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The original "Dream Man" drawing, as published by Andrea Natella in 2008

This Man, often called the Dream Man, is a conceptual art project and hoax created by Italian sociologist and marketer Andrea Natella. In 2008, Natella created a website called "Ever Dream This Man?" describing a supposed mysterious individual who has reportedly appeared in the dreams of numerous people around the world since 2006. The story gained widespread attention in the late 2000s. In 2010, Natella revealed that the site was a hoax as part of a guerrilla marketing campaign.[1]

Story

[edit]

According to the story on the Ever Dream This Man? website, the first image of This Man was sketched in January 2006 by a "well-known psychiatrist in New York", based on the descriptions of a patient who claims he was a recurring subject in dreams, despite never knowing a man like him in real life. Several days later, another of the psychiatrist's patients recognized the drawing and said he was a figure in his dreams as well; the psychiatrist sent the image to fellow professionals, and collected the testimony of four more people who claimed to recognize the man. Since then, the site claims that more than 2,000 people from cities across the world claimed to have seen the man while sleeping.[2]

Anonymous stories from alleged witnesses vary in his behavior and actions in their dreams, whose content ranges from romantic or sexual fantasies, attacking and killing the dreamer, to giving cryptic life advice. His relationship with the dreamer varied between accounts; in one, he was the dreamer's father, while in another, he was a schoolteacher from Brazil with six fingers on his right hand.[3] His voice was also unidentifiable due to the fact that he rarely spoke, as well as the difficulty in remembering sounds in dreams versus images.[4] There were some recurring themes in his messages, such as telling dreamers to "go North."[4][3]

In a 2015 interview with Vice, site creator Andrea Natella claimed that he first dreamt of This Man in the winter of 2008, wherein the man "invited [Natella] to create a website to find an answer to his own appearance."[4] Following This Man's instructions, Natella created the website ThisMan.org, including an identikit image of This Man created using the mobile app Ultimate Flash Face.[4]

An actual living human that looked like This Man was never identified. Natella has received thousands of letters and emails from people about who they think This Man resembles, ranging from fictional characters like The Man from Another Place from Twin Peaks and the dummy from The Twilight Zone, to real public figures such as Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and Stephen Hawking.[4] Several people claimed they themselves were This Man, including an Indian guru named Arud Kannan Ayya, who cited it as proof of his miraculous powers.[5] Several followers of Muhammad Qasim bin Abdul Karim, a Pakistani public figure who claims to have dreams of Allah, the Prophet Muhammad, future events like World War III, and Judgement Day, have claimed that Qasim is This Man.[6] Many people each year have reported of seeing this man in their dream, and some even say they know who he is.[4]

ThisMan.org posited five theories about This Man's origins:[3]

  • The Archetype Theory: This Man is an example of Carl Jung's concept of the unconscious "archetypal image" people see during very difficult life situations.
  • The Religious Theory: This Man is a manifestation of God.
  • The Dream Surfer Theory: An outside force implants This Man in people's dreams, whether from someone's supernatural projection, or mental conditioning by a corporation.
  • The Dream Imitation Theory: People only dream of This Man after having already learned about the phenomenon and the image has left an impression on their minds.
  • The Daytime Recognition Theory: People poorly remember faces from their dreams, and they only assume it represents This Man after seeing the image.

Spread

[edit]

The story of This Man started gaining attention from internet users and the press in 2008-9.[7][8] It was not until October of that year that views of the site skyrocketed.[9] In a short period of time, it garnered more than two million visits and 10,000-plus emails from people sharing experiences with This Man and sending photos of those who looked like him.[1] On October 12, 2009, comedian Tim Heidecker made a Twitter post about This Man, tweeting that it was "scaring the shit outta me."[10] While Natella's previous marketing stunts only garnered local attention, This Man was the first time his work got international recognition.[11]

The most common version of the meme was in the form of a flyer featuring the identikit image and the following text:

EVER DREAM THIS MAN?
Every night, all over the world, hundreds of people see this face in their dreams. If this man appears in your dreams too, or you have any information that can help us identify him, please contact us.
www.thisman.org

Exposure

[edit]

After This Man's initial burst in popularity, users on forums such as 4chan, as well as blogs like ASSME and io9, became suspicious that it was a guerrilla marketing stunt.[8][12] A WHOIS lookup of ThisMan.org revealed that its hosting company owned another domain named guerrigliamarketing.it,[11] "a fake advertising agency" founded by Natella that "designed subversive hoaxes and created weird art projects exploring pornography, politics, and advertising."[13] At the time, in late 2009, some sources still presented the debate between those claiming it was a hoax and those claiming it was a real phenomenon as unresolved and ongoing.[7]

In 2010, Natella made a post on the website of KOOK Artgency, an art agency company he founded,[13] where he confirmed that he invented the story of This Man as a publicity stunt.[1] Natella admitted that he had fabricated the whole story and that he had based the original sketch of This Man on a photo of his father when he was young. Natella said that he was inspired by the concept of dream invasion, which he had encountered in some movies and books, and that he wanted to explore the power of the internet to create and spread urban legends and collective myths. He elaborated on the topic further in a 2012 paper titled "Viral 'K' Marketing."[14] Although Natella never confirmed whether the project had a commercial purpose, sources like The Kernel said it was "almost certain" that the site was created as a guerrilla marketing campaign for a planned film project by Bryan Bertino and Ghost House Pictures.[11]

Even after Natella's confirmation of the hoax, serious coverage of This Man continued into the mid-2010s. In 2015, Vice Media contacted the site for an interview, and Natella answered questions as if the site was legitimate.[4] Several hours after Vice published its interview with Natella, it published a retraction clarifying that This Man was not real and admitting they had initially fallen for the hoax, saying "we run a story, it turns out to be something that was denounced in 2009 and could be easily verified as fake with a single google, a few people call us dickheads and the editorial team drown in their own tears. Sometimes we mess up."[15]

Analysis

[edit]

io9 writer Annalee Newitz called This Man "Natella's greatest masterwork", reasoning that it was only "uncanny", "cheesy and a little bit scary", and "doesn't smack of artsy pseudo-intellectual 'politics' like a lot of his other art does."[12] Vice expressed that while This Man does not exist, he "properly looks like the kind of dude you might see in a dream", where "he pats you on the back and you feel warm and nostalgic. You wake up with an erection you can't explain."[15] A 2014 article from the fringe science website Mysterious Universe claims that people experiencing the same type of dreams is possible; it cites not only Jung's archetypal theory but also Ervin László's pseudoscientific theory of the Akashic Field, saying "should it prove true that our thoughts do not reside within our own heads, but rather exist in the ether, then couldn't some of us be accessing the same information in our subconscious during dreams?"[16] Vice described the purpose of the hoax as "priming people to dream what they've never dreamed before", similar to "Inception but with memes".[15]

In other media

[edit]
A Spanish-language advertisement for the film Dream Scenario (2023) that references This Man, with the image changed to Nicolas Cage's face

Upon This Man's initial surge in popularity, internet users posted several internet memes spoofing the site's "Ever dream this man?" flyer, replacing This Man's face with headshots of characters and public figures like Robbie Rotten, Karl Marx, and Barack Obama.[16][17] Comedy Central also produced their own parody of the flyer that used Daniel Tosh's face.[18]

Film adaptations

[edit]

In May 2010, it was announced that filmmaker Bryan Bertino used the story as a basis for a screenplay, also titled This Man, to be produced by Sam Raimi's Ghost House Pictures.[19][20] A press release from Ghost House said the film would be about "an ordinary guy who discovers that people he has never met are seeing him in their dreams. Now he must find out why he is the source of nightmares for strangers all over the world."[21] The press release also claimed that Ghost House bought the website ThisMan.org from Natella; however, the domain still had not changed hands from its original host in 2013.[11] There was no further news from Ghost House about the film, and their option on the movie rights expired. The story was subsequently proposed to various Italian producers, who did not pick up on the project.[22]

Heste Hombre (originally titled THISMAN) is a 2020 Spanish-Italian film directed by Luca Pedretti and Cinzia Bomoll [it], with a screenplay by Bomoll and Daniele Cosci; it follows the story of a documentarian seeking to discover why thousands of people are dreaming of the same stranger.[22][23] It won the Solinas Award Italy-Spain [it] for Best Screenplay, awarded at the 13th Festival de Cine Italiano de Madrid [it] in December 2020.[24]

In January 2024, Japanese filmmaker Yujiro Amano [ja] released a teaser trailer for a film adaptation, titled THIS MAN [ja], that is unrelated to the Ghost House project. Billed as the first Japanese film based on a foreign urban legend, it was filmed in 2023 and released in late July 2024.[25] It received largely negative reviews; on the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, 5 of 6 critics' reviews are negative.[26]

Film and television references

[edit]
  • This Man's identikit image makes brief appearances in the beginning of the 2017 South Korean film Lucid Dream.[27]
  • The 2017 Spring Special [ja] episode of the long-running Japanese horror anthology series Tales of the Unusual [ja] features a segment based on the urban legend titled "Dream Man".[28]
  • In The X-Files episode "Plus One", This Man can be seen in the upper right part of a photo of The Lone Gunmen that previously did not include him.[29]
  • The design of the title ventriloquist dummy in the episode "Freddy" from the TV anthology series Stories to Stay Awake is inspired by This Man.[30]
  • The plot of the 2023 film Dream Scenario has been compared to This Man, with reviewers speculating that it inspired the film's plot, and the meme is referenced in both the film's dialogue and in advertisements preceding its release.[31][32] Despite broad similarities in their plots, the production was unrelated to the This Man film project by Bryan Bertino and Ghost House.[21][22]

Literature and comics

[edit]
  • In 2016, the internet meme inspired volume 355 of the Italian comic book series Dylan Dog, titled L'uomo dei tuoi sogni (The man of your dreams).[33]
  • In 2018, Weekly Shōnen Magazine began running a manga based on This Man and named after the hoax.[34] Illustrated by Kouji Megumi (illustrator of Bloody Monday) and written by Karin Sora, it follows a police officer named Hakaru Amano and his case that involves the urban legend of This Man.[34] The first volume ran from April 25, 2018, to April 3, 2019.[35]
  • A story arc in the 2021 manga series Dandadan, published on Shōnen Jump+, features defective alien clones modelled after This Man, something acknowledged by the official "Ever Dream This Man?" website.[36]
  • Chapter 3 in the 2024 manga series "The Urban Legend Files", (都市伝説先輩, Toshi Densetsu Senpai) published on Shōnen Jump+ features a character trying to have a dream about This Man.[37]

Online videos

[edit]
  • In 2021, "The Yard" podcast spearheaded by YouTuber and livestreamer Ludwig Ahgren launched a limited-time merchandise and social media campaign referencing This Man; with the eponymous Man replaced by Aiden McCaig, a co-host of the podcast.[38]
  • In 2023, Touhou doujin circle "Akatsuki Records" released a song titled "グッナイメア". The animated music video features people with the face of This Man.[39]

Video games

[edit]
  • Two pixel art images of This Man appear as Easter eggs in the video game AI: The Somnium Files. The player receives an achievement if they find both images.[40]
  • The “Man in Dreams Flyer” found in the Finnish indie game Fear & Hunger 2: Termina is a direct reference to This Man, with the face of one of the game’s villains, Per’kele, in place of the original.[41]

References

[edit]
[edit]
Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia

This Man

View on Grokipedia
from Grokipedia
This Man is a viral internet hoax and conceptual art project initiated by Italian sociologist and marketer Andrea Natella in 2008, centered on a photofit sketch of an unidentified man purportedly appearing in the dreams of thousands of unrelated individuals across the globe. The phenomenon gained traction through the website Ever Dream This Man? (thisman.org), launched by Natella in 2008 under his guerrilla marketing firm, which collected and displayed anonymous accounts of dreams featuring the man in various roles, from advisor to antagonist. Reports claimed sightings dating back decades and spanning continents, with the site's database allegedly amassing over 2,000 submissions by 2010, though all stories were fabricated by Natella as part of the project's design to explore themes of collective imagination and viral deception. The sketch depicts a middle-aged man with a round face, bushy eyebrows, thin lips, and receding dark hair, often interpreted psychologically as a symbol of unexplored personal traits or subconscious projections rather than a literal shared dream figure. The hoax's exposure came in 2015 when media outlets, including , traced its origins to Natella's agency, revealing it as a subversive experiment mimicking urban legends to study how suggestion and online sharing amplify fabricated narratives. Despite the debunking, "This Man" persisted as a cultural , inspiring creepypastas, artwork, and discussions on dream , highlighting the power of virality in blurring and . Natella himself described the project as a "time loop" or "wormhole" in human perception, emphasizing its role in provoking questions about memory, anonymity, and the without claiming elements.

Origins and Development

The Initial Concept

The "This Man" legend originated from a fabricated account involving a in , where in January 2006, one of her patients reported recurring dreams featuring an unidentified man and provided a detailed description leading to a sketch. The sketch depicted a man with a round face, receding hairline, thick bushy eyebrows, thin lips, and a neutral expression, created using software to simulate an authentic patient rendering. According to the initial narrative, first encountered in her dreams during 2006, describing him as a stranger she could not recognize or locate in her despite extensive efforts, which prompted the to document the case as potentially significant. This marked the purported starting point of the , with appearing consistently across multiple dream sessions without any contextual explanation from the patient's personal history. In the constructed dream accounts, the man manifested in varied roles, ranging from a benevolent guide offering personalized life advice to a menacing figure issuing warnings of impending danger. For instance, some reports described him as a neutral stranger delivering cryptic messages about the dreamer's future, such as urging specific actions to avoid harm or reflecting on unresolved personal matters. The core elements of this legend were invented by Italian sociologist and marketer Natella as part of a project and viral experiment, with the sketch generated via readily available online tools to lend an air of realism and anonymity to the . Natella designed these foundational details to mimic authentic psychological case studies, drawing on common dream archetypes to facilitate the story's organic spread.

Creation as a Hoax

The "This Man" phenomenon was conceived and executed by Italian sociologist and marketer Natella as a deliberate and experiment launched in 2008. Natella, operating under the "ThisMan.org," designed the project through his creative agency, Guerriglia Marketing, which specializes in subversive hoaxes blending , , and social commentary. Natella's motivations stemmed from his fascination with urban legends and internet , aiming to explore how fabricated narratives could mimic real-world phenomena and spread virally without any tied product or commercial goal. The was structured as a multi-phase focused on building awareness, fostering persuasion through apparent authenticity, and eventual exposure, serving primarily as a test of collective belief formation in digital spaces. To create the central image—a sketch resembling the 2006 composite drawing of an unidentified man—Natella used facial composite software to generate a generic yet memorable face with features like a round shape, bushy eyebrows, thin lips, and receding hairline, refining it based on feedback from colleagues. Key techniques employed included the anonymous setup of the website thisman.org, presented as a neutral database for collecting dream reports to simulate investigation. Natella encouraged user participation by inviting submissions of personal stories, which were then selectively featured to build credibility and momentum. Additionally, he seeded the in online forums and communities without revealing his involvement, leveraging cultural jamming tactics like pseudo-events and fake sites to disrupt perceptions of and . These methods drew from Guerriglia Marketing's broader approach of using stickering, underhanded digital dissemination, and semantic disruptions to propagate ideas organically.

Viral Spread

Online Launch and Website

The "Ever Dream This Man?" website, launched in the winter of 2008 by Italian sociologist and marketer Andrea Natella, served as the central hub for the emerging legend of a mysterious man appearing in people's dreams worldwide. The site featured a central sketch of the man—depicting a round-faced individual with bushy eyebrows, thin lips, and a receding hairline, created using facial composite software—and invited visitors to submit their own dream accounts to build a collective database. It included interactive elements such as a global map visualizing reported "sightings" from user submissions, sections dedicated to detailed dream descriptions, and a frequently asked questions page outlining psychological theories like Jungian archetypes to explain the phenomenon without confirming or denying its reality. The website encouraged ongoing engagement by prominently calling for more user submissions, promising to update the database and map as reports accumulated, which helped foster a sense of communal investigation into the man's identity. By 2009, the site had documented claims from over 2,000 individuals across various cities, including emails detailing dreams from users in , , and , among others like and São Paulo. These submissions often described the man as a , antagonist, or familiar figure in recurring dreams, contributing to the site's growing of personal narratives. To propel initial virality, the campaign employed tactics orchestrated by Natella's agency, Guerriglia Marketing, including the distribution of eerie flyers featuring the man's image in public spaces worldwide starting in 2008. Anonymous postings on early forums—predecessors to platforms like —and meme-style image sharing further amplified organic spread, positioning the website as a mysterious discovery rather than an overt promotion. These methods ensured rapid online traction without direct attribution, aligning with the hoax's goal of simulating grassroots phenomenon.

Global Dissemination

The legend of This Man expanded significantly beyond its online origins during 2008–2010, marking a period of peak popularity driven by viral sharing and media interest. The associated garnered over 2 million visits and collected more than 10,000 emails from individuals across the globe who claimed to have encountered in their dreams, with the site translated into multiple languages to broaden accessibility. Early platforms, particularly , facilitated widespread shares, as users posted the image and personal dream accounts, accelerating dissemination among international audiences. Media coverage further propelled the phenomenon, appearing in outlets such as the Italian newspaper in October 2009, which detailed reports from at least 2,000 people in locations including New York, , and , and noted prior mentions in the German tabloid . Italian newspapers provided additional amplification through features on the mystery, while the story's eerie appeal led to its evolution into an , with communities creating image macros and hosting Photoshop contests to remix the man's face into surreal or humorous scenarios. The spread extended internationally, with dream reports documented from numerous countries worldwide, including the , , , , , , , , , , and , reflecting cultural adaptations such as portrayals of the figure as a guiding spirit in some Asian accounts or a familial in others. Offline dissemination occurred via word-of-mouth in dream-sharing forums and inclusion in anthologies, embedding the narrative in broader traditions. By 2010, the claimed over 8,000 reported dreamers, underscoring the scale of engagement. A resurgence followed in the , fueled by archives and online horror sites that repackaged the story for new generations of users.

Exposure as Fiction

Creator's Confession

In January 2010, Andrea Natella announced through KOOK Artgency, the unconventional communication agency he founded, that he had fabricated the entire "This Man" phenomenon after two years of operation. Natella detailed the project's structure in three deliberate phases: first, constructing an aura of mystery around the anonymous facial sketch to intrigue online audiences; second, soliciting and curating dream reports from users to amplify the narrative's credibility and virality; and third, the deliberate revelation to expose the artifice. He clarified that no underlying commercial product or promotion was involved, positioning the endeavor solely as an experimental fusion of guerrilla marketing and conceptual art aimed at illustrating collective psychological suggestibility. Immediately after the disclosure, the official ThisMan.org website was amended with a prominent affirming the hoax's artificial nature, though submissions of personal dream encounters persisted unabated. In follow-up interviews, Natella highlighted the initiative's triumph in achieving widespread , noting how it permeated global media and online without any traditional budget. As proof of the fabrication, Natella disclosed the sketch's origin as a composite generated via facial reconstruction software and released internal KOOK Artgency documents delineating the project's strategic blueprint, from image creation to timed escalation.

Initial Media Deceptions

In the initial years following the launch of the "This Man" website in 2008, Italian media outlets treated the as a credible mystery, with reports in newspapers and television segments exploring it as a potential collective unconscious event or occurrence. For instance, broadcasts on Italian news programs in 2009, such as a segment on do1 TV's Newsflash, presented eyewitness accounts of dream sightings without questioning their authenticity, amplifying the story's intrigue among viewers. Similarly, and blogs in during late 2009 disseminated the narrative through anonymous submissions, blurring the lines between factual reporting and speculation. This credulity extended into international coverage, notably in a 2015 article that interviewed purported experts on dream analysis, portraying "This Man" as an unexplained global anomaly originating from a 2006 New York psychiatrist's patient, with no evident toward the claims of thousands of independent dream reports. The piece highlighted themes, such as the figure offering guidance, and suggested possible psychological or explanations, further lending legitimacy to the . The deceptions were orchestrated by creator Andrea Natella, who sent anonymous tips to journalists and fabricated quotes from supposed experts to seed the story in mainstream and niche outlets. Natella, operating through his Guerriglia Marketing agency, also populated forums and websites with staged testimonials, creating an illusion of organic, widespread corroboration that media outlets republished without verification. These tactics exploited the era's nascent landscape, where forum threads on sites like and were often misconstrued as journalistic sources, heightening the confusion. Notable examples include 2009 Italian TV segments on programs, which featured viewer-submitted sketches and discussed the figure's potential symbolic meaning, treating it as a legitimate enigma rather than fiction. By 2010, prior to Natella's full confession, this media reached a peak of , with online discussions and reposts mistaking hoax-generated content for . Following Natella's 2010 reveal that the entire project was a , affected media outlets expressed embarrassment over their lack of . , in particular, issued a retraction in January 2015, admitting they had been duped by Natella posing as a in their earlier feature and underscoring the ease of verifying the fabrication through basic research. This incident prompted reflections on journalistic standards in covering viral internet phenomena.

Psychological and Cultural Analysis

Dream Interpretation Theories

Psychologists have explored the "This Man" legend through various interpretive frameworks, emphasizing how individual cognitive and neurological processes might account for reports of similar dream figures without invoking supernatural elements. One prominent explanation draws on Carl Jung's concept of archetypes, universal symbols residing in the collective unconscious that manifest in dreams during times of psychological stress or transition. The sketch of This Man, with its neutral yet enigmatic features, could symbolize the "wise old man" archetype—a guiding or paternal figure—or elements of the shadow, representing repressed aspects of the self—potentially explaining cross-cultural similarities in descriptions as shared human psychic structures rather than literal shared dreaming. This perspective aligns with Jung's view that such images emerge spontaneously across individuals, fostering a sense of universality in dream narratives. Another key mechanism involves priming and , where exposure to the viral image via the website or media influences processing and subsequent dream recall. indicates that pre-sleep visual stimuli, including images from media, can incorporate into dream content at rates of 3% to 43%, suggesting that viewing the This Man sketch primes the brain to generate or recognize similar facial motifs during REM sleep. then amplifies this effect: individuals who encounter the legend may retroactively interpret vague or ambiguous dream faces as matching the sketch, selectively recalling and reporting confirming instances while overlooking discrepancies—a cognitive tendency observed in dream recall studies where people favor memories aligning with prior expectations. From a neurological standpoint, the ties to the brain's facial recognition systems active during . Functional MRI studies show that about faces correlates with heightened activity in the and related posterior cortical regions, which process visual stimuli even in ; this could lead isolated dreamers to construct or perceive familiar-like faces based on recent exposures, such as the viral image, without evidence of true collective . No empirical support exists for shared dream motifs beyond individual variability, underscoring that reported similarities likely stem from common waking influences rather than synchronized neural events. Experts like Mark Blagrove, a of at , emphasize that dreams often reflect waking-life concerns and social stimuli, which can subtly shape narratives. Blagrove notes that such incorporations serve social functions, like processing shared anxieties, but dismisses interpretations as misattributions influenced by the . Similarly, anomalous psychologist argues that claims often arise from —the brain's tendency to impose familiar patterns, like faces, onto ambiguous stimuli—exacerbated by suggestion and cultural priming, rather than genuine otherworldly contact. This view positions the legend's appeal as a product of psychological , not mystery.

Broader Cultural Impact

The "This Man" phenomenon transitioned into a staple of culture by the early , embedding itself in online horror communities as users contributed narratives depicting the figure in dreams ranging from benign guidance to ominous threats. This evolution fostered fan theories positing the man as a time traveler, , or inhabitant of a fourth-dimensional loop, extending the legend into speculative about interdimensional phenomena. As an early experiment in digital deception launched via a dedicated website in 2008, the project exemplifies and (ARG) techniques, illustrating how anonymous online submissions and composite imagery can propel fabricated stories to international audiences. It prefigured subsequent internet hoaxes, such as , by leveraging to blur the boundaries between fiction and perceived reality in meme-driven environments. The legend underscores broader societal shifts in the digital era, where platforms enable rapid sharing of personal dream experiences, raising questions about in crowdsourced psychological disclosures and the culture's capacity to construct shared "realities" from collective imagination. Thousands of global reports since highlight this interconnectedness, with dreamers from diverse locales attributing profound emotional or advisory roles to the figure. Interest in "This Man" has persisted into the through online discussions and occasional media content, sustaining its status as a touchstone for discussions on internet urban mythology.

Representations in Media

Film Adaptations

In 2010, announced plans for a Hollywood horror film adaptation of the "This Man" legend, with attached to direct and write the screenplay. The project, produced by and Robert Tapert, was inspired by the viral reports of individuals worldwide dreaming of the same unidentified man, positioning the story as a fact-based thriller about a man discovering his involuntary presence in strangers' nightmares. Bertino's involvement followed his success with "The Strangers," aiming to capture the eerie psychological intrusion at the legend's core. The adaptation stalled after Italian sociologist Andrea Natella confessed in November 2010 that the "This Man" phenomenon was an elaborate he orchestrated as a experiment, undermining the project's premise and leading to its indefinite shelving without any or released materials. The legend's first completed arrived in 2024 with the Japanese feature "This Man," directed and written by Tomojirô Amano. The panic thriller centers on a and a probing a wave of gruesome deaths in a rural town, where victims share premonitory dreams of a haunting, familiar-faced man whose appearance signals impending doom, blending supernatural dread with on collective fear during the era. stars as the lead grappling with the blurring lines between dream and reality, supported by Arisa Deguchi, , and Noriko Kijima in key roles. Filmed in 2023 and premiering at the , "This Man" received a limited theatrical release in starting June 7, 2024, where it earned modest returns amid competition from major domestic releases. Critics praised its inventive visual style and thematic depth on viral myths but noted inconsistencies in pacing and narrative coherence, resulting in a mixed reception. Across these adaptations, the horror arises from the shared as a viral force with lethal real-world repercussions, transforming an into a for inescapable psychological contagion.

Television and Literature References

In the 2017 South Korean thriller , directed by Kim Joon-sung, the character played by is explicitly named "This Man" and functions as a mysterious figure invading the protagonist's , drawing directly from the urban legend's imagery of a intruder. The film's plot revolves around dream manipulation and investigation, positioning "This Man" as a key who blurs the line between fears and reality. The 2018 episode "Plus One" from season 11 of , written by Chris Carter, includes a subtle reference to the legend through a background poster depicting the familiar sketch of "This Man," tied to a storyline involving a collective dream entity that manipulates shared hallucinations among victims. This nod serves as an enhancing the episode's themes of and unexplained phenomena, without making the figure central to the narrative. The 2023 film , directed by and starring , features a plot where an ordinary professor inexplicably appears in the dreams of millions, echoing the "This Man" hoax as a subtle inspiration for its exploration of involuntary dream invasion and viral fame. Reviewers have noted the connection to the legend's core concept of a ubiquitous dream stranger, using it as a to delve into societal rather than a direct adaptation. In and , the 2016 Italian Dylan Dog issue #355, titled "L'uomo dei tuoi sogni" and written by Paola Barbato, centers on "This Man" as a nightmare-inducing who haunts the dreams of multiple characters, integrating the into the series' framework. The story portrays him as a malevolent entity manipulating realms, serving as a element within the arc's broader investigation of dream-based threats. The 2018 Japanese manga This Man: Sono Kao wo Mita Mono ni wa Shi wo, serialized in Weekly Shōnen Magazine and illustrated by Kouji Megumi, expands the urban legend into a five-volume horror series where encountering the man's face in dreams triggers fatal consequences, emphasizing supernatural curses and investigative suspense. This adaptation heightens the original hoax's eerie ambiguity by weaving in elements of urban myth and inevitable doom for those who "see" him. The 2021 manga Dandadan, created by Yukinobu Tatsu, incorporates the "This Man" image in chapter 83 during a supernatural battle sequence where alien entities known as Serpo transform into clones resembling the figure, using it as a brief but striking visual motif in a chaotic occult confrontation. This appearance functions as an Easter egg referencing Japanese urban legends, blending it seamlessly into the series' mix of yokai and extraterrestrial horror without dominating the plot. "This Man" has also been cited in urban legend anthologies, such as collections from the mid-2010s, where it is presented as a modern myth exemplifying shared dream delusions and internet-fueled . These references often treat the legend as a foundational narrative, highlighting its role in tropes like fears, typically as illustrative examples rather than full retellings.

Video Games and Online Content

The of "This Man" has been incorporated into video games as subtle , enhancing their dream and horror themes. In the 2019 AI: The Somnium Files, developed by , the character's face appears during PSYNCIN' dream-diving sequences, where the AI companion Aiba references the legend as an urban myth about a man invading unrelated people's . Similarly, in the 2022 game Fear & Hunger 2: Termina by Miro Haverinen, a collectible flyer titled "Man in dreams" depicts the sketch and poses the question "Have you seen this man in dreams?" as part of the game's festival setting and psychological terror mechanics. Online video platforms have amplified the legend through creepypasta-style narrations and short-form trends. On , early 2010s channels produced readings of the "This Man" story, such as a 2012 upload dramatizing the hoax as a mysterious dream intruder. More recent content includes 2024 videos exploring the narrative, like those on The Horror Reel channel recounting the legend's origins and global reports. saw a resurgence in 2024 with user videos discussing dreams of the man, including recreations and personal accounts tying into the myth's eerie persistence. Fan animations on , such as the 2023 piece "This Man (Nico's Nextbots)" and the 2025 submission "Have You Seen This Man?", blend the sketch with horror tropes in short, interactive flash-style formats. User-generated content extends the legend interactively via community platforms. The Reddit subreddit r/thisman, a satirical space for sharing dream encounters, features role-play stories and fictional extensions of the hoax since its early activity around the legend's peak virality. These often mimic alternate reality game (ARG) elements, with users crafting narrative threads about "sightings" in dreams or real life to immerse participants. This integration in games and online media underscores the legend's participatory allure, allowing users to actively engage with the dream myth through exploration, creation, and shared storytelling, thereby perpetuating its cultural footprint beyond passive consumption.

References

  1. https://www.vice.com/en/article/we-got-hoaxed-about-that-this-man-dream-haunter-979/
  2. https://www.vice.com/en/article/have-you-ever-dreamed-of-this-man-111/
  3. https://ianwallacedreams.com/journal/this-man-psychology.html
  4. http://www.thisman.org
  5. https://www.andreanatella.eu/bio/
  6. https://www.andreanatella.eu/guerrigliamarketing-it/
  7. https://digicult.it/hacktivism/viral-communication-hotbed/
  8. https://www.thisman.org/
  9. https://gizmodo.com/why-are-thousands-of-people-dreaming-about-this-man-5388286
  10. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeG6unIr4bM
  11. https://www.facebook.com/thescarecast/posts/in-2008-eerie-flyers-of-a-man-with-thick-brows-and-a-blank-stare-spread-worldwid/1634694351038866/
  12. https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/this-man-ever-dream-this-man
  13. https://www.facebook.com/thisman.org/
  14. https://www.lastampa.it/cultura/2009/10/28/news/il-mistero-dell-uomo-dei-sogni-1.37057363/
  15. https://www.andreanatella.eu/kook-artgency/
  16. https://www.andreanatella.eu/ever-dream-this-man/
  17. http://www.kook.it/2010/01/this-man/
  18. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5CfNx6fGhE
  19. https://positivepsychology.com/jungian-archetypes/
  20. https://www.psychologistworld.com/cognitive/carl-jung-analytical-psychology
  21. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11274468/
  22. https://sleepiverse.com/articles/precognitive-dreams/
  23. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2814941/
  24. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/apr/10/scientists-identify-parts-of-brain-involved-in-dreaming
  25. https://cordis.europa.eu/article/id/121980-trending-science-researchers-use-brain-scans-to-predict-peoples-dreams
  26. https://www.apa.org/news/podcasts/speaking-of-psychology/dream
  27. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/03/magazine/pandemic-dreams.html
  28. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/pareidolia
  29. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9473424/
  30. https://variety.com/2010/film/news/bertino-is-ghost-house-s-man-1118018789/
  31. https://collider.com/bryan-bertino-this-man-sam-raimi-ghost-house-pictures/
  32. https://deadline.com/2010/05/the-strangers-director-bryan-bertino-scares-up-ghost-house-dream-job-38350/
  33. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt32569451/
  34. https://asianmoviepulse.com/2024/07/film-review-this-man-tomojiro-amano/
  35. https://thebloggingbanshee.com/2024/07/26/fantasia-2024-review-this-man/
  36. https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20170216010300315
  37. https://ew.com/recap/the-x-files-season-11-episode-2/
  38. https://www.eatthecorn.com/2018/01/13/11x02-this/
  39. https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/dream-scenario-movie-review-2023
  40. https://5years.beehiiv.com/p/dreams
  41. https://www.thisman.org/dylan-dog-355/
  42. https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2018-04-04/bloody-monday-koji-megumi-launches-new-suspense-manga-on-april-25/.129908
  43. https://www.thisman.org/dandadan/
  44. https://theghostinmymachine.com/2017/05/22/the-creepypasta-collection-volume-2-edited-by-mrcreepypasta-takes-online-horror-offline-review/
  45. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5shPumwWFro
  46. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6q7gbOyCQM
  47. https://www.newgrounds.com/art/view/sofinska/this-man-nico-s-nextbots
  48. https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/1003456
  49. https://www.reddit.com/r/thisman/
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