A lone traveller. An empty train station at the height of night. Beware the Smiling Woman. Watch the short horror film below:
The mind plays on you when you're alone in the dark; there's an entire phobia because of it, after all. Whether you're staring into the void of your pitch-black bedroom, or cowering under the flickering light of a solo street lamp, you see what you don't want to see.
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Imagine you're heading for the midnight train (going anywh- sorry), and as you wait out in the cold at the station, you see a woman with a tilted head and yellow dress staring at you from the opposite platform.
What do you do? How long do you give it before you say something? What if the moment you took a look at your phone, she disappeared out of view, only to materialise about 10ft away from you on your platform?
This is the escalating horror of Smiling Woman, a short horror film directed by Alex Magaña. As the 'girl' (Ariel Fullinwider) tries to talk to the titular grinner (Merlynda Sol), she vanishes once more, before reappearing right in front of her.
She makes a desperate run for it. As she tries to escape, she appears on the stairs and starts creepily dancing towards her. The girl ends up on an empty street, seemingly in the clear – before she turns her head, and the film comes to an end.
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Since being shared on YouTube in 2019, it has racked up more than seven million views and thousands of comments.
One wrote: "This film gave me literal chills. Amazing. Well done!" Another commented: "Brilliant, the way she got down the stairs was funny to watch but I can imagine how horrible it'd be in reality."
A third wrote: "Amazing. This short is so basic and generic. Yet is more chilling than some typical horror films with bigger budgets. Well done and perfectly executed. Much love to all that took part at creating this masterpiece."
The creepypasta aficionados among you may recognise elements of the film. It appears to have taken some inspiration from The Smiling Man, a short story about a man who encounters a terrifying, seemingly drunken man late at night.
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This was later adapted by Michael Evans in 2AM: The Smiling Man, a short film with nearly 14m views on YouTube, which received a similarly positive reception.
One user wrote: "The creepy part of this for me is the fact that you wouldn't really be prepared for anything like this. I feel like I would just freeze up, because it's such a bizarre situation."
Another comment summed it up best: "Moral of the story: do not go on a walk at 2am like a lunatic."
Topics: TV and Film
Cameron Frew