Do you know "The Artifact"?
An almost unknown movie from the 70s that was not released in any cinema.
It was believed to be lost, but some geeks found a copy and remastered it, discovering an enigma still unresolved.
I want to tell you the mysteries that surround it 🧵👇
Oh! And yes, believe it or not, the mythical Dana Vargan appears in this film. Dana passed away in 2018 without a journalist ever being able to get a word out of her about her role in "The Artifact".
I don't want to give you spoilers about the plot of the movie, but those of you who have seen it know that it is crazy. It just does not leave indifferent.
The psychological terror it achieves in some scenes for me is close to Lovecraft's cosmic horror.
It's amazing.
The film revolves around an oopart object, a term used in conspiracy theories to describe objects that do not fit human chronology.
In the film, the oopart is a monolithic structure that arises spontaneously in a Louisiana swamp.
The structure seems to have a life of its own and alters the perceptions of anyone who comes near it. Haunting them in their dreams and drawing them like moths to the light.
But what's surprising is that the monolith acts as a kind of "lottery" dimensional portal: sometimes it transports them to places where they find ruins of an apparently extinct alien civilization.
Locations scattered throughout the galaxy on moons, asteroids, planets... even on a Dyson sphere!
The reason why this civilization became extinct is one more enigma posed by the film.
And sometimes, the monolith transports them to nightmare places...
Anyway, I've done too much spoiler already, hehe. Let's go with the mysteries that surround the film, which is where the most interesting lies...
"The Artifact" has a dark behind-the-scenes story.
As I mentioned, during the filming they ran into various issues that resulted in the film never being released in theaters.
The 1st and least important is that Bertram Wolf, its director, came from the porn industry. Perhaps because of this or because of the transgressive environment of the late 70's, "The Artifact" has a very high erotic charge... And one of the most lurid lesbian scenes in cinema.
This caused several American religious groups to try to sabotage the shoot at all costs: they put enormous pressure on the crew, going so far as to harass some of the actors in the street and prevent it from shooting for several weeks.
But this is nothing. The real problem was the fact that several people died under mysterious circumstances during the filming.
Daniel Dacosta, the lead actor, was found dead in his hotel room with no apparent explanation. The autopsy could not determine the cause of death.
He was simply lying on his bed, in the same position in which he fell asleep.
Sudden death, although unlikely, exists. But... there were two other deaths exactly the same!
The second death, a few days later, was that of one of the sound technicians, who accidentally fell from scaffolding on the set. Although at first it was believed that it was an accident, when the body was examined, it was ruled out that the fall was the cause of death.
The third and final death (and the one that finally stopped filming) occurred the next day.
Lisa S. Washington, the supporting actress, was found dead in the bathroom of the hotel where the film crew was staying, sitting on the toilet.
Once again: sudden death.
This was the straw that broke the camel's back (there are even some scenes shot with the stand-in lead actor from the previous weeks). But after this, the producers, who already had more than considerable losses, decided to cancel the project.
Wait, there's more!
In the forums for conspiracy theory lovers, they flirt with the idea that all these deaths may have something to do with the film's screenwriter: Thomas Ridley.
I could dedicate an entire thread to Thomas Ridley, for the many enigmas that revolve around him.
We will leave it at this: he assured in numerous interviews that he suffered a traumatic experience at the age of eight when he was abducted by aliens. 🛸👽
Well, I think another important detail is that a month after the movie was cancelled, he disappeared under mysterious circumstances in Colombia. never heard from him again.
All this, of course, has been the perfect combination for lovers of the occult and conspiracy to ruminate theories of all kinds.
The most bizarre points to the fact that Thomas, during his abduction, received some kind of information that was latent in his brain.
And that the film would be a warning of something that humanity will experience in the coming years.
Are we ready for the monolith? 😂
And you may be wondering: what is the enigma that the geeks found when they discovered the copy of the film?
Well, this is the strangest thing of all.
When the print of the film was discovered at an antique auction and repaired, one would have expected the film to be incomplete: the last few scenes were never filmed and the final cut was never worked on.
This is something that both the actors and the film crew agree on. The movie was never finished!
But when they examined the found copy they discovered that...
The movie was complete!
In his own weird and twisted way (sometimes you don't even understand what's going on). But complete!
There are even scenes that no one remembers were filmed featuring the actors who died during filming! 🤯
I have the creeps...
The most logical explanation is that, for some unknown reason, the entire crew agreed to lie about what had really happened during filming. The more exotic explanation involves... you know.
In short, "The Artifact" is a strange and twisted film that will not leave you indifferent. Around which an aura of mystery will always revolve and certain enigmas that unfortunately will never be solved. End of thread!
In case anyone new hasn't noticed, this has all been a fictional thread I came up with. Fortunately or unfortunately "The Artifact" only exists in my imagination... and now also in yours.
And I have generated all the images with AI!
#aicinema #midjourney
Important! If you quote the tweet, please do not reveal that it is a fictional thread!
Better: respond by saying that you have seen it too and describing your favorite scene! 😂
The interesting thing is that people get to enjoy it as if it were real until the end. Thank you! 🙏
Looking forward to seeing @waitbutwhy's reaction to the thread!
For those interested in learning how to generate images with AI using #midjourney like the ones in this thread, here's the super bundle I've been working on these months!
And yep, the "The Artifact" prompts are included!
🧙♂️ Fly, you fools! 👇👇👇
bestaiprompts.art
If you liked this movie, a RT to the first tweet in the thread will encourage me to continue creating! Thanks in advance! 🙏👇
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.