Analog horror is asubgenre ofhorror fiction commonly characterized by low-fidelity graphics, cryptic messages, few to no traditionaljump scares, and visual styles reminiscent of late 20th-century television andanalog recordings.[3][4][5][6] It is an offshoot of thefound footage film genre,[7][3][8] said to have its origins in online horror of the late 2000s and early 2010s, includingcreepypasta stories[9] such asThe Backrooms and found footage series such asNo Through Road andMarble Hornets.[8][3][10][11] The genre gained more widespread popularity with the release ofKris Straub'sLocal 58 in October 2015, with the series' slogan ("ANALOG HORROR AT 476MHz") providing the genre's name.[3][10]
Analog horror is commonly characterized by low-fidelity graphics, cryptic messages, little to no traditionaljump scares, and visual styles reminiscent of late 20th-century television andanalog recordings.[3][4][5][6] 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][4] 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.[12][13] The name "analog horror" comes from the genre's aesthetic incorporation of elements related toanalog electronics, such asanalog television andVHS (Video Home System), the latter being ananalog method of recording video and audio.[3][4][14]
The genre is also known to show manipulated pre-existing media from the time period it is trying to imitate, as seen in series likeThe Mandela Catalogue.[3][15] Oftentimes, analog horror works use their formats' supposed limitations to their advantage.[16] Analog effects and graphics frequently obscure or abstract events such that the viewers are left to wonder at, and consequently fear, what they are witnessing.[3] Works such asBackrooms use the limitations of the equipment that they are replicating to disguise the use ofBlender andAdobe After Effects, making the series appear more visually realistic.[17]
Analog horror may also be influenced by horror films such asRing (1998),The Blair Witch Project (1999) andParanormal Activity (2007).[3][18][19]David Lynch'sInland Empire and the musical subgenrevaporwave heavily influencedPetscop,[20][21][22] a web series rooted in analog horror.[23][24]
Analog horror could be regarded as a form or descendant ofcreepypasta legends.[9] Many creepypastas anticipated analog horror's themes and presentation:Ben Drowned andNES Godzilla Creepypasta, among others, featured manipulated or contrived footage of "haunted" media, andCandle Cove, a creepypasta from 2009, focused on a mysterious television broadcast.[25]
Some commentators have drawn parallels between analog horror and 20th-century radio and television programs that presented fictional stories in the style of "live news broadcasts," such asOrson Welles's1938 radio adaptation ofThe War of the Worlds and theshot-on-video TV moviesSpecial Bulletin (1983),Ghostwatch (1992) andWithout Warning (1994) (in other words, "analog horror" before analog horror).[26][27][28]
The subgenre is typically cited as originating between the late 2000s and the mid-2010s Internet (mainly with YouTube) videos,[10][3] specifically from Steven Chamberlain'sNo Through Road in January 2009,[8] and gaining substantial popularity on the English-speaking internet with the release ofKris Straub'sLocal 58 in October 2015; the series' slogan ("ANALOG HORROR AT 476MHz") gave the genre its name.[3][10]Local 58, which quickly became successful, inspired later works such asThe Mandela Catalogue andThe Walten Files.[3][11] Another YouTube channel, the Polish-languageKraina Grzybów TV, anticipated many motifs 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 podcastArchive 81 into aseries of the same name.[5][29] Despite its positive reception, the show was canceled after airing only one season.[30][31]
On August 21, 2024, a short video resembling anEAS titledEAS Indonesia Concept (October 24, 1991), ANM-021 (Mesem) - First Encounter, gained widespread attention on Indonesian social media. The video was posted in support ofpro-democracy movements in Indonesia.[2] The widespread sharing of the symbol on platforms like Instagram, Twitter (X), and WhatsApp was a form of protest against theHouse of Representatives' attempt to overturn the Constitutional Court's decision regarding regional election laws. The analog horror video was adopted by citizens for thenationwide protests on August 22, 2024, and shared virally on Indonesian social media as a symbol of disquiet with the government's decisions.[1][2] Many pro-democracy activists, including public and political figures, adopted and shared the short video and its screenshots across social media platforms.[32] The image was reused in the2025 Indonesian protests with the blue replaced with black to signify greater urgency.[33]
No Through Road is a YouTube series created by then-17-year-old Steven Chamberlain ofHertfordshire, England, in 2009. Set within the real-worldprivate "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 andtime loop, eternally passing the same tworoad signs marking anintersection separating the villages ofBenington andWatton between miles ofliminal spacecountryside, while threatened by a figure who can manipulate the loop back to anarchway at the road's entrance.[34] Other plot aspects include all footage of the events being stolen fromMI6 and uploaded online to YouTube.[8]
Composed of four shorts,[35]No Through Road has attained acult following,[20] and is considered a foundational work of the analog horror genre.[8][36][37]
Marble Hornets is analternate reality game YouTube series created in 2009, based on theSlender Mancreepypasta.[38] 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.[38][39] Jay watches tapes from the film's 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 unconventionalvideo editing.[40] The web series was met with mostly positive reviews from critics, likeRoger Ebert, and fans.[41][42]
Marble Hornets had a spinoff film released in 2015 calledAlways Watching: A Marble Hornets Story, which was negatively received,[43] with reviewers remarking that the series did not translate well onto the big screen, from both a storytelling and technical standpoint.[44][45][46]
Kris Straub'sLocal 58 is a series of YouTube videos presented as authentic videotaped footage of a television station that has been continuously hijacked over several decades. While there is no main plot in this series,[47] episodes include messages related to looking up at theMoon or thenight sky, as well as the in-universe Thought Research Initiative (TRI)[48]Local 58's first video "Weather Service" was published in 2015 as a stand-alone short[49] 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.[10][50][51][49][52] Additionally, the series is responsible for naming the genre through its slogan, "ANALOG HORROR AT 476MHz".[48]
Archive 81 is ahorror 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, who is told by his boss to constantly record his life.[53] 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.[53][54] It is revealed that these recordings of Dan doing his job are tapes that his friend Marc is now listening to, as Dan has gone missing and Marc seeks to find out what happened to him.[53][55] The podcast was adapted into aNetflix Original series, having released in 2016.[56] The Netflix series was cancelled after one season.[31]
The Mandela Catalogue is a YouTube series created by twenty-year-old Alex Kister[24] ofHubertus, Wisconsin in 2021. It is set in the fictional Mandela County,Wisconsin in the 1990s and 2000s,[57][58][59] which is threatened by the presence of "alternates",doppelgängers who coerce their victims to kill themselves and can manipulateaudiovisual media.[50] Other plot aspects includeLucifer disguising himself as the biblicalarchangelGabriel, shown through altered footage of episodes from the animated seriesThe Beginners Bible.[60][15] Composed of fourteen shorts,[61]The Mandela Catalogue became popular online through analysis andreaction videos.[62][63]
In January 2022, ashort horror film titledThe Backrooms (Found Footage) was uploaded to YouTube by then-sixteen-year-old Kane Parsons ofNorthern California, known online as Kane Pixels.[24][52] It is based on thecreepypastaof the same name, using the software Blender and Adobe After Effects,[11][5][64][65] and is presented as aVHS tape recorded by a filmmaker who accidentally enters the Backrooms in the 1990s and is pursued by a monster.[66][67] This was later expanded into a series of twenty-three shorts, following the employees of a company investigating the Backrooms.[68] Parsons received a Creator Honors for the series at the 2022Streamy Awards fromThe Game Theorists.[69]
After receiving positive reviews from critics,[70][71][72] 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.[63]Roberto Patino is set to write the screenplay, whileJames Wan, Michael Clear fromAtomic Monster,Shawn Levy, Dan Cohen, and Dan Levine of21 Laps are set to produce.[66][68][73][74]
Pixels also created the follow up seriesThe Oldest View, which follows a man who, after discovering a replica of theValley View Center underground, is stalked by agiant puppet ofJulien Reverchon.[48][24]
The Oldest View is a YouTube series created by Kane Parsons (known online as Kane Pixels), an online film creator famous for his works adaptingThe Backrooms into a horror series.The Oldest View follows Wyatt, a fictional online videographer who, when trespassing onto private property, stumbles upon an exact replica of the Valley View Mall through an underground stone staircase that stretches miles deep. When he is exploring the mall, he is chased by a giant puppet of Julien Reverchon, dubbed the "Rolling Giant" in the title of the series' third episode.[75]
The Oldest View has six episodes on YouTube, and has gained popularity online due to Parsons' popularity as a filmmaker as well as reactions/analyses from popular online creators such as Wendigoon[76][77] and 8BitRyan.[78]
"No Through Road" has amassed over two million views, spawned three sequels, and is considered a foundational work for both analog horror enthusiasts andindie found footage buffs.
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