In recent years, analog horror has become a massive entity. From Alex Casanas’s Monument Mythos to The Backrooms by Kane Pixels, we crave that retro terror. But any genre blowing up is a mix of good and bad. Understandably, everyone wants a piece of this pie, and that means wading through a sea of Five Nights at Freddy’s clones and childhood cartoon re-edits to find well-crafted work that brings genuine unease.

Fortunately for all of us, Kris Straub returned on Halloween to show us how it’s done.

If you don’t know the name Kris Straub, you may know something from his vast body of work. Besides working with Penny Arcade and PAX, he has a rich history in the indie horror scene. His horror fiction website Ichor Falls gave birth to “Candle Cove” — the terrifying short story that became the first episode of Nick Antosca’s horror anthology series Channel Zero. Ichor Falls and the Greater Mason County Area went on to become the setting of Local 58: a YouTube channel dedicated to short films mimicking unsettling late-night broadcasts. These videos, including the recently-released “Night Walk” and the recently-listed “CLOSE,” are reminders of why Straub is a master of his genre—and what actually makes for good analog horror.

In the analog horror space, there seems to be a perception that aesthetic is everything. Slap a few scan lines over some unsettling footage and call it a day. Of course, if wood paneling, old music, and weird random noises were all it took, my house could be classified as analog horror. In actuality, the aesthetic is just that: aesthetic. It’s scene setting. It’s the stage upon which the horror takes place. That stage still needs a story.

What makes analog horror unique is how it uses that stage. The aesthetic is meant to bring old memories to the surface: late-night television programs, dingy restaurants whose mascots were more eerie than friendly, the cold tone of an emergency alert. Those moments make a young mind run wild with fear on its own. Analog horror at its best subverts expectations in a way few other horror genres do. The thing you’re frightened of isn’t real, because the truth is so much worse.

On Halloween, LOCAL58TV publicized two unlisted videos: “NSSA-3 (atypical)” and “CLOSE.” But it’s the actual new one, “Night Walk,” that I want to focus on. Like “CLOSE,” it works on multiple levels to deliver its horror; unlike “CLOSE,” it’s not half an hour long.

“Night Walk,” like many other Local 58 videos, has two “acts.” The first (and longer of the two) sets up the scare. In this case, it’s an episode of a fictional TV show that explores urban legends. Tonight’s, “The Woman in Profile,” digs into the story of a strange silhouetted lady seen in and around Ichor Falls. The second “act” rips the Band-Aid off the mystery.

This video, much like “CLOSE,” is clever in that it’s designed to trip up even the most devoted Local 58 fan. For the new viewer, this is already a haunting watch, between the atmosphere of the video and the memories that atmosphere stirs up. But long-time viewers, potentially feeling confident that they know what the Woman in Profile is looking at, can’t rest easy either. The sky is the source of a lot of terrors in Ichor Falls, as seen in videos like “Skywatching,” but even those expectations are subverted. The aforementioned 30-minute “CLOSE” plays a similar game, presenting a haunting-looking celestial body that will terrify new viewers and reassure long-time watchers that they’re on top of this latest twist. But they’re not.

This is why Straub remains a master of this relatively young genre. He understands it enough not just to maintain the fear, but to present new fear for the initiated. The analog aesthetic is pristine, and that’s definitely a point in its favor. But this is a reminder that the aesthetic is a tool in a toolkit, not a silver bullet. You can unsettle a viewer with scene setting, but that’s about it. The best of analog horror works in harmony with that setting, rather than leaning on it.

Analog horror is a glorious genre with so much room to tell very specific, very important stories. The growing pains are to be expected. But as we head into the darkest part of the year, let’s welcome back Local 58 — not just because it’s rad as hell, but because it’s what we need right now to remind us of how to make this genre shine.

Featured Image: LOCAL58TV

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