In April of 2012, L.S. Riley was having
nightmares. He’d always been a night person, staying up well after his
roommate had fallen asleep, but now he had even more of
a reason to stay out of bed. Riley had once heard someone say that fresh
air was the best way to chase the demons away, so he’d started taking night walks to avoid
the terrors in his sleep. But Riley was about to learn a hard lesson: The worst nightmares are
the ones that come for you when you’re wide awake. This is the story of the Smiling Man. What happened? Who is he? Why are some
smiles so creepy? And most importantly, how could you survive an encounter with
him? There’s only one way to find out... Like we said, Riley had a habit of taking
nighttime walks. He lived downtown in a major US city, and he’d been taking his nocturnal
strolls around town for four years without any kind of incident. He’d once joked to a friend
of his that in this city, even the drug dealers were polite. Maybe that’s why he let his guard
down on the one night that he needed it most. It was Wednesday, a little after 1:00 AM,
and Riley was walking further away from his apartment than he usually would.
He was at a police-patrolled park, normally as safe as your back yard.
He noticed that the whole town seemed unusually dead tonight - he hadn’t seen anyone
during the entire duration of his walk. But as he rounded the corner into a small, dark
side street, that was about to change. In the distance, he saw the silhouette of a
tall, lanky man, dancing. It was a kind of odd, loping waltz, somewhere between a dance
and a walk. There was something off about the man. Something uncanny. Riley shooed away the
irrational fears and figured the guy had probably just had a few too many drinks at a local bar.
He walked out onto the road to give the stranger more space on the sidewalk, but as the two got
closer, Riley realized he’d made a mistake. The man was moving a little too gracefully
to be a drunk. He was dressed in an old suit, his face craned up, looking at the
night sky. Riley noticed his eyes were practically bugging out of his head,
and most notably, he was wearing a wide, toothy smile. The kind of smile that looks
almost like it hurts. A creepy, cartoon grin. Riley crossed the street to give the Smiling
Man a wide berth, but the man stopped, perfectly parallel with him across the
street. He was looking in Riley’s direction, still facing skywards. Riley kept moving, wanting
to put as much distance between them as possible. A block later, he looked over his shoulder,
and saw the Smiling Man crouched in the shadows a few feet behind him. Still grinning,
bearing his teeth like a predator. Riley was frozen as the Smiling Man rose
to his feet and began waltzing towards him, faster than any person should be able to. He was
in grabbing distance when the Smiling Man stopped in front of him. Terrified, Riley choked out a
desperate noise. He wanted to sound intimidating, instead, he sounded terrified. But Riley
got lucky - the Smiling Man turned tail, and began waltzing off in the other direction. Riley got moving again. He was closer to
his apartment; he just needed to get inside, and then he’d be safe. But that’s when he heard
the footsteps behind him: Pounding at the asphalt. He turned and saw the Smiling Man sprinting
towards him like a maniac, eyes bulging, smile still freakishly wide. Lucky for Riley,
perhaps because of fear and adrenaline, he could run faster. He sprinted until his legs burned
and he was finally able to lose the Smiling Man. He returned to his apartment that night,
traumatized but alive. He lived in that city for six months after that, but he never
took a night time walk again. The nightmares in his head had nothing on the nightmare he
encountered on the streets that one night. Riley knew from something in the man’s face
that he wasn’t drunk and he wasn’t high. He was truly, dangerously insane, and Riley
had been lucky to escape with his life. Riley posted this story on the r/LetsNotMeet
subreddit, a place for people to post real, frightening encounters they’ve had with strange
people across the globe. It seemed like a freaky isolated incident, but as it turns out, L.S.
Riley was only one of many people who’d had terrifying encounters with the Smiling Man. He
was just the person to finally give it a name. In fact, so many people out there had had their
own experience with this terrifying grinning phantom, they started the r/TheSmilingMan
subreddit to share their experiences. A user named PoptartMuncher relayed a terrifying
encounter outside his home. He saw a distant, waltzing figure as he was pulling into his
driveway. When he got out of his car and began walking towards his house, the figure broke
into a frantic sprint, just like in Riley’s story. PoptartMuncher ran into his home in a panic,
locking all the doors and windows. That’s when the Smiling Man appeared at his front door, trying
to slide it open, his face pressed up against the glass. He grinned and hissed out the words, “I’ll
be back again for you”, before waltzing away. Another user with the appropriate handle
“grinningmanwatching” had the Smiling Man appear outside of his home in the dead of night. He
lived in an isolated farmhouse out in the woods, so when an unusually tall, grinning
creep appeared in his yard, staring in through the windows, he knew that
nobody was coming to help him. He was just lucky that the Smiling Man wasn’t able to
enter his home that night, and eventually decided to waltz off of the property. Things
could have gone a hell of a lot worse. A former Smiling Man-skeptic with the username
Anonyme13 had the closest encounter yet. While outside his home, he saw the Smiling
Man appear and begin waltzing towards him. He looked so terrifying and unnatural that Anonyme
literally collapsed to the floor as he approached. The Smiling Man crouched over him, and leaned
in so their faces were almost touching. Anonyme described feeling the man’s breath on his skin: It
was cold, like a winter breeze. He got lucky, and the Smiling Man let him go. He was able to get up,
limp back into his home, and shut the monster out. The subreddit moderator, a user called
HeckToTheYeah65, studied all the entries on the subreddit to extrapolate the
best description of the Smiling Man. He’s always above six feet tall, often wearing
an old-fashioned suit and sometimes a small hat. He often looks up at the sky and can be
identified immediately from his strange, waltzing gait. Many of the stories seem to come
from the state of Iowa, and he typically stalks dark streets and isolated homes. And of course,
he’s never seen without his wide, unnatural smile. So who or what is the Smiling Man? He’s
become the stuff of Internet legend, and fans have drawn parallels with a number of
popular creepypastas. These include Smile Dog, the classic tale of an image believed by many
to be pure evil. If you haven’t seen our video on Smile Dog already, the gist is that it’s
an image of a Siberian Husky with a wide, demonic human smile. Anyone who sees the image
is haunted in their dreams by the monster, encouraging them to “Spread the Word” and
infect more victims by showing them the photo. Another, similar Creepypasta often associated
with the Smiling Man is “The Grinning Man.” In this story, the narrator’s friend dies a
horrific death. The only lead on what may have caused it is an email he received, containing
a photo of a grinning face and the trigger word “Desperation.” Exposure to this is believed
to cause violent insanity in victims. However, this isn’t the only Grinning Man often associated
with the monster we’re covering in this video. And if the connection holds water, the Smiling Man may
have been around for a lot longer than we thought. The town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, is no
stranger to weirdness. If the name is familiar to you, it’s because it was where the legendary
Mothman was first sighted. But a lesser known monster was also sighted here by a sewing machine
salesman named Woodrow “Woody” Derenberger in 1966. Woody was driving along a hill just outside
Parkersburg on Interstate 77 when he encountered a strange vehicle: It looked almost like a giant oil
lamp, traveling towards him on the road. He pulled over in sheer confusion. That’s when a hatch
in the vehicle opened, and someone stepped out. He was a strange man with a dark
overcoat and an unseasonably dark tan, but the strangest thing of all was his freakishly
wide grin. The man identified himself to Woody as Indrid Cold, and told him that this would be the
first of several encounters. But Woody reported that Cold’s grin didn’t shift once during this
conversation - he was speaking telepathically. He even encouraged Woody to share the story with
the authorities, before climbing back into his strange vehicle and disappearing. Two other men
reported a similar experience that same night, describing the grinning Cold disembarking from
his craft and asking them strange questions. Cold kept his word and met up with Woody several
times after that. He told the sewing machine salesman that he was an alien from a planet named
Lanulos, simply visiting earth. The 1960s were a real heyday for mysterious, grinning figures. A
few weeks before Indrid Cold allegedly appeared in West Virginia, two young boys - James Yanchitis
and Martin ‘Mouse’ Munov - encountered a similar figure in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Both boys claim
to have spotted the “Strangest man they ever saw” standing behind a chain link fence. He
didn’t say a word, he just stood there, freakishly tall and grinning like a maniac. That
certainly sounds like the Smiling Man to us. Nobody could blame you for feeling freaked out
right now. Is he an alien, a monster, a demon, or just a dangerous, smiling lunatic? And why is
a smile - a facial expression meant to indicate happiness - so disturbing in the right context?
According to a research study performed by the University of Minnesota, it all depends on
the type of smile. The study aimed to find out what makes a smile seem likable, and what
makes a smile seem creepy or off-putting. The study found that the following features were
often associated with creepy and threatening smiles: Being too wide, showing too many teeth,
and conforming to a “V” shape. Sound familiar? According to a meta-study published by the BBC,
there are nineteen different types of Smile, each one communicating something different.
The Smiling Man’s signature grin seems closest to what the article calls the “Angry-Enjoyment
Smile.” These wide, fixed grins often indicate a malicious intent, or a kind of sick joy in
hurting others. That’s why it’s often applied to frightening villains, from Jack Torrance to
The Joker, and the Smiling Man is no exception. Sometimes, a smile like that of the Smiling
Man can indicate sickness and disease. The rare illness Risus Sardonicus, often
associated with tetanus and Wilson’s Disease, can cause facial muscle spasms that
force the face into a malicious smile, or “Rictus Grin.” This definitely sounds like
the Smiling Man’s painful-looking cartoon grin. Finally, how can you hope to avoid the Smiling
Man? Well, according to the Smiling Man subreddit, your best bet is to avoid going out at night -
especially if you live in a quiet or isolated area - keep your doors and windows locked, and
if you ever encounter the Smiling Man himself, don’t make a noise and get out of
the area as quickly as possible. The Smiling Man could be anywhere now.
Perhaps even a little closer than you think... Now check out “Scary Urban Legends
That Will Keep You Up At Night” and “True Scary Stories - TRY NOT TO GET SCARED
CHALLENGE 2019” for more terrifying videos!
