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Analog horror is a subgenre of horror fiction and offshoot of the found footage film technique, often cited as originating online during the late 2000s and early 2010s.
Characteristics
Analog horror is commonly characterized by low-fidelity graphics, cryptic messages, and visual styles reminiscent of late 20th-century television and analog recordings. This is done to match the setting, as analog horror works are typically set between the 1960s and 1990s. It is named "analog horror" because of its aesthetic incorporation of elements related to analog electronics, such as analog television and VHS, the latter being an analog method of recording video.
Analog horror may also be influenced by found footage horror films, such as The Blair Witch Project and the original Japanese version of The Ring.David Lynch's Inland Empire heavily influenced both No Through Road and Petscop, the former of which is a short film from which analog horror originates, and the latter of which is a web series and an alternate reality game rooted in analog horror.
History
Analog horror could be regarded as a form or descendant of creepypasta legends. 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.
The subgenre is typically cited as originating from late 2000s/2010s Internet (mostly YouTube) videos, specifically from Steven Chamberlain's No Through Road in January 2009, 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. The series, which quickly became successful, would later inspire works such as The Mandela Catalogue and The Walten Files. Another YouTube channel, Kraina Grzybów TV, anticipated many main themes of the genre, as in December 2013 it began publishing videos stylised 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. Despite its positive reception, the show was canceled after a single season.
Examples
Local 58
Kris Straub's Local 58 is a series of YouTube videos presented as authentic videotaped footage of a television station that is continuously hijacked over the course of several of decades. 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).Local 58's first video was published in 2017 on Halloween.
Local 58 is frequently credited with creating and/or popularizing analog horror. Additionally, the series is responsible for naming the genre through its slogan, "ANALOG HORROR AT 476 MHz".
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. 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.
Gemini Home Entertainment
Gemini Home Entertainment is a horror anthology series by Remy Abode that initially released in 2019. It centers around the eponymous Gemini Home Entertainment, a fictional distributor of VHS tapes that detail numerous anomalous incidents taking place around the world, 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. The creature of the "Woodcrawler" in the series is heavily inspired by the Native American mythologies of skinwalkers and the wendigo.
The Walten Files
The Walten Files is an animated YouTube series, partially inspired by the Five Nights at Freddy's franchise, created by Martin Walls. It is presented as found footage from the fictional restaurant Bon's Burgers, which featured animatronic entertainment, and produced by the fictitious Bunny Smiles Company. The story focuses on the backstory of the restaurant and its founders.
The Mandela Catalogue
The Mandela Catalogue is a YouTube series created by eighteen-year-old Alex Kister of Hubertus, Wisconsin in 2021. It is set in the fictional Mandela County, Wisconsin in the 1990s, which is threatened by the presence of "alternates", doppelgängers who coerce their victims to kill themselves and can manipulate audiovisual mediums. Other plot aspects include Lucifer disguising himself as the biblical archangel Gabriel. Composed of twelve shorts,The Mandela Catalogue became popular online through analysis and reaction videos.
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.
The Monument Mythos
The Monument Mythos is a pseudo-analog horror series created by MISTER MANTICORE on YouTube. The series takes place in an alternate history; one where James Dean became president, personal computers were banned in the late 20th century, and national monuments hold dark secrets.
Harmony and Horror
Harmony and Horror is a analog horror web series created by Battington on YouTube, The series tells the tragic tale of the Greywhinder Family where the patriarch, Martin Greywhinder, murders his family and own brother to attempt to make what he dubs; “The Perfect Toy”, the series implies he made a deal with the Devil to get his wishes to come true.