What Is Analog Horror, and Where Did It Come From?
Analog horror is horror disguised as old media: a TV broadcast, an emergency alert, a training video or a worn VHS tape, usually styled after the 1960s to the 1990s. It began as short YouTube series and grew out of found footage films and series, but where found footage hands the camera to a character, analog horror hands you the tape.
Also known as: analogue horror (British spelling)
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Contact HorroRatedKey Takeaways
- Analog horror disguises a horror story as old media: a TV broadcast, an emergency alert, a training video or a VHS tape.
- Most accounts credit Kris Straub's YouTube series Local 58 (2015) with naming the genre, though earlier web series also claim to be first.
- Found footage shows what a character filmed; analog horror shows what a station, company or tape recorded, often speaking to you directly.
- Born as short web videos, it reached theaters with Backrooms (2026), A24's biggest opening weekend ever.
- On HorroRated, start with Late Night with the Devil (2024), rated Legendary.
What Is Analog Horror?
Analog horror is horror delivered as a fake artifact from the analog era: the story arrives through a broadcast or a tape, and the fear comes from noticing what's wrong with it. Most entries are short web videos, often under 10 minutes, built to look found rather than made. Few are shot on real tape: as a 2023 essay in the University of Missouri-Kansas City's Sosland Journal points out, creators rebuild the analog look with modern editing.
Where Did the Name "Analog Horror" Come From?
Most accounts point to Local 58, a YouTube series by Kris Straub that poses as a public-access channel called WCLV-TV. Its first episode, "Weather Service," went up on October 26, 2015, and plays out as a string of emergency alert messages. Straub is widely credited with coining the term, but "first" is disputed: Steven Chamberlain's No Through Road was on YouTube by 2009, and some fans name the 2016 series CH/SS, though its creator says Local 58 came first.
What Came Before Analog Horror?
Broadcasts that fooled people. Orson Welles's 1938 radio version of The War of the Worlds broke into what sounded like a normal program with fake news bulletins about an alien invasion, and many listeners believed it. In 1987, someone hijacked a real TV signal in the Max Headroom incident. On Halloween night 1992, the BBC aired Ghostwatch, Stephen Volk's scripted drama presented as a live broadcast from a haunted house in Northolt.
Analog horror, from broadcast hoax to box office
| Year | Work | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| 1938 | The War of the Worlds (radio) | Fake news bulletins many listeners believed |
| 1987 | The Max Headroom incident | A real broadcast hijacking |
| 1992 | Ghostwatch (BBC) | A scripted ghost hunt passed off as live TV |
| 2015 | Local 58 (YouTube) | The series most credited with naming the genre |
| 2022 | Skinamarink | A grainy feature made for about 15,000 Canadian dollars |
| 2026 | Backrooms (A24) | A YouTube series becomes A24's biggest opening |
How Do You Spot Analog Horror?
You can usually tell within a minute, because analog horror imitates something that was never meant to be scary. Watch for these tells:
- It poses as something official. A station ID, an emergency alert, an ad or a training tape.
- It starts mundane. A kids' show or a weather report, and the wrongness creeps in slowly.
- The picture is damaged on purpose. A boxy 4:3 frame, tracking lines, color bleed and hiss: the wear that real VHS tapes pick up as they degrade within 10 to 25 years.
- It speaks to you. Warnings and instructions target the viewer.
- Nothing gets explained. Little or no music, no tidy ending, gaps you fill in yourself.
Is It Analog Horror If It Was Shot on Real Tape?
Usually not. The UMKC essay argues the genre recreates analog media with modern editing, as a tribute to a bygone era, so Videodrome (1983) and The Blair Witch Project (1999) count as ancestors, not members, despite sharing its tools.
Analog Horror vs Found Footage vs Liminal Space Horror: What's the Difference?
Found footage is a format, liminal space horror is a setting, and analog horror is an artifact: a recording that pretends to come from a station, company or tape in the past. They overlap constantly: HorroRated files Archive 81 (2022) under Found Footage, Tech Horror and Liminal Space at once. If empty hallways are what get to you, that's liminal space horror.
Analog horror vs found footage vs liminal space horror
| Analog horror | Found footage | Liminal space horror | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it pretends to be | A broadcast, ad or tape from the 1960s to the 1990s | Recordings made by characters in the story | Not a recording: a place |
| Where the fear lives | In what the artifact hides | In what the camera catches | In empty, in-between spaces |
| Usual length | Short web episodes, often under 10 minutes | Feature films | Films, series and games |
| An archive example | Late Night with the Devil (2024) | The Blair Witch Project (1999) | Vivarium (2019) |
Is Skinamarink Analog Horror or Liminal Horror?
Both, which is why fans argue about it. Kyle Edward Ball's Skinamarink (2022) has the murk of a degraded tape and never leaves one dark family house. Ball shot it in his childhood home in Edmonton for about 15,000 Canadian dollars, and it made $2 million. It isn't in HorroRated's archive yet.
Which Films and Shows Capture Analog Horror Best?
Analog horror lives mostly on YouTube, which HorroRated doesn't review, so these five archive entries are the closest fits: films and series built around a broadcast or a tape. Verdicts are from the live entries; no line gives away an ending.
- Late Night with the Devil (2024), Legendary. The Cairnes brothers' cursed 1970s talk show is found footage "applied to 1970s television with such precision that the recreation becomes eerie," in the entry's words. Content note: blood and gore.
- Archive 81 (2022), Highly Recommended. In Netflix's tape-restoration mystery, an archivist restoring VHS tapes shot in 1994 gets pulled into what they recorded. One eight-episode season.
- Channel Zero (2016 to 2018), Recommended. Channel Zero's Candle Cove season adapts a creepypasta about a children's TV show nobody else can confirm existed, by Local 58's creator, Kris Straub.
- Sinister (2012), Legendary. In Scott Derrickson's Sinister, a writer finds home-movie reels that shouldn't exist. Content note: violence and peril.
- The Ring (2002), Recommended. Gore Verbinski's The Ring is the cursed-videotape film; its entry says the tape feels "like a real artifact rather than assembled horror clichés."
Where Does HorroRated Cover Analog Horror?
HorroRated has no analog horror shelf yet, so the genre is spread across three collections. The found footage collection linked at the top holds 23 titles, including Late Night with the Devil and Archive 81. The liminal shelf adds the empty rooms, and the shelf of horror about screens and machines files Archive 81 and Channel Zero under Tech Horror.
Related Resources
- The lost horror movies history almost erased
- Jane Schoenbrun's I Saw the TV Glow (2024)
- What a jump scare is
Want the closest thing tonight? Open HorroRated's Movie Night Generator, set the collection to Found Footage and let it pick.
Frequently Asked Questions About Analog Horror
What is analog horror?
Analog horror is a horror format that disguises its story as old media, such as a TV broadcast, an emergency alert or a VHS tape. It began as short YouTube series styled after the 1960s to the 1990s.
Who created analog horror?
No single person did, but Kris Straub's Local 58, which began on YouTube in October 2015, is widely credited with naming and popularizing it. Earlier web series such as No Through Road (2009) used similar ideas, so "first" is still argued over.
What's the difference between analog horror and found footage?
Found footage is presented as recordings made by characters in the story, like a camcorder diary or a security feed. Analog horror imitates media made by institutions, such as TV stations or emergency alerts, and often speaks to the viewer directly. It's also usually short web video rather than a feature.
Is the Backrooms analog horror?
It depends on the version. The Backrooms began in 2019 as an internet image of endless empty rooms, which is liminal space horror. Kane Parsons's YouTube series, started in January 2022, filmed it as analog-style found footage, and his A24 film Backrooms (2026) took that version to theaters.
Why is analog horror so scary?
It turns comfort into a threat. Analog horror borrows the look of children's TV, weather reports and old home video, then corrupts it slowly. Many series also address the viewer directly, so you feel like the one being warned.
Are there analog horror movies?
A few. Skinamarink (2022) and Backrooms (2026) both reached theaters, and Late Night with the Devil (2024) recreates a 1970s TV broadcast. Most analog horror is still short web video, so films usually borrow its tools rather than its format.