10 Horror Short Films Hollywood Should Adapt To Full Length

Not to be confused with another short film called The Smiling Man, this particular short directed by Michael Evans doesn't need makeup or effects to bring about genuine, heart-stopping terror. A young man walks the streets at two in the morning and encounters a creepy, seemingly drunk man, who at first dances towards him in a way that toes the line between innocently foolish, and full of menacing intent. Then the smiling man starts running toward him.

Hearkening back to the simpler human fears used in films like It Follows, 2AM - The Smiling Man, based on a well-known Creepypasta or online horror story, presents only a normal, yet slightly off-putting tall man instead of some frighteningly inhuman monster, but his movements, his behaviour, and his vacillating between silliness and horror, very effectively drops into uncanny valley territory.

And like It Follows, this strange, almost-but-not-obviously supernatural presence whose only fear-tactic is making you wonder whether or not he's actually going to hurt you before it's too late, would make for some timeless and ingenious horror storytelling.

With stories like Slender Man getting the Hollywood treatment, the possibility of a strain of Creepypasta-based horror films isn't that farfetched.