Analog Horror Graphics

• Disguise the work as an official or commercial broadcast, not a film: an emergency alert, a station ID, a public-service announcement, an educational or instructional tape, a commercial or a children's programme from a fictional station or company, and never break the fiction with credits or a wink.
• Let the screen speak in plain capitals, one short, calm notice or instruction at a time, centred on a flat black or blue field in a blocky character-generator or plain sans-serif face, then cut to black.
• Date every element to the analogue era, roughly the 1960s to the early 2000s: the 4:3 frame, colour bars at sign-off, station logos, flags and seals, fictional companies' tape idents, and easy-listening music or muzak under the wrong pictures.
• Degrade the signal as the story turns: grain, static, scanlines, tracking errors, colour bleed and dropouts that hide the threat so it is only half seen, and that also hide cheap or computer-made effects under the same noise.
• Make the horror from a mismatch of voice and content: an even, institutional tone delivering a lethal or absurd instruction, or found footage of cartoons, nature films and Bible stories corrupted from within.
• Release it as a series of short, self-contained tapes or broadcast fragments that the audience has to piece together.

YouTube, as an offshoot of found-footage film and a descendant of creepypasta. The genre is usually dated from Steven Chamberlain's No Through Road (January 2009), a found-footage time-loop film he shot on a handheld camera at 17 in Hertfordshire, England, but its broadcast-and-tape graphics begin with the American cartoonist Kris Straub's Local 58 (from October 2015), with which, Henty (2025) says, the subgenre began 'officially' in a sense; its 'Station ID' (November 2017) put the slogan 'ANALOG HORROR AT 476 MHz' on screen and gave the genre its name. Henty describes it as taking key influence from the 'glitch aesthetics' of earlier internet horror, re-dated to 20th-century analogue technology. Remy Abode's Gemini Home Entertainment (Canada, 2019), Alex Kister's The Mandela Catalogue (Wisconsin, 2021) and Kane Parsons's The Backrooms (2022) followed, and in August 2024 a still from an Indonesian fan-made emergency-alert video became a protest symbol

1. Wikipedia, 'Analog horror' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_horror): a horror subgenre and offshoot of found-footage film, mainly on YouTube; low-fidelity graphics recalling late-20th-century television and analog recordings; usually set between the 1960s and 2000s; cryptic messages; visual and audio distortion and glitch-like effects that obscure events; fake live news broadcasts; manipulated pre-existing media; descended from creepypasta; No Through Road (Steven Chamberlain, 17, Hertfordshire, January 2009); Local 58 (October 2015) and its slogan 'ANALOG HORROR AT 476 MHz', which named the genre; Gemini Home Entertainment (Remy Abode, 2019), blending cosmic horror, body horror and Native American mythology; The Mandela Catalogue (Alex Kister, 2021); The Backrooms (Found Footage) (Kane Parsons, January 2022, Blender and After Effects); the EAS Indonesia Concept still in the protests of 21–22 August 2024 and its black version in 2025 (citing ABC Indonesian, 21 August 2024, and BBC News Indonesia, 7 February 2025); A24's Backrooms film released 29 May 2026
2. Dylan Henty, 'Emergency Alert systems and affective historical sound in Analog Horror', paper at the Haunted Soundscapes Symposium, York St John University, 22 October 2025, doi:10.25421/YORKSJ.30581228 (https://ray.yorksj.ac.uk/id/eprint/15244/): analog horror as an 'intersective subgenre of modern internet horror, VHS horror, and the epistolary horror tradition'; technology and aesthetics 'primarily from the 1980s, 90s, and very early 2000s'; the VHS tape as its 'grand signifier'; the subgenre 'began "officially" in a sense, in 2015' with Local 58; Local 58's 'Station ID' (2 November 2017) as the first use of the phrase; 'taking key influence from pre-existing internet horror trends, especially the affective use of "glitch aesthetics"' (after Adam Daniel, Affective Intensities in Evolving Horror Forms, 2021); Local 58's 'Skywatching' using 'the emergency alert system to signal the end of the world'; frequent use of the emergency alert system 'through a thick malaise of VHS fuzz and distortion'; his work on it 'firmly in the remit of Hauntology', the subgenre 'deeply intertwined and expressive of the nostalgic trends Hauntology rests on'; Gemini Home Entertainment's emergency broadcasts interlaced with an educational solar-system video and muzak
3. Wikipedia, 'Local 58' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_58): created, written, animated and edited by the American cartoonist Kris Straub; fictional public-access station WCLV-TV, Mason County, West Virginia; 'Weather Service' (26 October 2015), 'Contingency' (16 January 2016), 'Show for Children' (30 July 2018), 'Skywatching' (31 October 2019), an amateur night-sky broadcast replacing the scheduled programme, onscreen text calling the Moon 'HIS THRONE', a tornado siren, and the Moon's southern hemisphere 'cracked open and revealing the body of a gigantic skeletal organism inside' and the onscreen text 'REJOICE' before the broadcast cuts to static; 'Station ID' (2 November 2017) as cryptic text messages including 'ANALOG HORROR AT 476 MHz', ending in a cut to black; EAS messages; a telop slide; SMPTE bars at sign-off in 'Contingency'
4. Sam Moore, ''LOCAL58' And The Birth of Analog Horror', Dread Central, 18 June 2025 (https://www.dreadcentral.com/editorials/534205/local58-and-the-birth-of-analog-horror): in 'Contingency', the station title card, 'the American flag, which looks a little decayed, torn, and fraying at the edges', 'THIS CONCLUDES OUR BROADCAST DAY', an emergency message 'not to be used after 11/13/1970'; 'the crackling and coloured blocks of a weak broadcast'; visuals that decay as a video goes on
5. Jordan Maison, 'Everything there is to know about the analog horror genre', Videomaker (https://www.videomaker.com/how-to/directing/film-history/everything-there-is-to-know-about-the-analog-horror-genre/): 'picture distortions made to look like you're watching a battered, old VHS tape'; footage 'corrupted or outright hijacked', as through 'the Emergency Broadcast System'; a 'Technical Difficulties' slate; Local 58's 'Weather Service' 'plays out entirely as a series of different messages from the EAS'; The Mandela Catalogue as 'faux informational videos'
6. Nestor Kok, 'Ghosts in the Machine' series, F Newsmagazine: on The Mandela Catalogue, 16 January 2022 (https://fnewsmagazine.com/2022/01/ghosts-in-the-machine-the-fearful-symmetry-of-alex-kisters-the-mandela-catalogue/): premiere in June 2021, 'an official instructional video for 911 emergency hotline operators', 'grainy VCR text onscreen', a genre 'defined by its "low-budget look" and grainy, VHS-style editing'; on CH/SS and Local 58, 4 February 2022 (https://fnewsmagazine.com/2022/02/ghosts-in-the-machine-examining-the-origins-of-analog-horror-in-ch-ss/): Local 58's vignettes 'reminiscent of '80s public service broadcasting stations'; on Gemini Home Entertainment, 15 February 2022 (https://fnewsmagazine.com/2022/02/ghosts-in-the-machine-archiving-the-end-of-the-world-with-gemini-home-entertainment/): VFX disguised 'underneath a layer of static', creatures inspired by 'classic internet creepypastas surrounding Skinwalkers or the Wendigo'; on No Through Road, 18 March 2022 (https://fnewsmagazine.com/2022/03/ghosts-in-the-machine-trick-editing-time-loops-and-terror-in-no-through-road): uploaded in 2009, 'a crappy old handheld camera from circa 2008-9', a genre 'denoted by found footage content or a grainy VHS or old camera aesthetic'
7. Wikipedia, 'Gemini Home Entertainment' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_Home_Entertainment): Canadian creator Remy Abode; first video 'WORLD'S WEIRDEST ANIMALS', 17 November 2019; 'low-fidelity VHS tapes' of educational, commercial, public-service and home-video footage from fictional companies (Regnad Computing, Harbinge Technologies, Optica! Video); stock footage from Pexels; static hides cheap effects; inspired by 'mythological creatures such as wendigos and skin-walkers'
8. Wikipedia, 'The Mandela Catalogue' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mandela_Catalogue): Alex Kister of Richfield, Wisconsin; first video 'overthrone', 9 June 2021, a corrupted tape of The Beginner's Bible; public-service announcements; an emergency alert in 'intruder alert'; 'suspect identified' scrolling across the screen and the closing text 'answers lie beneath.', both given in lowercase, beside the glitched capitals 'NO MORE RUNNING AW[AY]'; VHS generation loss
9. Samuel Williamson, 'What Is Analog Horror? The Subgenre of 'Skinamarink' Explained', Collider, 7 February 2023 (https://collider.com/what-is-analog-horror-explained/): stories told through 'old and warped VHS tapes', 'commercials, educational tapes, and other forms of produced media'; 'disturbing images and cryptic messages are found beneath layers of distorted footage and sound'
10. ABC Indonesia, 'Dunia Hari Ini: Penjelasan "Peringatan Darurat" Demokrasi di Indonesia', 21 August 2024 (https://www.abc.net.au/indonesian/2024-08-21/peringatan-darurat-demokrasi-indonesia-keputusan-mk-pilkada/104250598): the viral 'Peringatan Darurat' post with the Garuda Pancasila on a blue background, credited as a YouTube screenshot from EAS Indonesia Concept
11. Anindya Milagsita, 'Viral Peringatan Darurat Garuda Biru di Media Sosial, Apa Maksudnya?', detikJateng, 21 August 2024 (https://www.detik.com/jateng/berita/d-7501809/viral-peringatan-darurat-garuda-biru-di-media-sosial-apa-maksudnya): the Garuda on a blue background with 'Peringatan Darurat' in capitals, a still from '@easindonesiaconcept', 'EAS Indonesia Concept (24/10/1991), ANM-021 (Mesem) - First Encounter', a video made to look as if from 1991, in which a TV broadcast stops and the blue Garuda screen appears
12. 47 CFR § 11.45, 'Prohibition of false or deceptive EAS transmissions' (https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/47/11.45)
13. Undang-Undang Republik Indonesia Nomor 24 Tahun 2009 (Law 24/2009 on the flag, language, state emblem and national anthem), Wikisource (https://id.wikisource.org/wiki/Undang-Undang_Republik_Indonesia_Nomor_24_Tahun_2009): art. 57(b) forbids using the Lambang Negara 'yang rusak dan tidak sesuai dengan bentuk, warna, dan perbandingan ukuran' (damaged and not matching its shape, colours and proportions) and art. 57(d) using it 'untuk keperluan selain yang diatur dalam Undang-Undang ini' (for purposes other than those the law regulates); art. 69 sets up to one year in prison or a fine of up to Rp100,000,000
14. W3C, Understanding WCAG 2.2, Success Criterion 2.3.1 Three Flashes or Below Threshold (https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG22/Understanding/three-flashes-or-below-threshold.html)
15. Wikipedia, 'Skin-walker' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skin-walker): in Navajo culture a skin-walker (yee naaldlooshii) is a type of harmful witch; the legend is 'deeply embedded in Navajo tradition and rarely discussed with outsiders', and 'Traditional Navajo people are reluctant to reveal skin-walker lore to non-Navajos'; the Cherokee Nation academic Adrienne Keene, founder of Native Appropriations, responding to non-Navajos (among them J. K. Rowling) putting the legends into their writing: 'these are not things that need or should be discussed by outsiders'
16. Wikipedia, 'Wendigo' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendigo): 'a mythological creature or evil spirit originating from Algonquian folklore'; Francesca Amee Johnson's criticism of its use as a horror antagonist in popular culture

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