Analogue Horror

My new favorite obsession!

It started with the Mandela Catalogue, which I highly recommend anyone with an interest in unnerving and creepy shows and cinema. But it turns out there is a large and diverse collection of similar content that has amassed somewhat of a cult following.

Analogue horror is a subgenre of horror that is found footage style that began in web series. The "analogue" style of the videos is reminiscent of old VHS footage, grainy, distorted, creepy but familiar. Personally, it reminds me of watching the ads that played before movies on VHS tapes during my childhood. The familiar style is what makes it so unsettling since it reminds a viewer of a different time, a more innocent time.

There's a new show on Netflix too, Archive 81. The story follows a guy who is hired to restore damaged tapes from a massive apartment fire. What he uncovers on those tapes is a documentary being made by a woman who went missing around the time of the fire, He's launched into a crazy mess as he restores the tapes and only finds more questions. The found footage and old tapes makes Archive 81 a part of this sub genre, or at the very least it employs the same tactics. I think this could be something good to consider tying to my research, looking into more subgenres that aren't as well known.