Even though television is dying (or realistically speaking, just moving over to the internet), the style of the medium, particularly the lo-fi aesthetic of public TV stations from the 80s and 90s, is still extremely popular. Dated graphics, jump cuts and audio issues, it all reminds those of us old enough to remember classic television’s dominance in our lives, and how there was always a bit of a thrill whenever it looked like things were going off the rails on the other side of the screen.

Author and filmmaker Kris Straub understands this, which is why he tapped into the dark potential of this particular brand of nostalgia with his hall-of-famer Creepypasta story “Candle Cove”, a story that unwinds the tale of an obscure children’s show of the same name, written entirely in the style of old message board posts. It’s eerily convincing in its simplicity, and it went on to become a viral hit that would be adapted for the first season of the criminally underrated SyFy anthology show “Channel Zero” (gone, but not forgotten).

Straub has chosen to follow this up with another nightmarish story delivered under the guise of public television in his ongoing video series Local 58. Initially published on the now defunct website local58.info, all entries in the series were uploaded onto YouTube in late 2018, and quickly amassed a cult following.

The first episode of the series, “Weather Service”, sets the tone immediately. There is no central protagonist presented to us. We see a simple graphic of the station’s logo and call letters, a brief glimpse at a programming schedule, and are then jolted into an emergency broadcast message, complete with those freaky beeps and VCR-era font we’ve come to know and loathe. The message advises of us a weather warning, a “meteorological event” that will last until sunrise. It then advises the viewer to stay indoors and avoid looking at the sky.

Disturbing, yes, but it gets worse when the broadcast is interrupted yet again, this time by a message set against a red screen, telling the folks at home to disregard the previous warning, and encouraging them to view this mysterious event. In fact, it urges them to. “GO OUTSIDE NOW” it commands, until other conflicting messages appear in bursts—“AVOID MIRRORS,” “DO NOT LOOK UP,” “IT’S IN THE LIGHT,” this messenger warns. The final image is a jittery shot of a full moon hanging in the sky. In the distance, the sounds of panicked screaming can just barely be heard.

It’s heavy stuff, right? You know so little yet have been given just enough details to let your imagination run wild with possibilities. Is this the work of some hacker? Ghosts in the machine? A trick from a hostile alien force? It’s hard to call it. And that’s just within the first two and a half minute video. You don’t know what to believe. Can your own eyes be trusted?

Well before you think about it too much, it’s best to move ahead to the next broadcast, “Contingency,” possible the most disturbing entry to date (and it’s got some stiff competition). From the beginning, there are some noticeable differences; Not only is the station’s logo changed, but the replacement of video distortion with scratches and marks commonly found in old damaged film suggest we’re watching a clip from a different era in the channel’s history, possibly the 1960s or 70s. When the broadcast day ends, the signal is instantly hijacked, and we’re subjected to what looks like an old bit of newsreel footage, a message from some organization known as the “U.S. Department For The Preservation of American Dignity.”

The message is chilling: the film, designed to be shown to the public in the event of America succumbing to an invasion, displays a waving American flag as text crawls up, letting Americans know that the USA has surrendered to “her enemy.” The soundtrack plays a distorted version of the Star Spangled Banner, as this message, ostensibly from President Lyndon B. Johnson, cryptically calls for average citizens to resist to the very end, lest the enemy claim our independent spirits.

It doesn’t take a lot of guesswork to figure out what that means, but the video becomes truly terrifying when it spells it out through a series of messages: “YOU TAKE AMERICA WITH YOU”; “ACCESS TO A LOADED FIREARM IS IDEAL”; “JOIN YOUR NEIGHBORS, YOUR FAMILY, YOUR GOD.” That’s right, this is a decree from the U.S Government to fight for your country by literally committing suicide, going so far as to give you instructions (“place muzzle upward to roof of mouth”). As the video goes on, this becomes less of a proud battle cry, and more of a tyrannical demand. One of the later messages reads “It is against the law to delay – THIS MESSAGE WILL REPEAT UNTIL THERE ARE NONE TO READ IT.” And right as it gets to the part where it instructs you on how to take out your kids, the broadcast stabilizes, and Local 58 returns to normal, writing the whole thing off as a bunch of “technical difficulties.”

Maybe it’s the current sociopolitical tensions plaguing American society, but there’s something particularly horrifying about the dutiful and lethal groupthink that film espouses. As insane as it is, it feels possible—bear in mind that CNN does in fact have a premade sign off video in the event of the Apocalypse. Seriously.

The following videos only get more disturbing. “You Are On The Fastest Available Route” seems to be aired as a “midnight movie,” and consists only of dash cam footage showing a driver following a driver being directed by a GPS deeper and deeper into the wilderness—until they stumble upon a creature that they cannot reroute fast enough from. 

The most recent video, “Show For Children” airs what looks to be an old cartoon from the early days of animation: Cadavre in “A Grave Mistake.” It plays like a goth version of an old Disney toon, where a cute little skeleton wanders around a graveyard as a smiling moon hangs above him, grinning a touch too much. As the poor little guy stumbles over open graves and flees them in fear, the music dissipates, and the moon goes from a grinning goon to an anxious, glaring monstrosity, hovering over a grave that Cadavre eventually falls and dies in. Straub knows just how to gradually raise the tension by mixing cartoonish and starkly graphic imagery, and allowing certain frames to linger for too long.

But what is the connection between all these pieces? Online speculation abounds, but the recurring images and motifs—an ominous moon, the threat of invasion, mind control, etc—have led most engaged with the series to believe that the story centers around an alien invasion. This writer generally agrees, although I believe it remains to be seen. It could just as easily be a story of sinister government experiments gone awry, or supernatural entities gaining control of television signals to exact revenge of some sort.

What I can say with certainty is that this a great horror web series, brilliant in both its depth and its simplicity. Straub uses a masterful blend of original art and stock footage and FX to craft a unique and engaging story. It’s the kind of mysterious, “less is more” form of horror storytelling that the internet is an especially strong vehicle for. If you’ve yet to check out Local 58, I recommend you seek it out on YouTube, watch all the videos, and subscribe to see what happens next. It’s must see TV.

Watch…or surrender…