TGIF! If your apartment didn’t come with faulty wiring and a bad paint job, don’t worry: you can still get a taste of The Landlord Special through the latest Sims expansion pack.

MOVIE MADNESS

Can Escape the Night rise again after four years in the grave?

Joey Graceffa is ready to raise his beloved mystery franchise from the dead—but first, he’ll need to raise $250,000 on Indiegogo. The YouTuber announced the launch of that campaign yesterday, in a video that revealed his plans to finance a film adaptation of Escape the Night:

Graceffa’s original series first premiered on YouTube Red (aka YouTube Premium) in 2016 and quickly attracted a loyal fanbase with its creator-packed casts, era-specific settings, and rich lore. Accolades followed soon after: Escape the Night earned a total of 12 Streamy Award nominations, with its cast and crew picking up four trophies between 2016 and 2019.

Four years have passed since YouTube’s pivot away from YouTube Originals led to the cancellation of Graceffa’s landmark series—but that doesn’t mean the franchise’s fans have moved on. In a matter of hours, Escape the Night’s Indiegogo campaign has already brought in nearly $35,000 and garnered a slew of enthusiastic comments. If contributors can keep up that pace for the next 59 days, fans will be able to experience the full glory of Graceffa’s vision: an 84-minute film filled with “clues, laughs, scares, challenges, betrayal, and DRAMA.”

The stars of that feature have yet to be revealed, but according to Graceffa, viewers will recognize “some familiar faces” among a cast of both YouTubers and “traditional talent.”

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• YouTube is shaking up its recommendation engine in order to limit teens’ and tweens’ exposure to “repeated messages about idealized standards.” (Tubefilter)
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• Opus Clip has debuted an AI-powered B-roll finder that automatically scrapes stock video footage from Pexels and inserts it into creators’ videos. (Tubefilter)
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• Uncommon Threads Media will kickstart its translations of global children’s videos by making a viral Georgian giraffe called Joze accessible to English-speaking audiences. (Tubefilter)
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• The latest episode of Creator Upload delves into the Hello Sunshine Collective, a new creator-first initiative launched by Reese Witherspoon’s media company. (Tubefilter)

DATA • CREATORS ON THE RISE 📈

This artist’s supernatural creations are giving Instagram users a sugar rush

From the time she was a child, Caitlyn Grabenstein has had two great loves: “UFOS and candy.” The first of those passions evolved naturally from a childhood spent watching the kinds of programs featured on The History Channel—shows centered on aliens, Bigfoot, and other supernatural beings.

Grabenstein’s out-of-this-world interests stayed with her as an adult—so when she got into the music biz and began designing charitable concert posters in 2014, it wasn’t long before extraterrestrial elements ended up in her art.

The artist’s Instagram followers were 100% on board.

Grabenstein originally began posting on the platform as @cult.class to advertise the performances and musicians she worked with—but to her surprise, viewers were way more into her personal pieces: retro-style collages featuring aliens, monsters, and other supernatural creatures of the night.

Nowadays, Grabenstein is a full-time artist with half a million Instagram followers and an exciting new business venture: Cult Class Candy Bars. The creator teamed up with Viral Nation to develop the limited-edition collection of cookies & cream, milk chocolate, and dark chocolate sea salt bars, which offer buyers a one-in-25 chance of winning a signed art print.

Find out more about about Grabenstein’s social media journey and the launch of Cult Class Candy Bars here.

TO EAT OR NOT TO EAT?

The ‘Keith Lee Effect’ is shaking up Atlanta’s food scene

Keith Lee doesn’t beat around the bush. Whether he’s eating collared greens in Chicago or chowing down on pickles at Disneyland, the former MMA fighter always delivers an honest review. That kind of authenticity has earned Lee more than 14 million TikTok followers—and drawn massive crowds to his favorite restaurants.

If Lee loves your food, you should probably brace yourself for a flood of new customers.

Even Chipotle has experienced the “Keith Lee Effect” (a term lovingly coined by the influencer’s viewers). During the launch of a special “Keithadilla” menu item, for instance, the chain said its quesadilla sales “nearly doubled.” More recently, Lee’s praise of an Atlanta-based Caribbean spot called Juci Jerk drew massive crowds to the restaurant’s doors.

Of course, not every restaurant earns a ringing endorsement from Lee.

While the TikToker gushed about Juci Jerk, he didn’t mince words about the confusing ordering systems and excessive surcharges at other Atlanta-based spots like The Real Milk & Honey and Old Lady Gang. (Lee was even less pleased when The Real Milk & Honey offered to let him cut in line because of his online influence.)

Those critiques drew ire from some commenters (including the owner of The Real Milk & Honey, who responded to Lee’s viral review by sassily tweeting “Who’s Keith Lee?”) But for the most part, the creator’s criticisms seem to have opened up a productive dialogue about Atlanta’s food scene. Cardi B certainly seems to agree with Lee’s take—on Instagram Live, the star said she can “barely order in Atlanta restaurants” without dropping her name.

WATCH THIS 📺

The Mean Girls cast is back just in time for Black Friday

If anyone knows how to properly celebrate a shopping holiday, it’s the Plastics. Original Mean Girls stars Lindsay Lohan, Amanda Seyfried, and Lacey Chabert returned to North Shore High School earlier this week for a commercial advertising Walmart’s Black Friday sales.

Cady, Gretchen, and Karen were reunited just in time for North Shore’s annual Winter Talent Show—but this time, they assumed the roles of guidance counselor, mother, and meteorologist. Check out the full video here to see even more throwback cameos.

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Today's newsletter is from: Emily Burton, Sam Gutelle, and Josh Cohen. Drew Baldwin helped edit, too. It's a team effort.xz