For the past couple of days, the word “Zepotha” has been trending worldwide, referring to an 80s slasher film that ended in a bloodbath.
However, on the first day of the word trending, no actual information was found about the film outside of TikTok.
Turns out that “Zepotha” isn’t an actual film, and that it has never existed.
It’s a made-up film, created by an emerging artist on TikTok going by the name “Jeffri”, who posted a video three days ago saying “What if we created a fake 80s horror movies called ‘Zepotha’ and started commenting “omg you look EXACTLY like that one girl from Zepotha” or “wait you look exactly like — from Zepotha” on every thirst trap we see. Together we will witness new lore develop, main characters will emerge, etc. And 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 ♬ DO YOU REMEMBER ME – jeffri
The video now has over a million likes, and Gen Z TikTok users took it a bit too seriously.
Once the comments started swarming videos saying that you look like x or y from Zepotha, content creators on TikTok started making videos asking if this movie ever existed.
Funny enough, the gaslighting wave persisted, and Jeffri’s new fans still commented that the movie exists, and even created posters, filters, characters, and a potential soundtrack, which leads back to Jeffri, who first did this to promote her song “Do You Remember Me”.
Now called a marketing genius, for freely promoting her music, the artist has made several TikToks pushing forward the made-up film.
Some Zepotha devotees went to the extent of creating a Wikipedia page for the slasher, which was later on deleted.
Jeffri now launched a competition, asking people to film Zepotha and the winner will be awarded with a 500 euros cash prize.
The 18 years old independent artist is gaining immense fame through TikTok.
People are comparing what Jeffri is doing to the made-up Martin Scorsese film “Goncharov” that went viral a few years ago.
Presumably released in 1973, Goncharov stars Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Cybill Shepherd, and Harvey Keitel in an eyepatch for some reason.
The fake fictional movie emerged on Tumblr, and its fans turned it into a phenomenon, posting stills, made-up Letterboxd reviews, and scores.
The Oscar-winning director is fully aware of the existence of this mafia movie, and as a joke, he admitted that he made the movie years ago.