Did you know you really look like that character in Zepotha?
If you’ve been on TikTok lately you might have seen comments like this floating around, or you may even have heard something similar yourself.
What is this Zepotha film people can’t stop talking about? It’s a horror movie from the ’80s with one very important twist: it’s not actually real. It is, in fact, a creation of 18-year-old musician and Tiktokker Emily Jeffri, who shared a post over the weekend suggesting the idea of creating a fake horror movie to try and convince people that it’s real — and all the fan culture that goes with it.
“ok so new bit idea: what if we created a fake 80s horror movie called ‘Zepotha’ & started commenting “omg u look EXACTLY like that one girl from Zepotha” or “wait u look exactly like ______ from Zepotha” on every thirst trap we see,” Jeffri wrote. “together we will witness new lore develop, main characters will emerge, etc. & we can convince thousands of people that this weirdly title 80s horror film actually exists.”
To say the plan worked well would be an understatement. It’s only been a couple of days, but Jeffri’s post already has millions of views, and a search for “Zepotha” on TikTok brings up countless other viral videos with people explaining the trend or just straight up joining in (there are now Zepotha filters, Zepotha montages, and Zepotha VHS tapes).
The music playing in the background in Jeffri’s original post is a snippet from her own song “DO YOU REMEMBER ME”, from her upcoming album, SOUNDTRACK FOR AN 80’S HORROR MOVIE, set for release Aug. 25. If that’s not one of the best pieces of movie music marketing of the year this side of the Barbie campaign, we don’t know what is.
There’s also the very real possibility Zepotha may become an actual real film at some point in the near future. Jeffri has launched a short film competition in order to bring the movie to life, writing “the winner of this competition will receive £500 from me and their movie will become cannon in the zepotha universe”. Mashable has reached out to Jeffri, and we will update this article if we hear back.
Next stop, Hollywood?
