A few months ago, I shared writer/director Alex J. Mann's short films 3 SECONDS and ME2, both of which used the set-up of young women using social media (Snapchat in the case of 3 SECONDS, Instagram for ME2) on their smartphones to tell a story of supernatural horror. Today, Mann has released his latest short WINK, which also starts with a young woman using her smartphone while home alone. But this time it's not social media that's the source of the horror. This time it's text messages and the emojis that people use to communicate through them.
When this young woman, played by Danielle Victoria, finds that the emojis have gone missing from her phone, she soon realizes they have left the phone to invade her home.
Sony Pictures has an emoji movie coming out next year, an animated kids' film, and I can guarantee their EMOJIMOVIE will not be as appealing to me as this crazy slasher short is. The only way WINK could be better is if it were a little longer and had even more smiley slashing… I almost wish this was a full feature.