Whenever I see/hear audio like the "mimic" of someone crying for help, I'm always reminded of film classes where you have to call local authorities and warn any possible neighbors "hey we're going to be screaming and covered in blood it's art so it's ok please don't come here"
Just what I thought as soon as I realised it was an actor, like what are the logistics of that? Imagine getting notified of it, then hearing it later and having to assure yourself that it's just art going on.
As a Minnesotan, I thought it was weird after I saw this that other people have never seen a woodcrawler. Whenever we had Thanksgiving we have to do a regular check to make sure Grandma is still Grandma.
Truly one of the, if not the most, authentic analog horror out there next to Local58. I owe so much to Remy, if it weren't for Gemini and Walten Files I wouldn't have ever started Mandela Catalogue
nobody knows how badly i want to put all these videos onto a VHS & donate them to a charity shop or thrift store in hopes someone will stumble across them one day and be freaked out beyond belief lmao
I really love how in gemini, the giants are protecting the earth, just like in real life. Jupiter and Saturn have a magnetic field strong enough to where it shifts asteroids that would normally be heading straight for earth away. In Gemini, it somehow weakens Iris to where it cant destroy the Earth until it deals with the Giants. Our Celestial Siblings need more credit tbh.
Saturn being the gateway makes a ton of sense, he was one loyal bro. Even our friend Jupiter once tried to eat us all during the formation of the solar system. Most star systems in the galaxy don't have a Saturn to pull back the gas giant from eating/ejecting everything in the inner system. Saturn's a real one.
and they've got battle scars as well. Saturn being the gateway probably means it has traded blows with the iris to stop it from advancing and jupiter definitely has gotten a hit with its great red spot being called an open wound
i honestly think gemini home entertainment and local 58 are the two best examples of analog horror there is to offer right now- both of them get the authenticity of the time period down to a tee
The blatant anachronisms of some attempts at analog horror really kill them for me. Shit like "No Players Online" that features a....magnetic tape-based first-person-shooter video game in 1986. Creators that pay close attention and attempt some verisimilitude deserve a lot of appreciation
An understated element and something I think defines the genre of analog horror is immersion, which I think Gemini and Local 58 get down really well. You feel like you're watching a tape or broadcast on your own TV late at night. Walten Files, for example, struggles to keep that immersion however makes up for it with Martin's amazing art style, while Mandela Cat. boosts it's immersion value by having it's primary setting in something we're all familiar with: a dark household at night.
what I love is that the cameraman isn’t a fucking idiot, he actually runs from the wood crawlers, prioritizes his live over the footage, etc. the smaller details really make the series
@@andromedabloom3277 bro what else are you supposed to do in that situation You are faced with a beast you know nothing of or what it is, the most common response in your brain would say "run" fight is not an option here facing a creature you've never seen or know anything of. The camera man is doing what you would've done anyways, like seriously tell me what you would've done seeing that creature.
There is a certain satisfaction to how this series doesn't flash shocking images or burst loud noises at you suddenly, but instead presents all of its horrific imagery slowly, dimly, and in near dead silence, only amplifying the sound in a gradual crescendo to build up the dread. It's a much more personal type of horror that makes you internalize the haunting reality of the scene for yourself. Just the fact that Woodcrawlers make no noise at all is such a good detail that sets this up from the very beginning.
I think theres just something so unsettling in general about anything that would normally be so scary and terrifying as something normal and nothing to be afraid of
For this series, my favorite human has to be Jack. I love how, despite him never saying a single word for the entire series, I grew attached to him. He was the only human we'd seen record Woodcrawlers and Fake People, even getting a shot of the newly mutated Mary. He'd survived so many horrific attacks because, well, he's human. He prioritized his own life over others, seen when Mary "went down the stream" and in World's Weirdest Animals where, when the Fake Person rushes him down, he doesn't stand there and record it brutally converting or killing him. He turns and runs, not bothering to get a good shot. He advises on what to do to the best of one man's ability. He truly was one of the bravest analog horror protagonists I've ever known.
I mean, he's literally one of like what, 3-4 people that are mentioned more than twice? And 99% of focus on humans in general is on him so it's not that hard to chose a favorite....
Honestly, it's just hilarious to think that the Woodcrawlers make VHS tapes for _each other_ and include such reassuring messages as "I know breaking into human homes to steal their skin can be stressful, but we're gonna get through it!"
It's worth noting that the game "sardines" in Games For Children is similar to the instruction to hide in the bunkers. We know, from Lethal Omen, that bunkers don't actually stop anything. And people crammed inside a bunker would be exactly like sardines packed into a tin can, waiting to be eaten.
I’m not sure. Harbinge technologies seems to be trying to help, as shown with the Iris saying it guards in vain. Maybe they thought the bunker would help?
I have to say this is one of the more disturbing theory's I've heard, while probably not intentional like @Terra Marzec stated. The idea of the 'Games for Children' video trying to pack children and adults into bunkers to be eaten is creepy on it's own.
I started to think, the knock sounds realistic. Its very loud, yet gentle. Almost like the large creature is trying its hardest to knock as normally as it can but the knock is too loud due to its size.
The “Do not answer the knocking at the door” gives the same feeling as “Close your eyes when you are *sure* that the Man in the corner is in-fact, inches away from your face.”
One thing I wanna point out is that when you do the final ending of the game after “sacrificing” yourself the next time you gain control of you character your foot steps are silent. Like how the guide referred to the wood crawlers as being “almost silent”
Did also notice another part of that ending, the last "GAME OVER" screen of the Earth has The Iris behind it, which you only really notice during the fadeout.
I don't think the video was actually meant to tell the aliens how to invade, rather psychological warfare against people (which is what optica video seems to do.) In line with what the iris "said" while communicating with regand computing, these videos are planting the seeds of futility and inferiority in the heads of viewers.
Halfway through the video, I thought it was an occult or religious group of people who was behind Gemini Entertainment. I thought to myself these guys are batshit crazy, and I found it very disturbing. A sigh of relief reading through the comment section finding out it's just a horror/fantasy experience made by a young guy. Well done, he definitely got me
@@MrTelorix hahaha! ARGs have a very effective way of convincing you that it's real! But that's part of the fun, keeping up the illusion that's it's real!
@@drawnwithlove3499 Similar to how the stockmarket works. trying to keep the illusion that its real. But yeah this is a real good one. i listen to it sometimes just for the mood it sets.
I love how the wood crawlers are portrayed as being able to experience nervousness and stress. It makes them feel... "human". Do animals find US scary the way we find aliens scary?
More than you can imagine..... the scent senses of the dog can smell a human who is thinking about violence by smelling the pheromones that are emitted as the brain sends signals to the body right before the human can act.....
This!!! I love outer space and it’s like a comfort topic for me to learn and talk about, and when I first saw Neptune being mutated I was like “oh shit” and it made me shiver
I'd be more spooked by a whole planet disappearing, as by the time of the Crusader 5 mission, Neptune's beat it from our solar system/absorbed by the Iris
During the “fake” help screams, I noted something that many aren’t touching on. Perhaps there are 2 options happening here. 1. The idea many have, Natures Mockery is forcing them to scream in order to bait other humans, or 2. Natures Mockery leaves the victim conscious, and *allows* the victim to scream, not forcing them. Perhaps the screams are not fake, but people pleading for help that won’t, or rather, can’t, come.
Omg that second one is so horrifying but is a really cool theory to ponder about?! The possibility that the person is actually still alive and really is calling for help but Natures Mockery is intelligent enough to use that to its benefit.
I think people are way over thinking this name. "Nature's Mockery" is probably just *literal* . It's a force of nature that audibly mocks humanity with itself.
I was thinking this too. Later in the video I thought it could be that they are partially taken over and screaming, while their conscience is still somewhat there.
I like the detail that the Iris targetted a few planets before turning its attention to Earth. Makes us feel a lot less important to it, which is good for the sense of our insignificance so vital to cosmic horror.
I like to think that it was always after us, all the planets (and moons) affected were side effects but specifically neptune and uranus were just preparations to start the invasions on earth (edit-) because, if I remember correctly, in the solar system video, Neptune beams something over to earth. That gave me the idea that it's using Neptune as a breeding ground and then sending them (woodcrawlers, gardeners, so on) over to Earth.
i think someone else’s comment summed it up best - the other planets protect us somehow, and iris had to deal with “the giants” before it could target earth, soooo no.. we were the target. it jus couldn’t get to us :)
with how the woodcrawlers and all of that functions, there was no need to target the other planets, they were more or less obstacles protecting us from the iris which is shown with how battle scared they look and how the red dot on jupiter is described as an open wound
I love that cosmic horror is getting more recognition. To consider that things we simply cannot comprehend are malicious towards us, is incredibly scary.
This is why i love Silent Hill, because it manifests your fears, and things you can’t comprehend by yourself especially when the world starts shifting.
The only thing that bothers me about the genre is it's entire point - there's nothing to be done and nothing to be learned. It's just letting your imagination run wild, which is fine, but going into a story knowing you'll go nowhere is holding the medium back alot imo. Cause the creativity it took to tell a story like this is honestly nothing short of brilliant.
@@joshshrum2764 Silent hill is Psychological horror, where the focus is on the individual and it's personal struggles. The protagonist is expected to overcome it (Good ending) or at the very least have had a chance to overcome it but failed for some reason (Sad Ending). The genre of Cosmic/Lovecraftian horror is very different, where the focus is on the hopelessness of the situation, where the situation itself is even hard to comprehend. The protagonist has no expectation of beating the villians or understanding them, instead we follow the progression of how the protagonist handles its despair as the plot turns from dire to hopeless.
@@therealostrich836 Yearh I was never fitting everything into a few sentences describing the genre, but thanks for expanding. There's still more but we could one-up each other forever.
@@therealostrich836 oh yeah definitely! While we see it as malicious bc it ultimately brings us harm, most of the time it doesnt hate or have anything personal against us at all. We're just the means to an end, like the relationship between a host and a deadly parasite.
A catch-22 isn't a dilemma or difficult decision, it's from the book Catch-22 where not wanting to be in combat was a sign of being rational, so if someone is crazy they need to be grounded, but to be grounded they have to ask for it, which is a sign of being rational so they can't be grounded. So it's a paradoxical situation where there is no way to get the desired outcome.
If you wanted to stretch it you could argue that needing to know someone is not a fake person in order to try to save them but needing to try to save them in order to find out is kinda like that, but the way that idea was structured in the video does hurt this argument and I agree with you that the usage was inappropriate
One of my favourite books :) the term gets misused a lot, and I can see why, it's pretty tricky. 'There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle. "That's some catch, that Catch-22," he observed. "It's the best there is," Doc Daneeka agreed.”
What i like the most about the Games for Kids one is that the final "FOUND YOU!" where it points at earth, it feels like the Iris is MOCKING us. It adds a whole other layer to that dread you feel when watching it. There is no fighting, and the Iris knows it. And that "FOUND YOU" is just salting our wound.
We know how easily it can consume the planet based on seeing what it did to Neptune and the moons of Jupiter and Uranus. The Iris has probably been floating around the stars for millions of years, going through the boring routine of consuming dead planets-until it stumbles upon one with life, and thinks, "FINALLY! SOME ENTERTAINMENT!" It hasn't been able to play with its food for a very long time, so it wants to savor this opportunity.
The fact that the bear skinwalker was eyeing and scouting the boys cabin meant that the woodcrawlers were about to break the deal anyways, they won’t settle with the dwindling wildlife livestock, they want the humans.
I doubt it was an actual skinwalker, not the Native American type one. Remember in the wilderness survival guide video, with the bear suddenly sprouting woodcrawler appendages? Woodcrawlers and skinwalkers act very similarly to each other. They can both take the forms of humans and animals, so humans just call them skinwalkers because that’s the closest thing. They don’t understand that it isn’t a spirit, but an alien controlling the animals. Anyways yes you’re right, although I believe they weren’t sacrificing animals prior to this. The lights in the Sky event was most likely a front for the mass murder of campgoers coming to the event. No wonder they didn’t want to do it anymore.
@@lion6379 I’m not sure. If the lights in the Sky event was actually a coverup for the harvest of humans, why would the Iris or statue be dissatisfied?
@@lukethelegend9705 lol did you not watch the video, I said skinwalker for the context of the story, the campers thought they were skinwalkers when in actuality they are woodcrawlers which is why I mention the woodcrawlers in the first place.
@@lukethelegend9705 the only person that knows about woodcrawlers are jack dean after the woodcrawlers slaughter the main members of the camp, at that point since jack is the only one to survive not only his sisters transformation but the invasion, he knows about the truth of the so called skinwalkers, that they’re alien.
10:34 “When faced with an outsider that is not one of their kind, they attack them. They’re an absurd imitation of the human form.” Uh, actually, that’s pretty common human behavior.
"oh yeah, and Neptune is fucking missing" had me cackling, such a good comedic break in the tenseness of watching these sorts of videos, can't wait to see what comes next! edit: time stamp is 2:08:04
I keep finding myself in this strange position where i am stupidly easy to scare, and i dont like horror in general, but at the same time i keep watching these ready to yeet my phone or headset across the room at any point. All because of the mind-boggling levels of quality.
I really love how during the “ad break” at 1:08:57 you weren’t trying to sell any merch or beg for likes, it was just a funny dad joke to try to connect with the audience. This is why I watch your channel, Nexpo. You quite obviously put so much work into these videos and still have the energy to be a genuinely awesome guy to your viewers. Thank you.
I adore gemini, mainly because my initial experience was probably Exactly what Remy was dreaming of; I stumbled on it while messing around at school, because some of the videos got past the wifi restrictions, and was looking for something vaguely pbs so i had an excuse. imagine the surprise when woodcrawlers showed up. hats off to Remy for the stunning production, and you, Nexpo, for getting even more eyes on the series
As someone born in 1979, I lived every minute of this analog era. Tapes really were edited and voiced this way... There's an odd nostalgia in the production value that is inherently creepy and I can't really explain.
I just realized, this series holds so many similarities to Lovecraft's "Whisperer in Darkness." An fungoid alien race from a planet near Neptune which takes over the bodies of their victims, on both cases "fake people" are the result, and they go about seeking more victims and spreading the alien propaganda. I dont know if it was intentional, but it sounds like it must have taken inspiration. The whole thing is seriously Lovecraftian
It's been a long ass time (+10 years) since I've read that story, but if my memory doesn't fail me, the creatures there werent evil, they kinda were indifferent to humanity and only attacked people that got too close
the most effective moments for me are the candid shots of woodcrawlers "practicing" their behaviour. the clip of one just standing motionless while screaming for help so emphatically really strikes something visceral deep down
@bradley brown The footage of the woodcrawler yelling for help is captured at night and you can’t see his face that well. So there’d be no reason to worry about what his face looked like for the actor. Theoretically however I’d assume that’s how it would look, the woodcrawler would have a straight calm face but be screaming bloody murder. The woodcrawler also does an occasionally twitch and doesn’t walk like a normal human and instead kind of hobbles like a zombie.
@@polkanietzsche5016 Screen readers, or text-to-speech devices, aswell as keyboards and audio-to-text transcription tools are built into most smart devices nowadays. Both Apple, be it Mac or iOS, and Windows, since like, 3.8, have both tools built in. Google and Android as a whole have also added the same features to their own products and lines
It's so refreshing to experience a horror series that treats It's audience as intelligent individuals. It doesn't over-explain, it doesn't have flashy displays, even though it's still visually impressive, and on top of that is really well told. Now I just wish I could put all the pieces together.
@@potatoeskimos I don't think it's complicated. The story itself, while being sprinkled out throughout these uploads, is told clearly. There are the community posts, where some decently important information is, but with the audience of Gemini consisting of people who are used to way more hidden information in much more unlikely places in other horror series, it isn't that bad. The story itself isn't complicated either. There's a big space eye. It put spooky guys and plants and disease on planet. Takes over planet. Of course, maybe the way it's told isn't clear enough. If you want to get really specific, you have to dig deeper. But, again, you don't have to dig deep. The only time the series goes off youtube is with the video game, and the secrets there only referenced future uploads, so if you didn't play the game, you still got the info later on. I don't think it's trying "so hard" to be subtle. Especially about the woodcrawlers. They made it pretty clear where they came from (space) and what their goals are (to take over humanity.) enjoy the paragraph
timestamps for my own future reference (and anyone else who happens to see this): 0:00 Intro 4:33 Tape One - World’s Weirdest Animals 11:03 Tape Two - Storm Safety Tips 15:45 Tape Three - Deep Blue 19:08 Tape Four - Artificial Computer Learning 26:34 Tape Five - Our Solar System 30:58 Tape Six - Camp Information Video 36:55 Tape Seven - Wilderness Survival Guide 44:08 Tape Eight - Lethal Omen 50:37 Diving Into Lethal Omen 1:08:50 Save Point A 1:15:15 Tape Nine - Sleep Image Visualizer 1:22:23 Tape Ten - Games For Kids 1:30:27 Tape Eleven - Advanced Mining Vehicle 1:36:05 Tape Twelve - Deep Root Disease 1:42:42 Tape Thirteen - Monthly Progress Report 1:51:49 Tape Fourteen - Christmas Eve Party! 1:56:40 Tape Fifteen - Home Invasion 2:04:52 Tape Sixteen - Crusader Probe Mission 2:13:54 Save Point B 2:14:58 Decoding Gemini Home Entertainment 2:23:40 Arc (?) 2:30:27 Closing Remarks hope this helps someone!
Also, Harbinge's logo looks like a stylized American flag, flying upside down. An upside-down national flag being flown or displayed generally means "Ship in distress" or "Crew in distress, please help"
FYO this applies mostly to the USA, as a big chunk of flags are vertically symmetrical or close to it. Other methods include tying a knot in your flag, and flying other things than a flag
Whats interesting to me is that Gemini's logo appears to be Neptune itself, including the spot that it beams the storms or whatever from, and Gemini as a constellation is about a pair of twins. Maybe Jack and Mary were twins instead of a couple? I dont know, but I reckon theres more to be unpacked with Gemini itself
Since Gemini seems to be impartial to the whole Iris thing I'm thinking maybe Neptune is sentient just like the Iris but not necessarily a force of evil, perhaps it's dissapeared to avoid being detected by the Iris and is somehow trying to spread awareness about it to earth before it's too late.
1:25:01 I find this especially interesting because a dead body breaking down in the woods is sometimes called 'feeding the woods'. Basically by decomposing in the open, whoever died is feeding the animals and plants in the forest ecosystem. I mean obviously the game here is feeding the kids to some monster, but I still find it an interesting parallel and wonder if it was intentional.
Wouldn't be surprised at all if that saying is what inspired the idea for that. Often times it's great to take a popular saying and take it in a more morbid or literal sense.
It's a real shame that Shifting Tendons wasn't released prior to the video. It gives some frightening insight into the process of how Deep Root Disease progresses. I also find it weird how the Deep Blue video is no longer available on GHE's channel, but I'm sure there's a good reason for it.
@@admiralstone2456aw man, that makes sense but i really liked the thing abt the demisia tunnel n stuff, the whole “Nothing Can Live In The Marianas Trench.” thing was rlly spooky to me… understandable tho since it does seem rather disconnected from everything else
1:59:30 The term "proboscis" usually refers to an animal's elongated sucking organ, such as a mosquito's stinger. Woodcrawler doesn't enter a human through its proboscis, we don't have one of those. Instead, the tape instructs woodcrawlers to use their proboscis to enter the human.
Look into a weird creature called a Vrill. It has a proboscis on its head that it uses to go into a human eye. Once it goes into a human eye it can take the brain over, and control the human. It sounds bizarre I know. This explains the black eye club amongst the elite.
i found out through BtS that the scene is edited with masking and keyframing of IMAGES, props to remy for tricking 90% of us into thinking it was cardboard lmao
This literally contains both cosmic horror and body horror, two of my biggest fears, in the form of analog horror, which is one of the scariest forms of horror for me. This is genius
@@thegoldenplague-mask5438 Yeah, mine too. It's strange how in horror whatever you fear the most is probably your favorite kind of horror. Or, I mean, it's logical, but it still fascinates me
I applaud those that can get the cosmic horror aspect down.. i dont think ive seen a movie yet that encompasses it to a T.. have you ever played or watched BloodBorne?? Masterpiece!! 👏🏽
To me cosmic horror is the fear of the unknown or trying to understand the unknown drives you mad bc our minds cannot comprehend different planes of existence
@@MrzGEISHA maybe I'm misinterpreting the term, but for me cosmic horror means literally the fear of the cosmos. Weird planets that are in places where they should not be, black holes, the gigantic scale of gas giants, stars, the Bootes void... I guess it's sort of connected to the fear of things large in scale. But as I said, this is just my interpretation
During the solar system video, when it's on Saturn you can see...something moving into view just before it cuts away to Uranus. It looks sort of like Uranus, but if you pause you can clearly see it's something very different and very alien. What a neat little thing to add. The "gateway" is being actively used and it was caught on camera. I love how these analog horror creators really get into world building. You can tell they have fun making sure their vision is cohesive, and for the really good ones they make sure nothing is left out that could break the illusion.
I love how the series starts out with what is *clearly* cruddy plastic figures, then over time is able to move towards more realistic modeling as they become more experienced. Very cool!
yeah you can see clearly that the ....legs/claws that appear around the corner in the first video, are just flat stiff cardboard. you can tell if you stop and look at it, that it has no real depth to it, making it look very 2D. The strength of this series is the world building, the lore they create by implication. it's really an excellent piece of eldritch/cosmic horror. very lovecraftian, but derivitively so.
@@ExarchGaming On Remy’s Patreon, he links some videos showing BTS and the process of some of these videos, and the Gardener’s legs in World’s Weirdest Animals was actually a 3d model, which was quite a shock lol
Fun Fact: It's heavily implied in the True Ending of Lethal Omen, you become a Woodcrawler. When you approach the cabin after the ritual, you knock on the door, and in the third shot of the TV, you see the Woodcrawler's spider legs standing where you are; in a wooden room with two symmetrically aligned couches
Was that really something that a lot of people didn't pick up on? I guess, thinking about it, Nexpo never remarked on it, so maybe it's not as obvious as I thought it was. Seemed pretty cut and dry to me
One of the things someone I watched previously pointed out about this series is that the gemini planet logo becomes clearer the further the episodes go on, and you can clearly see it is in fact neptune. Which I thought was a neat little detail
True, pretty awesome details. Story had me a lil scared not gonna lie. So what a relief to have a hearty chuckle when Nexpo said" Oh and Neptune is f'n missing!"😂😂😂
Are we actually sure Harbinger technologies were completely ineffective? At least for the bunker True, a woodcrawler broke through the walls, but the glowing light from the center dome seemed to drive it away for whatever reason. Also, this may have been considered as some sort of advanced in-universe plot point to showcase just _why_ you constructed the... dome thing anyway.
There's a theory that woodcrawlers are weak against Ultraviolet light. Think about it, the bunker is constructed to send them through the whole room, they only appear at night, and the iris itself used the furthest barely habitable planet to launch its attack
I like the idea of Jack Wylder. He kind of feels like a Lovecraft protagonist who saw the cosmic madness but kept fighting in his own way. he realized he couldn't face them with force, so he used the only skillset and resources he had available, which is videography, with the dim hope that somehow getting the truth out there might be enough to stop them or at least survive them
@@013aanikhfds I bet you're the type of person to bring up that Walt Disney supported the Nazis when everyone else is just trying to watch an old Disney film too, aren't you?
The woodwalker that screams "HELP ME, SOMEONE HELP ME" just standing in the middle of nowhere, never fails to make me laugh. Things to avoid: The lunatic in the middle of nowhere shouting "HELP ME" hysterically. He does this every single day. Just ignore him.
Seriously? I thought it was fucking terrifying. Something about the plaintiveness of the cries for help combined with the utterly bizarre and inhuman way it moved made my stomach sink, like the worst possible uncanny valley. If I followed bloodcurtling screams to their source and realized by the dude's weird behavior I was being lured into a trap, I'd be in fear for my life.
I am just utterly astonished at these ARG artists’ abilities to create such convincing recreations of early 90’s VHS effects. Storytelling is one thing, but the amount of study and focus it would take to recreate these elements is nothing short of mind-boggling
@@PRubin-rh4sr You can do that, but I think a lot of the more affordable editor packages include "VHS Effects" of various sorts as well, so it can be done with just a few mouse clicks - particularly useful if one is shooting on digital devices. It's getting harder to find working analog tape cameras, and unless one is a bit of a video technophile it's just simpler to shoot on a smartphone or even a more quality digital camera like a Sony AX series device.
Pretty creepy. One time after dark at my parents ranch I heard someone yelling ‘help!! Help!!’ Over and over down by the chicken house. I went in the house and told my dad and we grabbed a couple deer rifles and flashlights and walked down there. There was nothing, of course. I actually think it was just coyotes, I’ve heard them make all kinds of weird noises, but this video certainly creeped me out.
Coyotes are just freaky to begin with. It'll be quiet all night, and suddenly 2am you hear 1 coyote, then 2, then 10 all at once. And the closer they sound the freakier it is. All you can see is pitch blackness but somewhere close is a huge pack of animals that would have no problem tearing you apart in the dark. I don't go outside at night usually but when I do I at least have a handgun ready.
I have an old barn that raccoons, opossums and skunks live in. I've gotten to know some of the raccoons and they'll come take grapes right out my hands. I usually go out about 15 minutes before sundown to wait for them. I'm sitting there in the dark in an old run down barn in the middle of a big ass field. It's kind of creepy no matter what, but I also know there are wild animals around. One night I'm reading my tablet waiting for the critters to show up AND OHMIGOD SOMETHING IS COMING RIGHT AT MY FACE! It was my cat jumping on my lap and scaring the absolute bejeezus out of me.
Coyotes do make some weird sounds. I had a weird experience, in the middle of the night I heard a baby crying on my back balcony. Looked out the window, didn't see anything. Came back with a flashlight and it was a kitten hanging on to the post for dear life. Could have sworn it was a baby.
Especially since this is the first hint of the existence of the Wretch, which itself is one of the best examples of “NOPE, FUCK THAT” in all of analog horror. And even worse; the last episode we got heavily implies the Wretch assimilates its victims without killing them.
fun little detail: "albedo" (as in the "albedo alarm" recommended for storms) typically refers to the amount of light reflected from a light source such as the sun on the surface of a planet or moon. to me, this implies a hidden function of the alarms being to signal the location of humans to the woodcrawlers, or just a reference to sort of turning the earth into a beacon of sorts
@@rowanjones5562this is so true bro what if its like a light sensor that can tell by what sort of light it is (like wavelength i guess? probably alongside brightness/motion/time it appears at/etc) that its a woodcrawler……. that woukd be very cool
I hate to be that guy, but when Mary attacks the cabin, she's saying "OPEN THE DOOR! NOW! LET ME IN! IT'S OUT HERE!". But yeah, you were pretty damn close.
literally i didn’t know this until now and . AUGH. hearing it is just so. like i feel bad for her, she was already transformed when she yelled for help :(
Remy Abode is a fantastic creator, and also a really chill guy. I spoke with them briefly about GHE when I was working on a horror-themed dnd campaign that unfortunately never got off the ground. I believe I actually spoke with Aiden Chick, the guy behind Channel 7 and Analog Archives as well! I wanted to use some of GHE’s elements, along with Channel 7 and Analog Archives, but I didn’t want to do anything without the creator’s permission. Chick and Abode were really sweet and gave me all the info I needed. It’s a shame it never worked out.
I really love how ARGs and analog horror these days are embracing slow, creeping dread rather than flashing images and jumpscares. I think there's a place for those where they can be effective if done well, but there is something really visceral and terrifying about a quiet apocalypse. Stuff like that just butters my potato, dude
I honestly hate the loud flashing images. Like in the Walton Files they do it a lot and it doesn't scare me. It just kinda annoys me. This slower and less in your face stuff makes the very few jump scares work.
I think the modern horror movies have overused the jumpscare trope. When done sparingly and well, it works. But if your horror movie is relying on nothing but jumpscares (and fake ones where there was no danger after all), it becomes boring. Slow and creeping horror is much more effective and I love to see it being used more and more again.
I think the loud, flashing gore digitally distorted screams are actually a thing with a place. Flashing images used as jumpscares, even when you aren't jumpscared by it...can really evoke a significant sense of trauma and desperate violence. It wasn't always a thing before, but once it was used to great effect I think it just got overused to the point that we tend to dismiss it's unartful implementation. Like the person wearing last year's fashion...which is fine...but seems to think they are doing something new and avante garde...and seems a bit too desperate to get others to agree... ...even when everyone else knows they are late to the game. I think it has its place, and in its place, it is artful. We've just seen so many cheap imitations since it was so widely received as "brilliant" that it's become fetishized. Its employed without skill, and therefore falls flat. **Edit** I do think you are right. It IS nice to see someone return to the slow creep. I did kind of expect the flashing gore images, but the closest Gemini comes to this is video distortion. The whole "crashing camera" effect. Whatever has happened was so violent that we are forced to look away. We have no choice. We aren't allowed to see the abominations. Even if we were present, instead of voyeurs, we'd look away.
I still cant get over the infected people with their missing bodies. It looks like its just their nervous system left floating there. I haven't been this unsettled by something in a long time...
Yeah, I love me some body horror and that bit is just impeccable. Like I thought “oh wow, something coming into your house, hollowing you out and wearing you around, eh? Pretty grim!” But no, instead it’s “you’re gonna get peeled, and as you sit there as nothing but an immobile mass of fleshy bullshit, you get to watch something *wearing your skin* going about it’s day, eating intruders and whatnot.” It’s horrible and I love it
This series plays into one of my BIGGEST fears; Megalophobia. I HATE the concept of turning around to see a giant celestial body in the sky staring down at me; I used to be so frightened of the moon. This takes it a step further by making this body unknown, MASSIVE, *sentient* and gives it a terrifying sound; the exact kind of terrifying sound that I envision when I think of that kind of scenario. I feel like the creator must have shared this fear or something.
That's really strange fear to have. I'm not knocking you because now that you mention it it _is_ kind of creepy. It's just not something I'd ever consider to be fearful of.
im the opposite, i think it'd be so cool to have a giant celestial body in the sky, like a no man's sky type of deal. a giant celestial body suddenly appearing out of nowhere, tho? different story
That's so crazy. Growing up and looking into the infinite sky I always had some crazy scary dreams of seeing huge dragons appear in the sky and come towards me and even when I was awake and just outside Chillin alone I would always wonder what if the moon suddenly got bigger/Closer or what if a huge planet or huge blank face appeared. It was crazy weird but even now as a 30 yo the sky creeps me out. The vast emptiness just feels like a jumpscare waiting to happen.
i know im late to the party but i do genuinely appreciate the way you write and structure these videos. The brief moments of levity and the checkpoints make it easy for me to watch and digest all the info and scary stuff. And outside of that you do a great job of building atmosphere. It's 10/10 content!
There's one thing about tape 10 I think you've missed, and it really changes how one interprets it. I agree that the makers of tape 10 are definitely ill-intended, but I think they're addressing themselves not to remaining humans with the goal of leading them to their demise, but with the goal of helping fake people perform their function. Let me explain: Game 1 teaches you how to find a human -- we're shown not how to "hide", but how to "seek", quite literally on the image. Game 2 teaches you how to run after a human and "tag" (i.e. "contaminate") them. Game 3 is the one where one person is hiding and the others are the seekers, which, in the case of fake people invading a home, would be exactly how things go -- humans are found one after the other until only 1 remains. And then "The game ends when everybody is hiding!" the video says -- that is, when every fake person has taken over and "hidden" into a human body. Game 4 advises to do exactly what we know fake people to do -- go out into the woods and scream at the top of their lungs, thus luring other humans to their location so they can feed "the woods" (aka the woodcrawlers lurking in the forest). Not forgetting the last element of the clip: when there's a planet Earth seen from space, red arrow pointing to it, and the text flashing saying "Found you!". To me, it seems to imply that those who are meant to "find" and "tag" have been, since the beginning of the tape, people on the side of the Iris, not humans.
Lethal Omen is meant to look like a PS1 or Saturn game. I've made emulators for those machines, and 1 thing that most people don't know about those machines is that, unlike N64, 3D vertices never touch the graphic processor; the perspective divide is done on the CPU, so the graphics processor doesn't have enough information to do perspective correct textures. This manifests itself as "texture slide", which contributes to the horror aspect of PS1 style PC horror games. However, most devs that make this type of game ignore the fact that the PS1 and Saturn had this "flaw", and the PC horror games loose something by looking "too good" with their perspective correct textures. Lethal Omen seems to do it right because there's quite a bit of texture slide going on, and it adds to the feeling that "Somthing's not right here." If anybody is making a PS1 style horror game, then please make your vertex shader collapse the scene to screenspace by dividing the x and y coords by the z coord. The added feel of that look be worth it!
haha interesting!! fellow programmer here (although kinda former, havent done much of it for a couple years) just curious, did you used to read Carmack's .plan file back in the 1990s? for some reason your comment reminded me of them good ole days :) havent heard perspective correct in a while hehe
@@moegreen3870 I did read it back then. Everytime he talks it's full of knowledge. Megatextures were a genius idea. Other game devs have a few great ideas that have gone around as well, like Valve's Signed Distance Fields for shapes, stencils, and fonts. Speaking of the old days, Tim Sweeny needs to make a new Jill of the Jungle. 3D games with 2D machanics work pretty well, like Metroid: Dread.
Nexpo has officially become one of my favorite content creators. I often find myself coming back to rewatch his videos. I think that says a lot about his content and presentation of said content.
Being born in centeral Alberta, Gemini was one of the first times I saw my province in any type of horror content. There's something about seeing familiar landscapes in the background as something terrible and apocalyptic makes itself known to the viewer that grips you and makes you that much more engaged and unerved by this sort of horror.
This was the same vibe I had as someone who grew up in Minnesota, to have the video start off as a Minnesotan wildlife documentary was enough to snatch my attention. To have the Woodcrawlers be revealed to be located everywhere in the state was enough to set in the horror and paranoia aspect.
Something I've realized after returning to watch this again, is there's a fact about the planets, specifically the order they're in and the associations that they're a part of. Neptune is the planet farthest away from the Sun in the Solar System (If you don't count Pluto. Sorry Pluto
Because a work of fiction should be made to produce real feelings on the spectators. If they can't do that, they have failed at their task. The fact that it is fiction shouldn't mean you won't feel any less scared.
This is why cosmic horror is one of my favorite horror genres. What does it for me is yeah this is fiction, but...what if ya know? There's no telling what all is out there...
This is one of the greatest analog horror documentaries of all time. I can only hope the future releases of Gemini are eventually covered in the same way.
Interesting detail (coincidence?): In wilderness survival guide, Jack used a bear to represent what to do when encountering a disguised Woodcrawler. Perhaps he saw the sacrificial bear turning into the abomination that absorbed his wife.
I assumed the chain of events was thus: At the time of the Christmas party, Glenn and co attempt to shoot the bear. The bear is actually a "woodcrawler". So far, we have not seen any attempt by armed forces to combat the threat directly. It is entirely possible that the organizm can alter it's form to defend itself. The "woodcrawler" goes into a more aggressive form and murders the entire camp. It then takes all the bodies and converts them into "biomass" to be added to the growing network of Iris "stuff" growing under Earth's surface.
@@monsieurlaguillotine3481 Jack has been using his media to tell people what has been going on. Following this theme, it seems likely Jack knows what happened at the camp and is cluing us in.
42:52 To me, what's kind of interesting is the fact that, if the "Help me!" shouts were not edited in, and the actor was actually screaming that in real life, someone might have actually heard that and think it was an actual cry for help. Imagine having to explain that to the authorities lmaooo
i left my window and youtube open as i was going to sleep and i genuinely thought someone in my neighborhood was screaming out for help for a few minutes, i freaked
I think the games for kids video is saying something else as-well. The game tells kids to go out into the forest away from the light and scream at the top of their lungs. There is a hypothesis about alien life called the dark forest hypothesis, which basically suggests that we cant find any alien signs of life because everyone is hiding from each other, afraid of encountering a predator species in the dark forest of the universe. Humanity isn’t doing that though, we are sending out heaps of signals, screaming where we are for anyone to hear. To any predatory alien life we would be seen as naive and childish, easy to trick with a little game. So the game is, we go out into the dark forest, away from the light (sun), and scream our location. The game is over when the forest is fed.
Mary's cries for help when you play the tape of her transformation backwards always gets me. Also the fact that the woodcrawlers are probably saying the last thing they heard their victims say ("they stole their voices"). So creepy.
Something I realized after watching several times about Optica Video: "Games for Children" might be along the same line as "Home Invasion." It's basically a guide on how to play children's games, which is something you learn from the people around you. Unless, of course, you're something else, like a woodcrawler. From the wildlife video, we know they "adapt" to suburban settings, and this very well might be part of how they do it. As for "feed the woods," that's a uniquely woodcrawler "game." They leave the house. They go into the darkest place they can find, and scream in a child's voice. Anyone would be alarmed to hear that, and while in these times laid out in the videos, they wouldn't go out themselves. What would they do? Call the police. The woodcrawler probably wasn't eating the car, but the officers inside, who were likely scared to leave in the middle of the night. The children's games are part of how they "adapt" to human dwellings. "Feeding the forest" is how they find prey in times of slim pickings. Optica Video is likely a for-woodcrawler company. It might even be run BY them. Then the video is distributed by GHE, because, well, if human children decide to play Feed the Woods, all the better for the woodcrawlers.
This is genuinely more terrifying. Like, there's no Warhammer 40k style invasion, where the aliens decimate humanity through increased firepower and technology. They manipulate people subtly, letting an invasion through infiltration become more easier.
@@WAcrobat19 I mean, in 40k there's a tyranid cluster of shapeshifters that makes a certain planet ready for consumption for the nearest hive IIRC by doing this exact same thing but 10 times more stronger, by that I mean impersonating humans up to the planet's highest hierarchy.
Something you failed to mention: The storm survival video also said the sounds on the radio were auditory hallucinations and not to listen. Here is my take on the different companies: Harbinge has been developing defenses and countermeasures to Iris, which seem to work, as the protagonist in the video game survives the "storm." However, it may have been infiltrated by Iris to some degree. Regnad is either conspiring with Iris or was infiltrated by its minions. Optica may have been the same as Regnad, a legitimate company that was infiltrated early on. Gyneva is likely working with Iris intentionally. The video about Crusader 5 had graphics that demonstrated an intimate knowledge of the entity. Additionally, the probe's name indicates a less-than-scientific intent. Instead of a bold or adventurous name, such as Pioneer, Voyager, or Spirit, the probe is named Crusader - one who crusades. A crusade is typically affiliated with religious conflict or a zealous spread of ideology. Gyneva may very well be an Iris cult. The company names are interesting as well. Harbinge, a variation on harbinger, a predictor of calamity. Regnad, danger spelled backwards. Optica, a variation on optical, related to the eye. Gyneva, speller "Gyn," as in gynecologist, possibly alluding to birth or the creation of new life.
That now begs the question: We know that there were also the Crusades early on in this world’s history. The Knights Templar were a common force in the Crusade era to take back the Holy Land. The Knights Templar were accused of being Devil-worshippers or catalysts for the Illuminati, the New World Order. Since the Crusader probe was launched into space, it has become fascinated by the sights & ideas of the Iris planet. Which begs the theory AND question of, if Gyneva were part of the Illuminati as a task force to carry out the New World Order, a new world eventually controlled by the Iris planet. Like, that there was some secret government involvement in the Gemini Home Entertainment universe that we don’t know about.
Maybe it's just my interpretation, but I think Optica was founded by Iris followers (or rather, cult members) while I think Regnad has kinda fallen into insanity, a "they were so occupied with whether or not they can, that they didn't think whether they should" situation. (Edit-) Harbinge, I think, are also benevolent, but are unaware that their products don't work, at least as well as they think it works (I say this because the iris says "the harbinger guards but in vain" or something along those lines, in the second regnad artificial intelligence video). But it might also be that they're infiltrated by Iris, as you suggest, who are making the products less effective because, of course, it helps their cause. I also think Gyneva is a government funded organisation, similar to NAMAD, and are objectively researching the iris, which is why they have such in-depth knowledge of the interior of it. Crusader might simply be referring to a crusade _against_ the iris, instead of with it. But that's just my ideas.
@@CloverIsLucky not really, and there's a mainly two reasons I'm saying this. One is obviously the line from the AI video "The harbinger guides in vain" The other is from the game, Lethal Omen. In the final cutscene in that game, a wood crawler bursts through the wall of a harbinge bunker very easily. We can say that it doesn't exactly work if wood crawlers are getting through that easily
@@drohit1207 But you see in the game even if the wood crawler destroyed the wall, the aluminium hemisphere which the harbinge technologies recommend building actually repels them) so they're actually pretty successful
I personally think that the bunker was successful in preventing the woodcrawlers from harming the user. The hemisphere activated after the bunker was breached but that may be what it was designed to do, after all, a landmine cannot activate unless stepped on and the person using the bunker was not harmed after the dust cleared. It could be that the bunker is not only made to keep people safe, but also to kill the woodcrawlers. Not to mention that it would make the phrase 'the harbinger guards in vain' more powerful, as it would show that despite the fact that they can fight back, nothing they do will be enough to keep back an entire planet.
i'm unconvinced that the bunkers are entirely ineffective - once it is light enough to see after the lights go out in the game, you can see a part of the woodcrawler dismembered on the floor. it makes me think that either it takes time for the bunker to become effective in blocking out intruders, OR the mechanism isn't to keep them out, but rather destroy them once they get in.
And the hemisphere in the bunker begins to glow as well, which shows that the bunker does something. The goal of the bunkers might not be to protect though.
Crazy thing is, it's not uncommon to hear voices calling out for help in the Appalachian mountains but we're taught to turn away and go home if you hear them. Better your life saved than lost trying to be a "hero." It could be a skinwalker or someone asking for help or a trap. Not a chance I would want to take personally.
I’ve lived around the Appalachian mountains my whole life and it is entirely uncommon I’d even say rare to hear someone calling out for help and the only reason you’d hesitate to help them is because you don’t know how they got into the situation they’re in or what the situation is so you proceed with caution and notify the authorities because they’d be more equipped to deal with situations. I’ve experienced weird stuff in the mountains and woods but it’s not a horror movie up there. If someone brought up skinwalkers as a genuine concern they’re getting laughed at same with “not deer”. I can’t write off the it being a trap entirely because I could see it happening if someone was on drugs real bad but it’d also be a freak occurrence.
You kept saying during Omen that the bunker does nothing, but like your character DOES get to leave afterwards. And you still have a gun, so I don't think you changed. I think the radio and the aluminum dome *does* work, at least in this example.
