Analog Horror

I know it’s not Spooktober to post some spooky scary stuff on here, but there are some channels that I want to recommend for the horror genre lovin’ part of Medium. What I want to recommend to you is a new genre of horror, something called ‘Analog Horror’. It’s now popularized by many people online, some creators who gained their name from doing such content. If you are bored of the regular horror stuff on the media right now, then keep reading to discover a whole new genre of frights.

Now, before I get to the actual recommendations, I want to make clear what analog horror is to you. As Urban Dictionary defines it,

Pretty cool, right? Besides, expect to see a VHS logo thing in the corner of your screen all of the time. For me, it just adds to the horror. Recommendations come below :)

1) The Mandela Catalogue

The thumbnail of this story and the picture of this handsome man above belongs to this fabulous web-series on YouTube, where it has turned the heads of many. Once a small creator, Alex Kister is an 18 year old amateur filmmaker, who is the creator of the Mandela Catalogue. The premise of the series is about instructional videos made for the citizens of Mandela County, which is presently overrun by aliens called ‘alternates’, who possess the ability to shapeshift into humans, or what looks like them, at least. Being unable to cause physical harm, they are intelligent enough to cause emotional damage and cause the victim to obey them. Encounters with the alternates are documented in the videos on the YouTube channel, along with the training tapes. It follows a lost footage kind of vibe, where you, the viewer, gets the vibe that they are not supposed to be looking at what they are looking at right now. Along with having a dedicated audience, the Mandela Catalogue has been scrutinized by many other creators, who theorize on the main plot line of the series. It has also enjoyed the spotlight of the meme community, spawning many memes such as the Intruder ones. All I’m going to say that, if you don’t like the series after checking it out, I’ve got something to say to you.

Episode count:- with 6 episodes

https://www.youtube.com/c/MandelaCatalogue

The Mandela Catalogue was inspired by Local58, another analogue horror channel that we will discuss.

2) Local 58

Ah, Local58. Such simpler times. I was 14 or 15 when I had first heard about this one. It did give me some anxiety when watching the news but a solid series none the less. This psychological horror was created by Kris Straub, commends to him. It was uploaded way back in 2015, being one of the most influential one of its kind, at least that I know of. The premise of this story is about a news channel that gets repeatedly hijacked by a strange group of people, who are obsessed with the moon being all evil and stuff. Just to give you a glimpse of the stuff you’re in for, here are the Wikipedia recaps for some of these videos.

Due to me forgetting most of the spooky stuff that I’ve watched on this channel and it being too late in the night to re-watch it again, I have run out of stuff to say about this, forgive me. The only thing I remember is watching behind me a record 79 times the whole series (yes I keep count of that as a measure of how spooked I am).

https://www.youtube.com/c/LOCAL58TV

Episode count:- 9 episodes

3) The Walten Files

Here’s another series about how people mysteriously disappear in a pizza shop. Obviously, I know more than I’m letting on about the series. Having that VHS feel does the whole vibe a good favor. The whole plot is that you rediscover a whole new mystery of a old franchise, who’s employees mention that they have bizarre experiences in(with some ending up stuffed inside the animatronic characters more than enough times). With people ending up horribly dead and more plot points shrouded in mystery, it makes for a great watch and I highly recommend it.

https://www.youtube.com/c/MartinWalls

Episode count:- 4 along with other videos

4) Gemini Home Entertainment

What do you get when you cross over a mysterious alien planet with a seemingly normal company which makes home entertainment tapes to watch on your VHS system? Well, you get Gemini Home Entertainment. Each video in this series starts off simple. Something simple about animals, or the planets in our solar system. Then, it strikes. A seeming connection with a whole species of aliens, which appear to have crossed over to our earth from another planet, Iris, just beyond the reach of man’s technology to be detected. The Iris’ians attack humans and create grotesque creatures nowhere resembling a person through the Deep Root Disease, a small parasitic plant thing growing inside your bones. Anyway, I don’t want to spoil much of the story for you now, so that you can enjoy it yourself.

https://www.youtube.com/c/GEMINIHOMEENTERTAINMENT

Episode count:- 16

???) Thalasin

A bonus video I have lined up for you guys is another one called BLUE_CHANNEL: THALASIN. Since it’s not a series and a short video of almost 3 minutes, I won’t be giving any details on the story since it would be spoiling you too much. Here’s the link.

https://youtu.be/Td2x8s9GZlo

Hey, guys, hope you enjoyed my little collection of horror videos I found on YouTube over the years. It’s a bit differentiating from my usual articles on self improvement, but it serves as a good breather and time away from this. I’m going to post more articles of variety so you better follow me for that. See ya!