Seven years later, the Dear David tweets are now being adapted for a major motion picture. In a collaboration with Buzzfeed and Lionsgate, the Twitter thread has been taken into a major dramatization of an apartment story gone creepy.
In 2017, illustrator and former Buzzfeed employee Adam Ellis chronicled his experiences with a ghost living in his New York City apartment named Dear David. The story captivated the Internet with its details and all the evidence that Ellis posted on Twitter, and Ellis even posted a poll on Buzzfeed to see what actions he should do with the alleged ghost. Many people wanted a fleshed-out storyline and even replied to the OG thread, “This could be a great premise for a movie or a music video at least.” Well, it looks like the time has come.
It’s not the first time that a Twitter thread has been adapted into a major motion picture. A24’s Zola was based on a very long Twitter thread about a stripper’s wild experience with a stranger. By now, the storytelling possibilities are endless from the (probably declining) social media site.
On July 19, 2023, Ellis announced the movie’s release Date. Obtained by Bloody Disgusting!, the synopsis is as follows: “Shortly after comic artist Adam (Augustus Prew) responds to Internet trolls, he begins experiencing sleep paralysis — while an empty rocking chair moves in the corner of his apartment. As he chronicles increasingly malevolent occurrences in a series of tweets, Adam begins to believe he is being haunted by the ghost of a dead child named David. Encouraged by his boss to continue the “Dear David” thread, Adam starts to lose his grip on what is online…and what is real. Based on the viral Twitter thread by BuzzFeed comic artist Adam Ellis.”
Many fans were overjoyed that the adaptation will be on the big screen. “I will undoubtedly watch this. And relive the feelings I had when I first read the story. Oh, boy, I can’t wait to not being able to sleep ever again. 😂,” one fan replied.
Read on for a full transcript of Adam Ellis’s original Dear David tweets, and hopefully you don’t get too spooked as I did.
Dear David Tweets
- “So, my apartment is currently being haunted by the ghost of a dead child and he’s trying to kill me. (thread)”
- “He started appearing in dreams, but I think he’s crossed over into the real world now.”
“The first time I saw him, I was experiencing sleep paralysis and saw a child sitting in the green rocking chair at the foot of my bed.” - “He had a huge misshapen head that was dented on one side. I did my best to draw it:”
- “For a while he just stared at me, but then he got out of the chair and started shambling toward the bed.”
- “I couldn’t move because I was paralyzed. (I have sleep paralysis fairly often. It sucks.)”
- “Right before he reached my bed, I woke up screaming.”
- “I had another dream a few nights later, where I was in a library and a girl came up to me and said, ‘You’ve seen Dear David, haven’t you?’”
- “I was like, ‘Who?’ And she said, ‘Dear David. You saw him.’”
- “She continued, ‘He’s dead. He only appears at midnight, and you can ask him two questions if you said ‘Dear David’ first.’”
- “Then she added, ‘But never try to ask him a third question, or he’ll kill you.’
- “I was very shaken! Having two dreams about the same thing is pretty weird. Anyway, a Couple weeks passed without incident.”
- “Then, David came back in another dream. Same situation—I was in bed, and he was sitting in the rocking chair near the window, staring at me.”
- “In the dream, I say, ‘Dear David, how did you die?’ He mumbles, ‘An accident in a store.’”
I say, ‘Dear David, what happened in the store?’ He groans, ‘A shelf was pushed on my head.’” - “I’m frozen with fear. I ask, ‘Who pushed the shelf?’ David doesn’t answer.”
- “I realize that I’ve asked a third question, which I’m not supposed to do. At that point, I wake up, absolutely terrified.”
- “The next couple days I google deaths in the city, but can’t find anything about a kid named David dying in a store.”
- “I even try different names—Daniel, Dylan, Devon. Nothing. A few weeks go by without incident.
- “Sort of randomly, the apartment above mine is vacated, and I have the opportunity to move into it. It’s a larger apartment, so I’m thrilled.”
- “Another month or two goes by, and I sort of forget about Dear David. I think he lost track of me because I moved upstairs.”
- “But lately, something strange is happening.”
- “For the past 4 nights, my cats gather at the front door at exactly midnight & just stare at it, almost like something is on the other side.”
- “Last night I got a weird feeling and looked out the peephole, and I’m dead certain I saw movement on the other side.”
- “When I opened the door and turned on the hall light, nothing was there, but my cats seemed unnerved. Bushy tails, etc.”
- “And that’s where I am right now. Dear David found me, I think. I don’t know what to do. I’ll keep you updated.”
- “Update: for the sixth night in a row, my cat has walked over to the door promptly at midnight and stared at it.”
- “Ok, so I took a photo through the peephole cuz I’m too scared to open the door. I feel like I saw something.”
- “I couldn’t tell so I mustered the courage to open the door. Nothing was out there but I took another photo. Look at this:”
- “Is it just me or is is there something in the first photo, right where the bannister meets the shelves? Hiding on the stairs.”
- “I wasn’t sure if it was a smudge or something so I took a second photo from inside. There was something out there.”
- “I deadbolted the lock and got in bed because I don’t know what else to do. I can still hear my cat meowing at the door.”
- “I am pretty scared.”
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