For Halloween, YouTube highlighted the enduring power of an influential subgenre of content on its platform — “analog horror.”
The Big Picture: As the creator economy goes mainstream, breaking out on YouTube has become harder than ever — there’s just a lot of content. But creators who have mastered a genre that feels perfectly attuned to the weirder corners of social media can build a following far beyond one platform.
Behind The Scenes: Analog horror — lo-fi narrative content, cursed fake-product commercials, and freaky news reports — has quietly gained cult status.
And now YouTube is paying respects.
The company tapped Spencer Lackey, the creator behind analog series a/s/l, to create a 10-minute video that reviews and pays homage to other popular analog-horror creators — such as Kane Pixels, nana825763, and Midwest Angelica.
YouTube is highlighting the genre because analog-horror short films, ongoing series, and other videos have logged 500 million views in 2024 alone.
That’s amazing, considering YouTube doesn’t make it easy for horror content to monetize and break out on the platform. It’s possible that YouTube now recognizes the issue.
Closing Credits: Analog horror is the natural extension of classic found-footage horror masterpieces like The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity and the early internet terrors of creepypasta stories like Slenderman. The genre takes those influences and mixes them with surrealism and absurdity that’s both nostalgic and forward-thinking. With Kane Pixels already getting tapped by A24 to create a big-screen version of his viral The Backrooms series, expect analog horror to soon usher in a new Hollywood horror subgenre.
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