A sleep-deprived corner store clerk wonders if he's seeing things when a man mysteriously appears on his security camera feed - but not in the store itself.
Direction
Split-screen dread builds perfectly in 8 minutes
Practical Effects
Simple effect that'll wreck your sleep schedule
Acting
Gunner Willis sells exhaustion-turned-terror flawlessly
Director
Ryan Polly
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The Smiling Man became a minor viral horror icon, spawning copycat prank videos and Reddit threads debating whether the short was 'real found footage.'
The entire film was shot in a single night at an actual closed gas station, with Jacob Daniels improvising his unsettling movements after the directors showed him footage of sleepwalkers.
US
