Basic Trope: A character's malicious smile is unsettling and often indicates insanity and violence.
- Straight: Before stabbing Alice, Bob smiles with his teeth exposed and his eyes wide.
- Exaggerated:
- An Eldritch Abomination has a smile so disturbing that just looking at it causes illness.
- Alice encounters "Bob", a body-snatching Serial Killer ghost, who always makes clear is possessing someone by making them do a gigantic grin a split second before he starts a rampage.
- Downplayed:
- Psychotic Smirk
- Jerkass Alice gets in trouble BIG TIME. As she's being sent to the boss, the last thing she sees is Bob giving her a shit eating grin.
- Justified: Bob is going to enjoy what he's about to do VERY MUCH.
- Inverted:
- Before stabbing Alice, Bob bares his teeth in a vicious, disturbing growl - a Slasher Scowl.
- Bob frowns, angries, glooms or is shown absolutely calm and serious, but this indicates and evokes calmness, peace and bliss.
- Dissonant Serenity
- When She Smiles
- Subverted: The Un-Smile
- Double Subverted: Bob tries harder, it just gets worse.
- Parodied:
- Bob flashes one of these while doing something good.
- Bob does this so often that his jaw starts to hurt.
- Zig Zagged: Bob's smile looks fine until you shoot him from the angle that achieves the Kubrick Stare
- Averted: Bob doesn't smile at all.
- Enforced: "Let's show how much he enjoys it, by making him smile."
- Lampshaded:
- "Bob's smile is so creepy....and why is he holding a knife?"
- "The baring of teeth is a threat display in many species...including humans, apparently."
- Invoked: Bob doesn't want to hurt Alice. He puts on a slasher smile and wields a knife to try to scare her away without hurting her.
- Exploited: Alice notices Bob's smile is not a happy smile at all and gets the hell away from him!
- Defied: Bob stays stone-faced and stoic while still plotting something malicious against Alice.
- Discussed: "I do believe you can analyze murderous intent in smiles by the following factors...
- Conversed: "He's smiling like THAT? This will not end well for our heroes...."
Back to Slasher Smile. And wipe that grin off your face, it's scary!
