Aiden Fung Photo Editor

TW: Mentions of Suicide 

During the pandemic, I often used YouTube to watch my favourite content creators play video games or follow computer-building tutorials. I was never a big fan of horror, so when I found the YouTube channel LOCAL58TV, I was puzzled as to why the algorithm thought a foreign news station belonged on my feed. Out of curiosity, I clicked on a video titled “LOCAL58TV – Weather Service.” It began as a standard news broadcast, abruptly interrupted by an Emergency Alert System (EAS) message warning viewers not to look at a meteorological event with the naked eye. Moments later, the transmission was hijacked, urging viewers to ignore the warning and “look at the moon.” This two-minute and thirty-three-second video left me deeply unsettled. The hiss of the VHS tape, the low-resolution video artifacts, the sharp-pitched EAS siren, and the contradictory messages from a trusted authority figure hijacked my sense of nostalgia and trust—using it to fuel my fear of uncertainty and the unknown. It was then that I discovered a new form of content: analog horror. 

What makes these videos so disturbing is their convincing, authoritative realism. One of my favourite entries in the Local 58 series is “Contingency,” the second episode of Season 1. Once again, the broadcast appears hijacked, this time to air a government emergency warning “to be used only in the event of the United States’ complete surrender to insurmountable enemy forces.” The message instructs citizens to surrender and lie on their backs in a “victory position” before committing suicide. Although the broadcast later claims the message was a hoax, the final title card interrupts to order the station to say it was a hoax—implying the message might be real after all. Every detail in this footage contributes to a feeling of hopelessness and confusion. The message takes advantage of blind patriotism, expecting the utmost loyalty from its people. It leaves viewers wondering: What is the government hiding? Why would it order its citizens to give up? And what exactly is this “insurmountable force”?  

I think analog horror is an especially effective medium for creating fear. It suspends the viewer’s disbelief and instills dread without relying on cheap jump scares or sudden noises. Instead, it brews an unsettling feeling, breaking the norm of scheduled programming to warn us against insidious threats—all while citing institutional protocols that never quite explain the reasons for these sudden alerts. If you’re looking for something spooky this Halloween season, grab your laptop and put on some Local 58.