Entity 3 - Smilers

A picture of a Smiler.

**Smilers**, also known as **The Smiling Things** or **The Night Hunters**, are treacherous entities that roam most of The Backrooms' levels. The only distinguishable features of **Smilers** are their beady eyes and the enormous grins carved across their faces — the only things which reflect light.

**Smilers** thrive in dark and damp areas. While generally passive, it is not difficult to agitate them through sudden flashes of light or visible light sources, as they are hypersensitive to this type of electromagnetic radiation. Wanderers who navigate dark levels with the aid of light run the risk of triggering **Smilers**, which will then give chase. The danger is further compounded when multiple **Smilers** are nestled together in their dormant state, as triggering one will typically trigger the entire group. If a wanderer is fast enough, they may be able to escape **Smilers** with their life. Other strategies may be employed as well, such as extinguishing the light source, or dropping it as a distraction to preoccupy them. When perturbed, the **Smilers**will prioritize destroying the light source over murdering the wanderer. If the light is too close to the wanderer, however, they will unfortunately be caught in the frenzy. The entities will attack with slashes and chomps, leaving deep gashes. Noticeable and rapid blood loss will result, and as such it is advised to treat wounds as soon as possible. Those who escape attacks from **Smilers** are typically left with extensive and long-lasting scars.

Many of the injuries and casualties that caused by **Smilers** are mostly facial, where wanderers who were massacred by the entities will have their mouth sliced to mimic a smile similar to a Glasgow Smile. Sometimes, there may be a message left nearby that usually says that the wanderer should smile more, in black "paint", as if the entities used a bodily substance to write the words. **Smilers'** manner of speech is best described as a garbled, echoing mess of human voices, sounding similar to that of a 30-year-old male. While no comprehensible sentence structure can be made out, a few words can. It is theorized by many that these are snippets of words spoken by the entities' previous victims, similar to a parrot mimicking the sounds of other animals.

The earliest discovery/mention of a **Smiler** was back in 2008, when a wanderer was talking through a dark corridor in **Level 3** and heard a deep, muffled noise. Upon seeing a smile flashing in the distance, they "ran away as far as they possibly could". The entity's nickname was adapted from what the wanderer had described it as: "A **Smiler**".

There have been earlier reports of **Smilers**, though many of them are inconsistent and conflicting, to the point that they were ultimately ruled out by M.E.G. operatives as legitimate sightings. until further proof had been discovered. Many of these old reports stated that these entities were smiling objects that seemed to be floating supernaturally, and many others had reported descriptions that seemed to identically match the ones of **Smilers**, though it was disregarded due to the lack of supporting evidence.

The Smiler is attracted to light, and will chase anything they see with a light, so distracting it by throwing a light source at it would be great for an escape. The Entity will only start to attack if you panic and retreat, or if a loud noise is made. Keep eye contact, and move away slowly to ensure your survival. Using a Smiler Exterminator will cause the Entity to retreat or lose its senses for a long period of time. Smilers have a long smile with multiple sharp teeth, and have white glowing eyes; It is unknown what else it has for its biology, though it is rumored to have a physical body, which cannot be seen with the human eye. It's rumored they have non-human, alien-like bodies, with arms and legs bent in unnatural ways, but this is unconfirmed. The M.E.G. is currently trying to find out more about its biology at the moment.