The Unnerving Real Twitter Thread That Dear David Is Based On
The Big Picture
- Dear David is a new horror movie based on a popular Twitter thread that tells the story of a web cartoonist haunted by a mysterious child entity.
- The original Dear David Twitter thread gained traction with its eerie photographs, videos, and descriptions of encounters with the ghostly child.
- The release of Dear David will test the viability of Twitter as a source for horror movie material, following in the footsteps of 2020's Zola as another film based on a Twitter thread.
From classic books to video games to, of course, real life, there is no limit to how far horror movies can go for inspiration. After all, spooky tales can often stem from the most unlikely of places. However, one of this year's most anticipated horror flicks looks at a particularly unusual source material in order to create its own freaky universe. Produced by Lionsgate and Buzzfeed, John McPhail's Dear David, one of 2023's biggest Halloween month releases, is based on a Twitter (or should we say X?) thread.
The film hits theaters today, Friday the 13th, right in the middle of October, a.k.a. the scariest month of the year, Dear David tells the story of Adam Ellis (Augustus Prew), a web cartoonist whose house becomes haunted by a mysterious child entity after he lashes back at some mean trolls online. It's not a particularly terrifying premise, but the trailer does promise some good, spooky fun. Besides, Dear David is already preceded by its legacy as one of the most spine-chilling stories to ever make the rounds on the internet. That's because, before it became a movie, Dear David was just the fan-given title to a horror tale that got popular on Twitter, raising hairs all over the globe and convincing a lot of people of its veracity.
'Dear David' Is Based on a 2017 Internet Horror Story
The story first came into being in 2017. Do you know Adam Ellis, who is the main character of McPhail's movie? Well, turns out that he is a real person who actually wrote for Buzzfeed. He was mostly famous for his webcomics, which were either loved or hated by those who got their daily dose of entertainment and information from Buzzfeed — which, in 2017, meant virtually everyone. But, in August of that year, he would create a story that would completely change how he was known around the internet.
The day was August 7 when Adam Ellis posted the first of a series of tweets that would become known online as "Dear David." In the first entry to a dozens-of-tweets-long thread, Ellis merely said "So, my apartment is currently being haunted by the ghost of a dead child and he's trying to kill me." A pretty strong beginning for a horror tale. And, indeed, what comes next does not disappoint. Over the course of numerous tweets, Ellis goes on to describe his interactions with a mysterious, ghostly child with a misshapen head, offering evidence of his encounters such as photographs of strange presences in his hallway, videos of his cats snarling at the door, and drawings of what this strange kid looks like. He also describes being visited in his dreams by a young girl who asks him if he's been having visions of Dear David,
These August 7 tweets were no isolated incident. Over the course of the next few months, up until February 2018, Ellis kept his followers in the loop about everything that was going on in his house, feeding them new pictures of David — some are more on the blurry, "you see what you want" side, while others are downright terrifying — and recordings of strange noises around his house. He even claimed that David followed him all the way to Japan during a trip. The whole thing can be read on Ellis' Wakelet, while the original thread also made its way into a Buzzfeed article, much like what is shown in the movie's trailer.
The Original "Dear David" Story Made Impressive Numbers Online
With lots of manufactured evidence, "Dear David" quickly gained traction on Twitter, with social media users divided as to whether the story was a work of fiction or the real deal. Comments from the time vary from people praising Ellis' storytelling abilities to others stating that he needs to put some salt around his door to keep the ghost outside. Oh, and then probably move. Ellis, of course, did not miss the opportunity to interact with his readers and actually did things such as smoking his living room with sage. It was all to no avail: David just kept on haunting him. The ghost even went as far as invading Ellis' Twitter and Instagram accounts.
Ellis also interacted with David himself, learning that the boy died when a shelf fell on his head in a store. But the story kind of died down on February 14, 2018, after Ellis posted a tweet that read "please dont worry about me. I'm ok and everything will be like it was before :)". The use of the emoticon, which was considered pretty out of character for him, and the previous developments of the "Dear David" story led many of his followers to believe that he had been possessed — or, at least, that he was writing the first few steps of a possession arc. However, things indeed went back to what they were like before Ellis began talking about David.
Up to this day, the original "Dear David" thread has over 61 million retweets and 73.9 million likes. With numbers like these, it's not hard to understand how it made it to the movies. David's journey towards the big screen began in June 2018, when The Wrap broke that there was a movie based on the Twitter thread in the works. According to Ellis himself, It's Dan Lin was attached to produce, and relative newcomer Mike Van Waes was set to write. For a long time, the project was housed at New Line, but, in 2021, Lionsgate and Buzzfeed became the companies to actually give the movie the green light. Van Waes indeed wrote the screenplay, alongside Evan Turner.
'Dear David' Isn't the First Movie to Be Based on a Twitter Thread
The release of Dear David will be one hell of a test for Twitter as a source for filmmaking material, especially of the horror genre. However, Dear David isn't the first film to be based on a Twitter thread. Said title belongs to the 2020 indie dramedy Zola, directed by Janicza Bravo. Based on a series of events recounted by Twitter user Aziah King, known by the username _zolarmoon, as well as on the Rolling Stone deep dive that it inspired, Zola tells the story of a part-time stripper who goes on the road with a newfound friend only to endure the worst possible trip ever. Starring Taylour Paige and Riley Keough as the titular character and her so-called friend, Stefani, respectively, Zola is an unnerving, distressing, and outrageously funny movie. Sadly, though, it was harmed by the COVID-19 pandemic, being released in June 2021, at a time in which people were still reticent to go to theaters. It is now Dear David's turn to show how much Twitter can actually make at the box office.
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