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Arguably one of the most artistic and horrifying forms of the horror genre under so many different names, “Analog Horror”, “Unfiction”, “Alternate Reality Games”, regardless of what you call it, it’s on the rise with the expansion of the internet and has introduced some of the most interesting stories across a multitude of different media. From haunted video games, disturbing news broadcasts, even parallel universe Twitter accounts, any and all terrifying tales can come from any and all corners of the internet, and today we’ll dive deep into the iceberg of ARGs.

It’s pitch black out, but it’s definitely supposed to be morning, and the only light outside is from riot fires. “The Sun Vanished” is a Twitter account created by Aidan Elliott that explores a world without the sun, and the nightmare of life that follows. There’s no stars in the sky either, water is black and making people hallucinate, and it becomes clear quickly that the sun isn’t gone, it’s being covered. Drones with flashing lights pursue our protagonist as the world only seems to get darker and darker as the “days” go by.

Released in 2015, “Local 58” is a YouTube horror anthology webseries created by Kris Straub, a collection of news broadcasts and other late night programmings, all with a disturbing twist on them. U.S. Government messages ordering viewers to end their lives in the case of surrender to an external force, dashcam video of creatures attacking lured victims, and footage of a flesh-exposed Moon while hundreds scream below the night sky. Local 58 gives us a glimpse into a world where when Apollo 11 touched down, we woke up the “51st State”, and now the eldritch beast inside is angry.

“Petscop” is a pseudo-game released for the Playstation One, except there’s no chance you’ve ever played it. First appearing as a Pokémon-like monster collecting game with straightforward gameplay and poor graphics, things take a turn for the worse when our protagonist Paul descends into “The Newmaker Plane”, a dark, enigmatic and muddy hellscape of crying, abandoned children, a mangled murder mystery and overall haunted gameplay. It comes without surprise that the game isn’t actually real, but that doesn’t take away from Tony Domenico’s insane and quite depressing story.

With the 2018 new year came a little YouTube channel by the name of “This Room Does Not Exist”, created by a team of young filmmakers at Lexel Studios. Following two film students named Ryan and Abigail, the pair gets caught up with Deep Sleep Enterprises, a company offering the public the chance to escape into a virtual reality and enter “The Interior.” But when the foundation of the system begins to crumble, it exposes the true horror of this techno-dystopian nightmare, all conveyed through stunning editing and visual effects, mind-bending scenes and concepts, and a rich cast of talented kids which really goes to show how incredible these little projects can be.

There’s a party and you’re not invited, but maybe that’s best for you. “This House Has People In It” is an Adult Swim short film created by Alan Resnick following a family celebrating their son’s birthday, told through the house’s CCTV. Straight into it, something is clearly off, everything seems too normal, well… until it’s not. When the daughter starts sinking through the floor, mysterious entities appear around the house and the father becomes religiously unhinged, the home devolves into chaos. Constantly keeping its viewers uncomfortable and disturbed, “This House Has People In It” is an incredibly cryptic addition to Resnick’s portfolio of weird, and leaves you head-numbingly confused as you try to grasp at any small clues.

For the past 14 years, the internet has been host to the most extensive and rich collaborative writing project known to mankind: “The SCP Foundation”, a fictional international secret organization built to secure, contain and protect thousands of anomalous objects, creatures and phenomena from the Earth. Some of the hundreds held under Foundation security include a neck-snapping statue, an indestructible angry lizard, a literal living room, a happy mass of orange goo, a vending machine with any and all kinds of liquids, insectoid buses, moving graffiti, a calculator that makes you choke yourself, and unknowable object, the allusive “SCP-001” and all kinds of terrifying and fascinating anomalies carefully created by hundreds of horror, science fiction and urban fantasy writers. It’s funny just how easy it is to get lost in the annals of the Foundation, and there surely is something there for anybody.