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It’s Halloween, and YouTube is celebrating what might be the next big era of spooky content with a spotlight on analog horror.

Over the last couple of years, we’ve seen a handful of horror content creators get picked up for major Hollywood studio deals, including analog horror creator Kane Pixels, whose YouTube short films about the backrooms–a liminal space of seemingly endless, empty-yet-claustrophobic rooms with a vaguely corporate vibe–helped solidify the setting as a well-known internet phenomenon.

Kane Pixels is one of thousands of creators producing analog horror–lo-fi short films that usually involve found footage, unsettling audio, glitch imagery, and set dressings like manufactured product commercials and news reports, all used to tell an interconnected narrative that slowly pieces together.

Analog creators’ styles go back to found footage classics like the 1999 film The Blair Witch Project, and though found footage got a bit played out...

I’ve always found it curious how the Found Footage genre’s greatest weakness is also its greatest strength, with the same realistic formatting that allows for deeply immersive thrills also being responsible for the massive sea of low-effort cash-grabs that gives Pov filmmaking a bad name. That’s why it’s so hard for Found Footage flicks to stand out these days, as it can be hard for viewers to justify paying for what will likely be just another Paranormal Activity rip-off.

However, there are some clever filmmakers who have managed to circumvent this issue by making their movies available online for free, trusting that the quality of their work will eventually lead to more lucrative endeavors. And with Curry Barker’s surprisingly effective Milk & Serial going viral on YouTube, we’ve decided to make a list celebrating six other Found Footage flicks that you can check out on YouTube for free!

As I get older, I find it harder and harder to find horror movies from the 80s and even 90s to qualify for a recommendation towards a best horror movie you never saw. First is the influx of all these great companies like Vinegar Syndrome, Arrow, and Severin Films, not to mention Kino and Scream Factory, who pull out all the stops finding the most hidden of hidden gems to clean up and release. Second, we have a ludicrous amount of streaming services, and the free ones typically can find these smaller movies that cost way less to license a streamable version. Between my generation recommending everything under the sun to their coworkers, friends, and family as well as newer generations being willing to stream something if its easy to find, the 80s is well represented, for better and for worse. The 2000s are Chock Full of movies that came...

If you’re reading this, it’s already too late! The game has begun, and now you’re a player…

Don’t Play This Game is a legacy solo tabletop roleplaying game. A mysterious entity curses the player; they must play the game, or else bad things will happen to them. As the game progresses, the entity will select events, like a series of nightmares or an ally going missing. The player will document the events, including what happened, how it makes them feel, and what effects it has on them. But this game goes beyond just journaling. Occasionally, players will be asked to complete specific tasks or create artifacts, including visiting their local library, taking photos of a nearby abandoned building, or even constructing a crude charm!

Once the event is complete, the entity will select another and another as the story unfolds until the player finally breaks free or loses.

The gaming community is one of the most vocal niches of the internet, so it makes sense that when a certain online trend is born, gamers are usually the first to interact with it. That’s why nearly every internet legend has its own videogame adaptation, with developers taking inspiration from bizarre creepypastas like The Backrooms and Sirenhead years ahead of Hollywood studios and network television.

Of course, the most famous of these internet-derived horror experiences is likely Mark J. Hadley’s freeware hit, Slender: The Eight Pages, a title that took the indie gaming scene by storm back in 2012. Adapting Victor Surge’s faceless creation into a Found-Footage-inspired gauntlet of lo-fi hide-and-seek, this short but sweet romp through spooky woods became infamous once online influencers began to challenge each other to endure these scares in exaggerated Let’s Play videos. At one point, Slender’s official website even crashed due to excessive downloads,...

Checking my YouTube feed this morning, I discovered Epic Pictures uploaded an eleven episode Japanese/English web series. Episodes vary in length, not unlike Marble Hornets, and are super creepy found-footage shorts. They’re directed by Victor Mathieu, and it looks to be promotional work or a prequel for the August 18th release of The Monster Project, which is Mathieu’s. Check out the first one, posted below!

Also check out the trailer for The Monster Project while you’re at it!

Author: Jon Lyus

It’s a choice day for fans of the Slender Man character. It been revealed that the long awaited documentary Beware the Slenderman will finally air on HBO on the 23rd of January, following its debut at 2016’s SXSW. Also Sony have picked director Sylvain White to direct their big screen horrorshow featuring the internet-famous ghoul.

White has been directing TV shows since his 2010 adaptation of Andy Diggle’s The Losers and a full on horror movie sees White return to the heady days of I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer from 2006. The character of Slender Man has already featured in numerous low-to-no budget films, the best of which are to be found in the 87 part web series Marble Hornets as well as the ongoing Everyman Hybrid and Tribe Twelve. The interest surrounding Marble Hornets gave rise to Always Watching, one of the most hyped Slender Man centric films.

Sarah Dobbs Oct 13, 2016

A selection of horror shorts and creepy web series to get you in the Halloween mood, wherever you are…

In need of some seasonal creepiness but haven’t got time for a whole movie? Looking for something to watch on your lunch break, or on your phone on the bus home from work? You’ll find just the thing on this list of horror shorts and web series, available on YouTube now…

He Dies At The End

The title’s kind of a spoiler here. But it’s also a clever hook, because it means you spend the entire four minutes and 29 seconds wondering how, exactly, he’s going to die. The 'he' here is an office worker, tapping away at his computer after hours, apparently alone - until someone starts asking him creepy questions via his computer screen.

It’s deceptively simple (after all, it’s...

Let’s talk about Marble Hornets for a second. I wasn’t sure whether to emphasize the name of a YouTube channel, since it’s not really a movie as we traditionally consider one, but Marble Hornets was/is a descendant of The Blair Witch Project (see, the title wasn’t Totally clickbait) and, as such, deserves to be recognized as a film of sorts. It’s not only one of the early examples of found footage horror but also an early example of Internet viral horror. These hoaxes come along every once and a while and sometimes they’re interesting. In the case of Marble Hornets, what was most interesting was the level of dedication the creators had to establishing the eerie sense of actuality; there’s so much video content and raw information within Marble Hornets that it’s hard to tell even after seeing the first elements...

If you're looking for some horror gaming thrills/chills this Halloween season on your Wii U, then you're in luck, as Blue Isle Studios have announced they're porting Slender: The Arrival over to the Nintendo console, and it'll be available just before the holiday.

If you never got the chance to play Slender: The Arrival, a horror game based on the Slender Man myth/story, and have a Wii U, your chance to pick it up is coming on October 22nd. While the game initially debuted on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, Wii U owners are now finally getting the opportunity to play through it, with some tweaked controls to account for the system:

As people around the world gear up for Halloween, Wii U gamers are in for a terrifying treat as Blue Isle Studios announced today that its survival horror game Slender: The Arrival is launching for the...

Im still waiting for a genuinely awesome Slenderman film. Hope was high for The Slender Man but that was one of the messiest found footage films ever released (seriously avoid it at all costs) and completely unenjoyable. I had even greater hopes for Always Watching A Marble Hornets Story. Being a big fan of Chris Marquette instilled some measure of false belief in the project. Chris couldnt save it as awesome as he may be. The wait for a terrific Slenderman picture will continue on because we didnt get it from Always Watching. Tough break.

by Seth Metoyer

MoreHorror.com

I'm a sucker for killer looking key art. I'm digging on the cover art for the upcoming horror film Always Watching: A Marble Hornets Story.

You can see a larger version of the poster art below the official details. Also, check out the trailer while you're at it. The film releases on VOD and in select theaters on May 15th.

From The Press Release:

Always Watching: A Marble Hornets Story is a full movie continuation of the Marble Hornets YouTube series - a horror story chronicling the strange events and occurrences of a group of high school friends through about 100 entries over the course of 5 years.

The last entry for the series was 9 months ago, so it's about time for an update, right? With 80 million YouTube views and over 408k+ subscribers the cult-like following agrees.

Check out the trailer below. Actors include some familiar faces - Jake McDorman (Greek,...

Marble Hornets is a web series created by Joseph DeLage and Troy Magner that debuted in 2009 and quickly created a solid fan base through 87 episodes. It revolves around a young man Tim who discovers the tapes his friend Alex gave to him shortly before disappearing. Alex was in the woods filming a movie called Marble Hornets, which in the process changed his personality, made him paranoid, despondent, and eventually crazy. As Tim delves into the recordings and begins to notice distortion or absence of sound and video, it becomes increasingly more apparent that a supernatural power known as The Operator (aka Slender Man) is behind it. The series is a slow burn for sure, but that makes the scares all the more impacting. Marble Hornets is everything “found footage” should be — slow paced, immersive, engrossing, and terrifying. This is why the film “adaptation” is so very disappointing.

Watch the Marble Hornets YouTube series Here.

Slender The Arrival the official Slender Man game was written by the creative team behind Marble Hornets. The story centers on an unwitting participant in the Slender Man mythos whom walks into a mystery that just keeps pulling her in deeper. Lauren a Realtor helping a friend sell her property arrives at Kates home just to find a cryptic note and an empty house. Powering up her camcorder Lauren takes off in search of Kate but unbeknownst to her something ancient dark and otherworldly is stalking her every step of the way...

There’s a general misconception among casual horror fans that any flick produced by a fellow fan, or amateur, isn’t worth the time it takes to type in w-w-w-.-y-o-u-t-u-b-e-.-c-o-m.

Bona fide horror hounds have been tuned in to these inspired projects for years, understanding and respecting the effort devoted to a genuine passion piece. The detractors tend (this isn’t a rule carved in stone, mind you) to be the guys and gals who catch a macabre flick once every week or so, wiling to confess their affinity for the genre, but perhaps not devoted enough to qualify as a certified freak for terror, who haven’t taken the time to study these ambitious pictures.

The truth is, anyone who can openly acknowledge their love for horror can potentially find some brilliant fan productions, regardless of how dedicated one may or may not be. Sometimes fans just...

Majesco Entertainment – publisher of Zumba Fitness and the downloadable heist-hit Monaco: What’s Yours Is Mine – has announced the birth of Midnight City, their new label dedicated to indie gaming.

Two veterans of the game industry will be in charge of the division. Former editor-in-chief of IGN, Casey Lynch, will head up the new label alongside Doug Kennedy, the ex-president and CEO of Reverb Publishing. According to today’s press release, the team’s goal is to provide “customized publishing services, including public relations, marketing, and community content” for indie games that are in need of such things.

The following nine titles, designed by nine different developers, have already signed on with Midnight City. Each game will be making appearances at this weekend’s Pax Prime convention in Seattle:

“Videoball (Action Button Entertainment) – Videoball is an electronic sport game that features the best of basketball, soccer, football, old-fashioned shooters, first-person shooters,...

YouTube and the internet as a whole has served as an outlet for young filmmakers to get their ideas seen by viewers ranging from the hundreds to the millions. Studios have taken notice of this over the years and have employed the talents of these aspiring filmmakers to tackle bigger projects. I personally find it to be a fantastic time to be living as a struggling filmmaker and it gives me hope that a larger audience may see the likes of me someday as well; hopefully I will be able to relay more info on what I’m cooking up in the near future. The web series Marble Hornets has been seen by more than 55 million views over the course of 67 episodes. Utilizing the style of found footage, the story revolves around Jay and his friend Alex who mysteriously disappeared while he was working on a student film. Each video is known as an “entry,...

As far as types of entertainment go, web series are generally the most solid and well-crafted of the bunch, perhaps just ahead of marionettes. But despite dedicated fanbases who understand how a web series can give fans of any genre exactly what they.re looking for, a lot of these shows don.t make it into conversations or catch the public.s attention as a whole. But exceptions are happening all the time, as they.re slowly becoming .the next big thing to adapt for TV and film." Comedy film production company Mosaic Media Group will wading into unfamiliar waters, Variety reports, as they.ll be bringing the YouTube horror series Marble Hornets to theaters. Marble Hornets was created by Troy Wagner and Joseph Delage in 2009, and has spooked its more than 250,000 subscriber fanbase as well as other viewers with 65 episodes that have accumulated over 55 million video views. So at...

"Slender: The Eight Pages," the experimental horror game from indie designer Mark Hadley, has gone through something of a reimagining as they say at Blue Isle Entertainment.

This official followup is coming to the PC in March, and if you preorder it, you'll get instant Beta access to the game.

Promising an all-new storyline and improved visuals, "The Arrival" is a full-on continuation of the first game with the writers of Marble Hornets onboard providing the script. The game (and its predecessor) are all about that tight-chested feeling of being lost in the wilderness with the certain feeling that something is after you, a deliberate horror title about the mood and texture of being afraid rather than the immediacy of the jump scare.

"Slender: The Arrival" will be out on the PC and Mac on March 26, and you can head over to the game's preorder page to get it for...

Slender: The Arrival is something that you should have on your radar, if you don’t already. It’s the follow-up to Mark Hadley’s indie hit The Eight Pages, and it’s being developed by Blue Isle Studios with help from Mark Hadley and the team behind the amazing Marble Hornets web series. It looks like Slenderman won’t [...]...

“The medium is the message”- Marshall McLuhan

Recently, I have fallen into a bit of a Slenderman groove. I am sure this will be met with a lot of eyerolling because I am about four years late to this party but as a creation, Slenderman is a fascinating phenomenon.

Despite being visually creepy, Slenderman highlights the strength and weaknesses of the Internet simultaneously. In fact, I think Slenderman is a subversive masterpiece in terms of monster creation. Of course when Victor Surge first created him, he was just a creepy picture with minimal back story. Now he is a cultural phenomenon and terrorises the dreams and thoughts of many. What makes Slenderman a fascinating study is that he is the the personification of how modern myths work. At the core of Slenderman, most of us know he is created. You can trace back his history to specific posts and websites.