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"Some smiles show cheer; some merely show teeth."
There's something extremely disconcerting about a smile that doesn't have an ounce of happiness in it. It's downright scary when the smile is in anticipation of pain or death - yours, probably. Somehow, the thought of being attacked by someone who's clearly enjoying it is more terrifying than a faceless assailant, or even by someone who's dark and brooding. Needless to say, the Slasher Smile does not inspire confidence in anyone who sees it.
The Slasher Smile is the evil sibling of the Cheshire Cat Grin. In general, the difference is in the eyes of the character. If the eyes sparkle, or are mischievously wicked, it's a Cheshire Cat Grin. If, however, the eyes are clearly crazy or malevolent, it's a Slasher Smile. If the grinning person is holding a knife or an axe, it's definitely a Slasher Smile.
While the Cheshire Cat Grin is a staple of the Trickster, generally one of the good guys, the Slasher Smile is the staple of the Ax Crazy, unless said hero is a particularly dark or vicious Anti Hero. Only expect to see a "nice" hero with a Slasher Smile if they've been possessed or suffered a major Freak Out or if they have been taken over by their Super Powered Evil Side. Also, a devious Chessmaster or Magnificent Bastard is unlikely to look like this - it's too obviously evil. They prefer the Psychotic Smirk. The Slasher Smile is the premise of The Dragon or the antagonistic Mad Scientist. Killers who are insane as well as evil quite like to use this as well. It isn't exactly the hallmark of a well-balanced, rational mind. Creatures who physically devour their victims ( vampires, etc.) also tend to use this... in their case, it means "Hello, lunch!"
Some characters with a Slasher Smile wear the grin all the time — in fact, it's physically impossible for them to move their face out of it. This has the added worry of meaning that you can never tell what they're thinking, because their face betrays no expression beyond the smile.
May be part of the fear behind the Monster Clown.
Contrast Dissonant Serenity for a calm mood which isn't the slightest bit more reassuring. When the smile is merely creepy, it's The Un Smile.
Nothing to do with the pleased smiles of Slash Fic fans upon the detection of impending Ho Yay / Les Yay. Well, most of the time anyway.
Examples
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Anime and Manga
- Katekyo Hitman Reborn: Birds. And Mukuro as well. Hooo Boooy...
- A few members of Tsuna's harem do this sometimes too, namely Gokudera, and Hibari.
- Xanxus too, his smile is terrifying.
- No one mentioned Bel and his twin? Who also adds Cheshire Cat Grin and evil giggles to the mix.
- Xellos from The Slayers has this in spades. It's less common to see him not smiling than to see him with a smile(or a convenient Psychotic Smirk) on his lips, but if he's smiling and his eyes are open, you're in serious trouble. Especially exemplified as he's sadistically torturing Valgaav in TRY and a highly amused smile never leaves Xellos' face, backed up by a truly psychotic giggle.
- Hollow Ichigo from Bleach has a constant psychotic grin when he takes over.
- Also from Bleach, Kenpachi Zaraki wears one when he's really enjoying a fight.
- Not to mention Ikkaku. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that even if they haven't been shown doing it, it's a fairly safe bet that any member of the Eleventh division is going to be prone to these.
- As well as Grimmjow Jeagerjaques.
- Gin Ichimaru always seems to have one of these plastered over his face at all times.
- Though it may be fake. He's very much aware of the effect he has on people and intentionally plays it up for his own amusement.
- And let us not forget Mayuri Kurotsuchi...
- How come no one's mentioned Nnoitra Jiruga yet?
- Subverted, the guy only smiles when he is enjoying the fight. When he's losing, that doesn't exactly register and when he grins, its really to hide the fact that he is getting on edge because he's losing.
- Anti Hero example: Revy from Black Lagoon frequently gets this kind of grin when she's busy gunning down bad guys in one of the show's shootouts, in particular the first major shootout at the Yellow Flag against the Extra Order mercenaries in the first episode.
- In the manga arc El Baile De La Muerte, Roberta, as her sanity continues to spiral downward into Ax Crazyville, starts sporting these. And so came the time when she snapped one of Shenhua's throwing knives, WITH HER TEETH, while wearing THE Slasher Smile. Bad Ass.
- Creepy Twins Hansel and Gretel take this trope to a ridiculous level. Think vampires.
- Balalaika's a kid in a candy store during the "Fujiyama Gangster Paradise" Arc. She's ordering hits, snapping necks, and holding a gun to Rock's head with that huge grin.
- Even Rock get ones when he proposes something that just... incomprehensible by most villain standards (like asking mercy for their victims). Justified since he stated that he asked for it because he likes it, just like the bad dudes loves to blow themselves up.
- Touma of To Aru Majutsu No Index, episode nine. So very creepy and so very very awesome.
- And intentional. Considering he's not even an antihero, the psychological warfare aspect is neat.
- Accelerator is always seen with a evil smile when he is enjoying a good fight or a massacre, maybe because his awesome powers makes many times the fights boring, for example when an entire army tried to beat him, when the Misaka sisters tried to fight him and one the most boring "fights" he had was when Mikoto Misaka tried to attack him, he really looked bored.
- Agito of Air Gear. He has this whole shark fang thing going on.
- Osaka's attempt to "wake up" Yukari in Azumanga Daioh fell into this from a different angle. Osaka always looks a bit blank, and she was half-asleep when she tried it... which just resulted in her standing in the doorway with a blank, empty smile and a large knife. She had no violent intentions, but she sure as hell looked like
 someone was gonna get stabbed.
- Probably her. Earlier in the episode she expressed a lifelong dream of waking someone by banging a ladle on a pan next to their ear. The only thing keeping Osaka from cutting off her own hand was Yukari woke up when Osaka opened the door.
- A slightly more trope-y Slasher Smile (more of a Slasher Smirk) is here, at about 0:40.
- Dilandau from Vision Of Escaflowne has every kind of slasher expression in the book.
- Lucy from Elfen Lied, especially in the manga, seems to only smile whenever she is about to brutally kill somebody.
- Then there's Bandou, the cruel kids from Lucy's childhood as they torment her and kill her puppy, and Mariko.
- Kuroudo Akabane from Getbackers's happy face.
- Legato Bluesummers from Trigun has probably the most nonchalant Slasher Smile ever.
- His boss, Millions Knives, has quite a few of his own.
- Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni. Pretty much everyone has them by the dozens. The real culprit, though, has a perpetually blank appearance, which is even creepier in contrast.
- Alucard from Hellsing is almost ALWAYS doing this. When he isn't, it's either a Psychotic Smirk or the rarely-seen slasher frown. Anderson does it a lot, too.
- Asuka cracks a lovely example of this smile when fighting the Mass Production EVAs in End of Evangelion.
- Compared to some other examples on this page, Akito from Fruits Basket tends to be a little understated. Still, his clear enjoyment when emotionally torturing the other members of the Zodiac warrant his inclusion, or when tormenting Tohru.
- For that matter, Hatsuharu (or rather, Black Haru) has some pretty disturbing smiles, that are nonetheless better than the alternative (in the vein of "I'm going to love kicking your ass" is better than "I'm going to kill you").
- In Full Metal Alchemist anime, Gluttony adopts a slasher smile with the addition of a lolling tongue after Dante destroys his vestiges of humanity.
- In the manga, both Kimblee and Envy are serial slasher smilers. It's almost a fixed feature of the latter's true form.
- Don't forget Barry the Chopper.
- When Guts, the Anti Hero from Berserk, smiles, it is usually one of these. This should be your signal to run, as he's usually in a blood-spilling mood when he's got that grin.
- Frequently sported by Viral from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
- Which is fitting, given that he's part shark.
- Simon also gets one of these when he turns on Rossiu and yells at him about how Rossiu's "gods" killed Kamina.
- Death Note: As L dies, before he closes his eyes he sees Light looking at him with one of these. Higuichi, too, after getting the Shinigami Eyes. One look at that creepy face and death will follow, without the Death Note.
- Light again, during the finale (at least in the manga), sports one so big he gets cross-eyed.
- Mikami Teru, one of the most psychotic of the Kiras, also sports one of these on occasion.
- The Death God Ryuk also has one permanently etched to his face, along with More Teeth Than The Osmond Family. Light showed what a badass he is when he only was seriously freaked out for a few seconds, when Ryuk spontaneously appeared in his bedroom.
- In Naruto, Gaara displays a particularly frightening one of these◊ during his fight with Rock Lee during the Chuunin Exams, after Lee knocks off the sand armor covering his face.
- Then during particularly grueling battles Naruto (or rather the Kyuubi displays this, most notably when Sasuke talks to the Kyuubi in Naruto's mind), as well as Hidan, Deidara, Orochimaru, and Sasuke.
- Naruto also(by himself) displayed two slasher smiles in the 101 episode of the anime. And some of the smiles he makes when he's about to do(or just finished) a prank can have traces of this.
- Recently, Sasuke wears one while stabbing through Karin to get Danzo. RUN.
- And here's another exemplary performance from Gaara.
- D.Gray-Man's Tyki Mikk will do this sometimes. This is a sign that he's about to pluck out your heart. The Millennium Earl is a cross between this, a Stepford Smiler, and a Monster Clown with his perpetual huge, cheery, and absolutely horrific grin. In fact, every single member of the Noah family seems to do this occasionally.
- Perpetual Frowner Vicious from Cowboy Bebop rarely smiles. This only makes it spookier when he flashes a particularly chilling slasher smile right as he's picking up the Anti Hero lead by the neck and throwing him through a stained glass cathedral window.
- Nobody's mentioned Lil' Slugger from Paranoia Agent??
- Joshua Christopher of Chrono Crusade has a tendency to smile like this, thanks to the demon's horns on his head driving him insane.
- Drosselmeyer's smile◊ in Princess Tutu would almost seem like a Cheshire Cat Grin if it wasn't for the fact that he's stark raving mad and takes pleasure out of people's suffering.
- Iwao Washizu from Akagi. The smile gets wider and wider the more time he's on screen.
- The Numbers Cyborg Due from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha whenever she goes for the kill, which is almost every scene she's in.
- Warsman, from Kinnikuman, is a cyborg. Predictably, he normally can't smile... unless he's in his batshit psychotic personality, in which case he sports the Warsman Smile. He did use it once, while normal, to catch an arrow in his mouth, though.
- With Getter Robo, it'd be easier to list the characters who don't have one of these plastered on their faces most of the time. Ryoma in particular seems to have this as his natural expression.
- You could say that about many of Go Nagai's works...
- Russia when he's not being a Stepford Smiler.
- Japan once saw Italy pull this off, while looking through something that lets him see everyone's true intentions. "I'll touch the back of your head to my heart's content" indeed.
- Even a nice guy like Monkey D. Luffy of One Piece gets one of these, in the 8th opening for the show after landing on a marine ship.
- Zoro does this often too, which is suitable for a character who is often accused of being insane.
- Gecko Moria has a permanent Slasher Smile, but it's most apparent during his Villainous Breakdown.
- Thorfinn, when he does smile. Thorkell's is more of a Slasher Grin, with a big thumbs up thrown in there.
- Being possibly the craziest bastard in the series, Baccano!'s Claire Stanfield has an entire warehouse◊ full◊ of◊ psychotic◊, blood-soaked◊ grins◊ and◊ smirks◊ to put to use. Not to say that Ladd◊, Czeslaw◊, and Graham◊ don't get their fair share.
- Kurogane from Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles often does this.
- Michiko from Michiko To Hatchin sports one right before she breaks through a police roadblock.
- In Soul Eater, Maka gets one of these when she goes completely nuts while fighting Chrona◊.
- The various Blood Knights in Samurai Deeper Kyo often have this in their faces while really enjoying a fight. Top dog Onime no Kyo combines it with Red Eyes Take Warning and the Glowing Eyes Of Doom to create a visage unparalleled in its ominousness.
- Gyororo from Keroro Gunsou
- Mahou Sensei Negima has Tsukuyomi doing one of these when she fights Setsuna.
- Two teens of mass destruction of Out Code lapse into this when their real personalities are exposed (Psycho For Hire and Manipulative Bitch, respectively). Interestingly, both of these characters were frail-looking girls. The Mad Scientist who gave them their powers seems to owe his look to Dr. Tomoe.
- Neuro has a psychotic grin most of the time, and then he reverts to a parrot-headed-Cosmic Horror. There's also the twisted, insane looks of the criminals as they confess.
- Grelle Sutcliffe the Shinigami from Kuroshitsuji has one of these. Made even better and creepier by the fact he had just finished murdering someone a few seconds ago and covered from head to toe in blood. Too bad it isn't really seen again after this, because he's too busy being a goofball, playing with safety scissors. I'm not joking.
- Chiri gets one completely out of the blue at the end of an episode of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. Its utterly random appearance combined with its large number of teeth made it High Octane Nightmare Fuel in its purest form.
- Yu-Gi-Oh - This.
- Yami Malik's constantly sporting a Slasher Smile.
- All of the yami get one at one point or another, although Yami Malik does have the most. Another repeat offender is Yami Bakura.
- Also in the manga, the Kaiba brothers got them pretty frequently.
- As a Neat Freak, Ryuuji from Toradora gets one whenever he cleans. As in, dirt and dust and mold. Combined with his permanent death glare, he looks like he's rejoicing in the thought of committing genocide on entire societies of dust mites and mold colonies. There's a brief shot of one right in the opening theme.
- Beatrice, the Golden Witch has a rather good one, completely with not-so-Cute Little Fangs. It's a particularly common expression when she's trolling Battler.
- Gauron from Full Metal Panic usually cracks one of these whenever he's not wearing his Psychotic Smirk. HE WANTS TO RAPE YOU!!!
- Angel Densetsu's Kitano. Combine this with Face Of A Thug and you get High Octane Nightmare Fuel.
Comic Books
- The Joker from Batman had this expression glued on his face. His "Joker Venom" induces the expression in those exposed to it.
- And, in The Dark Knight, the smile wasn't just glued on, it was carved into his face.
- Actually, kind of subverted as, inspite of the Glasgow Smile, The Joker rarely actually smiles in the movie.
- The literary example, The Man Who Laughs by Victor Hugo, which is commonly cited as inspiration for The Joker, involves a man whose face is horribly mutilated so that he cannot stop smiling and how his psyche is twisted by this. See the picture at the top of this page for just how disturbing-looking the effect is in the film version. In order to maintain the grin throughout the movie, actor Conrad Veidt had to get metal hooks in his mouth to pull back his cheeks.
- What's particularly sad about The Man Who Laughs is that the character in question, Gwynplaine, is actually a gentle and honorable man in spite of his Nightmare Fuel permanent grin.
- In Frank Miller's All Star Batman, the Dark Knight himself has one in both his costumed and civilian identity, especially when thinking about his young ward. Squick.
- That Did Not Happen.
- Anti Hero example: The Midnighter, in The Authority. He loves his job and he isn't afraid to show it in the scariest manner possible.
- Johnny of Johnny The Homicidal Maniac would usually have one while torturing or killing victims. Mr. Eff and Psychodoughboy had permanent ones due to the fact that Johnny painted them onto their faces.
- Judge Death does this all the time as well. Mostly because his lips have rotted off.
- In Spiderman, Carnage's alter ego Cletus Kasady has one of these.
- In fact, symbiotes appear to have some sort of demonic smile on their faces sometimes.
- Wonder Woman villain Doctor Poison has a big creepy smile.
- George in A Game of You from the Sandman series.
- Evil Ernie. And maybe his button.
- One of the last things you want to see is Ultimate Hawkeye covered in the blood of the squad you sent to subdue him, holding their weapons and grinning into your security camera telling you, "Run", when you are part of the group responsible for his family's murder. Unfortunately for you, it is the one of the last things you're going to see.
Film
- A Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie Boogie constantly and Jack has one as his default.
- The Other Mother in Coraline does this, particularly towards the end of the movie.
- Corpse Bride has Barkis Bittern use this constantly cause he's an evil bastard and some of the dead people when they go to the land of the living.
- Barkis's smile seems more of a Psychotic Smirk — but the rotting dead's grins could definitely qualify, at least when they first arrive.
- While many horror films use this trope, the "Here's Johnny!" scene from The Shining merits a special mention.
- Yet again. Jack Nicholson uses this trope all the time, no matter what movie he's in.
- See also Kubrick Stare, which may or may not involve smiling depending on the film or the scene.
- The short horror film Smile revolves around body-snatching beings with hideous grinning faces. It's well worth a watch.
- Jim Carrey has done this trope in Ace Ventura Pet Detective, Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events, and How The Grinch Stole Christmas to demonstrate how remarkable his rubberface really is when it comes to expressions.
- The ever lovable late comedian John Candy had this expression on his face in the film Uncle Buck during the scene where he comes to the bedroom of Tia's "boyfriend" Bug to rescue Tia by drilling a hole through the doorknob, he's also holding a drill and smoking a cigar. Although generally throughout the movie Buck comes out as kind of kooky such as when he asks Tia "How would you like to spend the next several nights wondering if your crazy out of work bum uncle will shave your head while you sleep?" and where he's talking to Tia's boyfriend about burying the hatchet.
Bug: "Ever hear of a tuneup? Ah-hee-hee-hee-hee!"
Buck: "Ah-hee-hee-hee-hee! Ever hear of a ritual killing? Ah-hee-hee-hee-hee!"
Bug: "...I don't get it..."
Buck: "You gnaw on her face in public like that again and you'll be one. Ah-hee-hee-hee-hee!"
- In the Tony Jaa movie Tom Yum Goong, or The Protector, one of the many opponents that Tony faces is a Capoeira fighter, who has just attacked a Buddhist temple full of innocent people, set the place ablaze, and then attacks Tony as soon as he arrives to help. What qualifies "Mr. Fake Eddie Gordo" for this trope is the fact that while he fights Tony, he laughs, taunts Tony, and openly toys with him using feints and false moves.
- As a small side note under Hilarious In Hindsight the actor who played the Capoerista, Lateef Crowder, was later indeed cast as Eddy Gordo for the upcoming Tekken live action movie.
- Dr. Frank N Furter has one of these right before he kills Eddie with a pick axe.
- In Addams Family Values, circumstances force Wednesday to.. construct.. a smile; the result is so horrific it drives other children to tears.
- Mr. Sardonicus took liberal inspiration from the above The Man Who Laughs with the carved smile, but the character was much less of a sweet guy than Gwynplaine. It was up to the audience to decide whether he was an Anti Villain or a Complete Monster - this being a William Castle film, they were polled, and a different ending would be screened based on whether they thought he should be treated mercifully. They killed him every time, and the mercy ending is probably lost for eternity.
- It's possible that Castle— a good showman if not the greatest filmmaker— made a good guess of his audience's psychology and never filmed the other ending. (In the sequence where he's telling the audience to vote he also makes a special point of bringing up Sardonicus' more horrible moments.)
- Donnie Darko, every single time he sees his giant bunny-friend Frank. It's a little creepy, to say the least. No teeth in this one, though.
- National Lampoons Christmas Vacation has Clark Griswald become somewhat unhinged come the end of the movie as his idea of a "perfect christmas" gradually disappears; his smile, however, stays.
Literature
- A few Death Eaters display this, as does Snape on occasion and Voldemort of course in the Harry Potter series.
- Coraline: Done by the Other Mother, when she's not busy being a Stepford Smiler.
- Literary example: In Robin Jarvis' The Deptford Mice: The Dark Portal, a rat called Smiler had a Slasher Smile on his face all the time...because he'd been rude to his superior as a child, and said superior had cut off his lips.
- Both Carcer and Mr. Teatime of Terry Pratchett's Discworld books are described as smiling like this all the time. The drawing of Mr. Teatime in The Art of Discworld perfectly illustrates this. Marc Warren does a good job with this in the TV adaptation, too.
- At one point in Jingo the seriously pissed off Captain "Vimes's grin was as funny as the one that moves very fast towards drowning men. And has a fin on top."
- A rare heroic version: Ivarian Borenson, of The Runelords fantasy novels, is known for his chilling laughter and grin as he fights, which makes him feared even amongst warriors who have far more endowments (strength, stamina, speed, and so on taken from other people) than him. Not so much out of a love for killing, but because it works far better at frightening other people than a war cry, so he got himself into the habit of laughing instead.
- Lijah Cuu from the Warhammer 40000: Gaunt's Ghosts novels has one of these. In Straight Silver, it is explicitly noted that "the most evil servants of Chaos would have killed to have a smile that lethal."
- The titular creature of Edward Gorey's The Wuggly Ump.
- Jack Vance's character Iucounu the "Laughing Magician" perpetually supports one of these providing a clue that his sense of humor is not exactly benevolent
- Perhaps inspired by the above, Steven Brust's novel Five Hundred Years After has the court wizard as a minor character and he is similarly described as always smiling creepily and chuckling in a questionably sane manner.
- Cinder of the Chandrian, an Evil Albino, has a smile that is described as "the expression a nightmare wore."
- The huge, catlike Kzinti of Larry Niven's Known Space universe instinctively show their teeth when they feel a certain way. That way is not happy.
- From Alice In Wonderland:
"How cheerfully he seems to grin!
How neatly spread his claws
And welcomes little fishes in
with gently smiling jaws!"
- Mr. Grin from the Alex Rider book Stormbreaker.
- Jaime Lannister of A Song Of Ice And Fire recalls in his youth facing a particularly brutal and psychotic fighter known as 'The Smiling Knight'. 3 guesses why he is named that. Luckily even a slasher smile is no match for Ser Arthur 'The Sword in the Morning' Dayne and his greatsword Dawn.
- The Hellebore family from the Tad Williams book The War of the Flowers liked these. Anton Hellebore was described as having a smile like someone who'd learned it from a book, Lord Hellebore one with absolutely no good feelings in it, and the Terrible Child had one like someone pulling up the corners of a corpse's mouth.
- Creepy caretaker Heimertz from the Edgar and Ellen series has a constant slasher smile. During the Tv adaptation it is shown that he has had this smile since he was a child.
- Skarp-Hedin Njalson in Njal's Saga demonstrates that this one is Older Than Print. "And he grinned." is a common phrase in the story that implies that something really bad is about to go down.
- Randall Flagg/The Dark Man, is described as having a grin of such good cheer and jolliness which comes across however as so unsettling the human mind seems to block it out.
Live Action TV
- Oz: Displayed among the Complete Monster characters like Shillinger, Adebisi, the Aryans, Timmy Kirk, Claire Howell, etc. Manipulative Bastard Chris Keller and Ryan have done this too. Even Beecher, when he was crazy in Season 2.
- An episode of Xena Warrior Princess flashes back to the point in her past where Xena went from ruthless but otherwise sane and rational warlord to utterly psychotic rampager; she has one of these grins on her face when she snaps a Roman soldier's neck, but it's her eyes that are the most disturbing.
- The Gentlemen of the Buffy episode "Hush" wear Slasher Smiles for the entirety of their appearance. And they never talk, despite gesturing at each other as if they were talking. The entire effect is ridiculously creepy.
- A particularly lame episode of Star Trek The Next Generation has Data practicing his dance moves on the Holodeck while wearing an extremely disturbing, frozen rictus-like smile.
- An interesting example is the Enzyte Commercials, where Smilin' Bob has one of the most unnatural smiles ever seen in an advertisement. It's not MEANT to be a Slasher Smile, but still... BRRR!
- Scorpius of Farscape fame is infamous for wearing slasher smiles during his Crowning Moments Of Awesome- accompanied by his black gums and needle-sharp teeth.
- Not uncommon on The League Of Gentlemen, it being the High Octane Nightmare Fuel filling station that it is. Most notably used by Papa Lazarou (who combines a nasty, clownish grin with yellow teeth) and Hilary Briss (whose smile really does not reach his eyes).
- In the British TV series Jekyll the main character's Hyde persona is equipped with a frightening Slasher Smile. It was slightly surprising that James Nesbitt could pull off something like this.◊
- Angelus, Spike, Warren, if I'm forgetting anyone, just insert it here.
- The Big Bang Theory's Sheldon has a particularly disturbing smile that prompts his friends to say they're there to congratulate their friend, not kill Batman.
Music
- Michael Jackson turns to the camera with cat eyes and a creepy smile at the end of his Thriller music video.
- One of the detective's other selves in the music video for Blind Guardian's "Another Stranger Me." The band's singer also has a Slasher Smile at one point.
- "The Guy," the mascot of the metal band Disturbed, is always depicted with this (always.)
- Danny Elfman practically made a living doing this in the 70's and 80's. There's hardly any Oingo Boingo music video (or film, for that matter) in which he doesn't spend a few seconds scaring the living crap out of the audience. Overly obnoxious talk show hosts occasionally got the silent treatment from him, combined with a trademark psychotic grin.
- And then there's...well, everyone but the band in the video for Soundgarden's Black Hole Sun. Brr.
- Does Richard D. James count?
- In The Birthday Massacre's song Happy Birthday ( 3 guesses as to what it's about), there's the lines:
- I think my friend said, "Don't forget the video." / I think my friend said, " Don't forget to smile."
Toys
- The Piraka of Bionicle all have giant Slasher Smiles plastered on their faces.
- The story points out that their frowns are worse.
Video Games
Web Comics
- The Jägermonsters (clawed, fanged, monstrous Super Soldiers) from the webcomic Girl Genius have been known to do this - and most of them are on the good guys' side.
- The titular heroine herself, though not a violent person, is also prone to sporting a scary grin when she's in the "madness place", ie. in the throes of a bout of mad SCIENCE! And when she does, the Jägermonsters stay the hell out of her way...
- Played for laughs in Questionable Content when Dora puts her foot down on Faye being friendly to customers, and the best she can manage is scaring them off with what Dora calls a "horrible rictus." The title of the strip is even "Why So Serious?"
- Dora sports one of her own here. The broadsword doesn't hurt, either.
- And Hannelore displays a very disturbing one when she sees a nice little kitty named Mieville.
- Jenny Curtiss uses this to convince her boss in this scene from 21st Century Fox.
- The author even hangs a Shoutout Lampshade on it.
- Florence Ambrose from Freefall often falls prey to this by accident when trying to be friendly, probably because she's a genetically engineered anthropomorphic wolf.
- She uses it deliberately to convince Sam to do what she wants him to.
- No Rest For The Wicked has a classic instance from the quite-probably Ax Crazy Red.
- Psycho For Hire Belkar from Order Of The Stick sports one in this issue, causing his Dangerously Genre Savvy party members to run for their lives.
- Joel of Concession sports a prime example here.
- This is the default facial expression for Lawler◊, the Psycho For Hire of White Noise.
- Freckle McMurray of Lackadaisy is a good, innocent, law-abiding Catholic boy... until he gets his little hands on a gun. The Slasher Smile is just the first sign that his inner Ax Crazy is coming out.
- Ken from No Need For Bushido has a memorable one going in the last panel of this comic. It's worth noting that he also has one both in the strip before that one and two strips after. Those poor mooks...
- Nina in this Eerie Cuties strip.
- Kimi of Caribbean Blue here.
- Of all people, Rayne from Least I Could Do sports one here.
- Cry Havoc has Skoll, who sports one when fighting hand to hand against a fire team of rebels armed only with a sword.
Web Original
- Tez On Toast from KateModern, for whom this expression may as well be a smile of recognition. Truly chilling.
- The Tails Doll Short, which can be found here. You will never, EVER look at Tails the same way again.
- Red, the fox from Ruby Quest has a slasher smile which is of Eldritch Origin
- That Guy With The Glasses will tell you all about the Slasher Smile, in great detail. Just ask him.
Western Animation
- Fred in the Courage The Cowardly Dog episode "Freaky Fred".
- Many cartoon sharks grin at their victims as they sneak up from behind. For instance, the Finding Nemo promotional posters featured a blood-crazed Bruce looming over Dory and Marlin.
- Possibly an example of Truth In Television, or, more accurately, Urban Legend In Television. In the past, some people believed that sharks grinned and winked as they moved in for the kill. In actual fact, sharks' jaws swing down and forward to allow them to bite, and a membrane moves to cover their eyes so that they don't get damaged in the assault. The look certainly gives the appearance of a scary grin, which may go some way to explain why sharks are such demonised predators. Mind you, it seems unlikely that anyone being attacked by a shark would care whether it looked like it was grinning or not.
- In a similar vein: "I grin at thee, thou grinning whale."
- Invader Zim typically dons one of these before unleashing doom on the Puny Earthlings, more-likely-than-not followed by an Evil Laugh.
- Ratigan of The Great Mouse Detective sports a huge one after he's convinced he's mauled Basil to death.
- Gaston sports one at the start of his fight with the Beast in Beauty And The Beast.
- And yet another after stabbing the Beast in the side.
- Chuck Jones' How The Grinch Stole Christmas! has the titular character grow one that takes up most of his face when he gets the "wonderful, awful idea!" to steal Christmas.
- Psycho, aka "Smiley," The Dragon from Max Steel.
- Mr. Crocker from The Fairly Odd Parents is an expert in these kinds of smiles.
- Timmy's massive grin from near the end of "The Five Days of Flarg" is where one of the page quotes comes from, but the smile itself probably counts as a Cheshire Cat Grin.
- That grin was made even funnier when it shatters. Literally. Complete with a sound of breaking glass.
- Duncan from Total Drama Island shows these from time to time. More so in the second season.
- Played with in the Yu Gi Oh The Abridged Series with Kaiba's normal-looking, yet still-disturbing smile. "Every time Kaiba smiles, a puppy dies."
- Obligatory Avatar The Last Airbender example: Azula's iconic Psychotic Smirk gradually morphs into one of these over the course of the last few episodes of the series.
- During his mental breakdowns Ren of Ren and Stimpy would often sport one of these.
- Kim Possible herself,from Kim Possible,sported one of these at the end of her movie. Right after she kicked Shego into a falling electrical tower,to what seems to be her death. However,she survives,without any injuries.
- She also flashes one to Drakken before flattening him (and not for the first time) as well as to Jim and Tim when she thinks of the idea of soccer being a contact sport, when she thinks of paying homage to {{The Incredibles: Dash}} in Queen Bebe, and maybe a few other instances. And she's the good guy.
- Sponge Bob Squarepants wins a prize. He waits for it at the mailbox for an impossibly long time. He finally gets it, and it turns out to be a toy. Patrick, his idiot starfish friend, "breaks" it. Spongebob just has a frozen smile on his face as he looks down at it. The smile stays on the entire following conversation:
- The Joker, in all of his appearances. His good guy counterpart gets one of these in Brave and the Bold, too.
- ReBoot 's Hexadecimal had many masks with different emotions, with which she expressed herself, but her Slasher Smile mask is arguably the most (in)famous of all. Scarcely an episode went by without her using it at least once, and she always insisted on sticking her face right up against the camera when she used it. Brrr...
- Jimmy Two Shoes: Heloise, being Heloise, is prone to these. It's strangely adorable on her.
Real Life
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