As my interest in understanding how people are creating transmedia bodies of work, I stumbled on Kris Straub‘s Local58 series of ‘nostalgia horror’. I’ve watched a few others in the nostalgia horror genre but Local58 has stuck with me. There is a sense of dread and fear from elements in the grainy ‘found footage’ videos. The emergency broadcast audio clip disturbs me the most. That sound instills a sense of alertness, anxiety, and fear in me. Generally, it’s only used when you know something bad is about to happen. Usually a severe weather event, but you never know, do you, when worse is around the corner.
Don’t Look at the Moon
The moon series undeniably unsettled me for nights after I first saw it. I like how the moon plays a part in the first cartoon style clip, Cadavre, and carries on as a main element in succeeding videos. I now wake up often in the middle of the night with Local58 in my head at 2am. Don’t look at the moon!
The Local58 videos are part of a world-building universe set in rural West Virginia. Ichor Falls and Broodhollow are two fictional towns brought to life through different mediums. The Ichor Falls website lore and Broodhollow, a comic book adventure. The Ichor Falls website is where you’ll find the unsettling Candle Cove message board. The posts are a seemingly nostalgic thread about a kid’s TV show from the past. However, the horror becomes apparent in just 18 short posts. Candle Cove was adapted by the SyFy channel into a series.
Popular Transmedia Influences
Other popular transmedia influences from shows that I love like Mr Robot and Westworld have inspired my own transmedia journey. The creators of Mr Robot produced websites for the series (a list can be found here) and Elliot’s ‘found’ journal from season 2. This deepens the fan experience.
Westworld also delves into transmedia as a form of marketing. The creators even ran a session on it at SXSW detailed in Kyle Koniewicz’s Medium article.
Although I am drawn in by transmedia world-building, I’m not sure how I feel about it used as a mass marketing machine as opposed to the organic work of Straub. It’s an interesting journey to discover which bodies of work expand further than their original medium, either through pure artistic endeavor or as a means to create interest and give fans a deeper experience.