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Greg Evans
Aug 13, 2023
@jeffri/TikTok
TikTokers are convincing themselves that a horror movie called Zepotha which was released in 1987 is a real film despite it never actually being made.
The latest trend to hit the video-sharing platform emerged on Saturday August 12th and appears to have been started by creator Emily Jeffri.
In the video, which has more than 2.7 million views at the time of writing she tells her followers: "OK so new bit idea: what if we created a fake 80s horror movie called 'Zepotha' and 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."
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She adds: "Together we will witness new lore develop, main characters will emerge, etc. & we can convince thousands of people that this weirdly titled 80s horror film actually exists.”
@emilyjeffri putting this song forward as the movie’s main theme, i think it has zepotha vibes tbh #80s #nostalgia #horror #horrormovie #80shorror #bit #trickster #moohaha #newmusic #queerartist #spooky #zepotha
The video and idea of fooling everyone into thinking a fake movie exists has taken on a life of its own and now people across social media are now trying to convince other people that Zepotha is a real movie from 36 years ago.
Some have even go to the lengths of creating characters for the movie such as Alaine, Maxine, Danny, Cole, Rita, and Vincent.
A Zepotha subreddit has already been set up where people are trying to figure out if the movie is real or not. One user wrote: "so for the past like 2 days ive seen zepotha comments and videos on tiktok and people are saying it was a indie horror movie from 1987 and there is no way to watch it online because it’s only on vhs or dvds BUT I feel like an absolute idiot because some people are saying it’s a joke and not a real movie???"
We can conclusively say that Zepotha is not a real film but is instead a very real commitment to a comedy bit from a lot of people on the internet.
This is a similar hoax to the fake Martin Scorsese film Goncharov which went viral in 2022 with many people thinking the film existed.
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