After the box office success of Backrooms, internet horror is a popular topic. The next natural move, then, is to capitalize on this. Thus, The Wrap has confirmed that a Jeff the Killer movie is in production, with a TikToker directing. Tongal, the creator-helmed studio, will back the project.
Jeff is an essential piece of the creepypasta lineup, including Slender Man, the Rake, the Russian Sleep Experiment, and, of course, the Backrooms.
Savanah Moss will direct the feature film. Moss makes surreal TikTok videos and has gained over 11 million followers with her weird, creepy content (this is complimentary). Her work certainly fits the unsettling feel of early internet/creepypasta horror. This won’t be the first internet user to direct an internet-focused story, with Kane Parsons, previously only directing YouTube videos, spearheading Backrooms earlier this year. Moss most recently directed and starred in her own horror short film, Funny Bunny. Plenty of the comments on that film, though, were from viewers who enjoyed her storytelling but were dissatisfied with her use of AI. We’ll see if she takes those comments to heart on her next big project. This won’t be the first internet user to direct an internet-focused story. Parsons famously only directed YouTube videos prior to spearheading Backrooms earlier this year.
Jeff the Killer is a classic creepypasta. Born in 2008, the story, in its most basic form, is about a teenage serial killer with a disfigured face. Accompanying the story is a jarring photo of a pale, human-like face with deep-set eyes and an uncanny smile. It was the Momo doll before the Momo doll existed—without the challenge aspect. Jeff is arguably the inception of uncanny internet horror.
Like the Backrooms and many other creepypastas, the unnerving photo came before the lore now associated with it. As the story goes, Jeff was a 13-year-old who moved to a new town with his parents and brother. Early on, bullies attacked him and his brother, and they fought back. This landed his brother in jail. They attacked Jeff more brutally a second time and, this time, set him on fire, causing his facial disfigurement. After seeing his new face, he began self-mutilating before going on a killing spree. Jeff specifically targeted those who refuse to sleep at night. Insomniacs, you’re screwed. Or so the legend goes.
There is a lot that can be done with this story on the screen, and a lot of internet users’ ideas to draw from. With Clayface coming in October and after the success of The Substance, body horror is a genre on everybody’s mind. Unlike Backrooms, an internet story without an inherently solid plot, which still did very well, Jeff the Killer has a backstory. That said, there is still definitely wiggle room for Savanah and Tongal to play with, so we will have to see what direction they take it.