Welcome to a brand new, recurring column that I am tentatively calling “Pretty Cool Stuff”. I would hope that it’s fairly obvious from the name, but I’m envisioning this column to be a place where I can write about stuff that I think is pretty cool. I know, super creative, right? You’re probably also wondering how that is any different than the rest of this blog and, yeah, very good question. It really isn’t different from the rest of the blog in any meaningful way that will be obvious to you. The difference is all going to be on my end.
Since coming back to writing a few months ago, everything I’ve written has been fairly long and has required a good amount of effort and thought on my part. While I’m really happy with what I’ve written so far, I do miss being able to sit down and quickly put some ideas down and just click publish without spending days or weeks to finish something up. So, that’s where this recurring column comes in. I’m envisioning these as quick little things that I can turnaround in a few hours, rather than a few days. I’ll still be writing about things that I think are cool and worth your time, but I’ll be doing so in a slightly less critical and more casual way than I usually do. Because this is intended to be more brief, these might also be things that I ultimately wind-up writing about in more detail at some point in the future somewhere else. Make sense? Cool.
With Halloween just around the corner, I’ve been jumping headfirst into some seasonally appropriate media and have been finding some absolute gems. Given how quickly Halloween is approaching, I want to get my recommendations for these out with enough time for you all to be able to enjoy them while it’s still the season. I know I’ve argued that Spooky Season runs into December and all, but these are ones you’re gonna want to enjoy for Halloween. The Halloween vibes on these are just right.
The Oldest View by Kane Pixels
Given that fact that you’re reading a blog in 2023, you are likely aware of The Backrooms. If somehow you are not, The Backrooms is an analog horror series on YouTube created by Kane Pixels that has become a sensation in the spookier corners of the internet. While it’s not entirely the cause of the recent explosion in “liminal space horror”, The Backrooms is one of, if not the most, prominent and influential bits of media in that space.
And, by no fault of the creator himself, the internet has kinda driven the concept of The Backrooms into the ground and ruined it, Slender-Man style. The most terrifying aspect of the original The Backrooms video is the surreal, unknown element to it. How did this person wind up here? What the hell is this place? What else is lurking in this endless labyrinth? The horror of the original The Backrooms all stems from the unknown. So now that the internet has released approximately a million “The Backrooms Iceberg Explained!!” videos, documented out every single floor of The Backrooms in various wikis, and have written scientific dossiers of every single creature lurking in the shadows, the magic is kinda gone. It’s hard to create something relying upon the fear of the unknown when two days after anything is released there are five dozen video essays dissecting every single frame and explaining away any semblance of mystery.
To be clear, what the internet did to The Backrooms is not Kane Pixel’s fault. He is an immensely creative and talented creator, and I totally understand why so many people have latched onto his original creation so hard. It’s just hard to be excited about new The Backrooms projects in 2023 because there are so many bad imitators that have squeezed all the magic out of the concept. So that’s why I’m so excited that Kane Pixels has moved on and is starting up a new series called The Oldest View.
So far there are only three videos in this series, and while it is definitely The Backrooms adjacent (and even mentions “those Backrooms videos on Tik Tok” at one point), this seems to be going in a different direction and I’m very excited to see where it winds up. Being able to revisit this type of horror, but with a fresh new lens is very exciting as I felt like the original The Backrooms had a lot more to explore before the internet explained it to death.
Turn the lights off, get some popcorn, and have a good time getting spooked by Kane Pixels all over again.
Find the current The Oldest View playlist here.
Find the rest of Kane Pixel’s videos here.
FAKE DOCUMENTARY “Q” by Daichi Minaguchi, Kotaro Terauchi, Tsuru Fukui and Kayoko Endo
A few years ago, I finally took the plunge and decided to start learning Japanese. In addition to my daily Duolingo sessions, studying of hiragana and katakana charts, and buying and then never once opening GENKI, I decided to go full immersion and binged as many Japanese horror movies as I could find. Ringu, Noroi: The Curse, Ju-On, Dark Water, Cure, Hausu, Kwaidan, Evil Dead Trap, I can’t even begin to name them all. While it didn’t really help my understanding of Japanese outside of me being able to feel like I had a few more brain cells because I could understand basic phrases like “sumimasen”, I had such a good time deep diving into Japanese horror like that. Like I mentioned when I wrote about Chilla’s Art’s indie gem, Inunaki Tunnel, I adore Japanese horror and I found so many incredible movies over that summer.
And that is why I absolutely love the YouTube channel FAKE DOCUMENTARY “Q”. Despite the name that may give many Americans pause for… you know… reasons, I can assure you that FAKE DOCUMENTARY “Q” has absolutely nothing to do with that Q. Rather, FAKE DOCUMENTARY “Q” is a channel ran by a group of Japanese horror filmmakers, making some of the coolest and highest effort horror videos I’ve ever seen on YouTube. From wildly ambitious anthologies like LAST COUNTDOWN, love letters to classic J-Horror films like CURSED VIDEO or pants-shittingly terrifying nightmares like SANCTUARY, FAKE DOCUMENTARY “Q” always delivers something creative, something interesting, and often, something terrifying.
I could write more about FAKE DOCUMENTARY “Q”, but there’s nothing that I could say that hasn’t been said better by Baxter over at Tsundoku Diving. Go give Baxter’s piece a read and then click around his blog as he writes about some pretty cool stuff that I will be checking out in the future, for sure. Consider this also a “Pretty Cool Stuff” plug for Baxter’s blog. Support cool writers writing about cool shit, people.
Check out FAKE DOCUMENTARY “Q” here.
Check out Baxter’s blog here for other cool Japanese media recommendations.
My house walk-through by nana825763
I cannot mention Japanese horror YouTube and not post the stone cold classic My house walk-through. This is not only the single most terrifying video I’ve seen on YouTube, this is honestly one of the most terrifying things I’ve ever seen. While I was recently playing Kitty Horrorshow’s Anatomy, I was thinking a lot about this video and I’ve gotta say, it’s still as terrifying today as it was when I first watched it. My house walk-through is a nightmare, only this is the kind that you can’t escape. Every time you think you’ve reached the end and are about to wake up, you turn yet another next corner to discover that you are, somehow, still only just beginning to see the horrors that lie in wait for you. It’s relentless, but also one of the most effective pieces of horror I’ve ever experienced.
Turn the lights off, open your windows to let in some of that crisp autumn air, and scare the living shit out of yourself with this one.
Into the Wailing Forest by Blue Jo Kelpie
[Full disclosure on this one, in addition to being an incredibly talented musician, Blue Jo Kelpie is an internet buddy of mine. We bonded over a shared love of old survival horror games on the Patron Discord for the sadly now defunct Let’s Fight a Boss videogame podcast, so I do need to acknowledge that I cannot be 100% unbiased with this recommendation given our friendship. But with that said, if his music wasn’t worth writing about, I wouldn’t write about it. Also, you know, it’s not like me mentioning it here is suddenly gonna put hundreds of eyeballs on this or anything.]
I am always looking for good, spooky ambient tunes at this time of year. Whether it’s for background music while working at home on an overcast, gloomy autumn day, or for driving into the middle of rural nowhere to check out a haunted house, this is a time of year when I very frequently have some spooky tunes going. Into the Wailing Forest by Blue Jo Kelpie is going into the annual rotation for sure. I’ve been listening to it on loop while writing this piece, and I already know that I am for sure putting this on in the car tonight as my wife and I drive out to a haunted house.
Into the Wailing Forest feels like the soundtrack to a forgotten Fatal Frame game. As I listen to it, I can picture myself wandering through a thick wood, heavy fog obscuring my vision, while bamboo windchimes clank in the breeze. My hands are grasped onto a heavy film camera, as I’m ready for a ghost to jump out at me at any moment. The sense of place this album creates is excellent. The soundscape is so immersive that the mental image grows stronger and stronger the deeper into the album I get.
(Johannes, if this album was a clever ploy to get me to replay Fatal Frame, mission accomplished.)
Helping with this feeling of journeying deep into a cursed forest is the pacing. The further into the album, the darker and more oppressive the atmosphere gets. There’s a sense of motion and journey to Into the Wailing Forest that feels absolutely perfect for late-night journeys into the cold autumn nights. What starts off enticing and light, slowly builds in atmosphere and slowly gets darker and creepier the deeper you get into the album. The album ends with the collaboration Return to Nothingness with one of my favorite ambient artists, Survival Spheres. Survival Spheres has released countless songs inspired by old survival horror game soundtracks, and this track is the perfect close to the album. There’s a peaceful serenity to this track that perfectly captures the “save room” song vibes that I’ve written about before.
I should mention that there are two versions of Into the Wailing Forest currently available. There’s the Samsara Version, which I’ve been listening to and I am writing about, but there’s also the Nirvana Version which is free of the added sound samples recorded in the Bavarian Forest. I am yet to fully listen to that version but am very curious to see how the removal of those samples changes the vibes. You can also check out both versions and see how they compare, for absolutely free at Blue Jo Kelpie’s bandcamp page below. Though, as always, consider leaving a tip.
Check out Blue Jo Kelpie’s bandcamp here.
Check out Survival Spheres’ bandcamp here.
Ghost Town Pumpkin Festival by adamgryu
And finally, I’m going to end this one with an awesome little indie game on Itch.io that was brought to my attention by my buddy Eric over at the Solely Singleton Podcast. Ghost Town Pumpkin Festival is one of the most pleasant indie games I’ve ever played. The premise is very simple. Ghost Town Pumpkin Festival is a time-limited game with servers that go up in October and stay up for about a week after Halloween. Over that time, players create a cute little ghost avatar, carve pumpkins and wander around the titular Ghost Town. While navigating Ghost Town, you can see the pumpkins created by other players, thumb them up, hand out awards and do some basic Halloween-y activities like a corn maze, hay ride, and navigate a town decorated to the gills for trick-or-treating.
There’s no spooks here. There’s no hidden psychological horror. I swear. This is just an honestly delightful, pleasant time. And man, there are some people who have made some insanely creative jack-o-lanterns. I’ve seen the Majora’s Mask moon crashing into Clock Town (note to self: you still have to finish Majora’s Mask), I’ve seen a recreation of The Girl with the Pearl Earring, I’ve seen a whole lot of creepy Garfields, it’s honestly crazy how incredible some of these jack-o-lanterns are. And the best part, despite what I’m sure you’re thinking, I haven’t seen a single dick! The community here seems super wholesome, and the art they’re creating is incredible. There’s also some very limited in-game chat, which has avoided all the unpleasantness that sometimes comes with online games like this. So far, everyone I’ve bumped into has been super nice and have complimented me for my ghost’s hat or just swapped a few boos back and forth.
As this is an online game, you can even get some buddies together to go wandering Ghost Town together. Hop on Discord and that sounds like an incredibly fun and pleasant evening for everyone involved. I’ve written about a lot of really terrifying, spooky stuff over the past few weeks, but this is a great reminder that Halloween is also just a ton of fun. At its heart, it’s a holiday that entirely revolved around community and creativity, and a game like this is a perfect encapsulation of that. If I would’ve known about this when I wrote my article on indie horror games on Itch.io, I would have absolutely mentioned it then. But since I didn’t, I’ll do it now. This game is an absolute delight. Please check it out and, if you’re able, support the creator with a very well-deserved tip.
[Quick editor’s note: As I’m putting together links for the final published version, I also just learned that this was made by the developer behind A Short Hike, which is also incredibly pleasant and worth your attention.]
Join the Ghost Town Pumpkin Festival here.
Check out the rest of adamgryu’s games, including A Short Hike, here.
The Cult Classic 
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