DARK AMERICANA: The Horror of Home

I am not a professional. I am not a horror expert. But I am an American.
In this video, we discuss American horror, in both fiction and history!
Thank you all so much for 10k subscribers! What an insane goal to have reached! I can't wait to see what's next!
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[@haasztamas]

If you do an essay on Appalachia, I would love if you mentioned the Old Gods of Appalachia pod. Its an anthology horror podcast. I love the folklorey atmosphere and themes it has.

[@spookymcg]

i’ll keep it in mind! thanks for the recommendation!

[@mjodrbirnavalkyrie5830]

Seconded, one of my favorites that I'll keep on repeat as a comfort listen.

[@renmage2311]

Old Gods is fantastic

[@ariannewingard1660]

Old Gods has great storytelling , and I love the balance of characters that they have

[@Rynewulf]

Oh thats one of the greats, up there as one of the best made podcast series of all time

[@naingaung2748]

“A father and his daughter.” Waaah? I thought they were a couple.

[@spookymcg]

So did I!

[@JohnPabloEsposito]

Same here

[@k2a2l2]

same what the hell, they just look very similar ages imo

[@benjaminrichey278]

They f*****g

[@marisolamaya159]

@@k2a2l2it’s probably due to the art style and that this was set during the Great Depression Era (not so fun times)

[@galactic_canes]

“It is the community of the South that makes people feel so comfortable with each other, and it is that comfort that allows the worst of the bunch to prey on the best.” As someone born and raised in the Deep South, you finally put into words something I’ve always known. The “I know them and they would never hurt a fly” argument is everywhere and is in no way unique to southern culture itself, but its prevalence is exacerbated by the sheer amount of instinctual trust most people have in their communities. I’ve seen it time and time again in my own small, rural town. We have such a culture of niceness (note that I didn’t say kindness) that allows monsters to take root and prey on the vulnerable without ever getting called out because people are afraid of coming across as mean or rude. It’s tragic.

[@cartwrightworm1317]

That’s just a frustrating part of American culture, I think. We don’t want to be rude or upset people by saying something unpleasant, even if it’s important.

[@burninsherman1037]

Its the same way here in rural Oklahoma. Except, if you're dumb enough to actually try calling out some awful shit, then you're fair game so far as alotta folks are concerned.

[@lavendarbees]

@@cartwrightworm1317Yes, but more prevalent in the South for sure.

[@georgewilliamson5667]

I grew up in the Northeast and it's always so interesting to me because we have the exact opposite culture here. Sure people are polite, but not very nice. Everyone tends to keep each other at arms length until we get to know you, but once we know you, how boy it's over a New Englander will kill for you. It creates such an interesting alternate culture (I honestly think it can be rooted all the way back to the Puritans) where everyone is always watching one another for signs they will be a danger to the group. On the one hand it's a good thing, because accountability is held to the highest standard and if you show yourself to be a threat the entire community will know and you will be ostracized for it. But on the other hand it creates this deep sense of paranoia and unease, because you never want to be the one who slips up and is cast out. It always seemed funny to me that New England is the *least* religious region of the US, and yet the effects of that old time religion still have trickled down and created the culture we still live with in the area.

[@rickwrites2612]

I think the northeast cities ie NYC, Philly are the opposite. Ppl are kind but not nice. Like on subway at foot of stairs, someone won't even look at you but will automatically pick up the other end of your cart/stroller/walker and help you carry it up the stairs and drop it once on the street as if they're working on a factory line. No personal acknowledgement you even exist, just your problem solved.

[@vanessarottencandy4044]

I'm German and am deeply fascinated by dark Americana. I grew up in villages and the smallest town in my federal state. No matter how rural I lived, I could easily walk to the next village. Even though we have a lot of woods, I never had to worry to get lost, even as a child since they aren’t that big and the most dangerous animal I could have encountered would be a boar. (Never seen one out in the wild, though). Our motorways are basically never empty, even the country roads rarely are. I live in a city with a population of around 80k for 18 years now. Sometimes I get this "liminal" feeling when the streets are unexpected empty at night. Two weeks ago I took the last bus home and for some reason the busstop in the city center was illuminated in red light (weird choice), I wondered if I accidentally took the bus to hell. 😅 I kinda enjoy this feeling, but can’t even imagine the feeling of loneliness on the highway and the large scale of the American Midwest.

[@spookymcg]

Very cool! Thanks for a look into what it’s like in Germany!

[@jamesbohling4864]

I'm of German stock, and that is why my forefathers ended up in the Midwest.

[@bzzzzzzzzzz2075]

This is mostly off topic, but the red light is likely a measure in place to help nocturnal animals. Other colors can disrupt their natural cycles and even their ability to navigate.

[@spookymcg]

@@bzzzzzzzzzz2075 the more you know

[@Im_With_Stupid]

@@bzzzzzzzzzz2075 It's for people, not animals. Red lights are often used at night because it doesn't interfere with your night vision nearly as much when you look away from it.

[@Skylerdouglas731]

I'm from Connecticut, and I love the New England Gothic aesthetic; it brings to the foreground the underlying sense of darkness and mystery that this region seems to exude, especially around the colder months. The winters here are dull, bleak, and cold. When the trees lose all their leaves, they stand like tall, twisted bones. The trees are covered in lichen, and when it's wet outside the lichen almost give off a green, ghostly glow. There's the sea, it's depths still mostly unexplored. Many older buildings still stand hundreds of years after they were erected. Some towns still retain their cramped design, and their cobblestone roads. Every so often, in the woods, you can find these knee high stone walls that marked the boundaries of what were once plowed fields now reclaimed by the trees. The Puritans who colonized this place, their fear and paranoia seems to have left a faint, but enduring stain into the psyche of those who live here. There are all kinds of tales about what strange things may lurk in those woods, what ghosts may haunt those older buildings. There are also tales about how people became fearful of their neighbors, thinking them to be witches, vampires, something unholy. I love this region, and I think I will always call this place home.

[@spookymcg]

What an incredible description, thanks for sharing!

[@dakinayantv3245]

So American paranoia started with the puritans. I wonder if someone has examined the issue.

[@martin.ballard]

' the paranoid Style in American politics by Richard hofstadter ​@@dakinayantv3245

[@one-onessadhalf3393]

One of my favorite movies is Paranorman, and I think it really fits into that aesthetic and uses it in a really cool way in the story

[@bloodrunsclear]

Dark Americana is a VERY underrated genre. Southern Gothic is well represented but not quite the same.

[@steviegilliam5685]

there a difference? I thought it was a umbrella term for American gothic

[@crazychase98]

​@steviegilliam5685 it's umbrella term the region name changes but the Gothic part pretty much stays the same. So werid folks extremely violence broken characters. An stuble but obviously obvious supernatural elements

[@blinkfilms1]

This is what i love so much about the first few seasons of Supernatural, and why the show got so much less scary later on. They actually were trying to capture that feeling of stopping in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere while you hear rumors of how dangerous it gets at night.

[@hjorhrafn]

Yeah. Once it started to veer off heavily into judeo-christian mythology *no matter how bastardized* and had all the forces of heaven and hell represented, it lost what made it good. And yeah, I know it starts off with a possession by a "demon", but early on, we didn't know what that meant to the world the Winchesters inhabited.

[@no_peace]

Oh that makes me think of the series Carnivale. Horrifying

[@no_peace]

When they visit the mining town in Carnivale? It's one of the worst things I've seen in fictional media

[@metaouroboros6324]

How it started: horror with drama elements How it ended: drama with some horrorish elements

[@Ceiling_Gato]

@@hjorhrafn It's a good thing that Supernatural ended after Season 5 😉

[@konodanshi]

Frenchman here, the thought of driving for several days across one single country borders on existencial dread. Not to mention, here long distance travel is typically done by train or plane instead- rather than the solitude of your own car. It's a very foreign and fascinating concept.

[@Finding_Arcadia]

God, there is such a uniquely horrible mental and physical exhaustion you get from driving or sitting in a car for 14+ hours that I envy you for having not experienced. Its completely different than a long plane ride, though thats probably the closest example. And i purposefully put myself through it every year to visit family or go on vacation or something, thinking about it from a non-american perspective is actually wild now that i think of it lol Though, that said, theres also a weird... Peace with it as well? Like waking up before the sun rises and seeing it slowly crest and then still driving long after it sets is something i dont think ive ever experienced in any other context

[@silentm999]

Some Americans would love to have a high speed rail system to travel across the country, but the car and oil companies won't ever let that happen. Right now, Amtrak travels on the same rails as the freight trains. It takes 35-40 hours just to get from New York to Chicago. Its a lovely experience watching the scenes pass, but it takes forever. Much more enjoyable than a flight or a drive. Long drives give me highway hypnosis. Especially a flat, featureless, boring place like Kansas. Long drives, especially when done alone, are a special kind of torture for both the body and the mind.

[@bomaniigloo]

I love being free and owning a car.

[@konodanshi]

@@bomaniigloo That's great! As someone who doesn't drive, being in a car-centric country would be the opposite of freedom haha. I'd pretty much be doomed!

[@bomaniigloo]

@konodanshi we'd have to get you some wheels my friend. And while we technically are one country and speak the same language, I'd argue there is more difference culturally between Louisiana and someplace like Michigan as there is between the UK and Australia or Canada.

[@graysonfisher9182]

The more i dig into the horror genera the more i think that reality is the true horror. These fictional horror stories are just ways for us to deal with the real horror.

[@spookymcg]

I think so too. We love feeling in control of things, so horror fiction is a great way to feel like we can handle our fear.

[@madambluewave]

​@@spookymcgThat's why I believe it's important to let your kids explore light horror (my kids are huge FNAF fans) when they're younger so they can experience that type of fear in a place that's safe. It feels confidence and allows them to explore one of their favorite genres of anything.

[@incrediblybored4787]

I think that's why No Country For Old Men is so terrifying. It could all happen.

[@realkraid]

Ultimately they are not just for dealing with reality but for dealing specifically with the most salient contradictions of the social mode of production which they characterize; gothic horror was the characteristic horror of the transition from late feudalism through mercantilism into capitalism because it reflected the breakdown of social relations, and especially familial and romantic ones, and cosmic horror is the characteristic horror of capitalism because it represents the horror of a world that is indifferent to human well-being and controlled entirely by non-human forces

[@Rebel8MAC]

It's because all these conveniences in society disconnected us from the dangers around everyday. Once something comes along and reminds us of these things then we become uncomfortable

[@NexLegacyAccount]

"It is the community of the South that makes people feel so comfortable with each other, and it is that comfort which allows the worst of the bunch to prey on the best." As someone who was raised in the remote rural south, this line sums up the horrors of corrupt southern communities perfectly. Some of the worst atrocities you can imagine get swept under the rug of Southern charm, and boat rockers are ostracized and blamed for "causing trouble".

[@Earenda]

I admire your self-awareness. As a current New Yorker, I know I could never live in the South. I mean no offense, I love some of the musical & cultural elements, and enjoy traveling there. But I have a feeling I’d quickly become one of those “boat-rockers” due to my different values and straightforward personality 😅

[@NexLegacyAccount]

@Earenda I'm gay, so unfortunately I was born a boat-rocker hah.

[@martin.ballard]

And this is especially true in the border states!

[@stevenjennings5887]

American gothic/horror is so fascinating to me. there seems to be a core feeling to it that the land itself is set against you, and that you are unwanted in it. Be it the vastness, the woods, the highways, the swamps, or the mountains, it seems to tie back to us being someplace we don't belong. There's a religious element pretty consistently as well, but that's pretty par for the course in anything to do with America, yknow? It's guilt. I highly recommend you check out atun-shei films's movie "The Sudbury Devil" when you get the chance. As always, this video was a treat, and I hope you continue to make horror thinkpieces like this for as long as it feeds your soul!

[@stevenjennings5887]

NEW ENGLAND GOTHIC MENTIONED RAHHHHHHHHH

[@realkraid]

The land is against us, and we are unwanted, we are invaders, destroyers, and murderers, or their descendents

[@realkraid]

That is what separates American Gothic, I think, or at least one thing that does, from the folk horror of the UK and Western Europe, that element of karmic retribution that lies in the background

[@jessicaclakley3691]

Yeah, it’s an enticing mix of horror right? Likely stemming from the brutally harsh conditions for early settlers and the hostility of the indigenous population (justified as it may be). This then morphed to fit with the move westward and the continued abuse of native peoples. I think this is why religion becomes so prevalent, to try and assuage the guilt of the descendants. I also love when American horror takes religion and then twists it to show what blind faith and conviction of belief can make people become. It’s the simple, quiet horror of the familiar that gives me chills lol

[@blisk7571]

The land should be against us. What have we done for it, besides sap it?

[@fubecafy]

Over the course of a few years, I moved from WA state to FL (about 3000 miles) and we drove the whole way. There were several stretches where it felt like we were driving on a treadmill with only the occasional change of scenery breaking up the monotony. I'll never forget merging onto a highway and hearing the GPS say: "Stay straight for 750 miles"

[@bexthewitch87]

As a child of Indiana, there's something not right about the roads. It's like the land is actively fighting the construction.

[@undercookedtoast1479]

I remember when i was younger on one of my many visits to Gatlinburg Tennessee, I wondered about if the mountains where a giant sleeping creature and the roads were carved into its flesh.

[@jessicaclakley3691]

@@HadenBlake I’d always imagined it’s like the land is sinking in on itself, like the earth is pulling apart and the road is being swallowed, maybe with you on it

[@theratgod8194]

It only makes sense. They leveled and re-used countless indian burial mounds, turning them into highway filler. You're driving on endless bones that were once buried with respect, but have lost that now.

[@nachtschimmen]

I got to tell ya: it's absolutely fascinating to read your reaction and the responses from people who experience the landscape as a complex metaphor. This was no less true for me when i lived in Australia which was so vast it was hard to comprehend. I've always thought that "Picnic at Hanging Rock" - the book and the film - expressed well my feeling of estrangement from a vast, hot and unsettlingly beautiful and ancient landscape that exudes its age.

[@georgewilliamson5667]

I grew up in the Northeast where the roads are tight and get destroyed every year by frost heaves and snow runoff. Every year everyone complains that the road crews don't fix the roads and then when they do, everyone complains how the roads are shut down. You literally cannot win.

[@lizabee484]

The eerie horror of the Midwest is something I’ve rarely seen anyone discuss in depth on this platform. Thank you for doing so. I’ve grown up in the Midwest, was born in the same town Grant Wood was. I love your, (and your girlfriend’s), thoughts on American Gothic, because I feel they’re often missed by people who are so used to seeing the comedic, endless parody versions of the painting. The unsettling nature of the work itself is forgotten with the familiarity with the cash grab, tongue-in-cheek nature of the parody versions, becoming more like those Dogs Playing Poker paintings than a thought-provoking, fourth-wall breaking, eerie meditation on Depression-era farming communities in The Dust Bowl.

[@Annatomova7]

Children of the corn is a perfect example of American gothic! I’ve always liked this aesthetic along with the wild western style… I grew up in the US, but don’t consider myself American due to my own closeness to my country of origin, but I have to admit that there are certain things I do like about the US.

[@HunterAllen-jb7hl]

Im right in the middle of bama baby 😂 and everytime i see a corn field this movie will always play in my head because of my mom showing me it when i was like 7 😂.

[@setheus]

You're super close to why the midwest feels like that; before colonization, that ENTIRE region used to be forest and wetland. Then settlers, seeing how verdant the land was, stripped the whole thing for large-scale crop farming. The reason why it's so liminal and dead is because it's the graveyard of its people and greenery.

[@rocks_eater]

bros never been to the plains.

[@crazychase98]

Uh no. The entire ohio River valley was a swamp like just 1000 years ago. Nature changes

[@justinsmithii4968]

That's just not accurate

[@panickedshrieking5454]

The Great North American plains, while they have partially been destroyed by agriculture, were always wide, flat, and dry. I need you to look up a biome map from the EPA, you will get a lot more context.

[@Aahhabdnd]

@@panickedshrieking5454 while true, i believe they were referring to specific parts of the midwest. i live in southern wisconsin, and i know that the plains dont truly extend into here, unlike our forests and wetlands along with other states. however, yeah the great plains is an actual dang thing

[@madambluewave]

I am blown away by how well you encompass horror as almost a mirror image of America itself. It's a horror movie in itself.

[@spookymcg]

That’s what I was aiming for, thank you!

[@alofoop]

As someone who grew up in a Middle-of-Nowhere small town in Oklahoma, I feel a deep kinship with this kind of horror. It's a weird feeling of disconnect though because although we share a lot of culture and characteristics with the Midwest states, we don't really get included due to the technicality that we're apart of The Great Plains :/ not Southern, not Midwestern, just Oklahoma. In any case, I wish more media captured the surrealism of it all. In my hometown, fog rolls in from the fields and woods starting around 1-2am and is usually thick enough to cast wild shadows while driving, and animals don't really care about vehicles so they just stand in the road, staring, sometimes even walking towards moving cars. All kinds of sounds go off at night- and in talehquah, eerie big band music floats through my mom's neighborhood after sunset from an unplacable location. Just weird sh*t I guess

[@Lunautau101]

You’re right, Oklahoma is like this weird twilight zone because depending where you go it gets more southern but go further north and it gets more midwestern. Oklahoma is just Oklahoma, I wish there was more media around this weird sort of fluid identity.

[@alofoop]

@Lunautau101 there's a horror movie called All Eyes I believe and it's a creature feature. It felt oddly like home to me, only come to realize it's based in Oklahoma! I definitely recommend it if you're an okie who is into monster movies!

[@lace-and-eights]

hey, I’m Oklahoman too! and YES, we aren’t midwestern but we’re not southern, we’re just..Oklahoma, stuck in the limbo. it’s eerie, somehow, especially because there’s nothing..here, at least where I’m from, it’s just..fields.

[@kintustis]

to the world, we're Texas' little sister. nothing more, nothing less.

[@HoboWithSausageLinks]

I agree about the feeling, Oklahoma truly is a wonderfully mysterious place at times. I think Tracy Letts put it best in one of the lines of his play August: Osage County when the main character is returning home at the beginning and her husband calls it the midwest, "the midwest? this is the plains, it's a state of mind, a spiritual affliction". Side note, the big band music in Tahlequah is usually just the marching band playing at NSU, shits loud and goes through the whole town.

[@pophassistant1]

It makes me so happy to see Alice Isn’t Dead mentioned in a video, that podcast changed the way I think about storytelling and I haven’t been able to let go of that liminal aspect of the US that people don’t talk about 💕

[@vizzzyy190]

sameee as much as i love night vale, i think alice isnt dead is probably one of the best podcasts that exists

[@DolphLundgrensDolphinDungeon]

I'll mention you in a video

[@alannar6189]

Entering this video like the villain of the princess and the frog like YESSSSSSSSSSSS

[@alannar6189]

I also grew up in Colorado and one of my first road trips that really sits in my head was ALSO a drive through Kansas (though we went south at Salida). But this year I’m going from Utah through 70 to Kansas City and then north to Minneapolis so Thia video is already really speaking to me

[@alannar6189]

About ten minutes in and holy shit. Connor, You have put into words the travels of my childhood, the games I would play with the painted traffic lines disappearing at the edge of the windows. The Rockies have always felt safe and the place to go toward, and the Great Plains felt sinister and open and left me with agoraphobia. Wow.

[@alannar6189]

I currently live south of salt lake Utah, and my friends who live in the Midwest and Ontario came to visit, and we drove to the Bonneville salt flats. The likely first site of Donner Party cannibalism and the openness of the land surrounded by the Rockies and the wasatch front. It permeates the land, the arsenic in the lake bed being the toxic death of the ground beneath you.

[@alannar6189]

I would HIGHLY recommend The Sheridan Tapes to you! There’s an episode about the scars roads leave behind on the world and it’s so similar to themes you touch on here

[@luca_milla]

As a Brazilian it's so cool to see how some of these themes and feelings translate to my experience here. Brazil is even larger than the continental US (aka minus Alaska and Hawaii) so traveling around here evokes similar thoughts of how liminal these endless roads are and how the country seems to swallow you with a sensation of "no way out". All this is to say Dark Amercana resonates pretty strongly with me.

[@Ds_D_D]

When me and my wife just got married we decided that we should take a road trip to New Orleans and I can’t quite recall what state we where in but at one point we were driving in an area of mostly just farmland and fields and it was pretty normal until we drove past this massive grain silo like for miles there’s nothing but corn and then just smack dab in the middle of it is the rectangular monolith around the height of a small skyscraper with small red flashing lights at the top. It was so surreal I cant even describe this weird sense of dread I felt just looking at the thing.

[@mimik222]

Me when I was driving through Alabama and smack dab between two cornfields was a Dollar General

[@LuciferHunter-kt7pm]

@@mimik222lol I know what you mean. I’m in central Ohio and I’ve seen Dollar General’s out in the middle of nowhere

[@mimik222]

@@LuciferHunter-kt7pm I’m from Cincy and was shocked at how many there were just put anywhere 😭

[@LuciferHunter-kt7pm]

@@mimik222 I know right?

[@chasecarter7421]

I get the same heavy dread feeling whenever I pass a corn dryer on a lonely stretch of highway

[@loonyleon9860]

as a person who's lived in the south my entire life, southern gothic as well as midwestern gothic has a lot of similarities, and i love them both so much as aesthetics. the bible belt also goes through them both. so on those long drives, seeing those big billboards threatening you with hell, as well as a billboard advertising for a strip club right next to it is so normal but also for some reason gives me a sense of home given i've seen it my whole life. i unfortunately haven't been able to explore as much of the south as i'd like to. hope to change that eventually.

[@spookycowb0y_]

I think Ethel Cain writes Dark Americana excellently. Hayden (Ethel Cain is the character she writes about) is super fascinated by dark Americana and southern gothic styles and her music really reflects that. She combines blue grass and classic rock into the Lana Del Rey romanticism of America. Preacher’s Daughter is her album that does this very well. It’s a concept album about a trans girl growing up in the church and the generational trauma that women often endure in those environments. Her father is a preacher and her mother is a stay at home mom. Ethel ends up leaving the church when her father dies and meets a man in Texas named Isaiah, with whom she falls in love with and he ends up abusing, killing, and cannibalizing her. It’s excellent storytelling and songs like House in Nebraska and Thoroughfare go in-depth on the horror of Dark Americana. I would highly recommend the album for anyone who likes that sort of aesthetic and horror.

[@TanJRHeaux]

I immediately thought of her too!!!

[@TheMaskedRucksie]

@@TanJRHeauxomg fr

[@iranoutofusernameideas7438]

Disgusting

[@TheMaskedRucksie]

@@iranoutofusernameideas7438 how so? I think it’s a rather good album that depicts the themes very well.

[@annabalto9164]

I clicked on this video because it reminded me of Ethel Cain's work!

[@akitsuki1149]

I'm really sad whenever I see a well made video like this not being recognized by the youtube algorithm. such a shame, because more people need to watch this greatness.

[@haasztamas]

Oh hey, Hungary is mentioned! Didn't expect to see my home country in a video about America! Amazing video as usual, I look forward to every upload dude!

[@spookymcg]

Hell yeah dude! 🇭🇺

[@MarthaRoseMoore415]

America is a melting pot, I can't figure out why some folks don't see that as a gift!

[@seventhsaint]

I love americana gothic/horror. There's something about seeing something you know well, something familiar, become something dark & twisted to the point where it becomes almost completely unfamiliar makes something in my brain twitch. This is really a great video! The intro hooked me well enough to totally distract me from what I was doing, lol. Great work! :D

[@drinkswateristhirsty]

Hi! I’m a Kansan! I used to work at a newspaper and frequently had to go on hour-long drives across the county to get to whatever interesting thing was on the police scanners. This video resonated with me a lot! Excited to see what else you put out!!

[@beetl_3]

reeeeally loved this. im a pnw resident but ive had a soft spot for midwest horror for a long time. since i lack the cultural context, midwest horror has always felt cozy yet creepy, as opposed to downright fear

[@rocks_eater]

as a midwesterner, midwest horror has always felt cozy to me as well, but more in a 'it will protect us from everyone else' kind of way

[@genehen6495]

I really appreciate this American horror, the mysterious and unfriendly liminal space that is the entire central portion of a country... Because it rings true for Australia, too. Australia is only a fraction smaller than the USA (Basically chop off half of Florida and ignore Alaska) - and is a long loop, all the major cities on the coast and most of the towns not too far off. the coast... but long stretches of de-forested plains and desert between them, punctuated by the few surviving forests and rainforests so deep and thick, rich with dreamings and danger. And the center of the country? Oh man... a few roads cross through the center, through the blistering heat and dry, the shrub-lands and the red and white deserts... You can drive for days and not encounter any town of note, just pit stops of a bar and general store, if you plan your trip right. 48hr drive of liminal shit. My partner grew up in deforested farmland, by a mangrove swamp and salt flats. Just flat as far as the eye can see... driving out all that way, around the strange roads you need to take just to get to the little ghost town cradled by a lake, an hours drive away from the nearest general store in the middle of nowhere... I've seen some weird fucking shit. I've seen Kangaroos that just don't look or move right, and Pelicans too far from water. I've seen Eagles on the road staring up at nothing in the sky, and trees that look as if they've been mangled. I don't believe in the supernatural but every time we go I am almost convinced. Time moves differently there. Staying overnight is like being slowly choked by anxiety - and that isn't just me as a city person, he felt that way the many years he felt there and was only freed when he left. His mother feels the same way... everyone there does. They don't leave their houses but to farm or leave town. Just wanted to share a little :^)

[@spookymcg]

You should write a story. That description was so evocative!

[@Haruspexas]

I feel like a series that does this so well is True Detective S1. These are people you always see, people you can recognize only because it's very obvious they're plain, maybe easygoing people.

[@Rad__alien]

Thank you for talking about the horror of living in america as a minority 😭 its not addressed enough in videos like this. It should be a given that it is talked about because it is so intrinsically woven into the fabric of this country. I really respect that you included this and it is a point that absolutely deserves to be belabored.

[@itskiyawhitaker9222]

Thank you for recommending the Left Right Game! I loved the Magnus Archives and I needed something new while I waited for new Protocol episodes. I'm on the third episode of LRG and it's SO GOOD.

[@BrynAitkenFilms]

From a film perspective, there will be blood, Devil all the time, etc plays HEAVILY into the midwestern gothic theme. It’s so interesting how it is so omnipresent subconsciously but when we actually have a label for the genre it feels really new and refreshing in a strange way Edit: saw the rest of the vid and glad DATT was mentioned haha

[@GameDevYal]

I'm from Europe and I still got majorly confused when you brought up "driving from England to France" as an example... turns out they finally built a tunnel connecting them in 1994, I was convinced it was still ferry-only and you suggested driving on the seafloor as a blink-and-you-miss it joke.

[@kmrose4741]

As a Colorado person who has taken road trips to Missouri like the one you mentioned, I remember rambling to my friends about how when i looked out at the horizon i felt a deep-seated dread at seeing a flat horizon instead of the peaks that have felt like home to me my entire life (edit - grammar)

[@imperiumgrim4717]

You hear nothing but silence

[@gokunion]

Always glad to see Alice Isn't Dead get some love - and now I have another podcast to listen to! (I burned through all of Magnus Archives after your video talking about it, great taste!)

[@bubbletractor]

Some of the deepest horror i've ever felt in rural america is not due to seemingly infinite travel, which I have felt, but being stuck. In such a car dependent society, if you're in a small town without a car, that small town becomes the entire scale of your world. If you don't fit in in that world for whatever reason, especially if you're a child, you can't leave. You're at the mercy of whatever that town wants to do with you.

[@emr1248]

alice isn’t dead is so good! glad you’re talking about it bc it’s so underrated. i was literally thinking about it right up until before you mentioned it in the video lol

[@paigewilson5585]

Omg yes!!! Love Alice Isn't Dead

[@fabiola4166]

I'm subscribing right away, this video sold me on the channel, it's the right amount of creepy but you also delve into why it's creepy and also sad and also weirdly uplifting? 10/10

[@kittywithagun7742]

I absolutely adore the dark americana. I found so much inspiration for my own work in these images.

[@LindsayBlevins]

This was such a fantastic video essay - just when I thought it couldn’t get better, you brought up Over the Garden Wall!! Thanks for the awesome content!

[@Yumecha36]

South Carolinian here :) South Carolina is especially eerie given the blood-drenched history the state has. You can still find strong remnants of the past horrific southern mindset everywhere you look. Statues in cities that will say “always remember the grey coats were on the right side of history” that just aren’t taken down? Driving along backroads and you pass countless abandoned barns, old houses that are falling apart and you can’t tell if anyone still lives there, and if they do, how they do it. Disintegrating structures at the edge of the woods. Forgotten gas stations, boarded up, 100+yo buildings in the middle of small forgotten towns. Peeling rusted billboards with “REPENT” plastered on them, or some other dystopian religious imagery. I’ve spoken to quite a few people who agree with me that the roads here just feel bad. They feel eerie and wrong and make the hair on the back of your neck stand on end. So many rural dead end roads in the middle of the forest, overgrown train tracks that haven’t been used in decades . Not to mention the upstate is a part of Appalachia. People go missing, they get murdered, there are a lot of things constantly being covered up everywhere. So many towns with horrific history. All while everyone puts out their southern charm and hospitality, creating the illusion of a safe, kind, helpful community. It really is like an alternate horror dimension.

[@katiem8601]

Love the video! If you want another American Gothic recommendation, definitely listen to the album Preacher’s Daughter by Ethel Cain.

[@ninjakat26]

I’m fairly new to watching your videos and I have to say, this is my favorite one of yours. I love both podcasts mentioned, I love Haunting of Hill House and OTGW, I found the VVitch weird but still fascinating. Another podcast I think might fit this genre is “Borrasca” which was made by Q-Code as well. A small town in middle America where young women go missing. I didn’t even realize it was a specific genre of horror until this video. Very well made and informative! I think I saw someone mention it already, but def listen to Old Gods of Appalachia if you decide to do a video on the Appalachian mountains!

[@hoypip]

hey this was fantastic! just a suggestion but I'd love to see something like this about the Pacific Northwest. it is very gloomy and eerie frequently.

[@6equj5_]

Raymond carver!

[@friedricengravy6646]

I was born in St. Louis City, but then moved to rural Missouri due to my fathers job transfer. I grew up there & now still live in the town that emerged from a small ‘every family knows each other’ community to a massive sprawling typical strip mall Starbucks loving suburbia. Through it all, there has always been a kind of wilful ignorance that the residents old & new embrace, even defend. There r others like myself who r progressive in thought, but we r certainly the minority. Its a tough mindset to understand. They support political movements that work against their own best interests, claim religion while displaying intense hypocrisy, & of course display flags as if we might forget what country we r in while promoting oppression of women & minorities in the name of ‘freedom!!’. My daughter & I would love to move, but it’s affordability that traps us within this cult of personality. Thank u for the content ✌🏻🥳

[@shingoji524]

@ 4:01, that's the scariest part of this essay.

[@zartexkrontaculys1097]

"Deal with it, this is my channel, and on my channel we're critical of powerful institutions who are known for abusing their power" THE IRONY hit me like a golf car

[@theearthboundsatyr]

I love this essay, and I know the feeling you mentioned in the beginning about deeply understanding the parts of dark americana you grew up with. I grew up in the part of Texas where rolling mesquite scrub plains and swamps with native Alligator populations overlap, and there's a certain eerie quality to worrying about coyotes, rattlesnakes, and gators all within a 10 mile radius.

[@projnaj]

Your scriptwriting for this video essay is absolutely phenomenal. Every concept you touched upon really made me step back and look at how genres like horror truly move to reflect the world we reside in, and how we change it on a daily basis. I hope you continue to make more videos like this, because you have a serious talent for it.

[@spookymcg]

Thank you so much! It really means a lot to hear something like this. I love getting the opportunity to explore these things with everyone!

[@MagnusH-un7hh]

Pet Sematary by Stephen King does a great job of illustrating the insidious evil that can lurk beneath a town, and the way it can corrode people’s morality and sanity and stuff. Great book overall, and if you somehow find a way to shoehorn it into a future video of yours I think it would be so cool to see you cover it! (This is my first video by you so applies if you’ve already covered it) also great job w the video!

[@spookymcg]

Thank you! I’ll have to give a reread to Pet Sematary, as it’s been a while, but I totally love certain parts of the story. The new movie didn’t do it justice.

[@lincolnchafee9602]

Hello! What a nice treat while I have my coffee this morning. So much of this resonates with me. I'm from way northern Minnesota, lake of the woods. My dad lives in a house 18 miles from the nearest town. No cell service there and the county refuses to update his phone line. I can barely hear him when I talk to him. Its scary how remote that area is. I used to live there so I was used to it but I've lived in Minneapolis for a long time now and when I go there it feels eery how quiet it is and how bright the stars are at night. There's a back road there that goes from baudette to international falls and it gets so narrow as to not be able to turn around and the pine trees are so huge they feel like walls around you. I wrote a short horror story once about it. Anyway this video captures a lot of what that area makes me feel when I go back. Also I listened to Alice isn't dead years ago, one of my favorite podcasts ever. Thanks for the vid, new sub haha

[@lanagomisc.6005]

I live in Florida, but my parents are from Chicago and the area around it. We've driven up there countless times, which takes at least 20 hrs/1200 miles to drive from where we live. Oddly enough, the most tedious and exhausting part of the drive has always been from Central Florida to the state border, which can take up to 6-7 hours. The best way I can shortly describe what living in Florida is like as someone who was born there is a joke comment I left on the newest MisterManticore video. Alex put an infographic which stated that Orlando would have a population of 0 by 2028, and I wrote "about damn time." Someone then responded with "no way same." I think that says a lot about the natural born Floridians, if I say so myself.

[@weirdautumn36]

The Left Right Game and Alice Isn’t Dead are literally my two all time favourite podcasts, thank you SO MJCH FOR TALKING ABOUT THEM

[@dontgivetwothwips3615]

Thanks to your shoutout of The Left,Right Game, I started listening to it. So far it’s incredible; exactly my kind of unsettling.

[@spookymcg]

It’s one of my favorites out there rn!

[@Sevastiel]

This... This is really good. I enjoyed this, the editing is delicious, your voice is lovely, and the content was both enlightening and interesting. I'mma be staying, thankee ALSO WENDIGOON MENTIONED

[@JAGomez]

this video was wonderful, thank you so much! I'm a South American immigrant to the states and have always been drawn to these kinds of horror and now...i have more context as to why! fantastic

[@odins_eye3257]

As some who's lived in KS my whole life this video strikes such a cord. Amazing video man

[@hgwells2024]

Thrilled by this!!! Such a good essay and I love the topic :) As someone who's grown up in the Midwest and plans to spend much of their life here, AND as a big horror fan, it's fun to see this analyzed. The Midwest has so much hidden beauty, too, I think it goes unloved by other Americans.

[@fyreknight9835]

Wow, this is a great video that doesn't beat around the bush about how dark and horrific real life is!

[@margarinchick]

As a russian I always felt strangely attracted to this Dark Americana thing. Maybe its because our country is also huge and also has a lot of creepy rural areas? Who knows, who knows...

[@katiecook6006]

Grant Wood actually loved Iowa. He came back here after living elsewhere, including "better" places like Paris, and Chicago. The painting depicts melancholy over the loss of rural life to the economic depression of the 1930s. It isn't meant to freak you out. GW went to his grave swearing up and down it wasn't a parody.

[@sophiaalbanese8598]

Fantastic essay. Can’t get enough of this channel, keep it up! Love all the media you’ve referenced - half of it I already adore, the other half I can’t wait to check out!

[@evanoutside3516]

I'm a wildlife biologist, and back in the days when I first started on the career path I had to drive from seasonal job to seasonal job all across America to live in small communities to do field work for months on end. I drove everywhere from the remote grasslands of Glasgow Montana, to the mountain towns of Salmon Idaho (videos of that on my channel lol). And you really captured the feeling of the travel well here. I can totally tell those drives across Kansas are etched into your brain. Also, I listened to similar podcasts while I was on the road. Great video man.

[@laurynharrell8529]

Thanks for sharing! It IS scary out here✨😭✨ and the editing in this video is as FIRE as your commentary.

[@spookymcg]

I love Joes editing so much- very excited for the video that’s coming out next week, it’s another of his! Thank you so much for watching!

[@cattaleacres]

For someone who says they're not an expert, you certainly brought the insights. Wonderful work! Thank you!

[@Rileylego-fq6wc]

Kansas has its beauty. Just it is its own kinda beauty, its just sitting out and watching the grass dance in the wind and enjoyin a sunset. I personally love the Kansas open and expansive fields. Can get lost in em for hours

[@spookymcg]

I appreciate the perspective!

[@henryburby6077]

So, Kansas only becomes beautiful when you stop driving through it and settle there. There is something deeper here.

[@Rileylego-fq6wc]

@henryburby6077 its just stockholm syndrome /j

[@SARCOSISARCOSA]

You're the first ever person i've seen not only knowing but CITING Alice isn't dead and its implications 😍😍 I used to be OBSESSED with that podcast.

[@SavySmiles4]

as someone who hails from Ohio, i cannot get enough of this content. It’s a feeling that’s always present yet not talked about a lot. There is a certain charm to midwest horror that can never be replaced. Great video!

[@annak9646]

As a non American , I always underestimate just how large the country is , it’s insane but fascinating

[@YithYaff]

As someone from and, currently forever, still in Iowa, and as a lifelong horror fan, this glance into rural horror Americana was wonderful.

[@YithYaff]

There really is nothing that matches the midwest. It's a completely different feel.

[@shaftomite007]

Wow i always thought American Gothic was a farmer and his wife, not a father and his daughter. Mind blown.

[@chimchilla404]

I got that weird feeling from driving through (south)eastern Washington as someone from western Washington where there's trees, hills, and lots of development. Eastern Washington is just never ending rolling hills of wheat fields and it was just so weird to me.

[@deejdman9431]

This is a fantastic video. Time to go binge the rest of your stuff.

[@alexanderaugustus]

If 772 miles, 12 hours of driving, is a family visit in the US, that's very different from Europe :P That distance is from my home in the Netherlands to the Spanish border and then it's a vacation, not an overnight stay at an aunt and uncle :D

[@chantaltestman6916]

My husband and I 2 and a half years ago had to drive to his next duty station. We had to drive from central Texas to Alaska. And this was duing covid. So there were some travel restrictions once we hit Canada. We had to pass through part of New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and then into Canada. Once in Canada central Alberta, British Columbia, and Yukon to enter into Alaska. It alone took 6 or 7 hours to get through Texas. We're both from Florida. Doing long drives and even crossing state lines was something my husband and I did every time leave happened. From upper south Florida to central Texas. You have to drive through part of Georgia, Mississippi, and Louisiana. It takes 24 plus hours. I am afro-latina, raise in south, and lnow about sun down towns. I never felt at ease drive through south. There is always this feeling if a stop at the wrong area, will have to deal with the local klansmen. People i talk to who aren't from the south just dont understand how uneasy it is to black traveling on the u.s highways can feel. But because i am from South, you just learn how to navigate the white supremacist among you. You're taught to be self-aware and always stay woke. (Woke among black people has an entirely different meaning compared to having woke is being used by white conservatives.) Back to driving from central Texas and to Alaska. Even going through West texas was a whole knew experience. But driving a small section of New Mexico, througj plains corridor. How bleak, bare, and just an ugly landscape. We were passing by rez territory, and my heart jusy sank. We are driving on this highway that cuts through this landscape. I felt saddness passing through there thinking how depressing it must feel to wake up to this every day. Then we enter Colorado. You dribe along part of rock mountain, it smells of pine trees, and my mood is uncertain. I've seen bluffs in Texas, but never a whole mountain chain in the backgroun. We stopped at the gas station, and that u ease feeling started to settel in. I felt like people were just staring at me and my husband. They just knew we weren't from around here, and i just wanted to leave. When we went through Wyoming, seeing the billboard cut out of stir and cowboyws was hilarious. But it felt comforting passing through hughways and seeing some checky charms. Something for your mind to consider every mile you pass. Then we enter Montana and see the beauty of the forest. We stopped in Montana also, and again, i felt like Alien. And every person we met looked at me first, kelp their gaze longer on me verse my husband who is white. There aren't too many black people in rural Montana. However, i never got a sense of rudness from them. We stayed in Lewistown, and it's a really small town to me. But all those movies and horror novels a read about, this town was was it. When we went to Billings Montana, i never felt like i was being watched because people didn't care about me. This being Montana city capital, nobody is gonna really notice you like they do in Lewistown. We spent 3 days in Montana in a motel. Even our cat for once chill out, and we finally got some rest. The we left for Canada. That catious feeling never crept on me in Canada. Because I don't know anything about Canadian white people. I know, experience, and witness racism from white Americans. I have something to judge by, but with Canadians, nothing. I wasn't ignorant to the fact Canadians can be racist i just had no idea what social ques, phrases, and body language would indicate it. White Americans racism can be very subtle to obviois hostile. But because racism in American is indoctrinated, you can easily read the subtle racism. But i was in Canada, the only Canadians I've experienced were tourists. They were french Canadians who love my first name cause it french Canadian. Why would my Puerto Rican mother give her only daughter a french Canadian name? According to her, it just sounds so pretty, and she made sure it was spelled the french canadian way on my birth certificate. Also, every Canadian we met in Alberta seemed nice. Friendly enough, and they didn't stare at me. Then, I didn't look at me a little longer than my husband. People knew we were Americans. It was obvious by our southern American accents. Which really stood out to me every time we talked to a Canadian. That damn twang we both have. My husband his had a little texas flare on it from the years station there. We must have sounded like hillbillies to the Canadians. However, i did notice some Canadians were a little bit rude to my husband than to me. Driving through Alberta was not scenic. Flat lands, farm country, and a lot of ugly dead grass. Driving through B.S. and Yukon just trees for endless miles. I could really tell where we were because of the endless miles and miles of massive forest trees. Out in B.C area it was rual. You'll go 200 miles before seeing anythiny of people. That uneasy feeling sets because of how rual and isolated it felt. Instarted to feel paranoid because it anything was to happen to us, who's gonna know? In area this rual you can easily hide the crime. It does happen in B.C. it has it history of serial killers who hid bodies along highways. Obviously, we made it to Alaska. But the drive really left an impression on me about the U.S. How massive this country is and how American culture morphs itself as you pass each state line. Even going through Canada. How little a knew about it even though this country is the easiest foreign land to access besides Mexico via car. Despite being an afro-latina, being seen and proudly being black. Thay uneasy feeling is just my gut instincts telling me not to trust the smiles. Dont ignore the states and trek carefully. Some people understand it and can empathize with it, but being non-white how that uneasy feeling becomes a sixth sense. I don't think white people will fully understand. I had a hard time explaining it to my husband. it's a survival sense that takes effect once you realize you're the only person of your skin tone in the room. With your hair, your body, and your tone of voice. I don't think most white people feel this way on the daily. They may feel this way vsisitinv foreign countries were the majority are if a complete opposite race. Even then its struggle for white people to be fully aware of your presence. So for long rant, misspelling and poor grammar.

[@spookymcg]

Thank you for sharing your experience! I love the insight. I will always see America from my own white perspective, and love the chance to see what my country looks like to other people!

[@rocksteadyska6933]

Old Gods of Appalachia is a banger of a series.

[@lillianleader5095]

I've lived in the northwest, the midwest, and the southeast. I've taken the Greyhound to get from one coast to the other multiple times. America is definitely a character in its own story and its highways are the connections between plot points. Love the video. Looking forward to more. :)

[@aronneibarra]

A surprisingly apt summary of Twin Peaks: The Return!

[@nikitakuznetsov6756]

Hey! I accidentally stumbled onto this video while I was researching on some horror genre topics and need to say that I'm incredibly happy to find you^.^ I'm Ukrainian and I use US (modern or historic) as a setting for my TTRPGs, and love the dark americana and southern gothic genres as a fan of horrors. But despite I know quite a lot about the States, this video was very enlightening and showed several things that always eluded me (like the horror of the long roads - we're quite accustomed to them in Ukraine, now I understand why and how they could be terrifying) or things that I never knew (damn, that Teddy quote was...insane). Again, thank you a lot! Keep up the good work

[@Ech_The_Sentiant]

Left Right Game is awesome, but have you tried old gods of Appalachia? Also, Alex Grecian’s Red Rabbit is a fantastic horror novel and rooted in the American wolf west.

[@torih5621]

as soon as you said you were listening to qcode’s left right game while simulating driving i said “OH NO” out loud

[@SweetWitchNerd]

I only found your channel today but I already love it! This video really made me want to listen to both podcasts mentioned and also wanted to recommend the podcast Old Gods of Appalachia, which is a horror anthology podcast set in and around the Appalachian mountains. Also the moment I saw your character on screen I was like WAIT, I KNOW THAT ART STYLE, THAT'S SARCASTIC SCRIBBLES, she's my favourite TMA fan artist and I've been following her on Twitter for almost a year now, she's always putting out amazing work out there ❤

[@SuperOnigiripanda]

If your looking for a good blend of Midwest and New England horror that delves into the horror of being Black in America, I’d recommend Lovecraft Country(the book, the show is a hot mess).

[@spookymcg]

Thanks for the rec! I tried the show and got really excited about the premise, but it really lost me a little way down the line. Hopefully the book will serve me better!

[@mostlycoldandfullofrocks3317]

This is beautiful. There lies a hollowness to the Midwest; a place seemingly forgotten by progress and left to join the graveyard of skeletons in America’s closet

[@josephkelly303]

the horizon having absolutely nothing but sky is one of my favorite parts of kansas. growing up here it just felt like how things outside the city are. seeing a mountain for the first time when i was 17 blew my fucking mind but it feels so much more special when the norm is just the sky. everyone says there’s nothing but i’d never say the sky and clouds are nothing.

[@seanh2785]

What a wonderful listen! Thank you, and all involved, for this fantastic video essay!

[@eatmorespiders]

Extremely fitting that this came on my feed while I'm reading Brother by Ania Ahlborn!!

[@swagathachristie5242]

Moving from a very hilly place in the northeast to a very flat rainy place in the Midwest made me frightened, and almost sick feeling for a long time. I hated it, it felt dead and wrong. I couldn’t see beauty in any of it, until one day I was driving and looked up and saw the sky like a bowl above me, open like the sea. There is beauty here it just takes a while to see it, to get accustomed to the new pattern of the seasons and how to read them (weather patterns are wildly different, I’m better at anticipating rain now). It was a deeply frightening and alienating experience though and I still miss the feeling of being cradled between hills.

[@joelangfeldt9163]

It’s 772 miles so it can be driven if you have a free day… spoken like a true midwesterner 😂. Great video, very informative.

[@caylabyrnes2197]

This is a great video! Just got back from a 10 hour car ride from the midwest.

[@adjustedbrass7551]

"In 1930, a painter-" *starts sweating* "-from Iowa." Oh ok.

[@finchbewitched]

As a Midwesterner into folklore and horror, really appreciate this.

[@wryn.is.trying]

i love American gothic horror. My parents are both from the midwest, i was born in Virginia and lived there ‘til i was 14, and i now live in a small mining town in the mountain west, so i feel some connection to a lot of the variants you talk about in this video. I think i’ll go listen to those podcasts now!

[@KriegerKatze]

Interesting part for me of this video was your assertion of familiarity being a big part of horror. I wasn't really understanding or connecting with the Midwest, highway parts of the video. But when you got to "The Devil Everyday" and southern horror all of a sudden It clicked. Being a southerner myself.

[@gunpowderthegreat6653]

This has legitimately been one of the greatest KZbin videos I’ve ever watching, all the kudos in the world to you man, I’m an instant subscriber

[@bonniephillips1823]

Lived in Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri. You captured the things that I took for granted! ❤

[@jamesbohling4864]

As a native Nebraskan, that is why we love it. The land sea calls to some us. Drives some mad, but it is our maddness

[@TheLPSWarriors]

The way I waited to see if you'd mention the queen of American Gothic Shirley Jackson!! Love love love it!! Great video as per usual!!

[@spookymcg]

She’s so fantastic, I’m in love with her writing…

[@TheLPSWarriors]

@@spookymcg honestly same!! i was so surprised when i read the haunting of hill house, mostly because of how ambiguous and grounded it all was!!! you really could've gone either 'the ghosts weren't real and eleanor was just going mad' route or 'the ghosts absolutely were real and possessing eleanor because of her weak sense of self' route and both would be equally valid readings!! i love how set-up for tragedy the poor woman was lol. she was never gonna give her sister the car back