Zepotha: the fake 80s horror movie that broke the internet

Zepotha is a trend that started, at the time of writing this, about a day or two ago. Though by the time I’m posting this, it would have been out for a week or so possibly. In a matter of 24 hours, people not only managed to make this go viral, but single-handedly gaslit thousands of people into believing this movie was a real thing AND started an internet war.

Okay, maybe “war” is a bit of an exaggeration, but is it really? Let me explain.

This trend was started by a Tik Tok user named Jeffri. She originally started it as a marketing ploy to advertise her new song "Do You Remember me", as well as promote the album it's from. She made a Tik Tok saying that her song sounded like an 80s horror movie song and that we should start a sort of prank or inside joke and comment things on thirst traps saying, “You look like ___ from Zepotha” and stuff along those lines. Basically to convince people that there was some long-lost 80’s horror film that they never heard of.

It seemed like a harmless prank that could lead to some fun ideas and concepts but ended up turning into a lot more.

From all the Zepotha-related story ideas I've gathered through my research, here’s my attempt at doing a basic rundown of the story so far: Zepotha was either a 1984 or 1987 horror/slasher film with a paranormal element and a diverse cast. So far the cast consists of: Alaine, Maxine, Danny. Lydia, Francine, Rita, Eileen, Neil, Cole, Robbie, Andy, Jasmine, and Jordan. The story follows a group of teens living in Zepotha Illinois who, I guess uncover some dark secrets? The whole plot is still unclear to me unless something has recently been canonically updated/decided. The movie was never allowed to air in theaters or movie festivals because of how violent it was, and the production company only sold 3,500 copies of the VHS tape, making it very limited edition. There were also, I believe, like 3-4 remakes of this film, all with different endings and bonus features.

The first video I ever saw of Zepotha was the original video that Jeffri made. So I was in the loop from the very start. However, other people, not so much.

In one day this trend went viral and already managed to get “canceled.”

The main complaints I’ve seen from all the Zepotha haters consist of 5 things:

1) The people participating in it are bad at lying. Although people did manage to gaslight a lot of folks, that ended within mere hours. The trend isn’t very convincing and people found out about it being fake very quickly.

2) It got messy immediately. People couldn’t keep a consistent plot, characters, or "famous scene" list, and are trying to find ways to make sense of this huge mess they created by saying there are different versions of the movie with remakes, multiple endings, cut scenes, and bonus features.

3) People are spamming random comment sections about this movie on random videos way too much.

4) People are taking this prank too far and aren’t properly tagging these posts with de-reality which can be upsetting to people who may struggle with delusions and de-reality, and also just annoying to people who wasted hours trying to search for this movie and wondering why people were telling them they looked like a character from Zepotha.

5) The trend started as a marketing scheme for the original creator’s song/album and people feel tricked into giving her free marketing.

Now, all of these 5 things are very valid reasons to hate it. I mostly agree with all of them (except the last one. I have mixed feelings on that). However, I want to discuss both sides of the matter.

1) Yes people are bad at lying, but it’s the Internet. There are much worse trends and copypastas out there that are far less believable and entertaining. I find most other copypastas even MORE annoying than Zepotha because at least Zepotha is (sometimes) using random videos for story/character inspo even if it’s messy and redundant. Zepotha in itself is a story, while most other copypastas have no story or lore, which I find makes them more annoying. Yet despite this, I don’t see people going ballistic with anger over those dumb copypastas the way they are with Zepotha. Although that could be because the magnitude at which these comments are being spammed is far worse than most copypastas, which is fair.

2) It sucks that it got so messy so quickly. I wish it was more organized because it’s hard to enjoy it when no one knows what they’re talking about, but it’s still so early on in creation that it’s unfair to judge it so quickly. Plus, all the chaos of hundreds of random characters and scenes being added for no reason is honestly kind of hilarious even if it doesn't help its creation. Annoying, yes, but there's a tinge of humor to it. At least for me. So far it’s a fun concept and I’m enjoying all the fake trailers, art, posters, cosplays, plot ideas, etc that people are making. They’re not all perfect attempts, but I like seeing humans come together and try to make stuff. Even if it’s not professional or logical, it’s the community support and creativity I appreciate. And in the community’s defense, I am starting to see a little more consistent concepts pop up as the trend continues, so it looks like the story WILL settle itself, it’s just taking time which is no surprise to me. Just because some trends like Goncharov settled overnight, doesn’t mean others will too.

3) I 100% agree that people need to stop spamming other completely random comment sections with Zepotha. That behavior is off-topic, annoying, and just rude/inconsiderate to the creators who didn’t ask to get roped into a comment trend based on a marketing scheme. And even though there are more annoying comment trends out there, that doesn’t mean these Zepotha comment spammers are in the right. These spam of comments are getting really boring really quick and it’s making me like this concept less and less because of how uncreative and aggravating they are. But the creator also never told anyone to do that. So idk why people are so mad at her. Plus 90% of the videos I’ve seen with these comments are filled with other comments about how annoyed people are with Zepotha even though the account owners are happily going along with it. It’s like most of the people annoyed at this trend aren’t even the ones getting all those comments. I’m sure some are, and just because I haven't seen many creators get mad at these comments doesn't mean they don't exist, but it really seems like most of the angry people are just random viewers. It's like hating Zepotha has become its own annoying trend of its own. And while the hate is slightly understandable, so many trends and memes get repeated all the time. Idk why folks are acting like this one is any worse than the rest.

4) Zepotha creators should definitely tag their stuff with de-reality more. The amount of gaslighting I’ve seen has gone too far and definitely takes away from its humor and fun.

5) So what if it's a marketing scheme? It's a unique one at that. I've heard this creator has allegedly tried this same marketing scheme with her other songs, but again, so what? She's just a young artist trying to make her way in life. We're all trying to survive in this world, and if the marketing strategy works for her, and she isn't doing anything immoral, then who cares? Creativity can spawn from anything, so I don’t think hating this creation because it started as a marketing ploy is a valid complaint because plenty of ideas started from odd origins. What about all those Jack in the Box thirst traps ya'll made so incessantly that the official company turned it into a marketing gimick? It may not have started as a marketing scheme, but it certainly ended as one, and the internet thought it was hilarious. They didn't complain about being "tricked" into a marketing ploy, or that their art was unrightfully used to market a company (at least to my knowledge). I also heard someone say that Slenderman started because of a Photoshop contest. A lot of creepypastas out there are plotless creations edgy teens made up anyway, and that trend was and still is popular despite all that. So who cares how these things start or how high quality they are? Realism, logic, and high quality should never be the end goal if you’re just having silly fun and not working for a professional studio or something. Some people may be trying to turn Zepotha into a film, but that’s definitely not how it started or why it started. Lots of folks found this person's music through this trend and ended up liking it, while others didn't. But you can't please everyone. And if this is what it takes for it to find its audience, then good for the creator. It wasn't meant to be taken that seriously and the creator didn’t intend for it to annoy people or get on parts of the internet it wasn’t meant to be on. Jeffri also acknowledged how messy the story is getting and created a document with all of the canon info she's gathered from it and is as well hosting a Zepotha film contest with a cash prize that will determine what the canon story will be. I think this is really smart. It’s a way to finally settle what’s canon and what’s not, it’s a great way to incentivize more people to get creative, and also use her platform to uplift other small creators. My only issue here is that the deadline is only 2 months because she wants it out by Halloween which is a tad unreasonable if you ask me. Next Halloween probably would have been better, but lots of people seem to be on board and are excited to participate, so if people are interested and don’t mind the short notice, I won’t stop them. I’m not participating so my opinion doesn’t really matter here.

I think as a whole, this concept was a fun idea and a cool marketing strategy that just got thrown off the rails too early. A lot of people are saying it’s a knockoff Goncharov which I have never heard of until now. From what I’ve seen, it was the same concept but started over here on Tumblr a few years ago. It had a master document of the whole story/characters very quickly and had everything organized without much trouble.

Zepotha not so much obviously.

And while I can understand why people feel like Zepotha is a knockoff Goncharov, I don’t think that was the original intention of the trend.

But when I went over to Tumblr, and certain parts of Tik Tok, 90% of what people were saying about it was horrible.

Things like:

“Hey look guys. Tik Tok is trying to pull a Goncharov. They wanna be us sooo bad but their movie is such a stupid poopy stinky boring uncreative mess that should tumble into the fiery pits of hell and explode into a million pieces and then have crows eat its remains. They can never beat the perfect creation that is the masterful Goncharov. We are the best version of this concept and the original creators, and anyone who tries to beat us will horribly fail. Tik Tok is obviously just trying to cheaply copy us. We had our concept figured out in a 0.00001 milliseconds so why can’t they? It’s all just a cheap and lazy marketing scheme and doesn’t have any heart or creativity in it. It’s the worst thing my eyes have ever seen and I wish I could bleach them and erase my memory so I don’t have to ever be aware of the existence of this horrible creation ever again.”

Like whoaah there buddy. This thing has been out for like a day and started as a silly little marketing ploy for funsies, calm down.

And everyone reading this is probably thinking I’m exaggerating with that example, but I hardly am. I swear most of everything I just said are actual quotes from posts I’ve seen that are surprisingly not satire. Like I get it, Tumblr did it first and did it better. Great. Do you want a gold sticker or something? I think the creators of Goncharov should be proud of themselves, but hating on a different creative project (despite its annoyance) to THIS extent is so ridiculous it’s hilarious.

Plus, they are complaining that there’s no amazing art, cosplays, posters, trailers, story documents etc like the ones that Goncharov had, but that’s incorrect. I’ve seen lots of each of those things made within the few days it started. And while Zepotha is messier than Goncharov, it has a lot of talented creators making beautiful content for it that shouldn’t be insulted or undermined, but everyone is acting like it’s just an annoying comment trend when there’s actually a lot more to it from what I’ve seen.

Obviously, any piece of public media has the right to be criticized, and I can’t stop people from acting like that since the trend does seem pretty tiresome and uncreative at times, but it wouldn’t hurt to chill out a bit and stop acting like it’s illegal to have fun. Even if Zepotha fails and becomes the worst “fake movie” to have ever been created, at least a few people had fun and explored storytelling.

Creators shouldn’t be gatekeeping ideas and act like they’re perfect and no one can beat them. I’m not saying it's wrong to feel upset about someone copying you, but half of the people doing Zepotha haven't even heard of Goncharov, so I think it's safe to say it wasn't meant to be a knockoff.

These "fake lost media" concepts are common. Tumblr certainly didn't invent it. Similar ideas have existed for years, especially in ARG’s and lost media creepypastas, but the one on Tumblr just so happened to be one of the first ones to do it really well and go as viral as it did.

And even if this trend was inspired by Goncharov, that’s the point of creativity. No idea is original. We’re all inspired by something and we should embrace inspiration and allow ourselves to make our own versions of different things and put our own spin on it, even if we're not as good. Hateful behavior like the ones I’m seeing is what stunts creativity in people and I feel bad for the folks (not the annoying spam commenters, actual storytellers) talking about all the innocent fun they were having with Zepotha, discussing story ideas with others and making content for it, only to quit because much of the fun was ruined by people hating on it only 24 hours into its creation.

Parts of the Zepotha community may be annoying and definitely not handling the trend as correctly and as cleanly as they should, but I certainly don’t see anyone there acting like God himself came down from heaven and anointed their creation with holy water from the rarest glacier, and that anyone who tries to compare to them or even dares to reuse a general, uncopyrighted concept is the spawn of Satan and should have their eyes gouged out. I also don't see Zepotha people hating on Gonchorav so it's unfair that the Goncharov people are hating on Zepotha. So what that Zepotha isn't as good? Let the kids have fun, Jesus. They're not all comment spammers. Some of them are genuinely interested in properly developing this story, so just let them do their thing.

And, maybe there are some Zepotha fans out there who are acting like the Gonchorav fans, and hating on Gonchorav, but there are definitely not as many as the Gancharov fans. But that's just what I've deducted after sifting through a bunch of Zepotha videos and posts, both related to loving and hating it. So I could be wrong.

And plus, what is Tumblr gonna do? File a cease and desist? Sue them for copyright infringement? Sacrifice their newborn children? Obviously I’m exaggerating, but that’s how some of these people are acting when it’s not a concept they own anyway.

I also think Tumblr is spewing some big talk for a platform that's literally known for creating the “Tumblr sexyman list”, thirsting over a skeleton in a hoodie, and shipping a character from the Lorax with different versions of himself.

“But not all the Goncharov participants were involved in that.” You may be saying.

And not all Zepotha participants are annoying little kids spamming comment sections. Some people, regardless of age, really are treating this concept with the care and respect it deserves. So don’t generalize one platform/community if you can’t handle being generalized back.

I’m not judging any of these people, both on Tumblr or Tik Tok, but it’s weird seeing a platform hold itself so highly while hating on a different platform when all platforms equally have their good, bad, and straight-up odd sections of it. People should be encouraging creativity and giving constructive criticism where needed since obviously Zepotha needs a lot of work, not losing their minds and spewing a bunch of hate. That feels like overkill to me. I work as an editor, so it’s literally my job to critique work and edit it so it’s less terrible. And I can say from personal experience that I have seen some really, really terrible stories in my days. Far worse than Zepotha. A lot of which people admitted to being thrown together last minute which would explain their low quality. But I think any story has potential if the creator is willing to work with it and listen to critiques. Insulting/bullying creators will only make them feel bad and won't help them improve. It’s happened to me in the past, and trust me, that’s the thing that stops people from trying. And so far it seems the Zepotha fandom, including the creator themself, is listening to these complaints.

Also, Zepotha fans are young. Not all, but a lot of them are. Maybe I’m wrong, but most of the Goncharov participants I’ve seen speak up are very much adults. While the Zepotha participants are mostly kids/teens, and the creator herself is only 18. I feel like that explains why one worked better than the other. It’s the age difference in the people creating them. I mean, look back at the stories you came up with when you were a kid/teen. Not very good, right? But we all start somewhere, and I feel like this trend can be a good opportunity for younger people to try out a form of creativity like this for the first time, and work together in a community setting. Even if they’re all terrible storytellers right now, all that matters is that they’re having fun and being creative. They may not be good at it now, but this is an opportunity to practice, and we can’t get better if we don’t practice. Discouraging that could stop really talented people from ever finding their talent because they were told they sucked. Grown adults should not be shitting on children like that.

I want to give this trend the benefit of the doubt. It’s only a few days old, a lot of the participants are young, and everyone saying that “Goncharov organized itself in a day” really needs to understand that not every trend can be a perfect organized piece of masterful creation in a single day. And considering so many people are trying to gear this concept back onto some proper railing, and are also sort of succeeding, all within a few days, is impressive. That right there is some dedication and true community teamwork.

I don’t know much about Goncharov, so I can’t confirm if that trend WAS actually as organized as people are claiming it to be since some are saying it was organized in as little as 15 minutes, and others are saying it took upwards of a few days, or even a few weeks/months. But whatever the answer might be, I think people need to cut Zepotha some slack. Once all the hype dies down, people stop shitting out ideas like their life depends on it, and the comment spams die down, the story will start to settle. But just like everything, we need to have patience, which is something a lot of people clearly don’t have.

So all in all, I think this trend has potential, but so far it’s getting tainted with disorganization and annoying kids who all wanted to be a part of it without thinking much about how their random spamming and ideas could mess it up. But I truly don't think this trend meant harm and people are trying to fix it, so they at least deserve the credit of trying. Sometimes it’s best to just keep having fun and hope that these people who taint the story will learn to read the room and respect the concept. But I also don’t think that’s any reason to hate on the original creator or hate on the concept. The story may not be much now, but I think it's a cool idea with a catchy album attached and some decent vibes. I'd hate to see people's party get pooped because some folks are allergic to a little fun.

Whether you love or hate this trend, I think the biggest issue is the lack of respect from both sides. Love this trend, but don't spam comments on random videos. And please tag unreality if you do post content for it. If you want it to work, you must be cooperative, listen to the folks trying to make something good out of this idea, and if they tell you you’re being annoying or hurtful, stop, listen, and respect their boundaries.

And if you hate this trend, then that’s valid, but stop acting like all the people participating in it are the creature from the black lagoon. Acknowledge this trend’s flaws, but stop trying to take the fun away from the participants who aren’t acting badly. Some are actually very nice and approaching this idea without doing any comment spamming, incorrect tagging, or any of the other complaints. There may be a lot of bad apples participating in this project, but there are a lot of good ones too. Trends are trends. They get popular, some attract a good audience, some attract a bad audience, and some attract both. Sometimes they’re great, and sometimes they’re annoying, but in the end, they always die out and it’s best to try and enjoy the good parts while you still can. So just let the kids have some damn fun.