With a four-decade long history, the Internet is in no shortage of people’s ingeniousness and communities of differing backgrounds.
Writers, artists, musicians, comedians, actors, and many more can be found right online; but there lies another type of creator, those who seek out and make disturbing content or horror enthusiasts.
Many writers and artists fall into the category of horror enthusiasts and decide to frighten their audience with gruesome and spine-chilling works.
Their creative pieces have cemented their own place and history on the Internet, giving them a place of belonging—people who enjoy the horrors and people who create as well.
Several urban legends posted on early Internet forums were usually anonymous but reached millions of people within years and have made and left their mark on the Internet.
As the Internet grew in size, so did the ways users wanted to post grim stories and videos to bring fear.
By the end of the 2000s and the beginning of the 2010s disturbing content went from being kept on message boards to booming and getting super widespread, becoming massive and gaining huge followings.
From screamers (videos that seem innocent at first but have a jump scare), unsettling images such as Photonegative Mickey or SCP-1471, writings such as Creepypastas, and even more graphic ways of telling stories.
There are many, many, MANY different ways for people to tell their grueling stories. There are SO many subcategories and mediums people use to spread fear into the hearts and paranoia into the minds of their audience.
One of these other various ways of telling stories is ARGs. ARGs are Alternate Reality Games, easily summed up to a mystery puzzle typically spread throughout the Internet or on a creator’s website.
The most current of these ARGs is Welcome Home created by Clownillustration. Clownillustration uses the adorable art of their puppet characters on the surface to hide frightening and occult-themed art just slightly under the surface to tell their story of Cults with the hidings of Home and Wally Dear.
Another of these ways to share stories is game development. Many video game developers create bone-chilling stories and put hints and allusions to a story within their game for communities to theorize on the answers to questions and put together their frightening stories.
The most iconic and memorable for most people of these games is the Five Nights at Freddys series developed by Scott Cawthon.
Moving away from video games, as the years progress younger generations get further away from using VCR systems and use more reliable systems of recording they start to develop both anxiety and curiosity for them.
Analog horror is one variety of horror that has risen to popularity in the last few years, using it’s retro feel and staticky aesthetic to its advantage.
The current, probably most popular analog horror series has to be The Walten Files written by Martin Walls. Walls uses his boot-shaking art and hand-trembling writing as well as hired voices to make absolutely terrifying episodes of his series, The Walten Files as well as other separate videos such as 32: Minutos: la muerte de Tulio Triviño, his parody on Chilean children’s show 31 Minutos.
The Internet has many different kinds, and mediums of horror, and all of them have their spots on the Internet. Many people are creators, many people are passive fans, and there’s also lots of fan content for these creators.
Hola I'm Bri and this is my first year on 42/Fifty. I'm a Senior and Vice president of NAHS.
I am a senior. this is my first year with 42fifty. I hope to become a music producer in the future. I love music, photography, and cinematography. I am excited to be working in this class to further my knowledge of journalism.
My name is Aster Lasher & I am a Senior at OHS
I use Any/All pronouns
I'm interested in horror, gaming, and various animated series, namely One Piece. I'm in D&D club and participate outside of school too!
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Oh man – I can’t even watch horror trailers on TV or before a movie! Sounds like there is a fan base, though, and you have done a nice job pointing out some good options for those who are looking for some scary online content.
[…] Analog horror is a subgenre of horror that specifically focuses on older forms of media like VHS and cassette tapes. It uses grainy footage and distorted audio to create eerie situations. It has had a lot of difficulty being transferred to the big screen, and not a lot of movies have been able to do it well. […]