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Analog horror

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Analog horror is a subgenre of horror fiction and an offshoot of the found footage film genre,[1][2][3] said to have originated online during the late 2000s and early 2010s with titles such as No Through Road, Local 58, Gemini Home Entertainment, and Marble Hornets.[3][2][4][5]

Characteristics

Analog horror is commonly characterized by low-fidelity graphics, cryptic messages, and visual styles reminiscent of late 20th-century television and analog recordings.[2][6][7] This is done to match the setting, as analog horror works are typically set somewhere between the 1960s and 1990s.[2][6] The name "analog horror" comes from the genre's aesthetic incorporation of elements related to analog electronics, such as analog television and VHS (Video Home System), the latter being an analog method of recording video and audio.[2][6]

Analog horror may also be influenced by found footage horror films, such as The Ring (1998) and The Blair Witch Project (1999).[2][8] David Lynch's Inland Empire heavily influenced both No Through Road and Petscop,[9][10] the former of which is a short film from which analog horror originates, and the latter of which is a web series rooted in analog horror.[11]

History

Analog horror could be regarded as a form or descendant of creepypasta legends.[12] Many creepypastas anticipated analog horror's themes and presentation: Ben Drowned and NES Godzilla Creepypasta, among others, featured manipulated or contrived footage of "haunted" media, and Candle Cove, a creepypasta from 2009, focused on a mysterious television broadcast.[13]

The subgenre is typically cited as originating between the late 2000s and the mid-2010s Internet (mainly with YouTube) videos,[4][2] specifically from Steven Chamberlain's No Through Road in January 2009,[3] and gaining substantial popularity with the release of Kris Straub's Local 58 in October 2015, from which series' slogan ("ANALOG HORROR AT 476 MHz") the genre received its name.[2][4] The series, which quickly became successful, would later inspire works such as The Mandela Catalogue and The Walten Files.[2][5] Another YouTube channel, Kraina Grzybów TV, anticipated many main themes of the genre, as in December 2013 it began publishing videos stylized as a TV program from the 1990s that contained disturbing and surreal imagery.

In 2020, Netflix announced that it would adapt the analog horror podcast Archive 81 into a series of the same name.[7][14] Despite its positive reception, the show was canceled after airing only one season.[15][16]

Examples

No Through Road

Main article: No Through Road

No Through Road is a YouTube series created by then-seventeen-year-old Steven Chamberlain of Hertfordshire, England, in 2009. Set within the real-world private "no through road" at the entrance of Broomhall Farm, it follows four teenagers driving home at night as they find themselves trapped in a space and time loop, eternally passing the same two road signs marking an intersection between Benington and Watton between miles of liminal space countryside, while threatened by a figure who can manipulate the loop back to an archway at the road's entrance.[17] Other plot aspects include all footage of the events being stolen from MI6 and uploaded online to YouTube.[3]

Composed of four shorts,[18] No Through Road has attained a cult following,[9] and is considered a foundational work of the analog horror genre.[3][19][20]

Local 58

Main article: Local 58

Kris Straub's Local 58 is a series of YouTube videos presented as authentic videotaped footage of a television station[21] that has been continuously hijacked over several decades.[22] While there is no main plot in this series, episodes include messages related to looking at the Moon or the night sky, as well as the in-universe Thought Research Initiative (TRI).[8] Local 58's first video "Weather Service" was published in 2015 as a stand-alone short[23] and then added to the dedicated YouTube channel when it was established in 2017.

Local 58 is frequently credited with creating and/or popularizing analog horror.[4][24][25][23] Additionally, the series is responsible for naming the genre through its slogan, "ANALOG HORROR AT 476 MHz".[8]

CH/SS

CH/SS is a YouTube series that was first released in 2016. It was created by an individual known as Turkey Lenin III, a Singaporean user who was 15 at the time of its first upload.[25] The series starts as various uploads from and about a mental health program sponsored by the United States government. As it progresses, details and mysteries are slowly revealed, alongside additional content provided through MediaFire download links and an accompanying Twitter account.[25]

Archive 81

Main article: Archive 81 (podcast)

Marble Hornets

Main article: Marble Hornets

Gemini Home Entertainment

Main article: Gemini Home Entertainment

Gemini Home Entertainment is a horror anthology series by Remy Abode that initially released in 2019.[8] It centers around the eponymous Gemini Home Entertainment, a fictional distributor of VHS tapes[21] that detail numerous anomalous incidents taking place around the world,[22] including the appearances of various dangerous alien creatures in the United States and an ongoing assault on the Solar System by "The Iris", a sentient rogue planet which sent the entities to Earth as part of its efforts to subjugate the planet and humanity.[21] The creature of the "Woodcrawler" in the series is heavily inspired by the Native American mythologies of skinwalkers and the wendigo.[26]

The Walten Files

The Walten Files is an animated YouTube series, partially inspired by the Five Nights at Freddy's franchise,[27] created by Chilean internet personality Martin Walls.[21] It is presented as found footage from the fictional restaurant Bon's Burgers, which featured animatronic entertainment, and produced by the fictitious Bunny Smiles Incorporated.[8] The story focuses on the backstory of the restaurant and its founders, Jack Walten and Felix Kranken, alongside the many mysteries behind its enigmatic closure and the former's disappearance.[5]

The Mandela Catalogue

See also: The Mandela Catalogue

The Mandela Catalogue is a YouTube series created by twenty-year-old Alex Kister[21] of Hubertus, Wisconsin in 2021. It is set in the fictional Mandela County, Wisconsin in the 1990s,[22] which is threatened by the presence of "alternates", doppelgängers who coerce their victims to kill themselves and can manipulate audiovisual media.[24] Other plot aspects include Lucifer disguising himself as the biblical archangel Gabriel.[28] Composed of twelve shorts,[29] The Mandela Catalogue became popular online through analysis and reaction videos.[24]

The Smile Tapes

The Smile Tapes (stylized as The SMILE Tapes) is an analog horror series created by Patorikku in 2021. The story is set in the mid-1990s in the United States and revolves around a fictitious new drug in circulation on the black market called "SMILE". Usage of the drug induces violent behavior in its users and causes them to laugh and smile uncontrollably. As the series progresses, SMILE is revealed to actually be the spores of an extraterrestrial fungus-like organism native to the asteroid belt. The series was inspired by the fungus Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, a fungus species known for infecting and altering the behavior of ants.[2][8]

The Monument Mythos

The Monument Mythos (stylized as "THE MONUMENT MYTHOS") is a pseudo-analog horror/satire, alternate history webseries created by Alex Casanas under the pseudonym "MISTER MANTICORE". The series takes place throughout three fictional universes, each containing its own narrative, with an overarching theme of US historical monuments being used in government conspiracies. The primary universe, dubbed by the fanbase as the "Deanverse," takes place in an alternative universe where actor James Dean becomes the 37th President of the United States following a landslide election (among other changes). His detractors form a terrorist group known as the Anti Dean Association (later the Anti Device Association), aiding in the eventual destruction of the universe known as the Great Division. The events that led up to the Great Division are documented by a former inhabitant of the Deanverse known as Cthonaut A. The second universe, dubbed the "Montyverse", acts as an alternative reality to the Deanverse, where actor Montgomery Clift becomes the 37th President of the US with James Dean as his Vice President. Cthonaut A, using his knowledge of the events in the Deanverse, interferes with this universe by aiding in the prevention the Great Division. He later influences the prevention of an interplanetary threat, saving the Earth. The third universe, under the moniker The Monument Mythos: Modern Day, takes place in an alternate version of the 2020s where English actor Robert Pattinson becomes the 46th President of the US under the influence of beings that have been manipulating American presidents for malicious purposes. Towards the end of his term, a now-insane Pattinson launches "Parasite Rocket" nuclear ballistic missiles secretly hidden inside monuments by the American government, causing widespread death and destruction of which some survivors escape by become trans-dimensional beings.[21][8]

Alex Cansas has also created other analog horror series, some of which were later adapted into episodes of The Monument Mythos and recontextualized to fit within the series, including the Nixonverse, the Trinity Desk Project, The House on the Ocean, and CORNERFOLKLORE.

Midwest Angelica

Midwest Angelica is a YouTube horror series published in 2022 by the channel MidwestAngelica. The story takes place in 1999, when a government organization called H.O.M.E (Heavenly Operation Material Examination) make the discovery of a malicious extra-terrestrial being, codenamed "AZ-001", which flies into the Earth's atmosphere.[30][21]

Kane Pixels' The Backrooms

In January 2022, a short horror film titled The Backrooms (Found Footage) was uploaded to YouTube by then-sixteen-year-old Kane Parsons of Northern California, known online as Kane Pixels.[21] It is based on the creepypasta of the same name, using the software Blender and Adobe After Effects,[5][7][31][32] and is presented as a VHS tape recorded by a filmmaker who accidentally enters the Backrooms in the 1990s and is pursued by a monster.[33][34] This was later expanded into a series of sixteen shorts, following the employees of a company investigating the Backrooms.[35] Parsons received a Creator Honors for the series at the 2022 Streamy Awards from The Game Theorists.[36]

After receiving positive reviews from critics,[37][38][39] on February 6, 2023, A24 announced that they were working on a film adaptation of the Backrooms based on Parsons' videos, with Parsons set to direct. Roberto Patino is set to write the screenplay, while James Wan, Michael Clear from Atomic Monster, Shawn Levy, Dan Cohen, and Dan Levine of 21 Laps are set to produce.[33][35][40][41]

See also

References

  1. ^ Wehs, Garet (February 22, 2022). "Analog horror: The bizarre and the unsettling". The Signal. Georgia State Signal. Retrieved January 26, 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Maison, Jordan (October 14, 2022). "Everything there is to know about the analog horror genre". Videomaker. Retrieved February 6, 2023.
  3. ^ a b c d e Kok, Nestor (March 18, 2022). "Ghosts in the Machine: Trick-Editing, Time Loops, and Terror in "No Through Road"". F Newsmagazine. Retrieved March 18, 2022. "No Through Road" has amassed over two million views, spawned three sequels, and is considered a foundational work for both analog horror enthusiasts and indie found footage buffs.
  4. ^ a b c d Cases, Kenneth (September 16, 2022). "Local 58: The Analog Horror Series (An Introduction)". Robots.net. Retrieved January 26, 2023.
  5. ^ a b c d Szczesniak, Alicia (January 13, 2022). "A look into analog horror". The Post. Retrieved January 26, 2023.
  6. ^ a b c Saucier, Emily (April 25, 2022). "What Makes Things Creepy?". The Delta Statement. Delta State University. Retrieved January 26, 2023.
  7. ^ a b c Evangelista, Chris (January 11, 2022). "Archive 81 Review: Analog Horrors Haunt Netflix's Uneven New Supernatural Series". SlashFilm.com. Static Media. Retrieved January 26, 2023.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g Heath, David (January 24, 2023). "12 Scariest Analog Horror Series". Game Rant. Retrieved January 26, 2023.
  9. ^ a b Peters, Lucia (November 16, 2020). "The Weird Part Of YouTube: The Making Of "No Through Road" And The Power Of Unanswered Questions". The Ghost in My Machine. Archived from the original on November 16, 2020. Retrieved November 16, 2020.
  10. ^ Moyer, Philip (March 18, 2020). "There's Something Hiding in Petscop". EGM. EGM Media LLC. Retrieved January 26, 2023.
  11. ^ Barron, Alex (August 31, 2017). ""Petscop," the Creepy YouTube Series That Confounded Gamers on Reddit". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Archived from the original on December 1, 2017. Retrieved November 24, 2017.
  12. ^ Tee, Samiee (May 28, 2022). "Public Memory: Crafting Analog Horror in Video Games". Uppercut. Archived from the original on January 4, 2023. Retrieved January 26, 2023.
  13. ^ The Web Series & Creepypasta That Defined Analog Horror - Ryan Hollinger on YouTube
  14. ^ Kanter, Jake (October 26, 2020). "'Archive 81': Mamoudou Athie, Dina Shihabi To Star In Netflix Series Inspired By Horror Podcast; James Wan's Atomic Monster Producing". Deadline Hollywood. Deadline Hollywood, LLC. Retrieved May 5, 2021.
  15. ^ Romanchick, Shane (November 30, 2021). "'Archive 81' Images Reveal a Time-Bending Horror Show on Netflix". Collider. Retrieved December 21, 2021.
  16. ^ Andreeva, Nellie (March 24, 2022). "Archive 81 Canceled By Netflix After One Season". Deadline Hollywood. Deadline Hollywood, LLC. Retrieved March 24, 2022.
  17. ^ Catherine, Anna (May 3, 2013). "Review: No Through Road". -EL GORE-. Retrieved May 3, 2013.
  18. ^ "Steven Chamberlain". YouTube. Retrieved February 11, 2023.
  19. ^ Reuben, Emily (September 3, 2021). "The Best Original Horror On YouTube". Looper. Retrieved September 3, 2021.
  20. ^ Cantrell, M. Asher (October 24, 2014). "7 Deeply Bizarre Horror Shorts to Watch on YouTube". Film School Rejects. Retrieved October 24, 2014.
  21. ^ a b c d e f g h Saab, Hannah; Cabezas, Nikolas (October 24, 2022). "12 Creepiest Analog Horror Series on YouTube". Collider. Retrieved December 7, 2023.
  22. ^ a b c WE INTERRUPT YOUR SCROLLING TO BRING YOU 8 ANALOG HORROR BOOKS - BOOK RIOT
  23. ^ a b The History of Analog Horror [ft. Alex Kister, Nexpo, NightMind, Kris Straub] | Documentary (2022), retrieved September 14, 2023
  24. ^ a b c Levesque, Eamon (October 29, 2021). "This Halloween's Scariest Horror Movie Is a YouTube Series By a Wisconsin 18 Year-Old". GQ. Condé Nast. Retrieved January 26, 2023.
  25. ^ a b c Kok, Nestor (February 4, 2022). "Ghosts in the Machine: Examining the Origins of Analog Horror in "CH/SS"". F Newsmagazine. Retrieved May 1, 2023.
  26. ^ Kok, Nestor (February 15, 2022). "Ghosts in the Machine: Archiving the End of the World with "Gemini Home Entertainment"". F Newsmagazine. School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Retrieved January 26, 2023.
  27. ^ Almeida, Sh-Ron (January 31, 2022). "The Walten Files: A tragedy of horrors". The Anchor Newspaper.
  28. ^ Pfister, Elizabeth (October 3, 2022). "Analog Horror and Its Blueprints for Horror's Future". Dread Central. Retrieved February 12, 2023.
  29. ^ "Alex Kister". YouTube. Retrieved February 11, 2023.
  30. ^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7z0RRfZwKIg
  31. ^ Rogers, Reece (May 11, 2022). "How to 'No-Clip' Reality and Arrive in the Backrooms". Wired. Archived from the original on July 10, 2022. Retrieved November 30, 2022.
  32. ^ Parsons, Kane (January 6, 2022). The Backrooms (Found Footage) (Short film). YouTube. Kane Pixels. Archived from the original on January 30, 2022. Retrieved February 12, 2023.
  33. ^ a b Grobar, Matt (February 6, 2023). "'The Backrooms' Horror Film Based On Viral Shorts By 17-Year-Old Kane Parsons In Works At A24, Atomic Monster, Chernin & 21 Laps". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on February 6, 2023. Retrieved February 6, 2023.
  34. ^ Fuster, Jeremy (February 6, 2023). "YouTube Horror Hit 'The Backrooms' to Be Made Into A24 Feature Film by Its Teenage Creator". TheWrap. Retrieved March 13, 2023.
  35. ^ a b Burton, Carson (February 7, 2023). "YouTube Horror Series The Backrooms Is Getting Turned Into a Feature Film". IGN. Archived from the original on February 11, 2023. Retrieved February 11, 2023.
  36. ^ Tinoco, Armando (December 4, 2022). "YouTube Streamy Awards 2022 Winners List: Charli D'Amelio, MissDarcei, MrBeast & Cooking With Lynja Among Victors". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on December 6, 2022. Retrieved January 12, 2023.
  37. ^ Russell, Erica (January 17, 2022). "'The Backrooms' Viral Horror Short Explained". WPST. Archived from the original on January 31, 2022.
  38. ^ Anderson, Kyle (March 22, 2022). "TERRIFYING BACKROOMS SHORT FILM IS ALSO SUPER IMPRESSIVE". Nerdist. Archived from the original on December 31, 2022. Retrieved February 11, 2023.
  39. ^ Wickens, Katie (July 7, 2022). "Noclipping is no joke: the strange world of The Backrooms explained". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on November 30, 2022. Retrieved February 11, 2023.
  40. ^ Goslin, Austen (February 8, 2023). "Viral horror video The Backrooms will be a movie from A24 and its 17-year-old director". Polygon. Archived from the original on February 11, 2023. Retrieved February 11, 2023.
  41. ^ Gutelle, Sam (February 9, 2023). "Teenage creator Kane Parsons will direct a Backrooms horror movie". Tubefilter. Archived from the original on February 11, 2023. Retrieved February 11, 2023.
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