The Walten Files

Analog horror is a subgenre of horror fiction and an offshoot of the found footage film genre, said to have its origins in online horror of the late 2000s and early 2010s, including creepypasta stories and found footage series such as '' No Through Road'', and ''Marble Hornets.'' The genre gained more widespread popularity with the release of Kris Straub's '' Local 58'' in October 2015, with the series' slogan ("ANALOG HORROR AT 476 MHz") providing the genre's name.

Characteristics

Analog horror is commonly characterized by low-fidelity graphics, cryptic messages, little to no traditional jump scares, 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 somewhere between the 1960s and 1990s, or work with elements from that time period. 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. 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.

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. 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. Works such as ''The Backrooms'' use the limitations of the equipment that they are 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 horror films such as ''The Ring'' (1998) and ''The Blair Witch Project'' (1999). David Lynch's ''Inland Empire'' heavily influenced ''Petscop'', a web series 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.

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 as Orson Welles's 1938 radio adaptation of ''The War of the Worlds'' and the shot-on-video TV movies ''Special Bulletin'' (1983), ''Ghostwatch'' (1992) and ''Without Warning'' (1994).

The subgenre is typically cited as originating between the late 2000s and the mid-2010s Internet (mainly with YouTube) videos, specifically from Steven Chamberlain's '' No Through Road'' in January 2009, and gaining substantial popularity on the English-speaking internet with the release of Kris Straub's '' Local 58'' in October 2015; the series' slogan ("ANALOG HORROR AT 476 MHz") gave the genre its name. ''Local 58'', which quickly became successful, inspired later works such as ''The Mandela Catalogue'' and ''The Walten Files''. Another YouTube channel, the Polish-language Kraina 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 podcast ''Archive 81'' into a series of the same name. Despite its positive reception, the show was canceled after airing only one season.

''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 Parsons set to direct it.

On August 21, 2024, a short video resembling an EAS titled ''EAS Indonesia Concept (October 24, 1991), ANM-021 (Mesem) - First Encounter,'' gained widespread attention on Indonesian social media. The video was posted to in support of pro-democracy movements in Indonesia. The widespread sharing of the symbol on platforms like Instagram, Twitter (X), and WhatsApp was a form of protest against the House of Representatives' attempt to overturn the Constitutional Court's decision regarding regional election laws. The analog horror video, central to mobilizing citizens for the nationwide protests on August 22, 2024, became a key impetus and driving force behind demonstrations across Indonesia. Many pro-democracy activists, including public and political figures, adopted and shared the short video and it's screenshots across social media platforms. The image was reused in the 2025 Indonesian protests with the blue replaced with black to signify greater urgency.

See also

* Creepypasta
* ''Amanda the Adventurer'', a horror game series featuring analog horror elements
* Vaporwave
* Lost media
* Collage television
* ''Suffer Little Children'' - 1983 shot-on-video film similar in content

References

Works cited

Video sources

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2000s in Internet culture
2010s in Internet culture
2020s in Internet culture

Horror fiction
Horror genres
Narrative techniques
Nostalgia