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Analog horror is a subgenre of horror fiction and an apocalyptic fiction offshoot of the found footage film technique.[1][2]

[3] It is often cited to have originated online during the late 2000s and early 2010s through popular titles such as No Through Road, Local 58, Gemini Home Entertainment, and Marble Hornets.[2][3][4][5]

Characteristics

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Analog horror is commonly characterized by low-fidelity graphics, cryptic messages, and visual styles reminiscent of late 20th-century television and analog recordings.[3][6][7] This is done to match the setting, as analog horror works are typically set somewhere between the 1960s and 1990s, or work with elements from that time period.[3][6] Analog horror is often noted to use visual and audio distortion, as well as glitch-like effects that emphasize and replicate the technological limits the subgenre works with.[8][9] 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.[3][6]

The genre is also known to show manipulated pre-existing media from the time period it is trying to imitate, as seen in series like The Mandela Catalogue. Oftentimes, analog horror works use their formats supposed limitations to their advantage. The effects and graphics of analog horror often intend to let viewers wonder, and subsequently fear, what they are witnessing. Works such as The Backrooms utilize the limitations of the equipment they're replicating to disguise the use of Blender and Adobe After Effects, making the series appear more visually realistic.

Analog horror may also be influenced by found footage horror films, such as The Ring (1998) and The Blair Witch Project (1999).[3][10] David Lynch's Inland Empire heavily influenced both No Through Road and Petscop,[11][12] 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.[13]

History

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Analog horror could be regarded as a form or descendant of creepypasta legends.[14] 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.[15]

The subgenre is typically cited as originating between the late 2000s and the mid-2010s Internet (mainly with YouTube) videos,[4][3] specifically from Steven Chamberlain's No Through Road in January 2009,[2] 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.[3][4] The series, which quickly became successful, would later inspire works such as The Mandela Catalogue and The Walten Files.[3][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.

Some analog horror series have been adapted into different forms of media. In 2020, Netflix announced that it would adapt the analog horror podcast Archive 81 into a series of the same name.[7][16] Despite its positive reception, the show was canceled after airing only one season.[17][18]

Marble Hornets had a film set in the same setting release in 2015, which was negatively received. A film adaptation for The Backrooms was announced to be in production in 2023, with Kane Pixels set to direct it.

Examples

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No Through Road

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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.[19] Other plot aspects include all footage of the events being stolen from MI6 and uploaded online to YouTube.[2]

Composed of four shorts,[20] No Through Road has attained a cult following,[11] and is considered a foundational work of the analog horror genre.[2][21][22]

Local 58

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Main article: Local 58

Kris Straub's Local 58 is a series of YouTube videos presented as authentic videotaped footage of a television station[23] that has been continuously hijacked over several decades.[24] 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).[10] Local 58's first video "Weather Service" was published in 2015 as a stand-alone short[25] 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][26][27][25] Additionally, the series is responsible for naming the genre through its slogan, "ANALOG HORROR AT 476 MHz".[10]

CH/SS

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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.[27] 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.[27]

Archive 81

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Main article: Archive 81 (podcast)

Archive 81 is a horror podcast released in 2016, made by Dan Powell and Marc Sollinger. The podcast is centered around an archivist named Dan, who recently began a job from the Housing Historical Committee of New York State, who is told by his boss to constantly record his life.[28] Dan records himself as he listens to and organizes a number of interview tapes, recorded by Melody Pendras and detailing her conversations with residents of an apartment complex.[28][29] It's revealed that these recordings of Dan doing his job are tapes that his friend Mark is now listening to, as Dan has gone missing and Mark seeks to find out what happened to him.[28][30] The podcast was adapted into a Netflix Original series, having released in 2016.[31] The Netflix series was cancelled after one season.[18]

Marble Hornets

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Main article: Marble Hornets

Marble Hornets is an alternate reality game YouTube series created in 2009, based on the Slender Man creepypasta.[32] Made by Troy Wagner and Joseph DeLage, the series follows Jay Merrick (Wagner) as he attempts to find out what happened to his friend Alex Kralie (DeLage) during the production of Alex's student film, Marble Hornets.[32][33] Jay watches tapes from the films production, and uploads them to YouTube as various entries showing that Alex was being stalked by an elusive entity known as "The Operator." Aspects of the series that put it in the analog horror subgenre include its use of video tapes, as well as the implementation of a second channel for the series titled "totheark," where cryptic codes and messages are embedded into unconventional video editing.[34] Marble Hornets had a spinoff film released in 2015 called Always Watching: A Marble Hornets Story, with reviewers remarking that the series did not translate well onto the big screen, from both a storytelling and technical standpoint.[35][36][37] The film was negatively received.[38]

Gemini Home Entertainment

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Main article: Gemini Home Entertainment

Gemini Home Entertainment is a horror anthology series by Remy Abode that initially released in 2019.[10] It centers around the eponymous Gemini Home Entertainment, a fictional distributor of VHS tapes[23] that detail numerous anomalous incidents taking place around the world,[24] 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.[23] The creature of the "Woodcrawler" in the series is heavily inspired by the Native American mythologies of skinwalkers and the wendigo.[39]

The Walten Files

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The Walten Files is an animated YouTube series, partially inspired by the Five Nights at Freddy's franchise,[40] created by Chilean internet personality Martin Walls.[23] 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.[10] 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

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See also: The Mandela Catalogue

The Mandela Catalogue is a YouTube series created by twenty-year-old Alex Kister[23] of Hubertus, Wisconsin in 2021. It is set in the fictional Mandela County, Wisconsin in the 1990s,[24] which is threatened by the presence of "alternates", doppelgängers who coerce their victims to kill themselves and can manipulate audiovisual media.[26] Other plot aspects include Lucifer disguising himself as the biblical archangel Gabriel.[41] Composed of twelve shorts,[42] The Mandela Catalogue became popular online through analysis and reaction videos.[26]

The Smile Tapes

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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.[3][10]

The Monument Mythos

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The Monument Mythos (sometimes stylized as "THE MONUMENT MYTHOS") is a pseudo-analog horror, alternate history webseries created by Alex Casanas, or his pseudonym "MISTER MANTICORE". The series is split into three "universes". The primary universe is the Deanverse, where American actor James Dean is the 37th president of the United States, making many important decisions. In the end, the Earth is destroyed following a catastrophic event known as the "Great Division", leaving few survivors. The events that led up to the Great Division are documented by "Cthonaut A", and released into YouTube under the pseudonym of "MISTER MANTICORE". The second universe is "The Nixonverse", in which Richard Nixon, from the Deanverse, is transported to this universe, obtains godly powers, and creates three beings in his essence. After Nixon learns that society is cruel and unjust, he "fictionalizes" the universe, turning the Nixonverse into a YouTube series. The third universe is the "Montyverse", where American actor Montgomery Clift runs as president with James Dean as his vice president, a major event leading to the Great Division is undone, and an interplanetary threat is stopped, saving the Earth.[23][10] The series uses a wide range of technical techniques to show its contents, such as technology similar to Windows Movie Maker, that uses narrative restrictions to its advantage in analog horror.[43]

Midwest Angelica

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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.[44][23]

Kane Pixels' The Backrooms

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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.[23] It is based on the creepypasta of the same name, using the software Blender and Adobe After Effects,[5][7][45][46] 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.[47][48] This was later expanded into a series of sixteen shorts, following the employees of a company investigating the Backrooms.[49] Parsons received a Creator Honors for the series at the 2022 Streamy Awards from The Game Theorists.[50]

After receiving positive reviews from critics,[51][52][53] 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 the summer of his eighteenth birthday. 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.[47][49][54][55]

Skinamarink

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Main article: Skinamarink

Written and directed by Kyle Edward Ball, Skinamarink is an supernatural horror film that first debuted at the 2022 Fantasia Film Festival.[56] It utilizes experimental techniques to tell the story of two young children, Kevin and Kaylee, as the pair witness the doors and windows of their house disappear.[57] Their parents are missing as well, and the film focuses on the pair struggling to understand the nature of the supernatural entity that has come into their home.[56][58] Using a crowdfunded budget of $15,000, the film conveys its themes of horror with "unconventional viewpoints and angles" to best simulate the experience of its child protagonists.[56] With the budget in mind, the movies creators were able to utilize what they had on hand for lighting and filming at Balls childhood home, with a majority of the movie being lit by a CRT television.[58] In terms of embodying analog horror traits, the visuals and sound design of the film simulate the quality of VHS tapes. Skinamarink also uses an array of toys from the 90's, the aforementioned CRT television, and older cartoons to work within the analog horror subgenre.[8][58]

References

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  1. ^ Wehs, Garet (2022-02-22). "Analog horror: The bizarre and the unsettling". The Signal. Georgia State Signal. Retrieved 2023-01-26.
  2. ^ 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.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Maison, Jordan (14 October 2022). "Everything there is to know about the analog horror genre". Videomaker. Retrieved 6 February 2023.
  4. ^ a b c d Cases, Kenneth (2022-09-16). "Local 58: The Analog Horror Series (An Introduction)". Robots.net. Retrieved 2023-01-26.
  5. ^ a b c d Szczesniak, Alicia (2022-01-13). "A look into analog horror". The Post. Retrieved 2023-01-26.
  6. ^ a b c Saucier, Emily (2022-04-25). "What Makes Things Creepy?". The Delta Statement. Delta State University. Retrieved 2023-01-26.
  7. ^ a b c Evangelista, Chris (2022-01-11). "Archive 81 Review: Analog Horrors Haunt Netflix's Uneven New Supernatural Series". SlashFilm.com. Static Media. Retrieved 2023-01-26.
  8. ^ a b Williamson, Samuel (February 7, 2023). "What Is Analog Horror? The Subgenre of 'Skinamarink' Explained". Collider. Retrieved January 30, 2024.
  9. ^ Adeishvili, Luca. "Examining the Uncanny Allure of Analog Horror". stuyspec.com. Retrieved January 30, 2024.
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  12. ^ Moyer, Philip (2020-03-18). "There's Something Hiding in Petscop". EGM. EGM Media LLC. Retrieved 2023-01-26.
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  15. ^ The Web Series & Creepypasta That Defined Analog Horror - Ryan Hollinger on YouTube
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  24. ^ a b c WE INTERRUPT YOUR SCROLLING TO BRING YOU 8 ANALOG HORROR BOOKS - BOOK RIOT
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  32. ^ a b Venable, Nick (February 26, 2013). "YouTube Horror Series Marble Hornets Will Bring Slenderman To Theaters". CinemaBlend. Retrieved February 13, 2024.
  33. ^ Kelly, Makena (June 22, 2019). "One of the creepiest series in YouTube history is now a decade old and can't seem to die". The Verge. Retrieved February 14, 2024.
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  38. ^ "ALWAYS WATCHING: A MARBLE HORNETS STORY". Rotten Tomatoes.
  39. ^ Kok, Nestor (2022-02-15). "Ghosts in the Machine: Archiving the End of the World with "Gemini Home Entertainment"". F Newsmagazine. School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Retrieved 2023-01-26.
  40. ^ Almeida, Sh-Ron (31 January 2022). "The Walten Files: A tragedy of horrors". The Anchor Newspaper.
  41. ^ Pfister, Elizabeth (October 3, 2022). "Analog Horror and Its Blueprints for Horror's Future". Dread Central. Retrieved February 12, 2023.
  42. ^ "Alex Kister". YouTube. Retrieved February 11, 2023.
  43. ^ Kok, Nestor (January 21, 2022). "Ghosts in the Machine: The Star-Spangled Monsters of Mister Manticore's "The Monument Mythos"". F Newsmagazine. Retrieved February 20, 2024.
  44. ^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7z0RRfZwKIg
  45. ^ 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.
  46. ^ 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.
  47. ^ 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.
  48. ^ 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.
  49. ^ 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.
  50. ^ 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.
  51. ^ Russell, Erica (17 January 2022). "'The Backrooms' Viral Horror Short Explained". WPST. Archived from the original on 31 January 2022.
  52. ^ 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.
  53. ^ 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.
  54. ^ 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.
  55. ^ 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.
  56. ^ a b c Earl, William (December 6, 2022). "How 'Skinamarink,' a $15,000 Horror Movie, Became the Internet's New Cult Obsession". Variety. Retrieved February 17, 2024.
  57. ^ Gingold, Michael (January 10, 2023). "Move Review: "SKINAMARINK" will make you a frightened child again". Rue Morgan. Retrieved February 17, 2024.
  58. ^ a b c Keogan, Natalia (January 13, 2023). ""Significant Portions of the Movie Were Literally Just Lit by the Television": Kyle Edward Ball on Skinamarink". Filmmaker. Retrieved February 17, 2024.
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