026: Indie Horror and the Chamber of Creepypasta

SPOILERS FOR WELCOME TO NIGHT VALE (Year One)

In this episode:

• The topic of discussion this episode is "Indie horror," but we focus on four main examples of indie horror in our discussion:
• Welcome to Night Vale (5:42)
• Creepypasta in general (21:50)
• The SCP Foundation (37:45)
• A detour with a mouse, and the power of creepypasta (52:16)
• Slender Man (54:02)
• Marble Hornets
• Its sister channel, To The Ark
• Tribe Twelve
• What advantages does indie horror have over other styles of horror?
• We get a little psychological: How is it that, even when we know something isn't real, it still has the power to frighten us?
• I reference a bunch of stuff on this episode, so here are some links:
• Nerdist
• Nerdist Writer's Panel with Welcome to Night Vale
• Nerdist Interview with Doug Jones
• PBS Idea Channel
• How Does Night Vale Confront Us With the Unknown?
• How is Slender Man Internet Folklore?
• The Welcome to Night Vale tag on Tumblr. You needn't scroll far to find awesome fanart. Fair warning: There are pictures from some recent live shows that are POSSIBLY a little spoilery, just because they show the cast of characters in upcoming episodes.
• CARLSBERRRRRRG!
• Splendorman

THERE'S ALWAYS AN ADDENDUM:

• This has nothing to do with the episode, but Fio sent this to me before we started recording, and I wanted to share it.
• In retrospect, it might have been more appropriate to categorize this episode as "Internet horror" rather than "indie horror." Oh, well.
• Fio wanted me to mention that, in regards to a lot of the movies we mention toward the end of the podcast--they're not necessarily "good," but that doesn't necessarily mean they're not worth watching.
• From Fio's timemarks: "53:00 – I didn't really lay into you on the podcast, but your characterization of both Mary Shelley and Robinson Crusoe as Victorian is incorrect, haha." In my defense, I wasn't saying Robinson Crusoe was Victorian--I was trying to recall if paid-by-the-word spanned from the Robinson Crusoe-era to the Victorian era. My apologies for labeling Frankenstein as Victorian literature, though.
• In reference to Tribe Twelve: I say that the beginning of the story is based around the poster's visit with his "friend"--it's actually his cousin.

Music:

• Intro: "Mad World" - Adam Lambert (Cover) | YouTube |
• Outro: "Der Erlkönig" - Franz Schubert (performed by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau & Gerald Moore) | YouTube | iTunes |

(Screenshot taken from http://creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/File:Slender_playground.jpg. I did my best to find something that wasn't completely horrifying to use as a cover image, but also wouldn't get me in trouble with use permission and such. Otherwise I probably would've used a Trenderman comic.)

http://archive.org/download/AMOT026/AMOT026.mp3