The Mystery of the Creepy Smiling People at Baseball Games Has Been Solved

The trend of unsettlingly grinning faces in crowds is a marketing campaign for the movie "Smile"

A still from the new horror movie "Smile." In a viral marketing campaign, people have been caught on camera with creepy, unwavering smiles in crowds at baseball games.
Those creepy smiling people you've seen at baseball games are marketing you a film.
Paramount

Those people at baseball games (and in the Good Morning America crowd) with unwavering and unnerving smiles aren’t the result of some weird virus. It’s actually part of a viral marketing campaign for a new horror movie called, natch, Smile.

A rash of devilishly smiling people — who never broke character — appeared at three MLB games last Friday (Sept. 23) and in the background of GMA, according to PopCrush. It turns out it’s a way to drum up business for Smile, a movie that opens this Friday…and probably explains why the smiling hordes were wearing “Smile” T-shirts.

The campaign, sanctioned or not, seems to be working, at least on social media (and on baseball camerapeople).

The description for Smile, per IMDB: “After witnessing a bizarre, traumatic incident involving a patient, Dr. Rose Cotter starts experiencing frightening occurrences that she can’t explain. Rose must confront her troubling past in order to survive and escape her horrifying new reality.” You can watch the movie trailer below, which does look legitimately creepy.

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