Zepotha - Tumblr Posts
People on TikTok trying to sell Zepotha like Goncharov are so funny to me. Who’s making the 12 page Google doc detailing every scene and the symbolism within each one? Why is Maxine the only recurring character I’ve seen so far? Why are all the comments everywhere I’ve seen “yeah let’s convince everyone this is real” Babes you gotta commit a little harder to the bit but I admire your enthusiasm nonetheless.
Okay people. So about Zepotha on tiktok. I think we should everyone chose what there should be in this lore because e.x. for me I don't know what scene is what scene and I forgot who is who and everyone is putting something new or new characters.
We need to put it in good order and decide what scene is when and what scene is unnecesary. I hope you know what I mean.
People kept on talking on Gonchavorov(I butchered that Woops my bad) so I went on the tumblr tag cuz I kinda ignored the trend when it happened, but all I’m seeing are people bashing Zepotha( TikTok’s version of it) 😭 I want to see the creativeness of a movie made by a community, not people bashing something similar made on a completely different app. You guys are smothering the history you made by bashing (and technically promoting) something on a completely different app. So shush pls :)
Confession: I actually adore Zepotha as a concept.
I genuinely think that one reason it died out so quickly (aside from it being a marketing technique) is because nothing about it was particularly unique or characteristic to 80s slashers, its main self-identifyer. And since it couldn't effectively draw from those well-known tropes that people associate with 80s slashers, it relied on TikTok's knowledge of horror films in general. This generated some cool plots, but without the unification under the super specific "80s slasher" genre, it ended up being too scattered for anyone to agree on lore.
It's like when an author starts writing a book with a genre in mind, gets halfway through and realizes that their book doesn't fit the genre. It could be a great book, but you can't label an upmarket modern romance novel as psychological horror noir and expect romance readers to magically flock to the work. Genres are meant to be stretched and played with, but they still provide basic frameworks that help audiences know what to expect. And when media is decentralized by default, like TikTok, then those frameworks become extra important. In order to subvert expectations, you have to understand what those expectations are.
My point: Zepotha's issue was that it didn't know what genre it was. The characters were based on slasher archetypes, the most common plots (i.e, the infamous "scenes") felt like a mix of thriller and outright snuff, fan short films seemed to pay homage to classic paranormal horror, the emphasis on characterization suggested psychological horror/drama, etc.
Ironically, it was the marketing of all things that prevented Zepotha from ever gaining traction like Goncharov, which grew into a genre as people found it and collaborated with others to build the story. Zepotha got forcibly stuffed into a relatively restrictive genre before anyone got to explore the story.
Navigating the tiktok Zepotha trend as an autistic person has been such an experience.
For context, (spoilers ahead) people have banded together on tiktok to create lore for a fake 80s horror film. So people are making tiktok memes as if it were a real film and commenting on people’s videos like ‘you look like ____ from Zepotha’ and what not. Just a big harmless prank.
Only, the lore is actually connecting—and it’s good shit.
So, on the one hand, we had the confusion behind all the sarcasm and the joke, but then, the moment I had context, I was hooked. I went from lost and and confused to hyperfixated at record speed. As someone with a horror media special interest, I was roped so quickly into the lives (and deaths) of these fake fake teenagers. Like, I have a mental spreadsheet in my mind gathering all this information, and it’s making, like, a cohesive story.
I also think that, as a whole, this is so entirely fascinating. Not only the way the the internet has seemingly united, but the way that people can work together so we’ll to form a story.
I’m a little sad cause I know this is gonna fade into nothing after I’m hooked and in on the joke, but it’ll be fun while it lasts.
On the whole goncharov/zepotha thingy, I think that an artist has to market themselves somehow, and zepotha WAS clever. It was also not really posible for the artist to somehow be in control on how the bit was gonna be managed. I do think that the contest thing is shitty. Of course that when it comes to the artistry of the basic idea itself, said artist could do better, but even if they did, goddeness knows if they would be as succesfull as as they are with zepotha rn. Marketing is hard yall, just saying. I also like the song
I'd love to make another fake movie but a tv franchise from a book but i could never
the goncharov tag rn
zepotha wasn't even that good it's just a gory rip-off of echelon with no backbone. at least echelon made the effort with a girl slasher :/
just in case it breaches tiktok, someone is doing a gon.charov 2 basically. its called "zepotha" and it is yet another 'joke' based in acting as though a work of fiction that does not exist and never has is 100% real and claiming that people look "just like maxine from zepotha!!" and will not let up on the bit, and refuse to give real information about the topic (because there isnt any). if you see these "jokes" (which, if you are participating, please, please tag them as un.reality, without the period), you are not insane, the world is not warping to leave you out of information, or whatever other type of delusion this trend may trigger. this is a media that does not exist, and as such, no concrete information will ever be able to be found. you are okay
edit: please do not tag this post with tags meant to steer people away from un.reality based content. doing so stops people who need this warning from being able to see it.
(TWO POSTS IN TWO SECONDS 😮 🤯)
I DREW ME AND MY SILLY @spiritboxarchivist IF WE WERE 80'S HORROR MOVIE CHARACTERS <3333 i am so proud of this guys you don't understand
(if this doesn't do well i will kms./JOKE)
I think the funniest thing to me regarding this whole ‘Zepotha’ thing on TikTok* is looking at the fics that have popped up for it on Ao3 and seeing basically every single fic get tagged with a different group of characters because people can only agree on like four characters
*For people who don’t actually know anything abt this, Zepotha is functionally just 80’s teen slasher Goncharov without the consistent plot or characters. It was proposed by this one tiktoker who was like ‘okay let’s pretend like this 80’s horror movie is a real thing’ and it just went out of control