SAN FRANCISCO — A Canadian artist is to blame for giving much of San Francisco a collective heart attack after posting a digital rendering of a giant Grim Reaper on the Golden Gate Bridge.
The frightening animation, created and posted on Instagram by web designer and developer Justin Leduc, shows a red-robed, hooded figure emerging from the water and grasping the top of the bridge. What added to the realness of it all was the fact that the scene was seemingly captured through the window of a passing helicopter.
His post quickly went viral, garnering more than nine million views within the first 24 hours, with many people actually believing the animation was real. @bdawn0205 wrote, “Wait was that really there and is this real”, and @oona.anniina commenting, “Wowww that’s insane”.
The animation was also posted by Leduc on the Reddit group ‘Creepy’ where he wrote, “Had so much fun doing this one!” However, one eagle-eyed Reddit user did catch one major discrepancy – the lack of traffic. “Living in the Bay area, the only thing unrealistic is the light traffic on the bridge,” the user wrote.
Traffic faux-pas aside, we still can’t get over how real this looks. We’ll be sure to keep the lights on tonight!