Are the Smiley Death Threats Legit? Film Guerrilla Marketing

On October 12th, 2012 a new slasher film that features a killer with a smile carved into his otherwise terrifyingly blank face, known as Smiley, launches in limited release. To give the slasher's knife a contemporary twist, the character of Smiley is summoned by hackers through the Internet.

Now that the film is getting attention, the movie’s portrayal of hackers has apparently triggered death threats on the hackers' forum 4chan. Or at least that's the word that the filmmakers - YouTube stars Michael Gallagher and Shane Dawson - are spreading.

According to an October 8th, 2012 post to ComputerWorld: "the FBI is reportedly deciding whether or not to open an investigation into the “bizarre, life-imitates-art situation.""

The creators behind Smiley are not guerrilla marketing newbies. Between them they already have "over 11 million subscribers, 2.2 billion views, and 4 million plus fans on Facebook/Twitter combined."

The social-media-savvy director of Smiley, Michael Gallagher, has tweeted the following: "Never thought my life would imitate art. @Variety article about SMILEY and 4chan craziness: bit.ly/TiHRvN #smileymovie"

Are the death threats for real? Or are they just a publicity stunt? I'm hoping it's the latter.

Thanks to Tom Garrett for the link.