Lionsgate has released the first trailer for the upcoming horror-thriller starring none other than Crispin Glover as a hooded figure and based on true events that confounded the nation for decades.

From novelist Bret Easton Ellis (American Psycho) and director Tim Hunter (River’s Edge) comes the terrifying thriller Smiley Face Killers. Inspired by the twisted “smiley face killers” conspiracy theory that has gripped the American imagination for decades, this pulse-pounding serial killer tale reunites acclaimed director Hunter with his River’s Edge star Crispin Glover (Back to the Future), and also stars Ronen Rubinstein (Fox’s 9-1-1: Lone Star) and Mia Serafino (NBC’s Crowded). Check out the trailer for Smiley Face Killers below:

The official synopsis is as followed: As a strange wave of mysterious drownings of male college students plagues the California coast, Jake Graham (Rubinstein) struggles to keep his life together at school. Finding himself stalked by a hooded figure (played by Glover, which…we actually can’t wait for) driving an unmarked van, Jake fears he may become the next victim in the killers’ horrific spree. The film touts that it’s based on true events as part of its marketing strategy. The Smiley face murder theory was brought to the mainstream by retired New York City detectives Kevin Gannon and Anthony Duarte, and criminal justice professor and gang expert Dr. Lee Gilbertson from St. Cloud State University. The theory surmises that a number of young men found dead in bodies of water across several Midwestern American states from the late 1990s to the 2010s did not accidentally drown, as concluded by law enforcement agencies, but were victims of a serial killer or killers. The term “smiley face” became connected to the whole ordeal when Gannon and Duarte found graffiti depicting a smiley face near locations where they think the killer had dumped the bodies in at least a dozen of the cases.

Check out a poster for Smiley Face Killers, which takes its title very literally: Smiley Face Killers slashes its way onto Digital and On Demand, and available to own on Blu-ray and DVD on December 8 from Lionsgate, although this feels like it would have been better suited for Halloween.

Source: Lionsgate