Your destination will be in 300 feet.
WE SEND SIGNALS TO OURSELVES
THRU THEIR DOMAIN
DID WE REALLY BELIEVE
THEY WOULDN'T ADD THEIR OWN
THRU THEIR DOMAIN
DID WE REALLY BELIEVE
THEY WOULDN'T ADD THEIR OWN
— ＬＯＣＡＬ５８
Some old audio tapes and videotapes are better left untouched. Especially ones you find in an Abandoned Area or a grainy, glitchy Emergency Broadcast that comes in on an old TV in an abandoned hotel. If you find an old VHS tape with a handwritten label in Sharpie hidden under a floorboard in a No-Tell Motel, don't put it in the VCR!
Analog Horror is a Horror Web Original subgenre of found footage. As the name implies, Analog Horror typically revolves around emulating the look of analog media in the late 20th century, such as VHS tapes, FM radio, cathode-ray tube televisions, et ceteranote . Unlike most found footage films, it's far rarer for Analog Horror to feature visible characters recording the footage. Instead, the footage is often made to resemble "official" (albeit often local) media, such as television broadcasts, employee training tapes, and police archives.
If human protagonists are present, they're often the ones who are finding the footage, deciding to share it with the audience with their own commentary. Many Analog Horror series invoke an unnerving atmosphere through footage being corrupted or hijacked (such as through government interference or sometimes more supernatural means), and some feature eerily casual descriptions of unnerving phenomena as a core element. A common theme of Analog Horror is to begin a video relatively normally and slowly reveal more disturbing elements as it continues. Unlike most Disguised Horror Stories, though, it's usually made very clear from the beginning that something is "off" in order to build suspense.
Channels that host Analog Horror videos may pose as a number of things. ＬＯＣＡＬ５８ and Channel 7 both pose as their namesake TV channels, Gemini Home Entertainment poses as a distributor of VHS tapes, and The Minerva Alliance and Analog Archives pose as organizations that collect anomalous footage. Some creators, like Battington and Martin Walls, have decided to simply upload their series under their own name, forgoing that specific ARG element entirely.
Despite its obvious predecessors being Found Footage Films like The Blair Witch Project, Analog Horror also has origins in Creepypasta and Alternate Reality Games, such as The Wyoming Incident and Marble Hornets. As a result, many works in this genre have a clear Entry Point.
Digital Horror uses many of the same storytelling techniques of Analog Horror but with a setting based on the internet of the late 2000s and early 2010s as opposed to the 80s and 90s.
Because videos of this genre often rely on ambiguous storytelling techniques, Analog Horror is a big magnet for Wild Mass Guessing.
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Examples of Analog Horror works
If a series has its own TV Tropes page, then the links are to that. If not, the links are to the YouTube channel (or whatever video hosting site it's on)
[†] Series is no longer available to be watched.
- The Abaddon Archives
- ÆTHER Experiments
- Alternate American Folklore
- Amanda the Adventurer
- Analog Archives †
- Angel Engine
- Angel Hare
- ARCADIA (Chilling Abyss)
- Await Further Instructions
- Babylon: Expedition
- Kane Pixels' The Backrooms
- Basswood County
- The Bat (Siltrics): a Superhero Horror reimagining of Batman and The DCU in general. †
- Black Mesa: Its Steam Launch trailer features many of the genre's now-common tropes.
- The Blair Witch Project: First launched in 1998, the movie's official website is a precursor to the genre. The website marketed the movie as real Found Footage and features news broadcasts and police footage documenting the search for the missing protagonists.
- The Blue Channel
- Bluey the Unbroken
- THE BOILED ONE PHENOMENON
- Boisvert
- British Cryptids
- British Home Entertainment: A British parody of Gemini Home Entertainment and other popular analog horror media.
- Buffet Infinity
- BuzzBound
- The Campbell Reels †
- The Cicada Codex
- Civil Emergency Defense Agency
- CH/SS
- Channel 7 †
- Channel 10 - Manila
- Check It Out! With Dr. Steve Brule
- ChezzKids Archive
- The Chimpy Chippa Tapes
- Codex Aquazone
- CORNERFOLKLORE
- CRT Anomalies
- Crystalview Records †
- Dog Nightmares
- Doors
- Dreams of an Insomniac
- EAS Scenarios: A predecessor to Analog Horror with similar plotlines and a similar aesthetic. The first known video dates back to 2007.
- Eckva
- Employee Tapes Archive
- Empyrean Rings: An AU of THE MONUMENT MYTHOS that has now grown to be its own thing.
- Engines of Eight
- Eventide Media Center
- The Fairy Tales - Analog Horror
- The Fallmoore Event
- FARAWAY LOGS: A fan prequel of OMORI
- Five Nights at Freddy's: VHS Remake: A re-imagining of Squimpus McGrimpus' tapes.
- The Game Of Mush
- Gemini Home Entertainment: A Trope Codifier.
- Gilbert Garfield
- The Glendale Archives
- Godzilla: Just Pray
- The Goldman Case
- The GREYLOCK Tapes
- The Grizzco Tapes
- GÜBY & Friends
- Happy Meat Farms
- Harmony & Horror
- The Hartwin Archives
- Hey Kids! Studio: An adaptation of Candle Cove.
- Hellware Chronicles
- Home Safety Hotline: Downplayed. While the game takes place in 1996, it consists of the player interacting with a computer desktop, pushing it into Digital Horror territory. That said, the YouTube teaser and in-game commercials are analog horror since they are filmed as '90s-styled videos.
- Hollow Birds
- The Hotdog Archives: A parody of various analog horror series, most notably The Mandela Catalogue and The Walten Files.
- Hypnagogic Archive
- Hydra Theory
- The Invasion Of Godzilla
- I Saw the TV Glow
- Jurassic Park Horror
- kepther e
- Late Night with the Devil
- Liminal Land
- Little Red's Transfer
- ＬＯＣＡＬ５８: This series not only named the genre, it also popularized said genre and codified the general format.
- Malbolge Trench
- Mandela Catalogue: A Trope Codifier.
- The Man in the Suit
- Marble Hornets
- Max's Big Problem
- The McKinney Family Home Videos
- MH: N.O.W.
- Midwest Angelica
- Mikaeli Hitting Metal
- The Minerva Alliance
- THE MONUMENT MYTHOS
- Morley Grove
- Mushroom Land
- Mystery Flesh Pit National Park
- Nazo no Eizou - CM Channel revolves around VHS recordings of scary Public Service Announcements and Emergency Broadcasts aired at a dystopic alternate Japan's TV station and shared to our world.
- Needlem0use †
- NIGHT OWL 102.8 FM
- The Ningen
- Nixonverse Antiverse: A fanseries of The MONUMENT MYTHOS.
- The Nixonverse Retold: Another fanseries of THE MONUMENT MYTHOS. †
- NOC +10
- The Noedolekcin Archives
- No Through Road: Considered to be the Trope Maker.
- The Oddity Compendium
- Orpheus
- The Painter
- PSA: The Tendril - Infestation Warning | Entity 11-912b
- The Power Star Archives
- Public Access revolves around the player characters collecting mysterious video tapes.
- Public Access Project †
- Prehistoric Emergence
- Project Britannica
- Project Monster - a Godzilla fan work firmly in the genre.
- Pac-Man (Analog Horror)
- Qubo Screen of Death - while debatable, it could likely count due to its disturbing subject matter
- [REDACTED] SMP
- The Red Sun Archive
- Rotborough
- Shea Scientific Films
- Shorts Wars: While it primarily uses Digital Horror, some of the videos (notably e1 and e2) classify as this trope.
- Sins of the Past
- Sisterhood of Salvation LLC
- Skinamarink: Notable for being a feature film that draws from analog horror, it also originated as an online short Heck (2020).
- SkyCorp Home Video: Plays around with the analog aesthetic with surreal and dark humor.
- Slaughter Valley Public Information: A series of shorts created by Atomic Shrimp.
- Smile Tapes
- Socroft Records
- Somnium DreamViewer
- Sonic Adventure: The Forgotten Files
- Sonic CD: VHS Tapes
- Sonic Limited Edition: The Lost Cartridge
- The Sonic Tapes
- Soulcorp
- The Spider (Just Preston)
- Squimpus McGrimpus
- Star o'clock Stories
- The Suitmation Trials
- Surreal Broadcast
- TAPES FROM THE DARKSIDE
- They Don't Know They're Born
- This Room Does Not Exist
- TMK
- Town of Veins †
- The Trinity Desk Project
- Trendwatch
- Tryred Witness Archives
- tuesday_tapes
- TV67 WOPX-TV
- The Ugly Duckling
- Valle Verde
- The Vanishing of S.S. Willie
- The V/H/S horror films frequently draw upon this approach (especially in the earlier installments, which were typically framed around people discovering literal VHS tapes).
- VHS Tales
- Videodrome: A precursor to the genre, and an Unbuilt Trope example thereof, having been made in the time period that many such works are referencing and thus portraying "analog" video technology not as retro but as futuristic.
- Videopasta
- vintage eight
- Vita Carnis
- Walker Creek Broadcast Station
- The Walten Files
- Warding12 Television
- The War of the Worlds 1934
- WE'LL BE RIGHT BACK.
- White Stag Education
- Winter of '83
- WNUF Halloween Special
- Wormwood Institute
- WXFH Munroe Falls
- The Wyoming Incident: The Ur-Example.
[†] Series is no longer available to be watched.
Tropes commonly found in Analog Horror
- Adaptational Abomination: Fan Work instances of the genre like to take beloved franchise characters like Godzilla, Spider-Man, and The Cat in the Hat, and reinterpret them as Eldritch Abominations, taking any fantastical qualities they possess and making it terrifying.
- Ambiguous Situation: Many circumstances surrounding the footage are kept vague.
- In the Local58 video "Contingency," is the video telling people to kill themselves out of sheer pride and patriotism, or is it because it's a genuinely better alternative than whatever the invading nation's military force will do to them?
- In The Minerva Alliance video "Unusual EAS," is the thunderstorm really a thunderstorm? Is it a Brown Note weather event that people must not look at? It could be anything they don't want you to see.
- Apocalypse How: Some videos deal with the world ending or transforming into something unrecognizable.
- Apocalyptic Log: Pretty much every video of this genre inevitably turns into one.
- Black Market: EAS Scenario creator Harvester's video The Service has this played out to a shocking degree; a criminal syndicate based in the South of England is using a modified version of Teletext to conduct their dealings, including the trafficking of children, distribution of illicit films, and the sales of medicines, recreational drugs and, worryingly, the chemical weapon Cyclosarin. Scarier still, this syndicate's operating almost in plain sight, with the footage shown only being possible because a viewer happened to be watching television with a dodgy satellite dish, allowing them to accidentally gain access to the Teletext system the syndicate uses.
- Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Strange and unnerving phenomena being included in lists of mundane activities or catalogues, often as the third such entry, and often while maintaining the same cheery/relaxing ambience.
- Brown Note: Many videos are said to contain harmful stimuli. Local58 has looking at the moon at the wrong time, The Minerva Alliance video "Game Show Spectacular" is said to have killed a boy who watched it, Analog Archives has "spectral frequencies" of light that are harmful to humans (typically red), etc.
- Body Horror: If the main threat is a virus or shapeshifter (or maybe even both!), expect this trope to be in full swing.
- Cosmic Horror Story: A common source of the strange occurrences in every analog horror series are cosmic threats beyond mankind's grasp.
- Deadly Euphemism: Some analog horror videos that involve instructions for the in-universe viewer use certain phrases to hide the true meaning of what they're really supposed to do from the out-of-universe viewer, until a Wham Line reveals what's really going on. For example, ＬＯＣＡＬ５８ 's "Contingency" uses "ACT" and "TAKE ACTION" as a phrase for mass suicide for the sake of patriotism, Eventide Media Center 's (since made non-canon) "Bluefish Waterpark" uses "season" to mean the period of time where riders of a water slide are eaten and digested, and Sisterhood of Salvation LLC 's "Behavioural Management Program: Stage 4" uses "treatment" to refer to murdering a misbehaving child via a brutal lethal injection.
- Decade-Themed Filter: Most commonly The '90s with Deliberate VHS Quality, but occasionally older-style filters will be used, such as film grain for things made in The '60s. TV channels found in analog horror would also have different vanity plates, music and visuals for different decades.
- Deliberate VHS Quality: This is the most common filter applied to videos of this genre, since many videos are set in the Turn of the Millennium or before.
- Do Not Adjust Your Set: Analog-horror antagonists tend to hijack television stations and other camera footage to manipulate the viewers.
- Downer Ending: If an analog horror series does have an ending, it's likely to be quite bleak.
- Emergency Broadcast: Given that a major part of the media that founded the genre includes EAS Scenarios, a large number of analog horror videos and series feature at least one emergency broadcast; ＬＯＣＡＬ５８ has "Weather Service," The Minerva Alliance has "Unusual EAS," and so on.
- Extremely Short Timespan: Most videos show a single broadcast, with nothing to suggest it goes on for longer than the video's duration.
- Facial Horror: BLUE_CHANNEL: THALASIN by Gooseworx features this trope in spades, thanks to the 'original emotions' being peddled by the creators of the titular Thalasin and Thalasin Plus drugs, especially in the case of Nage, Dorcelessness, Andric, Trantiveness, Onlent and the one after Loricnote .
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: Many things show up too fast to see, most often in the form of Unreadably Fast Text.
- Haunted Technology: This is what causes many of the broadcast intrusions.
- Humanoid Abomination: Analog horror frequently includes otherworldly, amoral entities that look vaguely "human," evoking the Uncanny Valley.
- In-Universe Camera: The only cameras in analog horror, due to being a subgenre of Found Footage.
- Madness Mantra: A (usually threatening) line being shown repeatedly all over the screen, or a voice saying it over and over again.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: This ambiguity is present in many videos.
- May Contain Evil: A common type of analog horror videos are commercials for products that either have horrifying side effects or are dangerous even if used correctly.
- Mimic Species: As popularized by Gemini Home Entertainment and Mandela Catalogue, many analog-horror creatures are adept at mimicking humans, facilitating their hunt for human prey.
- Mission Control Is Off Its Meds: For Analog Horror videos that center on emergency broadcasts or newscasts or otherwise are meant to speak with any kind of authority, this is very common. Seemingly normal videos will often degrade into nonsensical advice that at best wants to help despite its surreal nature, and is at worst completely incomprehensible and/or taken over by the villain of the series.
- Mood Whiplash: Any video that looks innocent or ordinary will inevitably get worse.
- Nightmare Face: As popularized by Mandela Catalogue, certain analog-horror villains have distorted faces and smiles to invoke the Uncanny Valley effect.
- Nothing Is Scarier: Analog horror rarely shows much of what's causing interruptions and chaos.
- Obscured Special Effects: It's rare to get a really good look at the special effects in an Analog Horror series. Part of it is to emphasize the Nothing Is Scarier feel, but it's also because these series are typically made with very low budgets that can't achieve the kinds of detailed FX found in Hollywood movies. This is also the reason for the nearly ubiquitous use of Deliberate VHS Quality, as the visual filter makes it even harder to see FX flaws.
- Off-the-Shelf FX: It's common for analog horror series to make images with free image-making software and website such as Artbreeder.
- Ominous Visual Glitch: These are quite common, often signaling greater horrors to come in the video.
- Parody Commercial: A few videos are commercials for fictional products, including drugs (like Thalasin), food (like Life Meat), and technology (like Neurocast).
- Reality Has No Soundtrack: Music only appears when it logically should appear.
- Retraux: Most videos have this visual style applied to them. Usually in the video era (mid-1980s to mid-2000s), but occasionally prior eras will show up.
- Silence Is Golden: Spoken dialogue is surprisingly rare in this genre. The vast majority of these words are on screen. Any spoken words may be distorted beyond comprehension or spoken with a text-to-speech voice.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: As most footage takes the form of either local TV broadcasts or instructional videos, most soundtracks consist of easy listening stock corporate music, which definitely does not match the incoming horror. TV broadcast videos in particular have a predilection for the work of Trammell Starks (former primary composer for The Weather Channel) or similar.
- Strictly Formula: A major criticism of the genre, as nearly all analog horror videos involve VHS effects, "cryptic" imagery, ARGs and ambiguity about the subject matter, which typically features the standard subjects of nuclear warfare, religious cultists, hostile aliens and monsters. In addition, lots of analog horror videos involve fake emergency broadcasts, that may or may not have been hijacked by a third party.
- Subverted Kids' Show: All footage that shows a children's program or video will end like this.
- Vanity Plate: These are shown to make it look like a fictional company made these videos, or are receiving interruptions.
- We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties: A common thing to say when a TV station regains control of its broadcast.
- THIS CONCLUDES OUR BROADCAST DAY