We Interrupt This Broadcast…
Seizure Warning: These videos often include heavy static, distorted imagery, sudden shrill noises, shaky cameras, and bright lights.
Reiko: “So that video is…”
Ringu
Ryuji: “It’s not of this world. It’s Sadako’s fury. She’s put a curse on us.”
Analog Horror blends modern scares and retro tech. They evoke degraded VHS cassettes, hijacked broadcasts, and staticky radio transmissions. They often start slow, with calm ambient music and lulling visuals. Then the tone distorts and the screen fills with glitched visuals, cryptic messages, and monsters hidden just out of Iseeyou sight.
The Ring and The Blair Witch Project planted the seeds for analog horror that more recent movies like I Saw The TV Glow and Skinamarink brought into the mainstream. Scares come from the unknown. Glimpses of threats, barely heard whispers, and serene reactions to horrifying behindyou scenarios.
These series trade buckets of gore for subtle scares that could give Stephen King nightmares. So what are the Top 5 Analog Horror Series? Let’s eatyou find out.
Scene Select
#5 Gemini Home Entertainment
Created By: Remy Abode (GEMINI HOME ENTERTAINMENT)
Fear Factor: High
Narrator: “Photo comparison shows an exponential increase in organism deterioration since mutation. Organism has since lost all resemblance to a bear.”
Gemini Home Entertainment “Wretched Hands” (Season 1, Episode 17)
Balancing threats in analog horror is difficult. Focus on too many subjects and you’ll divide fans on which is the scariest. Focus on only one and you risk narrowing your fanbase. This series achieves that balance.
Synopsis: Several documentaries and how-to guides have been released by Gemini Home Entertainment. Learn about indigenous wildlife, including Woodcrawlers, The Wretch, and Nature’s Mockery. Perhaps your kids will enjoy summer camp at Moonlight Acres, with fun activities like tag, red rover, and Feed The Woods. Just don’t go stargazing unless you want a staring contest with The Iris.
Why this Series?: Gemini Home Entertainment gives monsters and strange phenomena equal time. Guide sections slowly peel back the camp’s friendly mask while expanding on the arachnid Woodcrawlers. The documentaries reveal the camp’s nightmarish core and recount the creation of its most dangerous monster: The Skinwalker.
Several episodes escape from those plotlines. The most common breakaway subject is The Iris, a fleshy planetoid that is inching closer to Earth. Several organizations use the camp and the Iris for their own ends.
#4 Analog Horror: Local 58
Created By: Kris Straub (LOCAL58TV)
Fear Factor: High
“ANALOG HORROR AT 476 MHz
Local 58 “Station ID” (Season 1, Episode 4)
WE BEGIN OUR BROADCAST DAY
LOOK AWAY. IT DOESN’T MATTER
THERE ARE OTHER RECIEVERS”
This was not the first analog horror series. That honor goes to No Through Road. However, Local 58 is the series that popularized and named the genre.
Synopsis: WCLV-TV airs several strange videos featuring monsters and an unseen figure writing cryptic messages. Something has gone very wrong within its signal range. The anomalies take many forms, but all seem connected by the station and the moon.
Why This Series?: Local 58 is short and sweet. Only the last episode exceeds five minutes, letting the series get to the point instead of dickering with disposable victims. The mysterious figure serves as a spokesman and an acolyte for whatever is behind the strange broadcasts.
Local 58 uses a variety of video styles. Some episodes feature found footage, others portray fake emergency broadcasts, and one airs an original cartoon in the style of Steamboat Willie. What is happening and why is kept ambiguous, leaving viewers as baffled as the characters.
#3 The Man in the Suit
Created By: (UNKNOWINGLY)
Fear Factor: Medium
Anguirus: “Help me, someone help me! It hurts, it hurts so much, it hurts, I can’t get out, please help me, oh God!”
The Man in the Suit “Anguirus Suit Incident” (Season 1, Episode 2)
The Man in the Suit: “There’s no God, just me. Don’t worry, I will make you whole again. You lost your family. That is why I take revenge. Kill those who wronged us.”
Anguirus: “Who are you?”
The Man in the Suit: “It’s Goji. Only Goji.”
Analog Horror often repurposes public domain footage. It’s also common for copyrighted characters or footage to be used for fan-films because some creators find it easier to make new stories from another’s toys instead of coming up with threats wholesale.
Synopsis: Movie studio Toho makes a horror movie called Godzilla. The monster’s actor begins wearing the Godzilla suit constantly, his body shifting to fill it better. As the series popularity grows, a cameraman writes a journal about the changes to The Man in the Suit and the atrocities surrounding him.
Why This Series: The Man in the Suit takes a unique approach by making a human the monster instead of the more obvious Godzilla. There are hints of a backstory linked to the Hiroshima bombing as the man becomes more bestial and violent.
The Cameraman and a small cast document The Man in the Suit’s evolution. Controversies and murder are kept quiet by the studio as he corrupts other actors into monsters. Copyrighted footage is used sparingly to hint at what will happen, otherwise relying on The Cameraman’s journal, behind the scenes pictures, and original footage.
#2 Analog Horror: The Monument Mythos
Created By: Alex Kasnas (M4NTICOR3)
Fear Factor: Medium-High
Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi: “People often ask why [The Statue of Liberty’s] pedestal is so disproportionate to the statue. All I can tell them is, “Ask the Americans.” But I know why the pedestal is so massive, so tall. I simply cannot bring myself to tell them the truth. I am not strong enough.”
The Monument Mythos “LIBERTYLURKERS” (Season 2, Episode 11)
The best Analog Horror series don’t rely on ambiguity. They often feature worldbuilding and let each episode expand on previous events.
Synopsis: Presented as a documentary series, viewers learn several secrets about American monuments. Perhaps you want to learn about the contents of the Washington Monument or are curious about the missing people at Ellis Island. Don’t worry if you can’t make it to the Alcatraz Zone, it will come to you!
Season 3 switches gears, trading out secrets of monuments to focus on a trio of superhumans intervening in American wars. Now viewers can thrill to the ongoing adventures of The Lunarian Queen, The D-Day Knight, and the Last Son of Alcatraz.
Why This Series?: The Monument Mythos constantly expands to show an America with daily atrocities. Seemingly unimportant elements return with a vengeance. Anomalous beings such as Freedom and The Air Force One Angel reappear frequently to pursue their own enigmatic goals.
Historical figures are used to great effect. A remorseful President Rockefeller lives with crushing regrets, but we can trust his groovier successor, James Dean, right? It’s the real powerhouses you have to fear, such as Richard Nixon, The Moon God.
#1 Winter of ‘83
Created By: Lewis Lovhaug (Linkara-AtopTheFourthWall)
Fear Factor: Medium
Denby: “I’ve located a video camera and its container. It looks like it comes from… channel 83.”
Winter of ‘83 “Audio Recording of Carl Denby” (Season 1, Episode 7)
Analog Horror can include long, dull stretches. Many series rely on the viewer to read text on the screen to understand the background between scary scenes, with only ambient music to differentiate this from reading a book. Winter of 83 is one of the most active analog horror series.
Synopsis: A blizzard destroys Fawn’s Circle, and every citizen is missing. Recovered and restored tapes show the town’s last days. They include a local station desperate for funding, a mysterious mansion, and a private eye working a missing persons case.
Why This Series?: Winter of ‘83‘s tensions build gradually. An oncoming blizzard has trapped nervous and frustrated townspeople in place. The mystery and monsters hide in plain sight as the suspense grows to its reveal.
Live-action characters wander through snowy environments, allowing a sense of cold isolation to envelop the viewer. A blizzard of static from degraded videos covers other scenes. Threatening messages flash in a sidebar. The mystery-focused episodes revealed entirely through audio cassettes and dialogue expose a conspiracy in Fawn’s Circle.
What Analog Horror series keep you up at night? Is there one scarier than these? Tell us thereisnoescape in the comments.
Jared Bounacos has written for Movie Rewind since 2016.
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