Previously: Truly Excellent Found Footage Horror Films & Mockumentaries To Stream.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I’m a sucker for found footage horror — and as the subgenre has evolved, sending odd little tendrils out that have, in turn, grown, and evolved, and turned into something new, there’s been a more or less continuing outpouring of spectacular pieces of storytelling that keep pushing the proverbial envelope in terms of what found footage can do. It’s a good time to be a found footage fan, or an analog horror enthusiast, or just someone who likes their stories a little more interactive than the average human — because the array of truly excellent found footage and analog horror web series available to watch at the click of a button or the tap of a screen has never been better.
It’s true that found footage does sometimes have a slightly cringe reputation — and that, I suspect, is largely because there’s an awful lot of bad found footage out there. To be fair, though, that also speaks to the accessibility of it as a subgenre: The barrier to entry is low, and it’s quite easy for the average human to try their hand at found footage-style storytelling. Amidst the sea of poorly thought-out and overly-derivative work, though, there are plenty of stars that shine — and when you find one that really grabs you, it does actually feel like you’ve found a diamond in the rough.
It might be a weird diamond, but that’s part of the fun, right?
[Like what you read? Check out Dangerous Games To Play In The Dark, available from Chronicle Books now!]
So: Here are 20 found footage and analog horror web series available to watch for free on YouTube that I’ve found particularly enjoyable over the years, and which I think are worth your time. Some of them are newer; some of them are quite old. Some of them are complete and can be watched in their entireties; some of them are ongoing and still updating as we speak. Some of them are classic found footage; some of them are pure analog horror. Some of them are major markers of their respective subgenre or aesthetic; some of them are lesser-known.
I’ve also chosen to focus on series, rather than single videos, as it’s Halloween, and during the Halloween season, there are few things more enjoyable that setting aside a lengthy block of time to lose yourself in a long, episodic story full of eeriness and unsettlement.
Whatever the specifics of what you’re into, there’s probably something here for you — assuming you’re into found footage or analog horror in general, of course (which I would imagine is the case; otherwise, why would you be here?).
Turn out the lights.
Put on your headphones.
The show is about to start.
1. The West Records
Status: Complete.
One of my favorite underrated titles from the early 2010s found footage web series boom, The West Records has, alas, also become somewhat obscure in the decade-plus since its debut — so consider this your nudge to give this forgotten gem a watch. It’s very much of its time; the framing is that classic, “I acquired an old hard drive and decided to restore the files I found on it” set-up that was so common in the late 2000s and early 2010s — making it found footage in the truest sense — and we have dual stories running: That of the people depicted within the footage, and that of the person restoring and uploading the footage to YouTube.
It starts with a team of investigators exploring a disused naval base in order to unearth its secrets — and it starts with a shop owner who receives a hard drive with this team of investigators’ footage saved onto it. Through three chapters and 31 videos, the series follows both of these threads, with both of their leaders — Randall of the investigative team and Henry of the shop—as they begin to… lose themselves literally and figuratively. There are mysteries, and woods, and a creature, and geography that doesn’t behave quite the way it should.
Fair warning: It ends somewhat abruptly, and in January 2023, its creator, Dalton Cahill, announced that the series was officially over. But it is complete — and Cahill has said that he has plans and projects in motion that continue the world in which The West Records takes place, if not The West Records themselves. Take a look at one such project here, and keep up with Cahill’s work in general here.
2. Kosmic Korners
Status: In progress.
I’ve written before about my fondness for drive-in movie theaters — but if my early drive-in experiences had been at one like the Kosmic Korners drive-in, I… might have developed a different view of them. This series consists of a combination of literal found footage — in this case, pre-show and intermission reels that once played at this (fictional) Colorado drive-in before or between features, recovered from an estate sale — and active investigative bits and pieces, such as an interview with a former employee; together, these elements tell a story of a drive-in where… things are, shall we say, not what they seem.
There have been too many tragedies at this strange cinema for it all to have been coincidental. And that intermission reel? It’s got some… unusual instructions in it. Threatening ones, you might say.
If Night Vale had a drive-in, it would probably be the Kosmic Korners.
3. In The Dark
Status: Complete.
Another oldie-but-goodie, In The Dark, also known as Louise Is Missing or the Louise Paxton mystery, is another one of my favorite early YouTube horror series. We’re told right off the bat what’s going on: Louise Paxton is missing. In April of 2007, she moved from Norwich, UK to the South West London neighborhood of Clapham; by July of that same year, however, she had vanished. Her loved ones are now searching desperately for her — or at least, for some answers or a sign of what might have happened to her.
It becomes apparent fairly quickly to viewers watching her video diary entries that Louise was not, as she first suspected, being stalked, but that she was being haunted — and that whatever might have been occupying her flat with her wasn’t friendly. It’s all quite low tech, having been made during the era in which it actually takes place, but it’s very effective, and still a terrific watch almost two decades later.
For more on the story and its context, you can find my detailed analysis of the Louise Paxton series here.
4. DOORS [Analog Horror]
Status: Complete.
DOORS [Analog Horror] was a relatively recent find for me, but boy, did it do a number on me. Its initial premise is simple and to the point: What if a door that should not be in your home… suddenly was? It doesn’t belong there, and where it leads is… nowhere you actually want to go. You are not to look for this door. You do not find the door. The door finds you.
But whether you ignore that instruction and look for the door yourself, or whether the door finds you… terrible things will happen. To you. To those you love.
DOORS isn’t a long series; it’s a trilogy — just three videos, each no longer than 15 minutes and totaling about 35 minutes overall. But it’s very effective, and I enjoyed it immensely. For my detailed analysis of DOORS, head here.
Watch DOORS [Analog Horror] here.
5. Daisy Brown
Status: Complete.
In the summer of 2017, a young woman named Daisy Brown began posting videos to YouTube in the style of the many slice-of-life YouTube channels that exist — except instead of documenting her life with, say, her pet cat or her cadre of dogs, she showed what life was like with Alan, the monster who lived in her house with her. By the time she introduced the internet to Alan, he had been living in her house for about a year and a half; feeding him and taking care of him was just part of her daily routine.
But Daisy’s life is far from ordinary. Her dad, with whom she has a strained relationship, is a scientist who apparently “invented” Alan; she’s forbidden to go into the basement of her house, which has been sealed off since she was a child; and when she does eventually get a cat, the cat… does not last long.
Alan, you see, is growing.
And Alan is also hungry.
Although all of the series on this list are of a darker bent, Daisy Brown is even darker than most; it addresses abuse, as well as depression and other mental health topics, among its host of weighty themes. For the curious, Daisy Brown creator Julia Dapper discusses not just how she constructed the various forms of Alan and pulled off the series, but also the series’ genesis in a video on her personal channel.
Pro tip: Should you choose to watch Daisy Brown, turn the captions on, even if you don’t usually use them. You absolutely need them here. Trust me.
6. Fake Documentary “Q”
Status: In progress.
The Japanese series Fake Documentary “Q,” which you might also see referred to as FDQ, consists of a collection of documentary-style videos about various oddities, phenomena, and other bits of unexplainable weirdness brought to the film crew’s attention by regular, everyday people.
There’s an allegedly cursed video in the collection of a standard video rental store, for instance. There’s a house with something seemingly lurking in the mirrors. There’s a man who discovers flowers regularly left as offerings at the door of his apartment, although to what end and by who isn’t clear to him.
And although at first, all of these short documentaries don’t seem like they’re connected, it’s… worth taking another look. A careful one. Because they are, you see — they’re all deeply connected. If you’d like a guide to how they’re connected, as well as an alternate viewing order that might make the connections a bit clearer, this Reddit post on the r/FakeDocumentaryQ sub might help.
If you’re a fan of Noroi: The Curse or other work by or reminiscent of Kôji Shiraishi, you definitely don’t want to miss this series.
7. Nettlebrook
Status: In progress, although on hiatus.
In the small town of Nettlebrook, all is not well. Despite Nettlebrook’s quaint and peaceful appearance, strange things have been happening — and they’ve been happening for a long time. Mysterious deaths. Teenagers going missing. And — if the newly-arrived-in-town astrologer Echo Rose is right—there are… unsettled spirits around. Possibly in the bog that gives the town’s elite private school, Bogwick Academy, its name. Actually, scratch that; make it: Certainly in the bog that gives the town’s elite private school, Bogwick Academy, its name.
Nettlebrook is quite a complex story to follow; more than just a web series, it’s a full-scale ARG — meaning there are not only multiple YouTube channels necessary to watch in order to get the full narrative, but also a variety of other assets ranging from blogs to social media profiles that contain bits and pieces of the tale. It’s rewarding to track down, though, so if you’re looking for something to really keep you occupied, the saga of Nettlebrook and its inhabitants is worth exploring. If you need a little help, there’s an in-depth wiki available that might be of use.
If Echo Rose looks or sounds familiar, by the way, there’s a reason for that: She’s played by Julia Dapper of Daisy Brown. Dapper is a co-creator of Nettlebrook, with Lela Lucia as the primary mastermind.
Note that this one has been on hiatus for a few years, but Dapper has stated that it has not been canceled; the team is trying to figure out the best way to move forward with its creation, given the, uh, current state of the world as a whole.
8. Petscop
Status: Complete.
I know, I know — you’re probably already familiar with Petscop; it’s one of the most significant found footage/analog horror web series of the late 2010s. But I would be remiss if I didn’t include it here, because it’s… just that good.
In the event that you are not familiar with it, here’s the general gist: In 2017, a guy named Paul started uploading footage of an unfinished, Pokemon-like PlayStation game he had acquired called Petscop. Why was he uploading it? Because, well… there was something odd going on in it, and he wanted to share what he had been finding. Notably, though, his goal wasn’t to share it with us, the general viewership of the internet; the videos — particularly the early ones — were framed as if they were addressing someone specific.
What unspools from there is… quite a ride, involving missing children, generational trauma, and themes of reincarnation and rebirth.
I took a look at this one when it was still just a few months old, and although many of the leads myself and other folks who took it upon themselves to analyze the project initially thought to follow turned out to be red herrings in the end, these early interpretations are still worth going back over. Series creator Tony Domenico did later reveal that he thinks he mis-stepped in his storytelling, which unintentionally led folks astray from the actual story he wanted to tell — but boy does that story get there in the end.
The story often feels like it’s lurking just out of frame. But that’s what makes it so engrossing to watch: It makes you work for it — and if you engage with it as deeply as you can, what you’ll pull out of it is heart-wrenching.
9. School Basement
Status: In progress.
I’ll be honest: I don’t actually know if there’s a name for this series. It’s being posted to a channel called Beckett Wagner, although whether there’s an actual Beckett Wagner remains to be seen. Indeed, each video appears to have been shot by different people — and, possibly, at different points in history. But what they all have in common is this:
Each cameraperson finds an elevator in their school. It’s hidden, and it’s marked “out of order.” But they each find a way to make the elevator work, and they each take into the school’s basement — a basement they had no idea existed.
And none of them have ever made it back out.
I don’t know how the footage was retrieved within the universe of this story. I don’t know who is uploading it to YouTube, or how. And I don’t know what the heck is down in that basement with all of these missing people.
Whatever it is, though, it’s… clearly not human.
I’m very much enjoying it, though, and I think it deserves to have more eyes on it. Take a look. And learn from it: If you find a weird elevator in your school… don’t try to start it up again. Don’t ride it. And certainly don’t take it down to that basement you didn’t know about until now.
10. Hi I’m Mary Mary
Status: Complete.
In 2016, a young woman named Mary woke up alone in a house — a large, comfortable-looking single-family dwelling — with not much of an idea who she was or how she got there. She knew only that she was unable to go outside, and that she was alone in the house — during the day, at least.
At night, she was besieged by… others.
She started documenting her days on camera and posting the videos to YouTube. She started tweeting. She wrote a blog. She hoped that someone — anyone — would be able to hear her, or see her, or talk to her.
She wanted to escape. But she didn’t know how. And, alone, she wasn’t sure she could.
Possibly my favorite web series of all time, Hi I’m Mary Mary is a remarkable achievement. It all fits together seamlessly, both literally and figuratively; it’s well-constructed from the inside out and very, very resonant. Its themes of mental health and depression are readily apparent, but it’s not heavy-handed in how it handles them — it’s subtle and nuanced in its horror, delicate and beautiful and heartbreaking. When the series finally came to a close in 2020, the story was full and complete and wholly satisfying.
And hey, good news: Hi I’m Mary Mary creator K has another project in the works — and a big one, at that. It’s titled Sunken: The Last Diary Of Charlotte Eve, and as of March 2024, the scripts for its entire story — 12 episodes — are complete. K has a separate YouTube channel for behind-the-scenes and process-type videos, along with other, one-off projects, so head on over there for a look at how these kinds of projects get made, and stay tuned for updates about Sunken.
11. No Through Road
Status: Complete.
Who doesn’t love a good time loop horror story? For one of the best, take a gander at No Through Road — the documentation of an alleged incident in which four teenagers went missing under decidedly mysterious circumstances while driving near Broomhall Farm outside Stevenage, UK in 2008.
No Through Road is not, of course, real; four UK teenagersdid not go missing in this manner in 2008, and the road outside of Stevenage that goes past Broomhall Farm does not, in fact, trap you in an endless loop, should you choose to drive on it. But No Through Road — both the original video and the three followups that dropped in the handful of years after its initial 2009 appearance on YouTube — remains one of those delightful viewing experiences that still has folks Googling “is No Through Road real” after all this time.
I was able to speak to series creator Steven Chamberlain about the making of the original video, its sequels, and No Through Road’s legacy in 2020, so if you’re interested in finding out how it all came together, you can find that interview here.
12. Viral Dimensions/Coffin Tree
Status: In progress.
Okay, so the channel for this one is called Viral Dimensions, but the (fictional, of course) unfinished video game at the center of the series is called Coffin Tree, so I’ve generally been thinking of the series as the Coffin Tree saga. Do with that what you will.
That aside, if you are both intrigued by VR and horrified at things like, oh, I don’t know, Neuralink (I would argue there are a wide variety of reasons of reasons to be horrified at Neuralink), then Coffin Tree will likely also intrigue and horrify you. The story revolves around a VR technology allegedly produced in the 1990s that was quickly halted — largely because it, uh, wasn’t just an entertainment device. One of the handful of games that was in production for it, Coffin Tree, was a horror shooter that also seemed to be more than just entertainment. There’s a very classic Bad Technology In The Hands Of Bad People story going on here, and it’s
Some of this one is a little heavy-handed — the evil company at the heart of the story is so evil, it’s almost comically over-the-top; it’s also straight-up called the Tulpa Corporation, so based on that alone, I’m willing to bet that most of you have a pretty good idea about what the company’s nefarious goals really are — but it’s still highly enjoyable. There’s a good mix of the analog horror aesthetic with enough of a narrative that we’ve got something to hang out proverbial hats on, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it all unspools.
13. Paranormal Paranoids
Status: Complete in its current form; ongoing in that a feature film, Shelby Oaks, is forthcoming.
Do you remember Paranormal Paranoids? A ghost-hunting YouTube channel from around 2008, based in Ohio? The group members all seemingly dropped off the face of the internet (and maybe the Earth) sometime in 2009 — possibly after an investigation to a location called Shelby Oaks. Do you recall?
The channel doesn’t exist anymore in its original form, so alas, you won’t be able to find it if you look for it… but then again, you wouldn’t have been able to find it in 2008, either: It never existed. You will, however, be able to find what’s framed as recovered archival footage on a channel called JessTheParanoid — and, should you watch it, you’ll find an unsolved mystery, a ghost story, and perhaps something even darker just waiting to be unraveled.
Created by YouTuber and film critic Chris Stuckmann, Paranormal Paranoids debuted as a web series with some light ARG elements in 2021. It’s nicely self-contained as it is — the whole series is complete and available to watch in its entirety, and deeply satisfying in its authenticity.
And if you can’t get enough of it? Good news: A feature film, Shelby Oaks, has been in the works for some time and is currently running the festival circuit. I wrote at length about what’s exciting to me about Paranormal Paranoids and Shelby Oaks in 2023 — in short, I suspect they’re not just loosely connected or vague adaptations of each other, but two pieces of one whole that were developed in concert with each other to tell a single, integrated story — and I maintain that this particular project has managed to innovate an oversaturated format in some super interesting ways.
Watch Paranormal Paranoids here.
14. Catastrophe Crow
Status: Complete.
Catastrophe Crow follows in the grand tradition of many video game-centric found footage or analog horror web series in that the core of the story is an unfinished, unreleased video game from a bygone era — a game whose development was shrouded in mystery, and the sole existing tidbits of which might be harboring something unspeakable. Here, it’s an N64 game — hence its alternate title, Crow64 — and, as we’ve seen in previous series like Petscop, the underlying story seems to be full of ghosts both literal and figurative.
Crow64, however, goes deeper than many of these kinds of series; like Nettlebrook, it’s a full-on ARG, with so much more to find than just the videos that make up the bulk of the series. If you want to get in on aaaaaaaall the details, the Catastrophe Crow subreddit and Discord communities have been working for literal years to pick it all apart; their findings have been assembled in a huge Github doc (previously a Google doc), which you can read here.
A note about its current status, however: Although it is technically “complete” in there are no more lore drops planned, the ARG was never totally solved. As such, the story might feel… unfinished to some. I kind of like the open-ended nature of it — it leaves a lot of room for personal interpretation, so at this point, whatever you think happened, pretty much anything goes. Just, y’know, bear that in mind, if you find inconclusive endings frustrating. (There was a Makeship plush campaign last year, though, and a playable version of Catastrophe Crow itself is coming to Itch.io at some point, so at least there’s that!)
If you like Catastrophe Crow, by the way, I highly recommend checking out series creator Adam Butcher’s earlier “Internet Story” project. It’s not a series — just a single video — and it’s quite old by internet standards at this point, but it remains one of my favorite pieces of eerie online storytelling.
15. Backrooms (Found Footage)
Status: Ongoing, though sporadic. A feature film is forthcoming.
The Kane Pixels Backrooms (Found Footage) series needs no introduction. If you want to know more about the series, here’s the full timeline as we currently know it. If you want to know about the Backrooms in general, here’s an explainer. If you want to figure out how to no-clip into the Backrooms yourself, don’t do that.
The second to last Backrooms (Found Footage) video we currently have arrived on Kane Parsons’ Kane Pixels YouTube channel on Jan. 30, 2023; a feature film from A24 and Atomic Monster with Parsons himself at the helm was announced just a few days later. Then there was a large, large gap, with the current most recent video — “Backrooms – Found Footage #3” — not debuting until Sept. 13, 2024. However things roll out from here… we’re definitely not done with the Kane Pixels Backrooms universe.
Watch Backrooms (Found Footage) here.
16. WE’LL BE RIGHT BACK
Status: In progress.
Named for the ubiquitous “We’ll be right back!” messages that indicated a commercial break during a particular era of cable television, WE’LL BE RIGHT BACK documents a series of… anomalies appearing in the end credits, between-programming spaces, and on-demand menus of popular children’s television shows and networks. What they all have in common is that they occurred only when transmitted by a specific (fictional) cable provider: TeleBlue.
This series incorporates a lot of familiar stories — ones you’ll certainly know if you’ve been paying attention to creepypasta and other internet-based horror fiction over the past decade and a half or so. Spotting them makes it a fun scavenger hunt of a watch, so if that’s your jam, you’ll probably dig this one.
WE’LL BE RIGHT BACK is also probably the most analog horror-y of the bunch: There’s no narrative, per se, although there is a story. You just have to read between the lines to see it.
Heads up: A lot of the videos have photosensitivity/flashy lights warnings — if these kinds of things affect you, make sure you read the descriptions of each video before you watch.
Watch WE’LL BE RIGHT BACK here.
17. The Walten Files
Status: In progress.
A family restaurant. Eerie animatronics. Strange disappearances. Dark secrets long hidden that might finally be coming to light.
If these themes are among those you’re typically fascinated by, Martin Walls’ series The Walten Files is for you. Centered around a Chuck E. Cheese-like restaurant called Bon’s Burgers, the mysterious tech company CyberFun Tech and its subsidiary, Bunny Smiles Inc., and an awful lot of murder and mayhem, The Walten Files scratches an extremely specific nostalgia-horror itch in an extremely creative fashion.
The Walten Files, you see, isn’t live action. It’s not designed to look like live action, either. It’s animation — and thanks to the fact that it not only doesn’t hide that it’s animation, but revels in it, it’s got a heightened quality that really drives the unsettling nature of the whole thing home.
Initially debuting in 2020, The Walten Files has truly been a labor of love — and sometimes, labors of love take time to do properly. As such, The Walten Files took a lengthy break after the arrival of its first set of videos—but as of February 2024, it’s returned, and the journey, as they say, continues. Who knew that picking through old employee training videos could be so riveting?
18. Rapid Eyes
Status: In progress.
What would you do if you found a program on your computer that you just… couldn’t get rid of? You delete it; it comes back a day later. You wipe your computer and reset it to factory settings; it’s still there when you boot things up again. You do a fresh Windows install; it’s there. You completely reformat your hard drive; it’s… there.
Would you open that program? And if you did — and if you found that it was a game of some sort, something that looks like a first-person walking simulator, perhaps — would you play it?
That’s what happens to the protagonist of Rapid Eyes, and, well… you can probably imagine how well that goes for him.
This one utilizes some familiar scenarios and formats to tell a story that comments on the struggles inherent in creating something — in seeking to create something new, in feeling as if you’re just rehashing what everyone else has already done, in want to make something unique that’s all your own and feeling as if you never have quite what it takes to get there. For me, these themes resonate most strongly with regards to making art and being an artist; they’re definitely applicable in a wide variety of situations, though, so you might get something different out of it.
Rapid Eyes takes a few videos to really get going, but once it starts, it snowballs. Stick with it. It pays off.
19. Basswood County
Status: In progress.
Weird things are happening in Basswood County.
There are… people roaming. People who don’t look like people. Who probably aren’t people. Or, even if they’re people, they’re probably not human.
The residents of the county are having trouble sleeping. The county has an informational video to help those who aren’t sleeping. The county’s informational video is not terribly informative. The county’s informational video wants viewers to LET THEM IN.
Can you spot the people who aren’t people?
Can you sleep?
You might not be able to after watching this analog horror series. The creation of Dark Mind, the Basswood County series is very much in the vein of analog horror icon The Mandela Catalog; it’s got a lot of the same hallmarks, and stylistically, it’s an exemplary series in the genre.
As is typically the case with pure analog horror, narrative is secondary; the story is told through other means. You have to work for it, but honestly, that’ll just make the whole thing stick with you even more. Those images? They have staying power.
Pro tip: Even if you don’t live in Basswood County… well.
You probably shouldn’t LET THEM IN.
No matter what those informational videos tell you.
20. The Oldest View
Status: In progress.
Got an itch for something similar in feel to a Backrooms series, but maybe just a little bit different? Try Kane Parsons’ other series, The Oldest View. It’s not as long as Backrooms (Found Footage), but it involves similar themes and motifs; it features liminal spaces, geography behaving in ways it shouldn’t, and a hapless young cameraperson who bites off a bit more than he can chew when he discovers what looks like a huge suburban shopping mall seemingly buried underground.
It’s melancholy in a way that Backrooms (Found Footage) isn’t, though, so it hits in a very different way.
The Valley View Mall was a real place, by the way; its long and drawn-out demolition was completed in March of 2023. Here’s what it looked like in 2007.
The Rolling Giant was also real; he was a giant puppet modeled after French botanist Julien Reverchon. The puppet was constructed by artist Kevin Obregon, who had a studio in Valley View when it became something of an artists’ haven towards the end of its lifetime.
***
Follow The Ghost In My Machine on Bluesky @GhostMachine13.bsky.social, Twitter @GhostMachine13, and Facebook @TheGhostInMyMachine. And for more games, don’t forget to check out Dangerous Games To Play In The Dark, available now from Chronicle Books!
[Photos via KLAU2018/Pixabay; The West Records, High Strange TV, Fake Documentary “Q,” Petscop, hiimmarymary, indrancole3, JessTheParanoid, TapeWorm, Rapid Eyes, Dark Mind/YouTube]
Source: https://theghostinmymachine.com/2024/10/14/20-found-footage-analog-horror-web-series-to-watch-with-the-lights-off/
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