Jeff the Killer Movie in Development as Tongal and TikTok Creator Savanah Moss Bring Creepypasta to the Big Screen

The iconic internet horror character Jeff the Killer is being adapted into a feature film with Savanah Moss and Tongal.

Jeff the Killer Feature Film in Development From TikTok Creator Savanah Moss and Tongal

One of creepypasta’s most recognizable faces is headed toward the big screen.

According to TheWrap, creator-led studio Tongal is partnering with filmmaker and TikTok creator Savanah Moss on a feature adaptation of Jeff the Killer, the long-running internet horror character that first surfaced online in 2008.

The project arrives as Hollywood continues looking toward creepypasta, viral horror, and creator-driven storytelling for the next wave of genre properties.

Moss, who has built an audience of more than 11 million followers on TikTok, will help shape the film’s creative direction while producing alongside Mark Korshak and Michael McKay. The film will also mark Tongal’s first original feature-length horror project.

For anyone who spent time digging through creepypasta forums, Jeff the Killer is difficult to forget.

The character has accumulated numerous versions and rewrites over the years, but the basic mythology follows a teenage killer whose face is horribly disfigured before he begins a murderous rampage. His unsettling image, usually depicted with pale skin, dark eyes, and an exaggerated smile, became one of the defining visuals of early internet horror.

That constantly evolving mythology is exactly what Moss hopes to preserve while bringing the character into a more grounded feature.

“I grew up reading Jeff the Killer and all of the creepypasta horror stories, so there’s definitely a nostalgic connection for me,” Moss told TheWrap.

Moss has even incorporated Jeff into previous installments of her surreal “Fever Dream” videos, making the feature a natural extension of work she has already explored online.

Rather than simply recreating one version of the original creepypasta, Moss said the goal is to take the pieces audiences recognize and build something that feels believable enough to be genuinely frightening.

“I don’t just want to recreate the creepypasta,” she said. “I want to make Jeff feel terrifyingly real.”

From Viral Horror to Feature Films

The project also arrives at a significant moment for creator-driven horror.

The success of films such as Backrooms and Obsession has encouraged studios to take a closer look at filmmakers who first built audiences online rather than through traditional Hollywood development pipelines.

That shift makes Jeff the Killer especially interesting.

Unlike a conventional piece of intellectual property controlled by a single creator, Jeff has existed for nearly two decades as a constantly evolving piece of internet folklore. Different versions of the story have been written, illustrated, reposted, and expanded upon by online communities, turning the character into something closer to a collaborative urban legend.

Tongal plans to lean into that history.

The company operates through a network of more than 160,000 independent filmmakers and creators, and the development of Jeff the Killer will include opportunities for outside creatives to participate. The first open project is already underway, allowing artists to submit character concepts through Tongal’s platform.

Tongal CEO and co-founder James DeJulio said the mystery surrounding the original Jeff image and the question of whether any part of its history was real made the property particularly suited to a community-driven adaptation.

Savanah Moss Steps Into Feature Horror

Moss is best known for short-form videos that combine horror, comedy, surreal imagery, and unexpected visual transitions.

She also wrote, co-directed, and starred in the short film Funny Bunny, which screened at several festivals including the International Horror & Sci-Fi Film Festival and HollyShorts Film Festival.

For Moss, Jeff the Killer represents another example of the line between digital creator and traditional filmmaker becoming increasingly difficult to separate.

“Creators have spent years learning how to tell stories, build audiences and figure out what actually connects with people, just in a different format,” she told TheWrap.

That shift could make Jeff the Killer one of the more fascinating tests of the current internet-to-theater horror pipeline.

Where Backrooms grew from Kane Parsons’ YouTube phenomenon and Obsession helped further establish creator-driven horror as commercially viable, Jeff comes from an even older corner of internet culture, when horror stories spread through forums, reposts, message boards, and anonymous images rather than carefully managed social accounts.

Now, one of the faces that helped define that era is being prepared for a feature-length reinvention.

No director, cast, production start, or release date has been announced yet.

Additional details surrounding Jeff the Killer and its creative team are expected in the coming months.