In theaters this Wednesday, “Follow_dead” is a horror film born from social networks. A look back at the astonishing genesis of this feature film directed by John McPhail.
What does it talk about ? After Adam responded aggressively to internet trolls, a mysterious profile called Dear_David “followed” his social media. From then on, he begins to feel an evil presence in his own apartment. After a series of increasingly terrifying events, Adam becomes convinced that he is haunted by the ghost of a young boy named David. What does David want? And how far will he go?
Dear David
“Well, my apartment is currently haunted by the ghost of a dead child [sic] who wants to kill me (thread)”. It was with this tweet posted on August 7, 2017 that Adam Ellis launched a horror story that would keep thousands of readers in suspense for months. Until then, this New York illustrator had rather accustomed his followers to drawings with a comic and sarcastic tone. But here is that with this thread (or thread, i.e. a series of tweets), he started talking about how his dreams were haunted by a scary child. As his nightmares progressed, Ellis managed to gather information about this mysterious visitor, responding to the name “Dear David” (“Dear David”, which is also the original title of Follow_dead).
With the skill of a screenwriter or a novelist, the designer patiently made the mystery grow at the same time as the impatience of his readers by slowly delivering new elements of his adventure, over the course of a year. . So after posting drawings representing Davidhe began sharing photos, videos and audio recordings of bizarre events.
Because soon David was not content to invite himself into his dreams: strange noises were heard in front of Ellis’ apartment, a shadow was seen through the peephole of his door… The main person even says he was harassed by a hidden number and waking up covered in bruises. Until I managed to take a photo (of which we let you judge the quality) of this famous David.
Metropolitan FilmExport
Was Adam Ellis really experiencing all these events or did he make up this story, which was only intended to entertain his followers and gain popularity? Hard to know. One thing is certain: the public has become passionate about this chilling story, some inspecting the smallest images and recordings to try to detect clues.
From smartphone screens to cinema screens
It didn’t take long for Hollywood to show interest. On June 6, 2018, the illustrator tweeted: “Some Dear David news: Dan Lin (producer of It) will produce a Dear David film with screenwriter Mike Van Waes (writer of The Conjuring spin-off, The Crooked Man).” Lionsgate and BuzzFeed (former employer of Adam Ellis) are producing Follow_dead, with John McPhail directing. We owe the latter the horrific musical comedy Anna and the Apocalypse. In front of the camera, we find Augustus Prew (Kick-Ass 2, The Morning Show) in the role of Adam Ellis, Justin Long (To Hell, Barbarian), Cameron Nicoll in the role of the famous David and Andrea Bang.
This is not the first time (and certainly not the last) that cinema has tapped into X (formerly Twitter) for inspiration. In 2021, A24 distributed Zola, with Taylour Paige and Riley Keough, which retraced the journey of a stripper in Florida, based on the 148 tweets written by a stripper named Aziah Zola Wells in 2015.
To meet dear David and thrill to Follow_dead, come to theaters on December 13.