Emesis Blue

From Fanlore
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Fan Film
Title: Emesis Blue
Creator: Fortress Films
Date: February 20, 2023
Length: 108 minutes
Medium: Source Filmmaker
Genre: Horror
Fandom: Team Fortress 2
URL: Emesis Blue on YouTube
"A grainy, black-and-white, high-contrast image of the Medic from TF2, accompanied by text reading EMESIS BLUE"
The film's thumbnail on YouTube.

Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Emesis Blue is an animated psychological horror film created by Fortress Films and released in 2023. Made using Source Filmmaker, the film follows characters from the game Team Fortress 2 in an original story inspired by aspects of TF2's gameplay and lore.

Plot

On Halloween Night of 1968, an executive of the Builders League United Corporation mysteriously vanishes in Mortem, New Mexico. A private detective and washed-up war veteran team up to find him, yet the man they hunt is more dangerous than they can possibly imagine.

Official summary from the description on YouTube.

The film has two major intersecting storylines. In one, Soldier and Spy investigate the kidnapping of BLU executive Jules Archibald and attempt to rescue him; in the other, Medic attempts to help Scout as the latter is stalked and kidnapped and the former struggles with an apparent hidden dark side. All nine mercenaries appear in the film to some extent, and all of them seem to be dealing with the side effects of the Respawn Machine; a device which allows them to be resurrected ad nauseum, but sometimes malfunctions with horrific results.

Reactions

Emesis Blue has garnered significant attention and critical praise within the TF2 fandom for its unorthodox approach to the SFM medium and ambiguous plot.

Emesis Blue has changed me psychologically. It’s probably the best SFM animation ever made (and the closest we’ll ever get to a TF2 movie) but by the end I was nearly in tears, not out of sorrow, but out of a fear I can’t really explain. It’s like listening to Everywhere At The End of Time: you wish you had never clicked on it by the end. No offense to Fortress Films: I am certain all of your years of hard work will go down in TF2 history and I absolutely love Emesis Blue from an artistic standpoint (and I really love Soldier’s character too!). I am just saying, please, please anyone who is sensitive to gore or psychological horror, I would caution before viewing.

camthesolemnone, February 2023, via Tumblr.

...This thing is nothing short of a technical masterpiece. Every shot makes it obvious why it took Chad Payne five years to finish the film after releasing the first trailer. It's creatively directed, which is doubly impressive given how it was made. Payne clearly has a cinematic eye and a sense for suspense. Yeah I was lost sometimes, but I can't understate how impressed I was by this thing.

James A. Janisse, October 2023, in his Dead Meat episode on the film.

Such an amazing atmosphere with beautiful and disturbing imagery. I can't get it out of my mind even though I saw it yesterday. I love the mystery, the ambiguity. The use of music and the sounds. It's honestly one of the creepiest things I've ever seen and it's a goddamn SFM movie about funny TF2 characters. Seriously, you do NOT need to be a TF2 fan to enjoy it.

hayleywakefield-13471, February 2023, on IMDB

Recursive Fanworks

Immediately after its release, fanart for the film began to be created. A considerable amount of this art can be found on Tumblr.

As of November 2023, there are 22 works on AO3 with the tag "Emesis Blue (Team Fortress 2)", and there are several additional works inspired by the film not included within that tag. The Emesis Blue fandom tag has been synned with Team Fortress 2's. There are a handful of works for the film on Wattpad; there do not appear to be any on Fanfiction.net.

Fanart

Fanfic

Fanvids

Resources