''Gemini Home Entertainment'' is a

horror Horror may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Genres *Horror fiction, a genre of fiction **Psychological horror, a subgenre of horror fiction **Christmas horror, a subgenre of horror fiction **Analog horror, a subgenre of horror fiction * ...

anthology In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs, or related fiction/non-fiction excerpts by different authors. There are also thematic and g ...

web series A web series (also known as webseries, short-form series, and web show) is a series of short scripted or non-scripted online videos, generally in episodic form, released on the Internet (i.e. World Wide Web), which first emerged in the late 1 ...

created by Canadian

YouTuber A YouTuber is a content creator and social media influencer who uploads or creates videos on the online video-sharing website YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006 ...

Remy Abode and periodically released on a

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel of the same name. It is regarded as a foundational

analog horror 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 Thr ...

series. The main series, also known as the ''Full Boxset'', is ongoing. Further videos have also been released since as part of the spin-off series ''Library''.

Premise

The series, taking place in the 1980s and '90s, is presented as a collection of clips from

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

tapes produced by a number of fictional companies and distributed by the eponymous company Gemini Home Entertainment. It combines elements of

cosmic horror Lovecraftian horror, also called cosmic horror or eldritch horror, is a subgenre of horror, fantasy fiction and weird fiction that emphasizes the horror of the unknowable and incomprehensible more than gore or other elements of shock. It is nam ...

surrealism Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...

body horror Body horror, or biological horror, is a subgenre of horror fiction that intentionally showcases grotesque or psychologically disturbing violations of the human body or of another creature. These violations may manifest through aberrant sex, mutat ...

, and Native American mythology. The clips tell an overarching story of extraterrestrial invasion and an impending apocalyptic event.

Overview

The story is told through a series of clips presented as

tapes distributed by the fictional company Gemini Home Entertainment. The tapes are a mixture of educational clips, commercials,

public service announcement A public service announcement (PSA) is a message in the public interest disseminated by the media without charge to raise public awareness and change behavior. Oftentimes these messages feature unsettling imagery, ideas or behaviors that are des ...

s, and

home video Home video is recorded media sold or Video rental shop, rented for home viewing. The term originates from the VHS and Betamax era, when the predominant medium was videotapes, but has carried over to optical disc formats such as DVD and Blu-ray. ...

s, produced by various fictional companies such as Regnad Computing, Harbinge Technologies, and Optica! Video. The motivations, morals, and content varies between the companies. The videos are complete with

lo-fi music Lo-fi (also typeset as lofi or low-fi; short for low fidelity) is a music or production quality in which elements usually regarded as imperfections in the context of a recording or performance are present, sometimes as a deliberate stylistic ch ...

reminiscent of similar real-life videos. The different episodes are superficially self contained, exploring topics such as wildlife,

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

, and the

Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Sola ...

, but together they build a cohesive narrative and serve to document the impending end of the world. The storyline of ''Gemini Home Entertainment'' features extraterrestrial invasion and

parasitism Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives (at least some of the time) on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The en ...

and combines elements of

and Native American mythology. The series includes threats such as extraterrestrial creatures ("Woodcrawlers") using humans as "vessels", a fictional infectious disease called "Deep Root Disease", and a fictional plant or fungus called "Nature's Mockery" that mutilates people with which it comes into contact. Videos typically begin in a mundane way before incorporating horror elements. The series' central antagonist is The Iris, a sentient planet or planet-like entity which is masterminding an invasion of the Solar System and is influencing life on Earth.

Episodes

The main series of ''Gemini Home Entertainment'' began in 2019 and appears to be ongoing. The episodes were later organized into a playlist on the official YouTube channel under the title ''Gemini Home Entertainment Full Boxset''. A spin-off series, ''Library'', premiered on the same YouTube channel in 2021. ''Library'' contains shorter and "secret" episodes that do not follow the format of the main episodes and focus on exploring some of the more misunderstood and confusing concepts introduced in the main series.

''Full Boxset'' (2019–2021)

Main episodes

Non-canonical episodes

''Note: The following episodes have been removed from the series and are no longer canon.'' In addition to the sixteen released episodes, Abode has also released two cancelled episodes through their

Patreon Patreon (, ) is a monetization platform operated by Patreon, Inc., that provides business tools for content creators to run a subscription service and sell digital products. It helps artists and other creators earn a recurring income by provid ...

, "Your Best Self" (July 22, 2021) and "Basics of Broadcast" (May 17, 2022), though neither episode is considered to be

canonical The adjective canonical is applied in many contexts to mean 'according to the canon' the standard, rule or primary source that is accepted as authoritative for the body of knowledge or literature in that context. In mathematics, ''canonical exampl ...

to the series.

''Library'' (2021–present)

Additionally, another set of episodes titled the "Library" has been released, expanding on the lore established in the Box set with specific information on the Moonlight Acres Family Camp "deal", the Skinwalker, and the effects of Deep Root Disease on a person.

Video game

first-person shooter A first-person shooter (FPS) is a video game genre, video game centered on gun fighting and other weapon-based combat seen from a First person (video games), first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action directly through t ...

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

called "LETHAL OMEN" was created as a tie-in to the series. It was developed by Alpine Arts and published on September 22, 2020. The game is set in the fictional, in-universe location of "Moonlight Acres Family Camp", where the player takes a role of an unnamed protagonist armed only with a gun which can be used to kill enemies scattered around the map. There are several keys to be collected which can unlock various endings the game has to offer. There are five achievable endings. The game has builds available for

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

and

MacOS macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

Development

''Gemini Home Entertainment'' was created by a semi-anonymous YouTube creator under the alias Remy Abode. Abode was driven to create

since the genre was very easy to get into; it was possible to create entire short films without having to actually record footage or take photographs of their own and cheaply made visual effects could be disguised under a layer of static interference. The storyline of the series was mainly inspired by

creepypasta A creepypasta is a horror-related legend which has been shared around the Internet. The term ''creepypasta'' has since become a catch-all term for any horror content posted onto the Internet. These entries are often brief, user-generated, par ...

s (horror legends) on the Internet revolving around mythological creatures such as

wendigo Wendigo () is a mythological creature or evil spirit originating from Algonquian folklore. The concept of the wendigo has been widely used in literature and other works of art, such as social commentary and horror fiction. The wendigo is of ...

s and

skin-walker In Navajo culture, a skin-walker () is a type of harmful witch who has the ability to turn into, possess, or disguise themselves as an animal. The term is never used for healers. The yee naaldlooshii, translating to "by means of it, it goes ...

s. Further inspiration came in the form of classic science fiction horror films such as ''

Alien Alien primarily refers to: * Alien (law), a person in a country who is not a national of that country ** Enemy alien, the above in times of war * Extraterrestrial life, life which does not originate from Earth ** Specifically, a lifeform with ext ...

'' (1979) and '' The Thing'' (1982). One of the subplots of ''Gemini Home Entertainment'' revolves around a campsite called Moonlight Acres; this portion was inspired by the more recent horror films '' The Endless'' (2017) and '' The Ritual'' (2017). Abode made the decision to largely exclude jump scares from ''Gemini Home Entertainment'' due to finding horror more effective when it did not "provide the climactic release that a jumpscare brings" and instead simply maintained prolonged tension. The series heavily makes use of

stock footage Stock footage, and similarly, archive footage, library pictures, and file footage is film or video footage that can be used again in other films. Stock footage is beneficial to filmmakers as it saves shooting new material. A single piece of stock ...

, downloaded from free websites such as Pexels, for some of its location shots but also, especially in later installments, incorporates footage shot by Abode using his own camera. Abode used Hitfilm Express, a free video-editing software, to create the VHS effects of ''Gemini Home Entertainment'',

FL Studio FL Studio (known as FruityLoops before 2003) is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed by the Belgian company Image-Line. It features a graphical user interface with a pattern-based music sequencer. It is available in four different ...

for some of the musical cues and for the general sound design, and

Sketchbook A sketchbook is a book or pad with blank pages for sketching and is frequently used by artists for drawing or painting as a part of their creative process. Some also use sketchbooks as a sort of blueprint for future art pieces. The exhibiti ...

for designing and drawing the different creatures. Some of the videos contain 3D models created by Abode's friend Swift Animations. Abode has described creating the effects as a "wildly messy and complicated" process. Almost all of the music used in ''Gemini Home Entertainment'' is sourced from old music albums from the 1980s and 90s, typically sourced from YouTube playlists.

Reception

''Gemini Home Entertainment'' is regarded as one of the most iconic analog horror series and is typically regarded as one of the premier examples of the genre, alongside '' Local 58''. Bailee Perkins of ''Hyperreal Film Club'' wrote in a 2022 review that ''Gemini Home Entertainment'' was her "favorite analog horror series to date" and that it was planned out and executed in a great way. Nestor Kok of ''F Newsmagazine'' also praised the series in 2022, calling it "as novel as it is ambitious" and praising its horror relying on growing anxiety, unease and a slow realization of the impending end of the world, rather than gore and jump scares. Tanner Fox of ''

Screen Rant ''Screen Rant'' is an entertainment website that offers news in the fields of television, films, video games, and comic books. It is owned by Valnet, parent of publications including Comic Book Resources, Collider, MovieWeb and XDA Developers. ...

'' referred to ''Gemini Home Entertainment'' in 2021 as "nearly as notorious as ''Local 58''" and found the series to be "eerily authentic" and "an absolute much-watch for those who enjoy this sort of lo-fi horror". Lacey Womack, also of ''Screen Rant'', assessed ''Gemini Home Entertainment'' in 2022 as "excruciatingly strange", "tough to follow" and one of the best video-based

alternate reality game An alternate reality game (ARG) is an interactive networked narrative that uses the real world as a platform and employs transmedia storytelling to deliver a story that may be altered by players' ideas or actions. The form is defined by int ...

s. ''Gemini Home Entertainment'' was also positively reviewed by Alicia Szczesniak of '' The Post'', who noted that "the horror of this series comes from the helplessness experienced by the victims of the beings in this series", no one being safe in the situations depicted.

Notes

References

External links

Official ''Gemini Home Entertainment'' YouTube channel

Remy Abode's personal YouTube channel
*
Lethal Omen
' game at

Itch.io Itch.io (stylized in all lowercase) is a website for users to host, sell and download indie video games, indie role-playing games, game assets, comics, zines and music. Launched in March 2013 by Leaf Corcoran, the service hosts over 1,000,000 ...

* {{IMDb title, id=tt17819196, title=Gemini Home Entertainment 2019 web series debuts 2010s YouTube series Canadian horror web series Analog horror Fictional companies