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Category: Forest Horror

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The Triumph Of The Dark Forest On YouTube: Paranormal and Supernatural Genre Channels En Masse.


Peter Engelmann, October 13, 2024

Most of you have certainly seen it: Creepypasta. The Supernatural and Unexplained is doing great on YouTube. There are meanwhile many channels exploring haunted forests, ghost houses, missing 411 cases, alien abductions, and mysteries. The number of these channels seems to have grown exponentially. Some videos and channels have incredible numbers of subscribers and viewers, even over one million viewers. What does that mean for our knowledge of the otherworld, the paranormal and the unexplained? And what does it mean for filmmakers and horror writers?

Various formats and often similar topics

First, what do we see in these channels? Many channels focus in their videos on a case. Missing person cases are prominently featured. Or it is expeditions to notorious haunted places. One format is a narrator (not visible) telling a story and we see a compilation of stock footage but sometimes 2d animation or graphics specially designed for the episode or historical photos. In some cases, the narrator is a KI voice. These channels are a script for YT and its illustration.

There is a huge variety when it comes to production value and the amount of effects. Some very successful channels have the narrator as a presenter visible most of the time either in a studio setting or in a location like Mr. Ballen or David Paulides. They use inserts of photos or video clips to underline the narration but these channels are successful because of their charismatic creator and narrator. It’s crucial to succeed in this type of channel that the narrator is an excellent storyteller like the old oral storytellers and that he can engage the audience.

The other type of channel is expeditions which feature often real experiences of paranormal researchers in the woods or haunted houses, or it is the host of the channel taking us on tour for example to the Hoia Baciou forest in Romania. Even if we don’t know what might be “scripted” reality and what is a real documentary the videos have often strong engaging moments. Scenes often resemble the found footage genre such as Blairwitch. Some other good creators invest in their research, take a long time to shoot their videos, and add interesting visuals such as historical photos.

Then there are channels that work similarly like professional documentaries with re-enactment, special effects, and real live scenes with actors. These channels have often a high number of viewers but not so many videos since they need a real budget and post-pro to produce these types of videos.

What makes these YT creepypasta channels so attractive?

There is no proven answer here because this would require surveys and market research. However, there is an obvious thing here: Many of the best videos are good campfire tales. And we know that the best horror and supernatural movies or novels are good campfire tales. Stephen King wrote in his book about horror that simple cautionary tales like the story of the hook he describes in Dance Macabre are the origin of the genre.

It’s amazing how many YouTube creators show strong talent in good storytelling. The storytelling is often very basic and centers around a mystery, some turning points, and shocking revelations. But it works because the stories are well-structured and efficient.

The success of paranormal, mystery, and supernatural-oriented YouTube channels might be related to the fact that they revive traditional storytelling qualities.

Do these YouTube channels about the paranormal enrich our knowledge about the otherworld and the unexplained?

Only time can tell if the huge number of these channels leads to new insight. The majority of the channels are there for good entertainment, but some provide well-researched information. Fundamental questions about the nature of phenomena are, however, mostly not the focus of their narration.

Nevertheless, it is interesting that we see certain motives and themes are often repeated. Even if the stories are unique they are centered around the usual suspects: Witches, satanic rituals, bigfoot, creatures in the woods, ghosts, and aliens. An important sub-genre is the missing 411 cases, often in National Parks. Often portrayed locations are the famous Bennington triangle (Freetown Fall River Forest) which comes up very often, Glastonbury Mountain in Vermont, Hoia Baciu in Romania, Skinwalker Ranch, Epping Forest (near London), Superstition Mountains, Mount Shasta, but there are also many videos about lesser known places. It’s interesting that often similar phenomena are reported and that way the YouTube creators can indeed help to a deeper understanding of the unexplained on this planet because it shows us certain patterns. These patterns pop up again and again.

A selection Of Creepypasta Channels On YouTube:

This selection is anything but not in any way representative. Sorry, if I forgot important channels, but there are indeed many of them now. I tried to list a mix of bigger channels and smaller channels here. Especially smaller channels have often special qualities and do impressive research. We can always update the list or if I got something wrong just let me know!

A big and well-known channel is MR BALLEN https://www.youtube.com/@MrBallen which deeply impressed me with his accouracy and precise account of details. Great storytelling.

Another one is the MISSING VOID, which is about the popular theme of unexplainable disappearances, https://www.youtube.com/@MissingVoidTV

Very intriguing storytelling and interesting not-so-popular stories are featured also in The Inbetween, strange and unexplained, https://www.youtube.com/@TheInBetweenTales

Don’t Scare Claire, Looking for paranormal stories, ghostly encounters, and grisly tales from history is an exciting British Channel and particularly interesting with its focus on history: https://www.youtube.com/@DontScareClaire

What Lurks Beneath is another Big US Channel: paranormal, all kinds of mysteries, national parks: https://www.youtube.com/@WhatLurksBeneath

And Of course, there is the Godfather of the Missing 411, David Paulides with his famous channel Canammissingproject. The Channel often focuses on mystical disappearances in National Parks but covers a broad variety of interesting cases: https://www.youtube.com/@canammissingproject/videos

More dark tales offer Dark Holler Studios,
Real Stories from the Shadowed World.., https://www.youtube.com/@darkhollerstudios

Then there are travel- and expedition Channels that take us to the most haunted places in the World: AmysCrypt brings us paranormal investigations from the world’s most haunted locations. https://www.youtube.com/@AmysCrypt

And there is the Travel Channel, which doesn’t sound so paranormal but has different playlists such as The Woods Are Haunted, Mountain Monsters, Paranormal Activity Caught on Camera: https://www.youtube.com/@TravelChannel

More mystical stories are featured in Abstract, stories from our strange world: https://www.youtube.com/@Abstract

Another impressive one is The Tape Library: “The home of the strange, the scary, the paranormal and the unidentified”. The “dark corner of the internet” produces spectacular videos with over 1 Mio viewers https://www.youtube.com/@TheTapeLibrary

Motech dives into the unknown and has a knack for cutting-edge things: https://www.youtube.com/@motech8117

And there is Bedtime Stories, “For the discerning horror fan, we cover the most chilling cases throughout history. From the paranormal to the supernatural, unsolved mysteries and strange deaths to cryptids, conspiracy theories and the most disturbing of true crimes, all told in a unique and creepy way”: https://www.youtube.com/@BedtimeStoriesChannel

Disturbing and intriguing stories from the Twilight Zone are also on The Paranormal Files, a”web series which explores all things paranormal, including spirits, religion, demons and even extraterrestrials”. https://www.youtube.com/@theparanormalfiles

Tales Untold features feral encounters among other stuff, https://www.youtube.com/@TalesUntoldYT, and The Missing Enigma, Disappearances, https://www.youtube.com/@TheMissingEnigma is another channel about mysterious disappearances.

Chilling Scares focuses on true horror content, and features often on a certain number of cases as the six most disturbing camping encounters https://www.youtube.com/@ChillingScares

Wild Dream Films is about history and the paranormal: https://www.youtube.com/@WildDreamFilms

Small Town Monsters is about Bigfoot, Creatures, etc: https://www.youtube.com/@SmallTownMonsters

Another UK channel is Ghost Theory: They introduce themselves as”This is Ghost Theory, two filmmakers, adventurers and lovers of the paranormal. Traveling the UK in search for paranormal hotspots to find the truth and conjure up our theories to the strange things that happen in places most would never venture”: https://www.youtube.com/@GhostTheory

Again, this is not a representative selection and I also don’t want to forget our own Forest Dark YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@theforestdark It doesn’t really fit into this selection yet as it is more a mood channel for the movie project but it’s supposed to grow into something bigger. Stay tuned.

Takeaways

The little excursion into the world of YouTube creepypasta reminded me of the origins of the genre as campfire tales.

There is indeed a tremendous number of videos here and so many creators. Everybody has a right to do this and the effort people invest in research and filmmaking is stunning.

However, there might be a Blakean element of Generation here, what William Blake called  “a view focused on production and reproduction without higher goals”. But this is THE problem of our times. The information and digital era allows reproduction with no end and we have to see where this leads us. The smarter storytellers on YouTube and the filmmaker community too might work on an evolution of the genre and our deeper insights into the otherworld. We all want to know what’s going on.

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SHAPESHIFTING REALITIES

Peter Engelmann, August 11, 2024

A fundamental quality of the otherworld is its shapeshifting quality. This is the common denominator between myth, folklore, fiction, and “true story witness accounts”. Nothing is what it seems in the otherworldly forest. Small and big can change within a second. A nearby place can be suddenly far away. Nothing is what it looks like. The otherworld is a zone where our laws of nature do not apply—UFOs, as modern daemons perfectly represent this shapeshifting quality.

This shape-shifting is a common experience in dreams. Usually, the shapeshifting otherworld is seen as the counterpart of ordinary reality, the otherworld as a mirror world, often with the distorting mirrors in a mirror cabinet. These uncertainties of reality apply not only to the objects, space, or the inhabitants of the otherworld. Time is different too: “On the other hand, a short period of clock time can seem like an age in the Otherworld” (Patrick Harpur, Daimonic Reality).

Apparitions are the most common feature of shapeshifting phenomena. The fairies are shapeshifters par excellence as their modern counterparts, the aliens. But also beasts, “giant-black cats” bigfoot, or other denizens of the forest have a shape-shifting quality. They are known – of course – for shapeshifting: a dwarf becomes a cat or even something inanimate can become a living creature. Or appearing as a living creature. Fairies can make small things big and big things small.

The most intriguing quality of apparitions is their contradictory nature: they are both real and not real in the same moment, both material and immaterial at the same time. This is a concept even hard to grasp for those who spent years studying these themes. It demands us to abandon our common idea about reality. A step nearly impossible to take for the ordinary man. Even scholars, initiates or shamans struggle with these fundamental fissures in our understanding of the world.

Nevertheless, this is where we are. Did somebody figure out what Ufos are? Science explained phenomena like a color-shifting lake where bacteria turns blue or green water into purple. But many mysteries remain a mystery. A missing person is found at an impossible distance. In science, we are puzzled by the mysterious ambivalence of quantum particles, the unknown nature of dark matter, or the impenetrable dark holes. Excellent writer Patrick Harpur found the definition for this special kind of reality: He called it Daimonic Reality and titled his legendary book Daimonic Reality too.

The world is full of encounters with daimonic reality. A key takeaway from the idea of daimonic reality is that we often see only the surface of something but the whole reality is veiled and is hiding in another dimension. A deer is not what it seems. Harpur describes Even the celestial bodies, the stars, and the objects in the skies can be windows into another dimension.

Often so-called abduction cases or encounters of the third kind are much more puzzling than they seem at first sight: Patrick Harpur recalls in Daimonic Reality the case of Virginia Horton who experienced a couple of supernatural experiences. On one occasion in France not far from the river Rhine she got lost in the woods and returned later with a bloody blouse. She talked about an encounter with a deer which seemed like a magical being. Simple “supernatural explanations” such as an alien encounter with the alien disguising as a deer don’t work here. Harpur writes, that under “Hypnosis, Virginia talked more about the deer: ‘ I had a sense of personality inside this deer.’ The sense that there is someone behind phenomena is the sense of the daemonic, the divine even, in all things”.

The Forest As Shapeshifter

Nature itself can be daimonic. Folk Horror tales describe this power of place and the hidden quality of nature around us. The field is more than just a field, the tree is more than a tree and of course, the forest itself has both transforming and shapeshifting qualities. What happens inside the observer and what happens on the outside we often don’t know.

We learned from the great writer Algernon Blackwood the idea that nature is a sentiment being: William P. Simmons writes in the preface of his anthology “Wildwood”: “Sky, soil, trees, grass, air, water – everything that man defines in scientific or organic means, Blackwood imbued with a personality, a soul. In ‘The Willows”, ‘The South Wind’ and others, Nature is not only a symbol of life but a self-aware entity that might be only a part of a vast, fragmented host of powers. The forest, the wildwood, is beyond science and rationality. Blackwood’s conception of nature is both beautiful and horrifying, beyond good or evil, immeasurable and undefinable” (Wildwood, Shadow House Library of Weird Fiction).

The mysterious island in the river Danube in “The Willows” is a good example of what William P. Simmons describes in the preface of Wildwood. The island seems to be constantly changing. An island in the wilderness of a river is a place of change. But when the story’s two protagonists stop and spend the night much more is going on. An uncanny presence plays tricks with the mind and nothing is any longer what it seems.

But is the forest as a shapeshifter only a concept in literature and myth?

Traditionally shapeshifting is the ability to physically transform oneself through unnatural means and not only in the perception of others. We need to get back to this to understand how common this feature is in many forms: Many Gods are shapeshifters: Think of Zeus or Proteus who could change his shape at will. In Norse mythology it is Loki. You find them anywhere in any religion or mythology. Sometimes the transformations into animals or monsters are not voluntary as in the case of Medusa or Arachne. It can be a punishment.

Creatures and supernatural beings are often shapeshifters by nature like vampires or werewolves. The skin-walkers of the Navajo are shapeshifters who roam the woods and the fields like some other tricksters. Then we have fairies, witches, and wizards. Fairies are among the most prominent shapeshifters. They can be humanlike or even appear as humans but quickly shift into a different form. Perhaps the mysterious lights in the forest are a fairy.

So far we are talking about entities. Living beings, agencies, Gods, and demons who can perform metamorphosis. What about the place, the forest itself? The first thought which comes to mind is of course, that any forest challenges our perception. The change of light, the darkness, not seeing the forest for the trees. If we have that feeling of getting lost, if we feel Sylvan dread, our surroundings change. But is it all in the mind? Or is metamorphosis possible? Can a path disappear, the landscape takes a different shape, a different mood?

Well, there are alleged true stories. They are often related to cases where people got lost in the woods or the unsolved missing 401 cases. Here comes an example from “Only In Your State”:

“A few visitors have reported encountering bridges made of birch branches and twigs that span small creeks. According to the visitors’ reports, once they cross a bridge and move away from the area, they are unable to relocate the bridge. It doesn’t matter if the hiker carefully marks her path, or even retraces his footsteps exactly – the bridge (and in some cases, the stream) will simply disappear. This phenomenon has been reported most frequently in the area surrounding Berry Pond.” (Spend The Night At Massachusetts’ Most Haunted State Park For A Truly Terrifying Experience)

This is a very typical example: A path that suddenly isn’t any longer there or even the dimensions in the forest feel somehow “wrong”. Is it possible? It depends on our worldview: If it is true what philosophers say, that our visible, everyday world is only part of a larger invisible world any kind of transformation, distortion or shape-shifting isn’t so absurd.

Or as William P. Simmons said:

“By entering the Wildwood, we are inviting metamorphosis, a terrifying breakdown of how we attempt to define existence. A world that lives, breathes, and feels as dramatically as the humans who stumble along its paths.”

This is the common thread, a reoccurring motive: In movies from IN THE EARTH by Ben Wheatley to the classic “STALKER”, in great literature as in “THE WHITE PEOPLE” by Arthur Machen to Algernon Blackwood but also in countless witness accounts from the Bridgewater triangle, from haunted forests all over the world and even in smaller woods which hold secrets and are always trapdoors to a deeper, different reality.


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Doppelgängers, Alter Ego And Lost Souls In The Woods

One person at multiple places at the same time. That doesn’t make sense in the natural laws that apply to our physical world. Yet our culture is populated with doubles or Doppelgängers. This applies both for film and literature but also for folk stories and the wide range of true stories, which tell an alleged truth.

The Master Of The Double: David Lynch

The double motive is overtly present in David Lynch movies. However, the use of doubles varies. That is helpful for a distinction between existing ideas of doubles, alter egos, and split souls.
The most overwhelming manifestation of a doppelganger is a person who can appear in different places at the same time. The Mystery Man in Lost Highway tells the main character, Fred, that he can be both at a party and his house at the same time. If it wasn’t the Mystery Man scary in itself, it is this quality which makes him terrifying.
The double, which can appear in different places, is one of the most common motives in horror. It is not a projection, not a fantasy and not a misunderstanding. One of the most horrifying ideas is if you discover that you have a double that does things without your knowledge. The idea of having a dopplegänger that leads an autonomous life is a disturbing revelation.

Apart from that, we have variations of conception of doubles and alter egos. Sometimes, it’s two people, which seem to be one and the same, or persons which resemble each other. There is a mysterious connection between people, we can’t easily grasp. Again, David Lynch’s movies and series are a good source for research: Alice and Renee or Fred and Pete in Lost Highway. Betty and Diane or Rita and Camilla in Mulholland Drive are further examples. Twin Peaks is populated with doubles and Alter Egos. In Twin Peaks – The Return, the world seems crowded with doubles. Kyle McLachlan, has three roles: Agent Cooper, Dougie and the dangerous Mr. C. Whereas Mr. C is a doppelganger of Agent Cooper, the paddington-like Dougie is a tulpa.

Tulpas are thought forms. They are real in a way, but they are not humans. Tulpas can be created. Lynch and writer Mark Frost borrowed that concept from Buddhism, mysticism and theosophy: It means a human form often created through spiritual practice or concentration (Wikipedia) but also unintentionally. The tulpa is more than a spectre, “it is capable of independent action, with a persistent personality and identity” (wiktionary)

According to Tracking the Tulpa (University Of California Press) “the tulpa was first described by Alexandra David-Néel (1868–1969) in Magic and Mystery in Tibet (1929)” The origins are a bit murky and it exists mostly in Western paranormal lore. Not much evidence here is available. If it would be easy to create a doppelganger tulpa we would have seen certainly many criminal cases where a perpetrator used a tulpa as alibi.

The deeper dimension of the Doppelganger motive.

The unexplainable leads us to deep existential and philosophical questions. There is, of course, a psychological dimension here too. There are many doppelganger reports in personal accounts. When people see themselves, it might be an autoscopic hallucination. That might happen in extreme circumstances or as a psychological illness. Maybe the double appears as a sort of warning. Or it could be a split in personality.
In religious or superstitious belief, a doppelganger is a shape-shifter or a trickster demon imitating yourself.
The most fascinating aspect is what it tells us about reality itself. We need to make a choice. Do we stick to the laws of nature and explain it away psychologically, or do we believe in the soul?
If we have a soul, there must be higher realms beyond ordinary reality, and the doppelganger motive has a much deeper meaning.

There could be circumstances where we lose our soul or parts of our soul and the other half of the self tampers around zombie-like.

In my story, The Forest Dark, a person loses their soul deep in the woods. Could it happen in real life?

There is not a big chance to come by with a sort of proof. We have to stick with concepts which are familiar to many people. One idea is the concept of a higher self which is not identical with our physical self or ego. From the hindu philosophy comes the idea of Atman, an universal self, that is “identical with the eternal core of the personality”. In that philosophy the individual soul is the jiva-atman, which is also eternal but trapped in the physical body. The interesting question is does the individual soul recognise the universal atman? The idea of that philosopher is that atman is the opposite of ego, “a false center”, “the product of sensory experiences”. In personal development it might be possible that the individual discovers that other self, that universal self. Why should this not look like a doppelganger experience at first sight for the individual?

The Atman-concept stems from Eastern thought. However, a lot of Eastern philosophy has either counterparts in the West or have influenced Western thought. C.G. Jung borrowed a lot of ideas from Hindu and other Eastern philosophy, for example the higher self.

But the interesting thing here is that we find a split between ego, physical-self and some sort of a higher self in many places in our culture. One idea is the Avatar as seen in the film “Avatar” by James Cameron. The real person is not at the same place as the person which experiences the physical journey.

ALTER EGOS

Similar to that in a way are Alter Egos. Alter Egos are sort of a double existence too. Alter Egos are second personalities within a person. It might be the super hero Superman which is Clark Kent in ordinary lives but there are endless possibilities for Alter Egos. The Alter Ego can become “another self” which is separated from the person. That idea become popular in the 18 century with Anton Mesmer’s hypnosis experiments. He claimed he can separate a person’s alter ego. In literature “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” explored the concept of the ego and it is a popular idea til today.

There is nothing supernatural in the concept unless we introduce the idea of the multiverse or higher dimensions. In a more multi dimensional world we would find alternative versions of ourselves leading an independent existence on their own. An idea which was explored in the Star Trek Trek: Discovery.

Thus it might not take too much imagination that doppelgängers as seen in the David Lynch series have some serious background. It might be a glitch in reality or a strange personal development or even more sinister ideas that a doppelgänger can be created.

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Magic Is Strong In The Forest

The forest as a magic realm is a prominent trope in almost any fantasy story and fairy tale. It’s sometimes a stereotype. The forest stands for the otherworld. Sometimes the heroes of the story want to reconnect to this otherworld. The forest is the place where reconnection seems possible. In some occasions the heroes perform rituals or they use psychoactive substances. Magic mushrooms are popular devices to reconnect or to experience deeper and spiritual dimensions of reality. The outcome is in certain cases unpredictable and a desperate attempt to recover what was lost:

In fantasy men is often a threat to the magic realm of the forest. Men destroy the forest. Men destroy the deeper, original magical dimension of reality. Often there is a fight between the original inhabitants, the fairies, the cunning people, the secret commonwealth and men. In fantasy often men is stronger. But the secret commonwealth, the little people, are going underground. Some say they return as aliens in common Ufo folklore. Instead of living in harmony with the higher realms men lives in a soulless technocratic world but which is haunted in certain moments.

There is an excellent overview in the article Where The Magic Things are: Forst in Fantasy Literature by Giovanna CHINELLATO, Sao Paulo/SP/ Brasil. She takes examples from works by J.R.R. Tolkien, Peter Beagle, Ursula K. Le Guin, George Martin, Patrick Rothfuss. The archetype of the magical forest was laid however much earlier in the myths of mankind, for example Gilgamesh and Volsunga saga.

Fantasy and Forest Horror

In forest horror the premise is not entirely different. However, the forces of nature can be overwhelming for men. The otherworld is ambiguous. The forest is a dangerous place. Attempts to connect with the spiritual realm or the elder gods end up in madness or even death. In the end the hero of the story can be another mysterious missing case, wandering around aimlessly forever as a lost soul in the forest.

The magical forest in horror is the forest dark. Nevertheless fantasy, supernatural horror and true stories or real accounts share a common concept: The forest as a living being. The concept bears some similarities with the Anima Mundi, the world soul: The idea of an intelligible entity, the inter-connection between all things, its omni-presence. This world soul can normally not seen in itself. It manifests in visionary experience and even ontological shock,

Plato speaks about the Anima Mundi as: “Thus, then, in accordance with the likely account, we must declare that this Cosmos has verily come into existence as a Living Creature endowed with soul and reason […] a Living Creature, one and visible, containing within itself all the living creatures which are by nature akin to itself”. This is, of course, encompassing everything, not only nature or the forest. But the forest is often the model. And it is in the forest the characters in a story seek unity, reconnection. In Forest Horror this can go terribly wrong.

In Forest Horror we often meet a truth-seeker, a hippie, a shaman, often a HERMIT seeking closeness with nature. That character is or pretends to be in contact with the forest, or the lord of the forest (often the magic soul of the forest is becoming a deity, for example the Celtic CERNUNNOS). The character has been for too long in the forest and is often a dangerous madman himself. Some screenplays use this constellation as dramaturgical trick, because then you don’t need to introduce some “forest demon” or similar things. (I make no exception from the rule with my own project here).

The more important point is that the truth seeking hermit gone mad presents a mirror image of the more optimist quest in fantasy stories. Giovanna Chinellato writes: “Given the, at least ideological, human-nature distancing and antagonism, characteristic of civilization (HARRISON, 2009), and considering that fantasy can have a recovery function (TOLKIEN, 2009), these fantastic forests can help humankind marvel at and reconnect with nature, possibly aiding in the development of a new and much necessary environmental awareness”.

Horror does not have that recovery function. It has a more cathartic function. It helps us to come to terms with realities. However, there is still a similarity between fantasy and horror: If nature is experienced as hostile it might be just a mirror or a consequence of man’s own wrong doing. In the forest dark we often meet our own darkness and our own inner demons.

How to express forest magic?

Either you look how to express the magic soul of the forest because you really believe in it or you need it for a story it always comes down to the same problem: We, indeed, might feel there is truth in it. However how do we show it? Unseen demonic force? Or positive magical vision? There are lot of temptations particularly in the era of digital effects. The problem is not, is it “good” or “bad, the problem is, does it feel right? This is perhaps a more challenging problem in horror rather than in fantasy.