Directed by: Tim Hunter
Notable cast: Ronen Rubinstein, Mia Serafino, Amadeus
Serafini, Crispin Glover
From the nineties through the early aughts there were a
series of drownings of young men throughout the Midwest, and upon noticing a pattern
of smiley face graffiti accompanying these tragic deaths, a few law enforcement
experts, including two detectives, put forward a theory that these were serial
murders. This has been shot down and ridiculed by the crime-fighting community
writ large, but the basic idea of this inspired this thriller from director Tim
Hunter and the mind of writer Bret Easton Ellis (Less Than Zero, American
Psycho). If you’re familiar with Ellis’ work, broadly, a good portion of
this movie feels very in line with his vision of the world. Young, upper-middle-class
men and their many social struggles. His characters are, almost by definition,
hard to relate to, which makes for a tough sell in what is ostensibly a slasher
movie or, at the very least, a film styled as one.