Does a real video from the Epstein files show a cannibalism party where Epstein is carving into a trussed and cooked human corpse? No, that's not true: Scenes of this cannibalism party came from the production of a fake horror movie trailer Thanksgiving. A mix of real images from the movie trailer production and AI-generated scenes derived from them began to circulate with false added context claiming they were from the Epstein files.
The video appeared in a post (archived here) published by @smolfsmolf7 on X on Aug. 21, 2026. The post was captioned:
🔴🔴💥EPSTEIN FILES: VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED
On January 30, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice released a new batch of over 3 million pages of documents related to the Jeffrey Epstein case. With this addition, the total volume of material now stands at nearly 3.5 million pages, alongside 2,000 videos and 180,000 photographs. The contents reveal the voices of victims--with testimony from over 1,200 survivors finally gaining global attention--as well as the scope of the operation, with details and records exposing the true scale of the network involved. They also provide historical evidence, including images and recordings dating back to the 1990s and 2000s that had previously been hidden in private archives. The release of these documents marks a pivotal milestone in the pursuit of justice.
#EPSTEINFILESRELEASED #EpsteinList #JeffreyEpstein
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by @smolfsmolf7 on X.)
The @smolfsmolf7 video on X is 1-minute, 49-seconds and contains over 50 clips. The scope of this fact check will be focused only on the cannibalism party scenes in the video, which will be referenced by their timestamps. These images did not originate from the U.S. Department of Justice's database called the Epstein Library (archived here). Each file in the library has an assigned number which can be used to verify its authenticity.
In the image above, there is a small thumbnail at the bottom margin showing what appears to be a baked turkey, or upon closer inspection -- a bound headless human figure. This image circulated on Reddit as early as June 5, 2013 (archived here). Another photo (pictured below) of the room installation by Artists Anonymous named Last Supper appears in the writeup about the fall of 2009 art exhibit Rapture at the White Square Gallery (archived here).
(Image source: White Square Gallery.)
In the first three seconds of the @smolfsmolf7 video, the top of a man's head appears along the left side, he seems to be bowing or bending down. This video clip has been cropped. Lead Stories found the original copy of this footage (pictured below) which was published on TikTok by @mr.mubasher298 on Feb. 5, 2026 (archived here). The account Mr Mubasher (archived here) has an established format where he uses AI to insert his likeness into AI-generated scenes with other people, sometimes celebrities. Here the likeness of Jeffrey Epstein is carving what appears to be a roasted human being.
(Image source: post by @mr.mubasher298 on TikTok.)
Lead Stories uploaded about 4 seconds of this video to Hive Moderation's AI-generated Content Detection tool (pictured below) which found the video was 99.7% likely to be made with AI (archived here).
(Image source: Hive Moderation.)
There were two additional videos uploaded to TikTok by @mr.mubasher298 on Feb. 9 and 17, 2026, which show the same general scene and people. In one Mubasher helps by holding a serving plate and then drinks water from a glass (archived here). In the other, Mubasher samples a piece of meat, eating with his hand, and then takes the baseball hat from the other man's head and puts it on his own head as he leaves (archived here).
The man with the baseball hat is a real person who appears in behind-the-scenes photos from the production of a fake horror movie trailer. His likeness from the real photo, along with the additions of Jeffrey Epstein and Mubasher were animated with AI tools to produce that clip. This photo (pictured below) along with another photo of the cast seated at the table, appear between 4 to 8 seconds in @smolfsmolf7 video. The man in the dark sweater in the background (pictured below) also appears animated in the Mubasher AI-generated clips. The man on the right side of this photo, with the black gloves, appears animated at ten seconds in the @smolfsmolf7 video -- with tiny hands in white gloves -- carving furiously at the roast.
(Image source: The Quentin Tarantino Archives.)
This photo, and several other behind-the-scenes pictures are posted on the Quentin Tarantino Archives wiki page. The entry, Thanksgiving, (archived here) is about the fake movie trailer which was made by Eli Roth to be included in Tarantino's 2007 film Grindhouse (archived here). The story of how the fake Thanksgiving trailer was eventually made into a feature film appears in a Nov. 16, 2023, article (archived here) in The Hollywood Reporter. The original fake Thanksgiving trailer (warning: graphic) can be found on YouTube where it was published on Nov. 26, 2015 (archived here).
Other fact checks
This claim was also investigated by Thai PBS, Newschecker, and Tempo English.
