A few months ago, Birth.Movies.Death. reader Sam Haft slid into my Twitter DMs to tell me he was working on a new short film, something he was calling True Detective Pikachu. The name sorta tells you everything you need to know, I suppose, but just in case, Haft sent along a screencap from his latest short: there was Pikachu, now grotesquely enlongated and mustachioed in the style of Matthew McConaughey in Cary Fukunaga's True Detective. It was objectively disturbing, and I knew instantly that it was something we'd one day proudly share with you, the gentle BMD readers of the world.

I am pleased to report that today is that day.

Behold: True Detective Pikachu.

If I may be so bold: this might be my favorite piece of bizarro fan filmmaking since The Chickening came along, a perfect storm of "Committing to The Bit", creative passion, and truly impressive filmmaking skills. Keep your "What if Boba Fett were a Ghostbuster lol???" mash-up t-shirts. This is the kind of weirdo bullshit I wanna see when I log in every day. Our respect goes out to director Sam Haft, and his two main True Detective Pikachu cast members, Tommy Kang (as Pikachu) and Bill Bria (as Ash).

By the way, I asked Haft what he had to say for himself. Here's what he told me:

"I originally wrote a version of this sketch in a pitch packet for a writing job that my lit agent sent me. I didnt get the job and then got dropped by my lit agent. So of course, I sprung into action wasting a ton of money making this comedy abomination. Now nobody else has a lit agent. Coincidence? Yes."

"Comedy abomination." Yeah. Yeah. That just feels right, doesn't it?

Stay tuned for more on True Detective, Detective Pikachu and - god willing! - more upsettingly weird stuff from filmmaker Sam Haft in the not-too-distant future.