The misadventures of a “weird gamer guy” takes a wickedly fun turn in the 2020s now that Andrew Bowser’s viral internet character lands on the big screen in the new horror-comedy, Onyx the Fortuitous and the Talisman of Souls. The film, written and directed by Bowser, is dubbed “a fun throwback to quirky horror films of the ’90s, filled with magic and humor.”

The plot: Befuddled/loser occultist Marcus J. Trillbury, aka Onyx (Bowser), and a fierce group of worshipers attends a once-in-a-lifetime ritual at the mansion of their idol, Bartok The Great. Horror, comedy, and mayhem ensue in the vein of Beetlejuice. Bowser has been on quite the ride with the project. Folks found the quirky character of Onyx endearing. So much so that Bowser’s alter ego went on to garner more than 300 million views online and more than one million TikTok followers. Take that, golden retriever pups!

The film debuted at Sundance and went on to win the Audience Award at the 2023 Portland Horror Film Festival. Now, thanks to some major Kickstarter love, will benefit from a one-night-only nationwide screening on October 19. Bowser chats more about the new film in this exclusive MovieWeb interview.

The Fortuitous Journey to the Screen
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Onyx the Fortuitous and the Talisman of Souls also stars horror genre icons Barbara Crampton, Jeffrey Combs (Re-Animator), Ralph Ineson (The Witch, The Green Knight), Rivkah Reyes (School of Rock), TC Carson (Final Destination 2), Arden Myrin (Insatiable, Shameless), and Melanie Chandra (Code Black). Dip into any of Andrew Bowser’s video creations, and it’s immediately obvious that there’s a quirky spark there capable of fueling an offbeat horror comedy.

Related: 10 Horror Comedies That Lean Heavy on the Comedy

Bowser said he originally created the character of Onyx back in 2012, the offspring of improv classes in college:

“I was encouraged by one of my teachers to rely on specifics from personal experience to inform my improvs, and what I would often find was that during a scene, I would pull a specific story from my childhood and that would inform the direction of that scene or the place of my character in that improvised scene. So, being encouraged to improvise and pull on specifics is really what brought about Onyx, because he’s kind of my fifth grade self.”

He added that the character allowed him to process many fears and insecurities he had as a child. “When I started thinking of characterizing this person, Onyx was born. He reflects a lot of undiagnosed anxiety and even OCD from my childhood. He’s a character that helps me exorcise those things.”

Cathartic all around. The antics found in the videos find new life in the movie version. Marcus/Oynx is flipping burgers and headed nowhere. He isn’t valued by his boss. At home, his mother dismisses him. Things change when he’s one of five people who are invited to the mansion of mystical Bartok to partake in a rare ritual. Time to put on some groovy clothes. Off to the mansion these folks go to attempt to raise the spirit of an ancient demon. Fun.

Onyx’s Rise to Success
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When asked if he was surprised by Onyx’s internet success, the ever eclectic Bowser mused, “Well, I think personally it was a target. I’m a filmmaker first before being a comedic actor. And I always wanted to make a traditional narrative feature because my other features had been a little experimental. One was found footage, one was a mockumentary, one was a movie entirely shot on a GoPro that an actor was wearing the entire time, and the movie was only two takes long.

“But I didn’t know that the traditional feature effort would be with Onyx,” he added. “That happened just because the character kind of persisted. He kept working for the internet. He kept getting views and people kept showing an interest in his interior life, and the world that I was almost accidentally building by going back to him so many times.”

Related: Fathom Events Presents Special Anniversary Screenings of Scarface, The Exorcist, A Christmas Story and More This Fall

During the pandemic, Bowser tried to build out something greater from “online Onyx.” It needed to be crowdfunded because, he admits, traditional resources for a proper feature weren’t available to him. “The only way to crowdfund something would be to utilize Onyx. And that’s when the streams got crossed, and I realized, ‘Oh, well maybe this bigger feature effort stars Onyx at the center.”

After experiencing audiences’ reactions to the film, and the project is getting a major boost with a big nationwide screening set for October 19, Bowser has had time to reflect upon what he hopes audiences take away from the movie:

“I want people to take away the notion that every individual should be allowed to define who they are for themselves. Marcus wants to be called Onyx and that’s OK. The entire movie is about people saying, ‘Call me this and see me as this, and that should be enough.’ We shouldn’t need a leader to speak for a certain definition over us and definitely nobody from a systemic authority, whether it be Bartok or otherwise. They shouldn’t be telling us who we are and what role we can fill. We can decide that for ourselves. That’s really the heart of the Onyx movie.”

Cineverse and Fathom Events will hold nationwide screenings of Onyx the Fortuitous and the Talisman of Souls on October 19. Learn more about the event here, and check out the trailer below: