear Farm, the new horror release, or loves it every time her boyfriend tries to scare the crap out of her. It gives us the heart racing feeling we crave.


People love the suspense and excitement of horror not just because it’s a way for teenage boys to “make a move”, but it allows you to put yourself into the movies’ situation and relate to common life experiences. People are always curious about the future; why do you think fortune tellers are still in business? Really, the saying “there’s a surprise around every corner” didn’t just come from thin air—which in sense shows that I’m obviously not the first to realize this comparison. A few classic horror films have figured this out and used it to gain success. You may know Saw (all fifty of them), Nightmare on Elms Street (psychopath Freddy the dream killer, literally), and of course Chucky; Come on it’s no wonder you’re afraid of clown children trying to kill you.


Horror films display peoples’ worst fears. The truly great ones can take the bit of sanctity you may have and turn it into a living hell. None do this better than Wes Cravens’ classic Nightmare on Elms Street. If you wanted to peacefully pass away in your sleep before, you’ll soon change your mind once you meet Freddy Krueger. There’s no such thing as sweet dreams with him around. He kills you when you are at your most venerable by not just killing you as you sleep, but by entering your dreams and attacking your mind as well. Your place of safety and wonder is now proven to be more venerable than you can imagine.


Michael J. Gallagher’s’ film Smiley is about an urban legend of a demented serial killer with nothing but a smile carved on his face. A mentally fragile teenage girl must decide for herself weather it’s real or not. Is she going crazy or is she the next victim, and how can she find out when no one believes her? Smiley connects to the current generation by attacking through technology; the one thing we use every day is now our biggest enemy. It takes a common website that people use to anonymously flirt or communicate with new users and twists it into a battle ground to the death.


To be perfectly honest, this movie had potential but did not execute as planned. The first mistake was probably the fact that the majority of the people who contributed to this film were YouTubers. Not everything about this movie was bad but as far as pros and cons go, the cons outweigh anything else. There were sparks of good acting followed by scenes that made me want to claw my eyes out. I mean seriously on some occasions the YouTube stars had better acting than the real actors; although I’m not sure if it’s because they’re actually better or if they actors were so terrible that it made the YouTubers just look better. Not to mention the writing and plot of the movie, which wasn’t horrible but it still didn’t have enough thought put into it. Many of the references made toward technology were awkward. Like “I did it for the Lulz” which was said more times than Miley Cyrus’ Wrecking Ball was viewed. This movie had quite a few cheap scares and it felt like it should have been funnier than it was—like someone left the opportunity to make it comedy horror but changed their mind. Over all, I can see the intentions they had but can tell that the vast majority of people who see this movie will not be too thrilled with the outcome (especially the ending). All I can say is don’t get your hopes up.