Emesis Blue

Submission 6,947

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Overview

Emesis Blue is a fan-made psychological surreal horror film made in Source Filmmaker set in an alternative version of Team Fortress 2 universe. The film, mainly presented from viewpoints of Dr. Fritz Ludwig, detective Jacques Murnau and former soldier and Murnau's assistant Jane Doe, tells a version of events which precede the endless combat between BLU and RED in Team Fortress 2, such as the creation and dark secrets of the Respawn machine, the way it came to be in possession of brothers Blutarch and Redmond Mann. The film received critical acclaim and inspired fan labor and memes referencing it.

History

On February 20th, 2023, indie psychological surreal horror film Emesus Blue, written and directed by Chad Payne and produced by Fortress Films, also known for Spy's Disguise, premiered on YouTube.^[1] The events of the film take place in an alternative version of Team Fortress 2 universe, and are loosely based on the lore of the game. The main and most of the secondary characters in the film are based on mercenaries from Team Fortress 2.

The events of the film revolve around the Respawn Machine, a device that allows to resurrect dead people but sometimes malfunctions. The story is told from the viewpoints of three major characters Dr. Ludwig Fritz (Medic), detective Jacques Murnau (Spy) and former soldier and now detective's assistant Jane Doe (Soldier).

The film accumulated over 7.9 million views on YouTube in nine months.

Reception

The indie film received positive reviews from audiences and critics on YouTube. As of November 2023, Emesis Blue was rated 8.1 out of 10 on IMDb^[2] with over 920 user reviews. On YouTube, the film had over 410,000 likes versus 3,300 dislikes.

The convoluted structure and storytelling of the film inspired multiple analysis and explanation videos on YouTube. For example, on March 6th, 2023, YouTube^[3] user Ariceing posted an analysis and explanation video that received over 136,000 views in eight months (shown below, left). On June 14th, 2023, YouTube^[4] user TheWhat Show posted a critical review titled "Emesis Blue – TF2's Most Disturbing Masterpiece," which received over 2.1 million views in five months (shown below, left).

Fandom

Immediately following the premiere of the film, Emesis Blue inspired fan labor and memes referencing the film, a trend that continued through the entirety of 2023 as more people familiarized themselves with it. On February 23rd, 2023, artist @Waterwind0w posted one of the earliest notable fan art dedicated to the film, which received over 1,000 reposts and 5,700 likes on X^[5] in eight months (shown below, left). On February 26th, 2023, Redditor sexfuckoWosemenjizz posted an Axel in Harlem meme referencing the film, which received over 360 upvotes in the /r/SFM^[6] subreddit in eight months (shown below, right).

On June 27th, 2023, Redditor splaksh1ll posted a fan montage set to a mashup of "After Dark" and "Perfect Girl" that received over 11,800 reposts in /r/discordVideos^[7] in five months (shown below).

On October 27th, 2023, a Kill Count episode about Emesis Blue premiered on the Dead Meat YouTube^[8] channel.