Chapter 1: Before the Glitch
POV: Director (Sam Landon)*
The first day on set always brought a mix of excitement and stress. Sam Landon, the seasoned director behind what was supposed to be the biggest Godzilla movie ever made, adjusted his cap as he stood in the bustling studio. "Legacy of the King" was meant to be his magnum opus—a tribute to the long history of kaiju films, with a modern spin that fans would never forget. He'd promised innovation, spectacle, and just the right amount of nostalgia.
The production team had gone all out. Godzilla's design was painstakingly crafted to be the most terrifying, lifelike version yet. A monster for the ages. But something felt off about the shoot today. Maybe it was just the nerves of managing such a huge project, but Sam couldn't shake the strange feeling gnawing at the back of his mind.
Cameras rolled. The crew worked flawlessly. The animatronics and CGI models for Godzilla moved with breathtaking realism. Everything was coming together—until it wasn't.
The first sign of trouble was subtle. A camera operator, Danny, kept fiddling with the equipment, muttering something about interference. Sam didn't think much of it at the time. Technical glitches were a part of filmmaking, especially with so many special effects in play.
"Just leave it for now," Sam said, focused on getting the perfect shot of Godzilla rising from the ocean.
Hours passed, and yet the glitches continued. Sometimes the screen would briefly blur when Godzilla's face was in view, but the crew chalked it up to faulty tech. Only when they reviewed the day's footage did things take a more unsettling turn.
POV: Editor (Amanda Perez)*
Amanda Perez sat hunched over the editing station, eyes fixed on the footage from the day's shoot. The giant creature emerged from the waves in glorious, terrifying detail. Everything seemed perfect—until she zoomed in on Godzilla's face.
It was… wrong. No matter how many times she played the footage back, the face remained distorted, as though someone had smudged the film with a black marker. It wasn't just blurry, it was redacted, like something had purposely been removed. She called in her assistant, Matt, to see if he could figure it out.
"No idea what's going on here," Matt said after a few minutes of poking around. "The rest of the footage is clean, but whenever you get to Godzilla's face… it's like this."
Amanda fiddled with the controls, trying to fix it. But no matter what she did, the face remained obscured by digital static and a heavy black smudge, like something—someone—was actively erasing it. When they tried using a different editing suite, the result was the same. And when they used backup footage, still the same problem.
"It's almost like it doesn't want to be seen," Amanda muttered, half-joking, but a cold shiver ran down her spine as she said it.
POV: Director (Sam Landon)*
Sam watched the footage with the production team later that evening. "What the hell is this?" he asked, bewildered.
"We don't know," Amanda said, rubbing her temples. "It only happens when Godzilla's face is on screen. Everything else is crystal clear."
Sam tapped his fingers on the table, frustrated but unwilling to panic. "We'll fix it in post."
But weeks went by, and no matter what they did—new cameras, fresh footage, even practical effects—every time Godzilla's face appeared, it was redacted. The editing suite would glitch and crash. Computers froze or wiped themselves when trying to process the images. The film was cursed, it seemed, by the very thing that made it: Godzilla.
By now, rumors started spreading among the crew. Whispers about government intervention, secretive meetings between studio execs and shady men in suits. Sam dismissed it as gossip. But that uneasy feeling from the first day had now become impossible to ignore.
Interview: Sam Landon (Months Later)*
A few months after the film's release, Sam sat down for an interview in a dimly lit room, a camera crew set up to record his thoughts.
"We had no choice but to leave it in," Sam said, his voice tired, almost resigned. "Whatever was going on, it wasn't something we could explain. At first, we thought it was just a technical issue. But as time went on... things started getting strange. Crew members reported feeling watched. We'd hear things, see things that didn't make sense. Shadows where there shouldn't be. Voices during playback. And always… always the face would disappear."
The interviewer leaned forward, intrigued. "And what about the government?"
Sam paused. "After the glitches kept happening, some people came to the studio. Men in suits, very official. They didn't say much, just that we weren't to discuss what was happening. They gave us some cryptic advice: 'Don't look too closely at the face.' After that, the studio told me to leave it as it was. To not try and fix it."
"Did anyone ever figure out why this was happening?"
Sam's eyes darkened. "No. But I'll tell you this—after the film came out, people started disappearing. Some of the crew, editors... people who'd been closest to the footage. They just vanished. No one could explain it."
POV: The Camera Operator (Danny)*
Danny sat on the interview stool, fidgeting with the microphone. He hadn't slept well since the shoot wrapped. Godzilla's face still haunted him in ways he couldn't describe. But what really got to him were the glitches. The night after they wrapped, he'd gone home to review some of the footage on his personal computer, just out of curiosity.
For the first few minutes, everything was fine. But when Godzilla's face appeared on the screen, his entire setup fried. The smell of burnt plastic filled the room. And then, in the silence, he heard something—breathing, low and heavy, behind him.
When he turned, there was nothing there.
"I'll never forget it," Danny said in the interview. His voice trembled. "It's like... whatever was in that footage didn't want to stay in the film. Like it was trying to get out."
To Be Continued...