The release of the new movie Detective Picachu is less than three weeks away, and while a lot of us might be waiting for that film in great anticipation of a new guilty pleasure, Sam Haft beats it to the punch with a much grittier, much weirder approach to the character.

Enter True Detective Picachu.

The clever yet disturbing short comes from the minds of Sam and Bill Comedy, a comedy music act.

When Birth, Movies Death asked Sam Haft how the film came to be, he answered:

“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.”

Tommy Kang brings Pikachu to life as a morally ambiguous, gritty police detective who talks and acts disturbingly like Matthew McConaughey. Stripping away everything about the famed electric mouse that makes him cute and cuddly puts True Detective Pikachu distinctly in the “nightmare fuel” category. Bill Bria is great as his partner, an emotionally ragged Ash Ketchum.

Pokemon lore stitches everything together. Pikachue isn’t the only bizarre Pokemon/human hybrid character. Watch for Wartortle, James from Team Rocket, Vulpix, and Officer Jenny (who seems to be every other police officer).

It’s beautifully shot, capturing the look and feel of HBO’s True Detective. Other Pokemon populate this dark buddy cop story, all leading up to that epic punchline at the end.  

When you open the weird barrel and scoop some out, True Detective Pikachu is floating right there at the top. 

The theatrical film Detective Pikachu starring Ryan Reynolds hits screens May 9.

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Gene Turnbow

President of Krypton Media Group, Inc., radio personality and station manager of SCIFI.radio. Part writer, part animator, part musician, part illustrator, part programmer, part entrepreneur - all geek.