Tubi Thursday: Smile (2009)

 Wait- is the new one a rip-off?

You'll just have to wait and see...

A bunch of people are traveling through Morocco on break from College.

Yes...College.  Sure.

They randomly stop watching the road and nearly crash.

Our Heroine- who narrates the Intro, but no other part- loses a camera to a sneaky person.

She buys a new...actually old camera from...Armand Assante?!?

Yes, he's in this, after randomly appearing in the Cold Open with zero context.

It is an instant camera from the '60s, which is fine until a strange man tries to kill them in the Woods.

Said man dies later- off-screen- after they take his picture.  He rants about it leading to people's deaths.

They don't believe it until more of their friends die a bit after having their picture taken.

The means varies quite a bit, but somehow all relates to Assante.

Our Heroes escape the city and then just go online to dump exposition to explain what was going on.

I won't SPOIL it- it's kind of too dumb/silly for me.

To find out what happened, stream the Film.

It's...alright.  I was hoping to uncover a hidden gem.

Sadly, many of these Films aren't famous or notable because they are just not that good or interesting.

In many ways, this is more like a Final Destination Film, just without the bizarre flourishes and with much more dubbing.  The Characters are all pretty one-dimensional, sadly.  At least the FD Films kind of make up for that...but not Smile.

The idea of a haunted camera is a good one.  A version of it was used many times over the years, be it the Fatal Frame (in the U.S.) Series or that one Paranormal Activity Film.  It's just a shame that the execution is pretty lame.

When it all comes down to it, the Film is slow-paced, full of Characters that aren't interesting and only kind of picks up at the end.  

Does the Ending make much sense?  No.  That said, it is weird to see an Italian Director- Francesco Gasperoni- do a J-Horror riff.

The only non-Horror appeal here is all of the legit footage of Morocco.  Speaking of legit, here's the ORIGINAL 2009 Poster...

***Above is the original Poster.  Below is the Poster for 2022's Smile.  See it now? ***

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