To see at the movies: Follow the Dead or How a Ghost Story Became a Horror Movie on X (Twitter)

what are you talking about After Adam aggressively responded to internet trolls, a mysterious profile called Dear_David “followed” him on social media. Since then, he begins to feel an evil presence in his apartment. After a series of increasingly terrifying events, Adam becomes convinced that he is being haunted by the ghost of a young boy named David. What does David want? And how far will it go?

Dear David

“Well, there’s a ghost of a dead baby in my apartment right now Who wants to kill me (thread)”. With this tweet posted on August 7, 2017, Adam Ellis started a horror story that would keep thousands of readers hooked for months. Until then, this New York-based illustrator was quite accustomed to his drawings with a comical and sarcastic tone. But here it is Thread (or thread, ie a series of tweets), she started talking about how her dreams were being haunted by a creepy kid. As her nightmares unfold, Ellis manages 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 novelist, the designer patiently built up the mystery along with the impatience of his readers, slowly conveying new elements of his adventures over the course of a year. So after posting Paintings depicting DavidHe started sharing photos, videos and audio recordings of strange happenings.

Because soon David was not satisfied with inviting himself in his dreams: strange noises were heard in front of Alice’s apartment, a shadow flashed from the door… and the main person tells that he was insulted by a secret number and wakes up covered in bruises. Before I could take a photo (The quality of which will allow you to judge) of this famous David.

Did Adam Ellis really experience all these events or did he make up this story just to entertain his followers and gain popularity? It’s hard to know. One thing’s for sure: the public is fascinated by this haunting story, with some poring over the tiniest pictures and notes to find clues.

From smartphone screens to cinema screens

It didn’t take long for Hollywood to take an interest. On June 6, 2018, the illustrator tweeted: “Some Dear David news: Dan Lean (who produced it) will co-write Dear David with screenwriter Mike Van Wes (The Conjuring spin-off, The Crooked Man). Lionsgate and BuzzFeed (Adam Ellis’ former employer) are producing Follow_dead , directed by John McPhail. To the latter we owe the terrible musical comedy Anna and the Apocalypse. In front of the camera we meet Augustus Preu (Kick-Ass 2, The Morning Show) as Adam Ellis, Justin Long (In Hell, Barbarian), Cameron Nicol as the famous David and Andrea Bang.

This isn’t the first time (and certainly not the last) that cinema has used X (formerly Twitter) for inspiration. In 2021, A24 released Zola, along with Taylor Page and Riley Keough, who released a 2015 Florida stripper trip based on 148 tweets written by a stripper named Asia Zola Wells.

To meet Dear David and enjoy Follow_dead, come to theaters on December 13th.