A viral Twitter thread has been made into a horror movie – and its first trailer is here

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Dear David is set to release on October 13

Viral Twitter thread Dear David, which saw Buzzfeed illustrator Adam Ellis document an alleged haunting in his New York apartment, has been made into a movie.

Ahead of its release in October, Lionsgate has just unveiled the flick's first trailer, which boasts way more supernatural scares than the "based on actual events" tease would lead you to believe. Watch above if you're feeling brave enough.

Directed by John McPhail, who grabbed genre fans' attentions with his festive zombie musical Anna and the Apocalypse back in 2017, Dear David gives the titular ghost, who Ellis described in his original tweets as having a caved-in head, a dark backstory. As Adam, in the movie, delves deeper into David's past, he finds himself the target of several malevolent entities. 

Augustus Prew, Andrea Bang, and Barbarian and Drag Me to Hell's Justin Long star. Mike Van Waes penned the script.

Since it landed online, the teaser has been getting mixed reviews, with some unsure about how much it's expanded the source material and others claiming that it looks like a Saturday Night Live skit. "I remember the thread and it was actually fairly creepy (pretty sure he admitted it was fake later) but this movie looks like too much action," one Twitter user said. "I miss [subtlety] in horror films."

Others were more keen, albeit in a cynical way. "Incredible twist that the film adaptation felt the need to keep him a Buzzfeed cartoonist and give Dear David the motivation of disliking his twitter presence," one joked. 

"Trailer for #DearDavid give me Annabelle, Unfriended and other horror films vibes to it. You know I'm there at theater seeing it," said a third. Here's hoping it'll surprise us...

Amy West
Amy West

I am an Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering all things TV and film across our Total Film and SFX sections. Elsewhere, my words have been published by the likes of Digital Spy, SciFiNow, PinkNews, FANDOM, Radio Times, and Total Film magazine.