Scariest Analog Horror Series

First off, what is analog horror? They’re horror films, shorts, or videos in general done in the style of old VHS, Beta, or other pre-digital formats. Sometimes they can look like an old camcorder view of some phenomena, like The Blair Witch Project. Most of the time, they look like old news broadcasts, informational videos, or local area warnings.

They became particularly popular in the 2010s, inspired by old horror specials like Ghostwatch or actual TV signal hijackings like the Max Headroom Incident. The combination of cryptic messages, visual distortions, and bizarre imagery can leave viewers’ skin crawling, particularly when they watch these famous examples of the genre.

Updated January 27, 2025, by David Heath: Analog horror is an established genre now. It's no longer a bunch of ARGs or quirky one-offs like Local 58 or CH/SS. Today, if people search for the term on YouTube, they're bound to come across plenty of different series, whether they're one of the ones on this list, a hidden gem, or pretenders that try to hit the same beats. They'll also find plenty of video essays looking into them.

This list has been updated with a few more key analog horror series that will keep viewers freaked out, either with direct horror or through a gradual, creeping sense of unease that'll linger in their mind for days (or at least a few hours if they're made of sterner stuff).

1 No Through Road

Taking A Wrong Turn

• Creator: Steven Chamberlain
• Inspirations: The Blair Witch Project, David Lynch movies, and the Doctor Who episode 'Time'

No Through Road was originally a one-off short produced in 2009, but it caught on well enough for creator Steven Chamberlain to produce three more episodes for YouTube across 2011-2012. They were supposed to be tapes of four 17-year-olds who were found dead in their car outside their hometown, which were then recovered by MI6 before getting uploaded onto the internet.

They showed the boys taking a shortcut down a "no through road" by an abandoned farm. When they take a rest stop, they find a perfectly preserved dead rabbit. It only gets stranger from there as they find events repeating themselves, and a hatted figure stalking them from the darkness. The series predates the term "analog horror," but its VHS-style found footage and viral success really set the stage for the rise of creepypasta and the genre in general.

2 Ben Drowned

One Of The First Gaming Analog Horror Series

• Creator: Alex 'Jadusable' Hall
• Inspirations: The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, Slender Man, and other creepypastas

Horror stories about cursed objects have been around for many years. Some became pretty famous, too, like Koji Suzuki’s novel Ring and its subsequent film, comic, manga, video game, etc., adaptations. They went on to inspire a multitude of horror microfiction stories called creepypastas, which featured cursed Spongebob episodes (‘Squidward’s Suicide’), online memes (‘Smiledog’), and video games.

Ben Drowned combined a written creepypasta about a haunted copy of The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask with video footage. The distorted music, glitchy movements, and the game’s already morose and creepy atmosphere made it stand out from its rivals in haunting terror. The story went on to be surprisingly influential, inspiring the GIFfany character in Gravity Falls, who was subsequently the inspiration for Monika in Doki Doki Literature Club.

3 Super Mario 64: CLASSIFIED

When Everything Said About SM64 Is True

• Creator: Greenio
• Inspirations: Ben Drowned, every rumor about Super Mario 64

It's not just The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask that can be creepy and dark. Nintendo 64 launch title Super Mario 64 has also inspired its odd urban legends, like how every cartridge is allegedly personalized for each owner. One person's copy of the game will play better for them because it was designed for them specifically. It's more of a joke, but the YouTube series Super Mario 64: CLASSIFIED wonders what it would be like if it were true.

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They take the form of VHS recordings of a broken demo build of Super Mario 64. Through each video, it gradually becomes apparent that Nintendo was hiding a very dark secret about the game's creation, one that may threaten the world as a whole. The series is somewhat tongue-in-cheek, though that doesn't stop it from being an eerie, unnerving watch. It also completed its run in January 2023, so viewers can now get the full experience on YouTube.

4 Petscop

A Let's Play As A Horror Story

• Creator: Tony Domenico
• Inspirations: Marble Hornets, Ben Drowned, and the David Lynch movie Inland Empire

Edited video game commentaries, or "Let's Plays," have died down in popularity since the 2010s as tastes have shifted to live streams and long-form videos rather than LP's short gaming segments. But they managed to inspire this spooky tale about a man receiving an obscure PS1 game from the mysterious (and fictional) company Garalina.

Petscop sees Paul play through the titular game for his YouTube channel. At first, it seems like a simple enough game about the "Guardian" solving puzzles to reclaim pets. But then it gets stranger as its new levels, puzzles, and figures seem to refer to attachment therapy, abuse, disappearances, and more. There's more to Petscop than an odd video game.

5 Valle Verde

An Ordinary Cutesy Life Sim Game

• Creator: Alluvium
• Inspirations: Animal Crossing, PS1 games, Studio Ghibli movies

For something more vibrant than Petscop, but just as freaky, Valle Verde takes the form of a VHS tape that Alluvium found in a metal box under a strange statue in the grounds of Parque Ecológico, La Plata, Argentina. It depicts a video game for the PS1 he had never heard of before. Aside from needing a peripheral called the 'THBrain,' it looked like a regular, Animal Crossing-esque life sim game. But as its on-screen avatar explores the world, it starts showing strange things.

Players are treated to distorted images of children, references to 'patients' who are 'unstable', random anomalies, and disturbing realms that edge between the divine and the demonic. With its impressive visuals, creepy sound designs, and deft editing, it's arguably the best video game-based analog horror out there. It does a great job at contrasting its cutesy inspirations with nightmarish settings, and connects them all with a thrilling mystery plot.

6 Local 58

How The Genre Got Its Name

• Creator: Kris Straub
• Inspirations: Candle Cove, Lovecraftian horror

Speaking of creepypasta, Kris Straub initially made his name online with the story Candle Cove, which was about forum users recollecting a weird children’s show from their youth. In 2015, Straub would create a spin-off from this story, but he wouldn’t use text to do it. Combining animation, video, and a little distortion here and there, Straub would make Local 58, a series of videos purported to be from a public access channel in West Virginia.

They’d feature weird cryptic messages, like warning viewers against looking at the moon, showing dashcam footage of a car being chased by some creature, or an emergency broadcast telling citizens the US has been invaded, and they should commit suicide to preserve the USA’s honor. It was weird, disturbing, and effective. Its fifth episode, ‘Station ID,’ would also give the genre its name, as it would state ‘ANALOG HORROR at 476MHZ.’

7 Angel Hare

Childhood Trauma

• Creator: The East Patch
• Inspirations: Christian TV cartoons, cartoon creepypastas

During the creepypasta boom, there were a lot of stories about alleged missing episodes of beloved cartoons. They usually weren't very good, which made Candle Cove stand out. This one took on an eerie twist where the people who remembered watching it realize it might have been a shared delusion. Angel Hare takes a similar turn. Protagonist Jonah comes across an official VHS tape of Angel Hare, a Christian cartoon about an angelic hare called Gabby that he watched as a kid, at a thrift store.

But the official tape is very different from the recordings he had as a child. The official copies show Gabby talking generally about Christian themes like mercy and forgiveness, etc. But his VCR recordings had Gabby directly addressing 'Jonah.' At first, he thought it was an off-screen character who shared his name. But as he goes on, he learns Gabby was talking directly to him, and giving him strangely specific advice. It's essentially the reverse of Candle Cove as, far from being a delusion, Angel Hare and Jonah's memories prove to be too real.

8 CH/SS

Supernatural Espionage

• Creator: Turkey Lenin III
• Inspirations: The SCP Foundation, MK-Ultra, Cold War-era secret projects

CH/SS isn’t as well documented as some other entries on this list. It popped up shortly after the debut of Local 58, and its creator is known only by the alias of ‘Turkey Lenin III'. Yet it’s also one of the more influential entries, with some calling it the first analog horror. They take the form of a series of instructional videos and adverts for a government-sponsored mental health organization during the 1980s or so.

Then they only get more bizarre as they hint at espionage, deception, and supernatural forces, with obscure Russian dialogue and strange beasts. There were also ARG elements like download links and in-character Twitter accounts to pull fans into the void. Even without them, the videos are a creepy experience.

9 The Mandela Catalogue

Alternate Reality

• Creator: Alex Kister
• Inspirations: The Mandela Effect urban legend, CH/SS

Debuting in 2021, The Mandela Catalogue is a series of videos spread across a series of VHS tapes. Some of them play out like instructional videos, others like surveillance footage. But they all feature people in Mandela County, Wisconsin, succumbing to mysterious figures called ‘Alternates.’ They’re shape-shifting creatures that take the form of other living things, then stalk their targets before eliminating them and taking their place.

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They can be indistinguishable from a person’s loved ones, human, animal, or otherwise until they attack. The Alternates can also affect TV and radio broadcasts, warping the videos and changing their messages. Their uncanny looks, using real police photofits, caught on quickly, freaking viewers out across the web. Alex Kister aims to continue the series, though after some behind-the-scenes drama, it may take a while to catch back on.

10 The Smile Tapes

Give The Audience A Grin

• Creator: Patorikku
• Inspirations: The Last of Us, zombie/biological horror

Who’d have thought ophiocordyceps unilateralis would become so significant in the media? The creepy fungus that turns ants into zombies inspired the mutants in The Last of Us series, as well as The Smile Tapes, an analog horror series that came out in 2021. Set in the 1990s, the tapes chronicle a new drug called SMILE made with a similar but unidentified fungus.

It runs through the black market, where its users become increasingly prone to manic episodes, violence, uncontrollable laughter, and increasingly broad smiles. The series is split into volumes, covering the drug’s origins, its victims, and the lethal incidents caused by its users. Especially once the more potent ‘Variant C’ begins to spread and produce stronger, more dangerous ‘Smilers.’