By: Sandra Chavez
Analog horror has been gaining popularity and becoming a well-known subgenre on Youtube because of series like The Walton Files, FNAF VHS TAPES, The Mandela Catalogue, Gemini Home Entertainment, Hi I’m Mary Mary, Super Mario 64: Classified, The Smile Tapes, The Monument Mythos and The Backrooms. A well-known series that popularized this subgenre would be the Local 58 channel whose first video was published on Halloween 2017. This single video caused this subgenre to explode with many starting to produce their own found vhs-style videos.
These videos are unlike your traditional horror videos, though they have managed to stay true to the chilling nature of horror. One of the main reasons why analog horror works and one of my favorite parts is the way these types of videos use the style of older technology to prey on your fears using things like nostalgia or religion. The psychological part of this genre is also frightening, being able to induce paranoia in their viewers using lines like “I am in your house”. These types of sentences can't help but make you feel aware of your surroundings and anxious that someone is lurking in your house without you knowing. Great examples would be The Mandela Catalogue and Gemini Home Entertainment. Both series utilize the VHS style and have similar concepts, fake people taking over the world but both lead to a different experience for individuals.
For some audiences, The Mandela Catalogue is boring and not terrifying in any aspect. I believe that a lot of The Mandela Catalogue’s horror comes from their use of religion and this series can truly shine when its audience is people who believe in a god. In one of the volumes of The Mandela Catalogue, a small snippet of the video shows journal entries of a character named Mark Heathcliff and delivers one of the most chilling lines we get from this series, “Who have I been praying to all this time?”. It’s a short line and it briefly appears on screen but this one line delivers such an effective feeling of hopelessness. If you’ve seen The Mandela Catalogue then you know the context behind this line is truly disturbing. The first episode on this channel depicts a world invaded by alternates and a god who has fallen victim to Lucifer. Imagine after all this time the god you’ve been dedicating your entire being to has been wiped from the face of Earth long before humans even existed. It’s an unsettling thought to think about and that exact thought is the reason why I believe this series can be so effective in scaring its viewers.
I am an avid watcher of this sub-genre despite how terrified I get when watching these videos. The FNAF VHS Tapes honestly scare me a lot and bring back the fear I had toward the animatronics, especially Chica. The one made by MemeBear called Party Room makes me extremely uncomfortable because of the way Chica stares you down. Something about it is so unsettling and this feeling is amplified by her human-like eyes. There are many variants of the FNAF VHS TAPES with Squimpus McGrimpus, and Battington having the most popular versions. You should watch both creators' versions and give analog horror a chance. Who knows, you might come to love it as much as I do.