HIM (The SMILE Tapes) Character Blog

The SMILE Tapes…is a very…odd series. In a good way (Wow, using the same fucking intro as the Horned Serpent blog, unoriginal ass???). It introduced some interesting concepts for me, and does the whole smiling creature trope of Analog Horror pretty interestingly. Hell, this is the first Analog Horror to actually scare me, just due to how somewhat realistic it is! It's fascinating, and today, I want to cover the overarching villain of the story, which is HIM. The puppeteer. Felt like it would be cool to cover this, so without further ado, let’s get into it!

Sources Used:

The SMILE Tapes by Patorikku

Other Sources Used:

• The Infected Villains Wiki Page
• HIM Villains Wiki Page

Background

Millions of years ago, a meteor struck the Earth. This meteor was named Chicxulub Impactor, and would cause the extinction of dinosaurs, but something else would emerge from this. Some kind of fungal…substance. A sort of…extraterrestrial substance. This weird stuff would go on to spread and live within insects.

Fast forward to 1994, a new drug was discovered, called “The Smile Drug.” What this essentially did was cause you to have intense hallucinations and then see what appears to be the face of a smiling man. Once the person is under the substance for a while, they start to become very strange. They smile uncontrollably, they start to lose their minds, become EXTREMELY homicidal, and eventually die through decaying of flesh. What first started as a drug then became a disease that would spread through the air. Those inhaling the spores suffer from their effects. Namely, a victim named Shaun Gomez would experience the effects in the span of a month. He would report seeing a man within his dreams, with the man making him feel very good. He became strangely…happy. Soon, Shaun would lose control of his mind, with him delivering one last performance before his inevitable death. On New Year's Day, Shaun would go on to kill 16 people and injure 10. All with a smile on his face.

This was a horrible tragedy, but the carnage wouldn’t stop. With Shaun’s death, the spores would spread more. With even more people spreading it further and further. Scientists scrambled to figure out the properties of the spores and figured out how it spread. Authorities issued a warning to warn people about the threat called Smilers that is currently growing, with no sign of stopping anytime soon. But what is going on? These people who kill with smiles on their faces, what was it all for? Well, it belonged to an entity that Shaun saw in his dreams. He was merely called HIM. He wanted nothing more than destruction and death. He laughs and laughs as he hears the screams of people and the attempts the scientists make to combat him. This was only the beginning. And thus, we move on to Act 2.

Two new variants of the Smilers showed up, with one of them being enhanced in unimaginable ways. With them being essentially unstoppable. Death tolls were rising, and cities were getting burned to the ground. On the flip side of things, scientists in 1996 figured out the origins of this fungal disease, and thus gave it an actual name: The Jester. With the race against the clock, scientists eventually were able to figure out a way to make a cure, utilizing a variant of the Smilers, who didn’t suffer their ill effects. But too bad that good things only last a short time, because HIM took notice of all this, and didn’t want it to stop. So he sent a group of Smilers to attack the facility and kill the scientists. THERE IS NO CURE. All is hopeless. Over 10,000 people have died, and there is nothing to stop these threats. But…that is when something appeared in the sky. A cluster of glowing objects…that is when…it all…vanished. Into thin air. No one knew what had happened. Did aliens come? Did bombs drop? No. The threat…the horrible threat…is gone. HIM may have tried to cause ultimate chaos and destruction, but in the end, good triumphs over evil.

Experience and Intelligence

While we don’t see HIM that much within the series, he has made a big impact in the time period this has happened. Firstly, he seemingly knows how to command the Smilers to go after certain groups of people to further spread the Jester. He even sent a group of them to kill the doctors so that a cure couldn’t be made for the spores. For the Smilers, they haven’t really shown any feats of intelligence, just being mindless zombies that follow HIM’s commands.

Support

The Jester

The Jester, or rather known by its scientific name Abaliomundo Risus, is the fungal disease that was presumably created by HIM. It's the disease that has plagued the world in which the series takes place. When HIM crashed into Earth long ago, this microbe was created from it, spreading to insects, and lasted for MILLIONS OF YEARS, before humanity would eventually find out about its existence. While it did start as a regular drug that people used, it can be spread by Smilers through spores, who are the victims of said disease. Some of the spore’s effects are:

• Madness Manipulation: It is stated in the first episode that people infected by the disease will suffer from mania, uncontrollable laughter, and increased violence.
• Mind Manipulation: Once infected, victims will uncontrollably smile, even if they try to resist. Once in the later stages of the infection, victims will feel a sense of happiness and eventually violent tendencies.
• Corrosion Self-Inducement: If a Smiler is kept alive for too long, they will eventually start decaying, as a side effect of the disease. Then they eventually die.
• Biological Manipulation: Later on, the disease would create more variants of Smilers, in which it altered their biological compositions. It gave variant C Smilers inhuman strength and speed, and bullet-proof skin…somehow.

Smilers

These are humans who have been infected by the Jester. This usually involves taking the “Smile Drug” or just inhaling spores by the infected. While initially, there was only 1 variant of the Smilers called Variant A, there were eventually 2 more that were created over the course of many weeks. These include Variant B and C. Along with this, Smilers can seemingly use weapons like knives.

• Variant A:
  • Superhuman Physical Characteristics: Once the full effects take place on a victim, they will develop inhuman strength, which allows them to kill LOTS of people in a single setting.
  • Spore Spreading: Once a Smiler dies, they will release about 2 million spores from any orifice on their body. Anyone within 10 meters of the spores will be at risk of infection, and the spores can linger there for 30 hours. This helps spread the disease.
• Variant B:
  • Spore Coughing: This variant of a Smiler doesn’t have the same effects as a normal one. They don’t go mad, get controlled, or become violent. They stay normal. However, those within this variant will cough up spores, which will infect others unintentionally.
• Variant C:
• Superhuman Physical Characteristics: This is by far the most dangerous variant of the Smilers. They possess even stronger physical characteristics, but also inhuman stamina, although to an unknown degree. They also possess a bulletproof exterior! Great! Wonderful!
• Heightened Senses: They were also stated to have “heightened senses.” Which just means they can probably detect people more easily.
• Spore Spreading: This is essentially the same as Variant A. No need to explain again lol.

Powers and Abilities

Incorporeality

HIM doesn’t really have a physical form. We only see it present within dreams or under the influence of the spores. It is also implied that he might be in a different plane of reality, with victims and HIM itself claiming “they are in a better place.”

Technology Manipulation

Throughout the series, HIM was seemingly behind all of the technology glitches, like possibly being the one sending signals 19 miles south of Chidinilu, CA. And most likely the one responsible for all of the weird glitches within the actual tapes.

Dream Manipulation

As described by Gomez, he sees a man within his dreams, which is not a one-time occurrence, as he claims he sees the same man in EVERY dream, progressively smiling ever since inhaling the spores.

Hivemind (Or Mind Control)

With the many Smilers under his control, HIM can influence their overall thoughts and force them to congregate in a single position within a fixed amount of time. Afterwards, we even see HIM claiming HE killed them all, signifying his control over them

Feats

Overall

• Spread the Jester throughout California
• Caused the Gomez Homicide
• Caused over 10,000 deaths in the span of 3 years

Power

• Smilers:
  • A Smiler brutalized a hiker with a knife
  • Shaun Gomez caused 16 casualties and 10 injuries
  • Variant C Smilers are stated to withstand bullets
  • Variant C Smilers were stated to lift cars (Class 5 Lifting Strength)
• HIM:
  • Was implied to be the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs, in which the spores were created on impact (72 Teratons of TNT) (Country)

Speed

• 7Smilers:
• • One was able to keep up with a person running for their life (Possibly Athletic Human)
  • Two of them can move…this fast-
• HIM:
  • The Chicxulub Impactor moved at high speeds towards Earth (Mach 58.31) (High Hypersonic+) (Doesn’t Scale to Speed)

Weaknesses

Despite the terrifying threat that is the Smilers and HIM, some weaknesses can be exploited. First off, the Jester can be resisted using basic gas masks. Along with this, normal Smilers can be subdued with bullets or possibly strong melee weapons. Variant C Smilers, despite being resistant to bullets, are susceptible to fire and will die from it. And finally, if all Smilers and traces of the Jester are removed, HIM would basically cease to exist, due to him being tied with the spores and puppets.

Summary

AP/Strength: Unknown, Possibly Street - Wall level via army, Country level via meteor

Speed: Unknown, Athletic Human via army

Durability: Unknown, Street - Wall level via army, Country level via meteor

Abilities/Hax: Incorporeality, Technology Manipulation, Dream Manipulation, and Hivemind

Abilities/Hax (Via Support): Madness Manipulation, Mind Manipulation, Corrosion Self-Inducement, Biological Manipulation, Superhuman Physical Characteristics, and Heightened Senses

Weaknesses: The Jester can be resisted by gas masks, Variant A Smilers can be killed with bullets, Variant C Smilers can be killed with fire, and HIM is tied to the Jester and Smilers, so removing them will cause him to not exist.

Note

Hey guys, Mega here! Yeah, pretty short character blog lol, but anyways, thanks for reading if you reached the end! I wanted to cover an analog horror series after I did my Horned Serpent character blog, and on the day I was making this, I was pretty bored, so I just did the SMILE Tapes, since it was a relatively easy series to cover and it was somewhat interesting. I’m not even joking, I finished most of the research on this in only a FEW HOURS. Anywho, have a nice day and byeeeeee!