‘Selfie From Hell’ Viral Video Combines Two Terrifying Elements: ‘The Walking Dead’ And Duckface [Video]

Selfie From Hell is the result of combining two current pop culture obsessions: The Walking Dead and snapping selfies.

According to the Daily Mail, Selfie From Hell is a viral video that’s basically a no-budget horror short film. It clocks in at just over one-and-a-half minutes, making it the perfect bite-sized scare for a generation that’s used to instant gratification. Many who have grown up with social media have short attention spans, but Selfie From Hell will keep them enthralled even as they realize that they already know how this movie will end.

Selfie From Hell begins by showing a busty young woman prepping for a selfie by putting on her best duckface and pulling down her to top to expose a bit of cleavage. Right when she snaps her photo, a dark figure can be seen lurking in the background. After the girl sees the figure, she doesn’t immediately run or turn around to see who is there — instead, she zooms in on the figure and decides to use her smartphone camera to look over her shoulder without turning around.

The crazy girl is so hellbent on taking her selfie that she immediately shrugs off the shadowy figure and snaps another silly photo. She sticks her tongue out this time, and of course the figure makes another appearance. It’s closer to the girl, and it looks undead.

This is where the filmmakers use the popularity of The Walking Dead to their advantage. Instead of making the haunting figure look demonic or ghostly, they choose to make it look like a zombie. The girl is adequately freaked out after snapping her second zombie selife (zelfie?), but it doesn’t stop her from continuing to snap pictures. This turns out to be a fatal mistake, and the viewers finally get the jump scare that they’ve been waiting for.

The star of Selfie From Hell is a German film student named Meelah Adams, and she also played a part in creating the scary short film. Adams produced the video, and author Erdal Ceylan wrote and directed it. In a Moviepilot blog post, Adams explained that her goal was to create a viral video, and she certainly succeeded — Selfie From Hell already has over 7 million views on YouTube.

“I’m highly fascinated by viral videos,” Adams wrote. “Those short, often funny, cute, crazy or simply entertaining clips, which go around the world and enthuse so many people. To analyze that phenomenon and then recreate it myself seemed like the perfect thesis for me.”

According to Adams, she faced one major problem when she started planning out her viral video — she didn’t own a cat. Luckily, she and Erdal Ceylan were already working together on a novel titled F**ck You Zombie. They were trying to come up with promo video ideas for the book, and Selfie From Hell was born. It took just three days of filming and five days of post-production to complete the short film.

Do you think Selfie From Hell is creative and scary, or is it too predictable?

[Image credit: Meelah Adams via YouTube]