Analog horror is a uniquely online trope, for the most part. Ironically, the newest form of media distribution seems to be the one most obsessed with the old-fashioned look. Analog horror is more than just an aesthetic, it has certain hallmarks that go with its typical narrative.
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Analog horror does everything in its power to make its modern creation look faithfully like footage captured on older hardware and preserved for decades. It’s a sub-genre of found footage horror which almost always makes the camera part of the action. Found footage as a gimmick has come and gone in popularity. It was briefly seen as the dominant look in the genre, but it’s since become less popular and more occasional in its application. Analog horror diverts from the found footage style by making the footage part of a fictional video or broadcast that is somehow hijacked. It’s usually portrayed as lost media and typically starts relatively normally before shifting into cosmic horror. Analog horror works can appear as fake programming from a fictional TV network, an attempt at shooting a documentary that ends in disaster, or other examples of broadcasts cut short by horror.
One of the first examples of this trope, bizarrely, is the 2015 trailer for Crowbar Collective’s Half-Life remake Black Mesa. The game’s long development process went in phases, starting when two dueling teams of developers merged back in the early 2000s. As release dates for the project were gradually pushed forward, multiple versions of the game hit the Steam store. The free mod was available a decade ago in September 2012, but a full version of the game was still on the horizon. In 2015, the full game became available through early access, and Crowbar Collective dropped an iconic trailer to promote it. It’s pitched as an old VHS from the archives that depicts the use of new training areas and weapons development. As a chipper scientist and a smug military man sing the praises of Black Mesa, something appears to go horribly wrong. Screams to “shut it down” herald the video’s sudden end. It’s simple, yet effective, and it kept viewers excited about the game.
Though Black Mesa may have gotten there first, the analog horror trope is much more common in internet-only projects. The classic work of analog horror began the same year as the release of the aforementioned trailer. Writer and cartoonist Kris Straub began uploading his well-known creepypasta Candle Cove in 2009, but he properly published the work in 2015. Candle Cove told the story of various forum posters recalling a cartoon series that appears to have become lost media. The fictional network which aired the in-universe cartoon was called Local 58, and that concept went on to be the basis for a spin-off. Local 58 continues to this day as a horror anthology, with each episode connected only by the analog horror gimmick. This has been the work that codified the trope but, other online series like Gemini Home Entertainment and The Mandela Catalogue followed similar directions.
Candle Cove was adapted to the first season of the Syfy original series Channel Zero. It’s the same basic concept, but it largely ditched the analog gimmick. But, the analog horror gimmick isn’t completely new to the slightly larger screen. Netflix’s Archive 81 is perhaps the largest profile example of the analog horror trope. The series follows an archivist who takes a questionable gig restoring the HI8 tape collection of a wealthy recluse. As he gets into the work, he discovers that the material contains something beyond imagination. It’s a solid example of the trope that gets to the heart of what’s so powerful about analog horror. Unfortunately, fans won’t get to see what else that narrative had in store, since Netflix canceled it after its first season. Analog horror’s first chance at TV success was short-lived, but it’ll almost certainly be back.
Analog horror is still alive and well online. Arguably, almost every piece of Slenderman material has fallen into the trope. Something about the simple wholesome world of daytime TV or instructional video being interrupted by something horrific speaks to the hive mind of the internet. Analog horror could be the basis for a feature film or a TV project again someday, but its true home has always been online. Old examples could even trick viewers into thinking their interrupted show was real, leading to a great deal of shock. Though the trick might not always work, analog horror is a great aesthetic that deserves some more usage.
MORE: Archive 81 Canceled By Netflix After One Season
