watching lynch's early animations reminded me of analog horror so much that i was surprised. i think sound design and the use of it is what ties them together for me. the best of the analog horror out there has sound design that isn't dissimilar to the approach lynch has. moments of painful silence, background noise chatter that puts you on edge, often unsettling/uncanny voices breaking it apart but the voices can add discomfort rather than comfort through connecting with what our brain expects to be a regular person

Coming off your slow cinema video into this, nice to see Inland Empire mentioned as the horror masterwork that it is. Until today no film has ever brought primal fear out of me the way Laura Dern's distorted face at the end of IE has. I had pretty much no bloody idea what was happening or what exactly it meant, and yet, in that moment, that image was so profoundly wrong and alien that it made every hair on my body stand up. The film stopped and I thought my dvd had lagged or something. Then I looked down and realized that my arm had moved on its own to pause the film without me even knowing. That's how subliminal the dread Inland Empire evokes is

It may not classify as "analogue horror," but most effective use of video/analogue footage has to be in the 2022 movie, Aftersun, in which Charlotte Wells' (and, cinematographer, Gregory Oke's) use of faded video of a vacation created by eleven year old Sophie, some twenty years before the revisiting of the video footage, and her young father, Calum, in which we explore recollections that portray a powerful and heartrending portrait of their relationship, as she tries to reconcile the father she knew and the man she didn't. I'm particularly moved by this film as it closely mirrors details of my personal life in ways that felt intimate and profound.

Don't enter me in the giveaway, I already have the blu-ray, but my all-time favorite shot-on-video horror film is Scotter McCrae's 'Shatter Dead' (1994). The film seems more interested in existential ideas than zombies, but it weirdly gets under one's skin with its nihilistic world and ultra cheap production values. Thank you for another thoughtful video, can't wait to see more!

Fantastic video! As for a contest entry, my instinct is to say The Blair Witch Project. Partly because I really do like it and think it's effective for all the reasons people have been discussing for almost 25 years, but also because despite all that analysis, I think there's so much about it that's still underappreciated. Heather is a far more compelling character than people give the movie (and the actress, in particular) credit for. It's not just a spooky videotape found in the woods -- it's the work of this obsessed artist who clings to her camera even as everything else gets stripped away from her. On the DVD commentary, the directors say she has an "Ahab quality" and they're completely right. It's the kind of core theme that so many found footage imitators sorely lack.

something like one cut of the dead feels so important to watch back through its second half wherein a fictionalized retelling of how it becomes possible to make analog horror movies turns back into itself and is a choice favorite because of that if not as "horror" filled as it's mostly a comedy movie. i also really enjoy mockumentaries in general, even though things like as above so below didn't work for me others like we're all going to the world's fair do in some part and stuff like the creep franchise really works for me.

WNUF Halloween special is an analog horror comedy but I find it very compelling because of how real it feels. It presents itself as a VHS recording of a mid 80s local TV channel's holloween special gone wrong complete with comercials and before and after segments that very accurate;ly capture the era.

This was a really interesting video! im a scaredy cat, so I watch videos about analogue horror (like this one) instead of actually watching analogue horror. In any case, I think my favorite analogue horror series (that I've watched a video about) is the vita carnis series because of how it reminds me of the Japanese visual novel Saya no Uta/The Song of Saya. The vita carnis look like how the VN's main character sees the world. The worldbuilding is really well-done, and I want to know more about where the vita carnis came from, what they are, etc.

Favourite analogy horror has to be, well I don’t know if this counts, it being a surrealist film, (but David Lynch’s film are surrealist too….) but for me it’s horror. L’age d’or. The shear unpredictability and seaming ruthlessness of the characters. The casual cruelty, or at least anticipated cruelty puts me on edge every time. Also because it’s so much older than most, all those frames of reference that puts you in the ‘real world’ aren’t there, so it is very dream/ nightmare like.

Maybe not a candidate for my favorite, I do think Blair witch project’s contribution to the popularization of this style makes it worthy of being part of this conversation. I was young when it released, and the found footage aesthetic and massive media reaction made me genuinely unsure if the movie was fiction. Great take on this, if you choose to explore further a vid on horror’s relationship with nostalgia could be interesting

Inland Empire and Possibly in Michigan. My boy CD is 5 for 5 rn 🔥

Great video-essay! I am very interested in this topic. It would be wonderful if you could share some of your bibliography.

This is a good video overall, I think your conversation about Inland Empire's plot, themes and production history is especially striking but I can't help but think about the inherent friction in the premise of it. Because you use the word "analog" as interchangeable with tape or more generally "lofi", the meaning is muddled. Inland Empire, among Alexander Sokurov's Russian Arc is a breakthrough in digital film making, not analog. That's the experiment being played out in it's form more than anything. You do point out that it was shot on DV, but that contradiction is just left to hang, unadressed. This leads to a situation, where you contrast Inland Empire (digital movie) to Shining (analog movie) to make a point about how the fuzzy medium in Inland Empire heightens it's emotional effect. Still, a good essay, but for future reference, this is why terms are often explained out before going into the subject proper.

It might sound too coincidental, but Inland Empire has always been one of my favorites, although I never considered it to be analog horror per se. But yeah, I like it because the movie is essentially a short experimental film idea extended into an almost 3 hour long experience and that’s just too badass in my opinion.

This is his best (most precise) film in my opinion. Hypnosis is the recurring theme here. There are a lot of important details that you can mistake for imperfections due to the video quality. One cue is the scene of misunderstanding between the director and Bucky J played by David Lynch. There is a squeal of the door as the old witch enters the house and says hello. A bird flies right above as Nikki enters the studios. And so on and so on. BTW I hated it the first time I saw it.

I don't have a favorite piece of analog horror media, but the most recent one that I enjoyed is a little game called: Paratropic. I loved how unconstitutional it was!

Thank you for this! I'm a big Lynch fan but have always delayed watching Inland Empire b/c I thought it was just supposed to be an experiment. Now I know that it has the usual preoccupations of Lynch and I'm excited to see it ASAP!

Audio in the intro is too quiet, I had to lean into my computer speakers just to get blasted by the following segment.

Chidori

Maybe not technically what was asked, but still very much in the spirit of Analog Horror is Petscop, a series of recordings of somone playing a video game they found they remember from their childhood, and sending these recordings to a friend. What is particularly compelling is its familiar use of the tropes of Internet Creepypasta type stories with a lot of care and detail and effort to create these new mysteries that feel recognizably authentic and yet also just Off Enough to be unsettling. As you put it, the distortion of memory feels distinctly analog, but this slow back and forth mystery solving being done through painstaking documentation and experimentation on a digital artifact... to my puzzle-focused brain, its very engaging while not having explicit solutions or any real interactivity. Also, just to mention it, I would highly recommend checking out Something In The Dirt, while not exactly Analog Horror, its in the same realm as blurring the lines of what is happening/what has happened through use of documentary style presentation choices.

you ever notice the sound in David Lynch movies. one speculation is that he is completely deaf in one ear. Like lost highway is incredibly quiet... intentionally bringing the viewer into the world of lynch's half deaf quietism tinitis world.

Honestly I feel like AI art is closer to what dreams looks like