Emesis Blue
A psychological horror fan film set in the Team Fortress 2 universe.
Emesis Blue is a 2023 Australian adult animated psychological horror fan film directed by Chad Payne, based on Team Fortress 2. A sequel to Spy's Disguise, it was made by Fortress Films using Source Filmmaker and released free on YouTube on February 20, 2023. The 108-minute film reuses game assets and follows the nine mercenaries on the 2Fort map, but tells an original, mature story set during the Gravel Wars on Halloween 1968. It was praised for its feature-film-level production value and length.
Quick Facts
- Director
- Chad Payne
- Producer
- Anton Pelizzari
- Based on
- Team Fortress 2, Valve Software
- Studio
- Fortress Films
- Distributor
- Fortress Films (Through YouTube)
- Released
- 20 February 2023
- Runtime
- 108 minutes
- Country
- Australia
Facts from the source article.
Plot
On Halloween night in 1968, Jeremy, a former BLU Scout, goes to his Medic colleague Dr. Fritz Ludwig because of side effects from an accident with the Respawn Machine, which can bring users back to life. He reports paranoia, nightmares, and the injuries that led to his firing. Later, at home with his single mother, Jeremy watches a stolen copy of M from Ludwig's office. A phone call plays back his earlier conversation with Ludwig, then he sees his mother's severed head around a wall and a masked figure in a corner. Meanwhile, Detective Jacques Murneau, a former BLU Spy, looks into the disappearance of Jules Archibald, the BLU chairman and New Mexico's governor. Murneau and his Soldier assistant follow a former BLU Heavy waiting to pass a briefcase. Soldier kills the Heavy in a fight, but a plague doctor-like figure attacks Murneau and drives off with the briefcase in a hearse. Ludwig sees himself inside Jeremy's house, witnessing Jeremy's dead mother, then wakes up in his office with blood on his hands. He gets photos of Jeremy being followed and a phone call replaying their talk and Jeremy's muffled voice. A bloody message in his office directs him to Conagher Slaughterhouse, a RED base. There, he dodges a resurrected Heavy and escapes to the basement. He frees Jeremy, who thinks Ludwig is his kidnapper, but Jeremy is recaptured and tortured to death by brothers Zed and Maynard Conagher, the slaughterhouse owners. Maynard kills Ludwig after a fistfight, but Ludwig comes back to life and kills the brothers, then finds the stolen briefcase.
Reception
Emesis Blue is recognized as the first mainstream feature-length film created using Source Filmmaker, and the first major Source project since the Left 4 Dead 2 musical fan-film Darkest Days. Critics praised its tone, visual style, voice acting, and technical ambition. The story relies on mystery, nonlinear structure, and fan theories to keep audiences engaged. Some elements of the film’s world assume prior knowledge of the original game, but the experience still works for general horror fans. Film journalist Kayvon Bumpus acknowledged visible budget limitations but called the film a potential crowning achievement for machinima and Source Filmmaker, noting that many bigger-budget projects have failed to match its impact. Gaming critic Yahtzee Croshaw described it as an engaging noir narrative and an example of what he terms post-punk, arguing that its production and tone reject mainstream filmmaking conventions in favor of the punk-inspired approach seen in earlier satirical works like Heavy is Dead.
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