Zepotha TikTok trend: What is it, how did it start, who is the girl behind it, and is the horror film real?

Every day, it seems, there’s a new TikTok trend. It’s not uncommon for these trends to be inspired by TV, films, books, music and other popular culture. Earlier this year, for example, people were being encouraged to make short films in the style of Wes Anderson. In the past, there’s also been the Gentleminions trend which saw people dress up as the yellow creatures from the Despicable Me films, the Grace Kelly trend which saw people singing the 2007 Mika hit, and even the Pooh Pathology Test which had a serious mental health message but was inspired by characters from the children’s classic book Winnie the Pooh.

Now, there’s a TikTok trend which seems to combine popular culture and the Mandela effect, a phenomenon which occurs when a large amount of people misremember something and this leads to incorrect information being accepted as fact. It’s known as the Zepotha trend, and it’s got people questioning what they know about the horror film genre.

If you’ve been scrolling on your TikTok account lately you’ve likely seen some of the videos which discuss the trend, but you may have been left a little confused by it. We don’t blame you. Unlike other trends which are pretty self explanatory, such as the eating oranges in the shower trend, the Zepotha trend is a little more complicated. But, here’s everything you need to know about it, including exactly what it is, where it has come from, and what it’s all about.

What is the Zepotha TikTok trend?

The Zepotha trend relates to a supposed 1987 horror film of the same name. It sees people dress to look like alleged characters from the film, such as Maxine, Alaine, Cole, and Danny. Videos with the hashtag #Zepotha currently have 75.5million views on the platform.

Who started the Zepotha TikTok trend?

The Zepotha trend appears to have been started by a TikTok user called Emily Jeffri. She posted a video on her page on Saturday (12 August) of herself with the following caption overlaid on it: “OK so new bit idea: what if we created a fake 80s horror movie called ‘Zepotha’ and started commenting ‘omg u look exactly like that one girl from Zepotha’ or ‘wait, u look exactly like ____ from Zepotha’ on every thirst trap we see”.

On her TikTok page, Jeffri describes herself as an independent artist. She has 210,500 followers. Her Zepotha video quickly went viral and has over three million views at the time of writing, but the number is increasing.  Jeffri has also posted that she has new music called “Soundtrack for an 80’s horror movie” being released on Friday 25 August, so it appears that the whole idea may have been a publicity stunt to encourage people to listen to her music.

In a follow-up video, posted today (Monday 14 August), Jeffri asked her followers to help her “use [her] 30 seconds of fame” to talk to American YouTuber and film director Markiplier, real name Mark Edward Fischbach. She asked people to tell him that he looks like someone from Zepotha and said she’d been watching him since she was 10 years old and that was all she wanted.

Is Zepotha a real horror film?

It’s probably pretty obvious but, no, Zepotha is not a real horror film. Jeffri finished her caption on the above mentioned video with this statement: “Together we will witness new lore develop, main characters will emerge etc, and we can convince thousands of people that this weirdly titled 80s horror film actually exists.”

Despite the video going viral, it seems that many people have not seen it as many TikTok users are confused about the #Zepotha hashtag and have been sharing their frustrations about not being able to find any information about the film online. It seems some people have got themselves in on Jeffri’s joke, however, as they are keeping the pretence up by either posting videos of themselves looking like the fake characters or are telling users who ask questions that the reason why they can’t find any details about it is that it is only available on long since defunct VHS so nobody can view it anymore.