In case you were living under a Twitter rock in 2017, then you probably caught wind of the creepily enthralling “Dear David” story — a supposedly true tale that developed over a series of tweets by writer and illustrator Adam Ellis. For months, Ellis weaved a haunting Twitter story about how his apartment was being haunted by the ghost of a dead child (named Dear David) and documented all the strange and seemingly supernatural experiences that came along with it. If you’re just catching up, Ellis’ Wakelet serves as a catch-all for every Twitter thread he launched throughout the tale. But we’ve compiled an even more concise summary, complete with some discoveries made by Ellis’ Twitter followers, too.
To offer some background, the original “Dear David” story thread debuted during the summer of 2017 and continued through the winter of 2018. Through hundreds of spine-tingling tweets, Ellis painted a horror-movie-worthy picture of his haunting, complete with frightening yet engrossing photos, videos, sound recordings, and descriptions of spectral visits from Dear David himself. Whether you’re of the opinion that the saga is an exercise in extremely creative storytelling or social media proof of an actual haunting, you can probably understand why Ellis’ nearly one million followers kept their eyes glue to their Twitter feeds as the “Dear David” story unfolded.
The story doesn’t end there, however. In November 2021, Deadline reported that “Dear David” will be made into a movie directed by John McPhail, who’s known for his 2017 zombie flick Anna & The Apocalypse. The plot will reportedly tell “the story of Adam Ellis, a former BuzzFeed employee and social media content creator who becomes haunted by the ghost of a boy possessed by a demonic entity,” per Deadline. On Jan. 4, The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that Justin Long, Augustus Prew, and Andrea Bang had joined the cast of the “Dear David” movie, with Prew set to play Ellis, Long cast as the head of BuzzFeed, and Bang in “another supporting lead role.” A movie had been in the works as early as 2018, per TheWrap, but stalled.
If you’re ready to dive into the “Dear David” full story, we’ve broken down the key points and tweets into a list of titled and dated entries, complete with embedded media and additional commentary. The embeds focus largely on the media Ellis posted himself — photos, videos, audio recordings, etc. — but we’ve also included some edited versions of photos and poignant tweets from Ellis’ followers to help shed light on details that some of us may have missed.
We’ll keep updating this post if and when more of the story unfolds, but here’s a tweet-by-tweet account of the “Dear David” full story — from the very first nightmare through the conclusion.
To offer some background, the original “Dear David” story thread debuted during the summer of 2017 and continued through the winter of 2018. Through hundreds of spine-tingling tweets, Ellis painted a horror-movie-worthy picture of his haunting, complete with frightening yet engrossing photos, videos, sound recordings, and descriptions of spectral visits from Dear David himself. Whether you’re of the opinion that the saga is an exercise in extremely creative storytelling or social media proof of an actual haunting, you can probably understand why Ellis’ nearly one million followers kept their eyes glue to their Twitter feeds as the “Dear David” story unfolded.
The story doesn’t end there, however. In November 2021, Deadline reported that “Dear David” will be made into a movie directed by John McPhail, who’s known for his 2017 zombie flick Anna & The Apocalypse. The plot will reportedly tell “the story of Adam Ellis, a former BuzzFeed employee and social media content creator who becomes haunted by the ghost of a boy possessed by a demonic entity,” per Deadline. On Jan. 4, The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that Justin Long, Augustus Prew, and Andrea Bang had joined the cast of the “Dear David” movie, with Prew set to play Ellis, Long cast as the head of BuzzFeed, and Bang in “another supporting lead role.” A movie had been in the works as early as 2018, per TheWrap, but stalled.
Aug. 7, 2017: Weird Dreams & Suspicious Cats
If you’re ready to dive into the “Dear David” full story, we’ve broken down the key points and tweets into a list of titled and dated entries, complete with embedded media and additional commentary. The embeds focus largely on the media Ellis posted himself — photos, videos, audio recordings, etc. — but we’ve also included some edited versions of photos and poignant tweets from Ellis’ followers to help shed light on details that some of us may have missed.
We’ll keep updating this post if and when more of the story unfolds, but here’s a tweet-by-tweet account of the “Dear David” full story — from the very first nightmare through the conclusion.
In the dream, the child had gotten out of the armchair and begun “shambling” towards Ellis, who sat in bed feeling paralyzed. He awoke before the child reached him.
A few nights after this initial dream, Ellis had a second dream in which a little girl told him who he was dealing with: “Dear David.”
She told Ellis that David is dead; additionally, she explained the rules of interacting with David to Ellis: He only appears at midnight, and if you see him, you can ask him two questions as long as you say the words “Dear David” first. However, you are never, ever to ask him three questions — he’ll kill you if you do.
So, in a different dream, Ellis tried asking David some questions…
… Except that he made a mistake: He asked three questions instead of stopping at two.
Still, though, he attempted to get to the bottom of the whole thing the next day, Googling around for kids named David (or Daniel, or Dylan, or Devon — can’t hurt to be thorough) who may have died in stores in New York after being crushed by a falling shelf. He turned up nothing.
Not too long after that, the apartment above his vacated, so Ellis moved upstairs. He stopped thinking about David during this time, because, well… he didn’t have any reason to. He wrote that he suspected David may have lost track of him because he moved.
But then we get to the point of the current thread:
Additionally, when Ellis looked through the peephole, he said he was positive he saw something moving on the other side. “And that's where I am right now,” he concluded. “Dear David found me, I think. I don't know what to do. I'll keep you updated.”
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