THTHNG: Desolation Unknown — Halloween Screening at Live Worms
7:00 - 9:00 PM
Find the streets of SF frightful on All Hallows Eve? Grab some snacks, huddle up and enjoy movie night with us at the Church of Mother Gong.
THTHNG: Desolation Unknown is the 1st part of horror trilogy homage to one of the greatest horror films of all-time. Clocking in at 1 hour 20 minutes, Desolation Unknown is also the world's first full length 'film' created in part with AI technology. Only for mature audiences due to disturbing imagery and profanity.
By Robbie Martin & Kelly Porter,
Music & Sound by Fluorescent Grey.
Robbie Martin and Kelly Porter started conceptualizing THTHNG: Desolation Unknown in 2022, using all the generative AI tools they had at their disposal to make the sound effects, voices, music and 4k wide screen imagery needed to make a film. This project is a combination of both their love for the 1980's horror films and the 'uncanny valley' of horror which happens when generative AI tools create wildly unintended results. THTHNG: Desolation Unknown first premiered at the New Parkway Theatre in Oakland, CA on April 22, 2023 to a sold-out audience.
There’s also now a sequel: THTHNG II, directed by Martin and written by Martin and Porter. It’s scheduled to premiere Friday, November 13, 2026 at the Center for New Music in San Francisco. The event description says the sequel takes the original idea in a more refined direction while deliberately retaining the uncanny quality of AI imagery. Its story expands the infection globally, with action in Antarctica, Florida and Argentina, and uses AI approximations of recognizable 1980s horror actors.
That screening also includes YT Obscura, another Robbie Martin project that sounds extremely interesting: software pulls almost-unseen YouTube uploads from before 2008—videos with fewer than about 20 views—and Martin live-edits them into an audiovisual found-footage performance using visual and verbal match cuts.
