Jeff the Killer

"Go to sleep."

- Jeff the Killer's most famous quote.

Jeffrey "Jeff" Woods (also known as Jeff the Killer) is the titular main protagonist of the Creepypasta of the same name by the brother of GameFuelTv, who loses his sanity and begins killing to satisfy his homicidal urges.

Jeff has extremely pale skin and burnt off eyelids, giving him an even more ghastly appearance. Jeff later got his most distinctive trait, the smile that he had carved into his face. His build is commonly described as slim but fit at the same time and reaching a height of around five to six feet. His clothing normally consists of a pair of black skinny jeans with a white hooded sweatshirt, sometimes stained with fresh and old blood from his victims.

He has become one of the largest Creepypasta icons to date, even rivaling Slender Man. Jeff was a teenage boy, who was a caring youth and deeply cared about his brother Liu. As a killer, all that changed and he became a vengeful, dangerous, and bloodthirsty sociopath.

Creation and Development
Jeff the Killer was originally created by Newgrounds user killerjeff (better known on the internet as Sesseur for his YouTube name) on August 10, 2008 through a news post, stating that he found the image on his ED account and gives a background story of Jeff. Jeff the Killer was originally created as a ghost game similar to that of Bloody Mary.

The instructions are that you perform it in a closet with all lights in the room turned off, then you sit down cross-legged, repeat the sentence "He's in here with me." three time whilst turning your head back and forth, then close your eyes and call out the name "Jeff". Jeff will then appear in front of you, and proceed to yell and try to chant harm at you. To make him stop is to stand there and complement him, not doing so will result in a disaster.

On September 12, 2008, killerjeff posted the source of the Jeff the Killer image that he used to create it, claiming the face to be the aftermath of an acid attack.

On October 3, 2008, killerjeff uploaded a video on his YouTube channel, titled "Jeff the killer [Original Story]", the video explains the story of Jeff the killer and his brother Liu (NOTE: killerjeff's YouTube channel has been terminated due to his violations of YouTube's Community Guidelines, which took the video down with it. When questioned, his response was that his account was taken down due to disbelief of him being the original creator of the Jeff the Killer character. Fortunately the video was reuploaded by YouTube user PhenomenonPoltergeist, however the original audio was not kept, which was just the song I Guess You're Right playing in the background for the entirety of the video).

Liu is described as a well liked person and a "ladies' man" who will befriend those who drink alcohol with him, Jeff is said to have often teased Liu back in his mid-teens by wearing his glasses. Jeff is then described as a serial killer, as he kills people "in favour of the world", he is also said to be "good with children".

The video then transcribes to an explanation of what happened to Jeff's face, it is said that Jeff was hauling a gallon of acid into his bathroom to clean out his bathtub, however he accidentally slipped on a bar of soap and as a result the acid splashed all over his face, however luckily he was saved by his neighbour who called an ambulance after hearing his cries, Liu quit work that day to come and visit Jeff in the hospital after hearing about the accident.

Derivative Works
In 2010 the Jeff the Killer image was posted by an annonymous user with the headline "Go To Sleep" photoshopped at the top, the image was used for a YouTube video on November 21, 2010 titled "creepy pasta " go to sleep "", which depicts the image being slowly zoomed in with the song Hasta el ultimo silencio playing in the background reversed and slowed down. It is believed that the lyrics of the song describe Jeff's pain and suffering.

In August 14, 2011, the image was used for a 4chan post, presenting a story about Jeff the Killer spying on someone in bed struggling to sleep, he whispers to the person to "Go To Sleep" before hiding under the bed, the person silently panics before unintentionally falling asleep, after waking up the person is immediately killed by Jeff, his eyes being the last thing the person sees.

At an unknown date in 2011 (earliest possible known date being November 21, 2011), wiki user GameFuelTv, posted a story (written by his brother) onto the Creepypasta wiki. The Creepypasta tells the story of a 13-year-old Jeff, who gets into a fight with several bullies and in the end suffers scarring on his face after being burned alive while drenched in bleach and vodka, and after waking up in hospital and seeing the result of his face, he went insane and later that night he damages his face to become more disturbing (go read the plot of the story in the Synopsis section).

This Creepypasta became well-known among many Creepypasta readers, soon after MrCreepyPasta narrated the Creepypasta, it blew up quickly, creating an inexplicit fanbase and was declared the official Jeff the Killer story. Many of the fans including MrCreepyPasta declared that Jeff's theme song be Sweet Dreams.

Fans created various Creepypasta crossovers to Jeff, such as Slenderman, as well as making various ridiculous fan favouriting Jeff, pairing him with other Creepypasta characters such as BEN Drowned, Eyeless Jack, Ticci-Toby, Laughing Jack, Jane the Killer and even becoming a "proxy" of Slenderman as well becoming friends with MarbleHornets characters "Masky" and "Hoodie". Some of the fan base made video games based on Jeff the Killer, most of them however (if not all of them) are very poorly made (check out John Wolfe's video if you want to see a good example of them).

Some of the fans even made expansions to the Creepypasta such as Jane the Killer created by DeviantART user FearOfTheBlackWolf, a woman who views Jeff as her nemesis and kills those before Jeff can, telling them to "Don't Go To Sleep, You Won't Wake Up.", the character became well liked among the fan base that a full audio book style written Creepypasta was created between the two rivals encountering, and even a fan made Creepypasta explaining Jane's story and motivation for wanting Jeff killed. In the story, Jane is given the full name "Jane Arkensaw", however years later it was confirmed by FearOfTheBlackWolf that Jane's last name was "Richardson".

Another expansion was Homicidal Liu created by DeviantART user VampireNote13, a story about Jeff's brother Liu surviving his encounter with Jeff in the Creepypasta and obtains a split-personality, becoming a serial killer himself and contemplating whether to get revenge on Jeff or spare him, the expansion also claims that Liu is the older brother even though it was never stated in the actual Creepypasta itself which sibling was the oldest, this expansion was also the origination of where fans gave Jeff the last name "Woods" as Liu is named "Liu Woods" in the expansion.

The Creepypasta itself however, was criticised by many for it's poor quality and it was even protested that it should not have been allowed on the Creepypasta wiki for not meeting the actual required standards. Because of this, it was taken down from the Creepypasta wiki a year later, however users constantly reuploaded it, objecting to the idea of it being taken down due to it being one of the most popular Creepypasta's at the time. In late 2014 it was finally decided by the community that the story be banned from the Creepypasta wiki entirely and officially be moved to the spinpasta wiki, however the story was also taken down from it as well. The story can be found on the official Creepypasta website, Trollpasta wiki, and Just The Kittens wiki (originally "Jeff The Killer wiki", a wiki dedicated to all Jeff the Killer fandom stories, but later renamed for unknown reasons).

As a result of the Creepypasta being taken down from the Creepypasta wiki, a [http://creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Underscorre/Jeff_the_Killer_Rewrite_Contest! competition] was made to remake the story entirely and create something more realistic and frightening that can be featured on the wiki. Admin K. Banning Kellum's story [http://creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Underscorre/Jeff_the_Killer_Rewrite_Contest_-_The_Winners! won first place], however it had to be cut down to half it's size due to the contest's word limit, the fully uncut version can be viewed on the spinpasta wiki.

The remake stays true to the original Creepypasta with the same characters and with Jeff and his family moving into a new neighbourhood as well as a fight with between Jeff and a trio of bullies, however the result of Jeff's deformed face is different to one in the original Creepypasta. Unlike the original Creepypasta, Jeff and Liu's ages are stated, Jeff being 15-years-old, and Liu being 14-years-old, however this is only revealed in the uncut version of the remake.

K. Banning Kellum became proud of his remake, and soon after wiki user Kevin Tierney made a Jane the Killer adaption to the remake, he decided to [http://spinpasta.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Banningk1979/Jeff_the_Killer_2015_Sequel_Coming_Soon_to_Spinpasta! continue the Creepypasta] by making a sequel.

YouTube User [https://www.youtube.com/user/MrBettyKrueger MƦ. ƁЄƬƬƳ ƘƦƲЄƓЄƦ] created a brand new version of Jeff, creating him to be a more 90's style villian. In this version, Jeff Keaton starts out to be a really tall man with pale skin, blue eyes, and a black trenchcoat. Once he becomes 'the Killer', he gains the appearance similar to how the original Creepypasta depicts him, but his red-lipped smile is much wider, and his eyelids are not burned off. Eventually Jeff dies and is resurrected, becoming a zombie, being a far more monstrous character than originally created.

In 2015, it was announced that Purity Films plan to make a full movie of Jeff the Killer, an indiego page raising money for the movie was made to kickstart it. It sought one million dollars in donations and merchandise sales for its budget, but only made $402. Submissions are now closed. The teaser of the movie was heavily criticised by many, and it is assumed that the project has been abandoned as no update about the movie has been released since 2015 (It should be noted that Sesseur has mentioned that he has had his production team working on trying to get the project shut down for copyright reasons. Whether Sesseur succeeded in this or has had any involvement with the project lacking any updates whatsoever is unknown).

Sesseur's Response
In an interview with YouTube user ScareTheater, Sesseur reveals that he became unpleased about the direction that the fanbase viewed Jeff the Killer as. Viewing Jeff as a child murderer, as he claims that Jeff would never kill Liu or his parents, he was also dissapointed about the fact that the fans view him as a teenager as he made Jeff to be a mature character and not as a child. Sesseur was hoping when he first made the character back in 2008 that it would blow up and become a phenomenon across the internet, and when the character finally became popular in 2011, he felt insulted and found the fanbase to be that of anti-fame seeing as the creepypasta story was practically a remix of the original authentic one that Sesseur himself made in the first place. Sesseur also revealed that Jeff the Killer's name was in fact based off of his own true name "Jeff".

For a while Sesseur believed that he did not get enough credit for the whole thing as people did not acknowledge that he was the creator of the character, but years later when people shortly started to realise that he was the creator, he became more appreciative. He hopes that in the future if Jeff the Killer becomes more popular then people will have a whole new level of appreciation for it and that more adult viewers will enjoy it. Sesseur claims that he now has a company thats spots for him if any works that are based off of Jeff the Killer are now informed to him so he can do something about it, if it was made without his permission, he plans to do this for the Purity Films Jeff the Killer movie that is being made.

In a video by YouTube user Kryalis, Sesseur reveals that in the future he and his company plan to make a new "Story" of Jeff the Killer, and that it will be more than what would be expected from the other stories. Sesseur hasn't hinted or given out any information about the project, aside from the fact that it will be an "expanded" version of the original story from 2008, he also mentioned that the project will be something for the fan base to "eagerly await for". When it releases, Sesseur hopes that it will finally become the true vision of Jeff the Killer, and his legacy. Should this happen, Sesseur is confident that the project will grow further on from there.

Controversy on the Image Origin
In 2013 there was much speculation and confusion as well as theories as to where the image was originated from and who created it. It was believed for several years that the image was originated from a 4chan post in April 21, 2008 about a young woman named "Katy Robinson" who committed suicide after being cyberbullied, the most known thing that motivated her to ending her own life was a photoshopped image of herself. Sesseur was harassed by many users on his YouTube video asking about the origination of the image, some even accused him of being the one who photoshopped the image and caused Robinson's death.

Sesseur however reassured everyone in the comments and in an interview with YouTube user ScareTheater that the image was simply a photoshopped version of a white latex mask. It was later considered by many users on the internet that the Katy Robinson suicide may have possibly been fake, as 4chan is well known for spreading false and disturbing rumors, as well as the fact that there is no news report about the girl in the 4chan post and under the name "Katy Robinson" committing suicide by hanging, it is also odd that the post received little attention back in 2008 when it first released.

Although it may be a reused image, it was later discovered by some that the image in the 4chan post came from a profile on LuckyLovers.net, being under the name "Katrina Mia", a woman living in Scotland. The noticeable thing to point out is that the latest login was in 2011, the woman in the said post apparently died in 2008, so the death may in fact be false. Eventually however, the image source was found by Know Your Meme users, from a Japanese YouTube video uploaded on August 2, 2007 (the image can be seen at 4:11). However where the image originated from before then is unknown, however it is clear from this that Sesseur is not the original creator of the image.

Trivia

 * A reboot of Jeff the Killer, written by K. Banning Kellum, is available on the Chilling Tales for Dark Nights YouTube channel Chilling Tales for Dark Nights.
 * For 2016, YouTuber Mr. Betty Krueger is planning a fifth installment in his Jeffery Keaton series, titled "The Wrath of Jeff the Killer".
 * Jeff crossed the Moral Event Horizon in the story when he murdered his own parents. Also, Randy, Keith and Troy crossed it when they tried to beat him to death at the party and threatened to shoot anyone who tried to stop it.
 * One of Jeff's most villainous acts was revealed in "Jane The Killer: The Real Story" when he murders Jane Arkensaw's family, friends and his own family (like in the original story) and lights her on fire using bleach and gasoline, leaving her scarred and disfigured. He done something similar to this act in her original story however it wasn't portrayed as dramatically as the latter.
 * Opinions on Jeff are strongly divided. Many consider his tale an example of an awful Creepypasta, with over the top and ridiculous elements, such as him surviving near impossible pain and self-mutilations. Said people have actually gone on to create their own spoofs of the character, in stories such as "I Met Jeff the Killer On the Deep Web." (As crazy as this sounds, this would be an ideal place for Jeff to hang out, actually, due to privacy being protected, and the amount of serial killers on said Deep Web.) Also, because Jeff's popularity is a lot like Marmite (you either love him or you hate him) many people claim that his story is one of the best Creepypastas, because its unnerving to see a normal man go from collected and sane to becoming a psychopathic killer relatively overnight. Also, the plot twist of him murdering his family is quite a shocking end to the tale. What adds to the genius of the story is his ability to evade capture, giving him an almost supernatural ability of evasion. Some critics of the tale call it a "Shitspasta" along the lines of "Trollpasta" (Creepypasta stories which do not go in for scares but instead go for laughs.)

Navigation
Jeff the Killer