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What comes to mind when you think about scary videos? Is it the first time you saw Evil Dead at a sleepover? Maybe it’s grainy CCTV footage of supposed ghosts, which you and your friends sadly mistook for reality. Fear grips us in a number of ways, but one genre spawned a new kind of horror across the board—and its impact rocked the community.
Analog horror quietly entered the scene in the mid-2000s. Countless ARGs surfaced, and experimental YouTube channels dabbled in the creepy VHS-style that vowed to keep us up at night. Tapes were recovered. Audio recordings warned us of imminent danger. And in every shadow, something lurked. The movement got so big that even mainstream movies like Skinamarink hit theaters. Basically, if you didn’t know about analog horror before, you know about it now.
We could talk about The Backrooms, an undying urban legend that insists people “no-clip” out of reality. We could talk about The Mandela Catalogue’s alternates. But we’re writing a love letter to Local 58, the news station created by mastermind Kris Straub.
Don’t Touch That Dial
It’s three in the morning. It’s the end of the broadcast day. The American anthem’s playing in slightly warped fashion, but you’re half asleep anyway, so it’s all just noise to you. That is, until a contingency message plays over the color bars—one instructing you of the so-called “victory position.” Further instructions guide pets and infants, “the smallest patriots,” before the news station corrects itself and announces that it was all a hoax.
Okay. Solid start.
Season one popped up on YouTube a whopping eight years ago, but don’t let its age fool you—the videos aren’t any less frightening now. From a demonic GPS that insists we’re “on the fastest available route,” to an emergency alert weather warning, three little videos set the tone for everything Straub created. And that was only season one.
Preying on Legitimate Fears
One of the scariest things about Local 58 is how plausible it is. Do we really believe that people can “no-clip” out of reality? A cool idea, but no. Are we afraid of stumbling into Slender Man at night? Okay, maybe ten years ago, but certainly not now. Is it possible, however, to experience a blaring EAS tone or a kid’s show that’s slightly creepier than it ought to be? Oh, absolutely.
From contingency messages signed by former real-life presidents to disturbing experiments with subliminal messages, the hidden horror in this story isn’t far from reality. Our TVs have glitched before, our GPS has absolutely taken us to unfamiliar backroads, and there’s a certain je ne sais quoi that makes ‘70s footage terrifying—even if it is the news.
What Became of It?
Christian Wiediger on Unsplash
It would appear that Straub’s a firm believer in quality over quantity. The channel doesn’t have more than a handful of videos, and it hasn’t been updated in over five years. The more you know about its creator, the more it makes sense. In 2009, he wrote the famous Creepypasta Candle Cove, a story centered around a group of people digging for information about a rather peculiar kids’ show. After he wrote it, the story took on a life of its own, not only becoming one of the top-rated stories on the site but also inspiring YouTube animations. SyFy even adapted it as the first season of Channel Zero.
Straub’s a cartoonist and a writer, well-known for his comic series Chainsawsuit. He contributes to Acquisitions Incorporated and Acquisitions Incorporated: The "C" Team and hosted a podcast called 28 Plays Later, though it hasn’t been updated since 2023. Wherever he is, and however long it takes, we can’t wait to hide under our blankets from his next creation.
