Why are creepy games always set in Washington?

[@agent3c]

>looking for a new game >ask Simone if her game is creepy or wet >she doesn't understand >pull out illustrated diagram explaining creepy and wet >she laughs and says "it's a pacific northwest game, sir" >buy the game >it's both

[@umusuuk]

now if I want to get my cultural studies hat on (a carhartt beanie never once worn to do physical labor) part of the reason why the PNW has the spooky, cryptid reputation is becuase it was one of the lat US frontiers during the advent of mass media, and ethnography, so a lot of the stories from the isolated logging camps got published when creepypasta was called men's adventure magazines.

[@polygon]

this is really cool!!

[@steverogers8163]

Seattle also successfully advertised itself as the last stop of civilization for all the fools heading to Alaska to pan for gold. So its had this "on the edge of the unknown" mystique for a long time. Also helped that its just straight up physically isolated from the rest of country making it feel even more remote and unknown. Nobody just a passes through Seattle, you only end up there because you specifically came. Or at least that's how it used to be.

[@haleyc.3530]

As someone from the pnw, I feel the media doesn’t overrepresent it’s spookiness but does misrepresent it’s spookiness. It’s spooky in a different way.

[@theaudjob3267]

I feel like a lot of media aside from maybe Twin Peaks fail to capture the quirkiness of it

[@pennyfarting]

Yeah, I feel like a lot of works mischaracterize PNW spookiness as being more similar to Stephen King New England spookiness. They are two very different regional varieties of spooky.

[@haleyc.3530]

@@theaudjob3267For sure, the quirkiness is probably the most misrepresented . The media doesn’t understand pnw culture or their particular flavor of quirky at all, it’s like writers don’t bother to visit or research and just write based on what they imagine it would be like .

[@MantasticHams]

​@@haleyc.3530 Agreed. theres also not a lot of our diversity shown, you either get folks from out in the woods, people from the suburbs, or cityfolk, when really we are all intermingling all the time. I mean, speaking of diversity you also dont see a lot of our indigenous communities, asian community's, or just overall ethnic diversity. Lots of pasty white going on.

[@haleyc.3530]

@@MantasticHams True they definitely like to white wash severely, I’ve never seen a single representation of the massive Mexican community in Idaho either . Or the weird particular pnw flavor of republicans (not that I care if they have representation but they are there irl so its weird they’re never in media). They also never represent religious diversity even though that’s a part of our culture that is unique and interesting compared to other parts of the US. Like we have a really high percentage of pagans due to our Scandinavian and Scottish cultural heritage, we have many types of Native spirituality, we have a lot of Asian spirituality, we have Mormons, we have a lot of middle eastern and African refugees with their various belief systems, and then we also have the basic atheists and christians that everywhere else has and we all mix together.

[@MantasticHams]

As a lifelong Seattleite who has never travelled much, i took for granted how frequently you just run into a patch of woods, or at minimum a bunch of trees. most suburbs have trees all throughout their city center, and even in downtown you are rarely much more than a mile away from a trail leading through a few city blocks worth of woods, a large park, etc.

[@CrowTRobot]

The Twin Peaks and X-Files nods in Alan Wake speak to such a specific taste that I’ve never been able to pinpoint. This video is for me.

[@frog_pogs]

i think gravity falls nails the eeriness but also the absurdity of pacific northwest legends/sideshows

[@gabrielidusogie9189]

they had a character literally named Pacifica Northwest

[@michelegraham1181]

Except in the Summerween episode when it's dark by 6 PM in June. Yeah, no.

[@GhengisJohn]

Still shipping her and Dipper after... how long hasnit been?

[@xaldynnemo47]

Which was also very, VERY heavily inspired by Twin Peaks. I mean when Bill if first introduced his voice is literally just Alex Hirsch trying to do an impression of David Lynch.

[@shadedway5277]

I'd also like to credit Life is Strange for being brave enough to showcase the absolutely devastating forest fires

[@GallopingWalrus]

It's always fascinated me seeing non-native perspectives on the PNW. I remember being in the valley with some people, and a few of them specifically mentioned how creepy it was, and reminded them of Twin Peaks. The only thing i had to offer was that we picked salmonberries and sxwosem (I literally can't remember the english name for them at the moment lmao) and had a wind dry rack just up the hill.

[@dominenox5841]

It’s funny how the media never really portrays Idaho as spooky even though it is by far the scariest place in the pnw

[@joemiller361]

How is Idaho spooky? (Genuinely asking, not trying to be sassy)

[@DerekCooper_]

@@joemiller361the Mormons 😨

[@joemiller361]

@@DerekCooper_ ya got a real good point...

[@panelsofDOOM]

Stephen Graham Jones set his book My Heart Is A Chainsaw and it's sequels in Idaho. Maybe Idaho is about to make a creepy breakthrough.

[@dominenox5841]

@@joemiller361 because there are Idahoans there 💀 Its the kkk shit up north, crazy militia people, everyone carrying guns around, Mormons, fucked up politics, hate groups, lack of human rights, the string of murders lately, the terror of small towns in the middle of nowhere where unspeakable crimes could happen and no one would ever know, and of being in a place so remote that next city over is 6-12 hour drive away and you could never escape on foot, the cost of living being the price of a big city when you don’t have any of the benefits, the income to cost of living ratio, the fact that Idahoans are so sheltered and controlled that they don’t know there’s a better way of life out there in other states, the lack of healthcare workers and quality healthcare meaning if you need a doctor you’re screwed, the atrocities committed against the natives that still carry on to this day, the sketchy military stuff, the ghost towns, the volcanic regions where bizarre natural occurrences are abundant, the extreme dessert weather and wildfires, the fact that all the plants look half dead at all times giving a spooky ambiance of death and decay , the pnw lawn trash aesthetic creating a creepy atmosphere where a lot of buildings look like abandoned spooky shacks, the notoriously rude and unfriendly attitude of the citizens that makes Washington and New York seem downright pleasant , the fact that the citizens are so incredibly brainwashed and love nothing more than upholding their own oppression and defending their oppressors . And apparently it’s the ufo sighting capital of America ! 👽

[@i_am_Emmet]

I hope that the indigenous representation become the norm in these games in the fallowing years, my school district just made taking a BC first people’s class mandatory for graduation, so hopefully more creatives my age and younger can make this happen. (Pro tip: if you ever go to Vancouver or the Vancouver area try and see some of Bill Reid’s works, the Spirit of Haida Gwaii, aka the jade canoe is one of my favourite statues ever.)

[@drewbrew444]

Fun Fact: Washington holds the world's largest temperate rainforest (meaning outside of the Tropics). There are only like 7 scattered across the world. I think this is a big reason why supernatural stories get set there, it's a place where the growth seems unnatural and our monkey brains feel like danger could be hiding within an arm's reach of us.

[@ryanwillingham]

yes! shoutout to the hoh rainforest!!

[@GallopingWalrus]

Depending on the definition of Temperate Rainforest, it's either Washington, British Columbia, or the Alaskan Pandhandle for the territory with the largest amount.

[@caketality]

@@GallopingWalrusI have lived in both Alaska and Washington and this *has* to be based on a difference in definitions. I had to double check Wikipedia to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating but Tongass is the largest US national forest, and if Southeast AK where most of it resides isn’t a temperate climate I would be shocked. Alaska is generally considered part of the PNW for a good reason, the Panhandle gets just as much rain as BC and Washington. Very similar economies and cultures as well tbh. That being said I’m mostly fine with Twilight not taking place in Alaska lol.

[@emilydegroot6436]

Shoutout to the Appalachias, the east coast temperate rainforest cousin and one of the other main places American media likes to go for the "creepy woods"

[@RosieG9012]

Omg, is Simone from Port Townsend?? I’d know that old military bunker complex I used to play in while visiting my aunt and uncle anywhere!

[@xxghost_sniperxx950]

I've been to those bunkers too! What a beautiful place

[@emmythemac]

I was just at those bunkers on a trip like a month ago lol. Very spooky!

[@zaj_mahal]

We always went near here camping as kids!! That clip brought back some memories 😊

[@bryanconrad4592]

Yeah, Fort Worden is great! I grew up about an hour from there, and went there a bunch as a kid. A few times since too.

[@bb010g]

​@@bryanconrad4592I'm partial to Fort Flagler because my cross-country camp in high school was there, but Fort Worden is great too.

[@TheThunderbirdRising]

The ending section made me want a horror game set in the pnw that mixes a cyberpunk-y tech dystopia and the creepy off putting supernatural vibes of twin peaks, et al.

[@kingofallpie]

should check out Shadowrun Returns. one of the main spooky parts happens in Snohomish because obviously

[@LunykStormdragon]

Tails Noir very much straddles this line!

[@midnightripple]

Nothing is more unsettling than the things we can explain that humans do. Ex. Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook here in Seattle.

[@ryanwillingham]

i second this SO HARD

[@TheExpressionx]

Pacific Drive exists, it basically fits exactly what you just said lol

[@Sapphichearts]

It's spooky but more weird in a comfortable way. Like we're all at peace with the weirdness

[@polythewicked]

I’ve found that, too. People don’t get as many weird looks here as they do elsewhere.

[@orangesilver8]

I live in one of the towns Twin Peaks was filmed in! We went to the diner from the show for my mom's birthday. It's super crowded, you need a reservation to get in most of the time. It's kind of funny that sign at the beginning said the population was 50,000. That's more than double the combined population of all three towns they used in filming. That's not really a small town anymore. That clip from The Killing is kind of funny, they said they had a lot of rain to make it feel like the Pacific Northwest but as someone from there, they got the rain wrong! It does not rain like that here! At least not that frequently. Total amount of rainfall in Seattle isn't that high, it's the frequency of very light rainfall that's really high. They show a scene where they're holding umbrellas, a lot of people never use umbrellas here. Because it makes more sense to just wear like a coat that can take light rain instead. Oh I also live very close to a ghost town. My sister's been there. But we moved here recently I haven't had a chance to go to it yet.

[@rorythomas9469]

Rain on film has to be massively over intensified to get it to show up on the screen. All a light shower does is ruin hair and make up.

[@thewingedporpoise]

yeah the rain instantly made me think of somewhere like New York or Chicago or Boston, somewhere that gets that really heavy dark rain

[@Voxelhound]

I need basically zero excuse to watch a 20+ minute video about Twin Peaks so thanks Simone!

[@elenaj6283]

As a Spokane resident I completely understand why it's not a big location for spooky stories. There's too much plains, you can see stuff coming 😂

[@PussInBoot414]

It follows would still be spooky enough

[@GhengisJohn]

That could make a good angle though... you can see something coming from a mile away but it doesn't make a difference. Maybe it's a person with killing intent, maybe it's some kind of monster, but whatever it is there is a sense of the inevitable. Imagine the dread. Then there's the tension of if you can see something it can see you: Where can you hide? You could even use that visibility in a different way like you're out on the plains at night, in the middle of nowhere like say your car broke down. You see a large shape in the distance... Perhaps you realize it seems to be heading your way but it's difficult to tell. Perhaps as you draw closer to it something terrifying is revealed. I dunno, it could work if you're willing to approach horror from a different angle. Less about surprise, more about dread.

[@farmercout10]

No mention of Gravity Falls at any point. For shame.

[@polygon]

AGHHHH I LOVE GRAVITY FALLS AND TOTALLY FORGOT ABOUT IT. SHAME ON ME. - Simone

[@titan6062]

The Oregon Vortex is a great destination. Also I think the movie Pig would have fit in well at the end there.

[@Guimhj]

And iCarly, which is also creepy, but in a very different way

[@tuxxle8830]

Right? I was surprised too

[@lemonin4856]

there is actually a gravity falls game mentioned in the list at 2:18! only there for a second though

[@peanutismint]

Driving through Tacoma at nightfall is a bit like LARPing Pacific Drive…..

[@alphachicken9596]

I know the meme is "hehe Tacoma scary" but you can literally go to Aberdeen and literally (in the literal sense) larp pacific drive. Xd

[@evanhendrickson3449]

Yes but that would require going to aberdeen 😂​@alphachicken9596

[@yeehawboy1410]

Whenever people are new to that area I always tell them to check out the luxurious strip on Hosmer ✨

[@sarahherbison5419]

Wait..is Twin Peaks the predecessor of Nightvale?

[@emporioalnino4670]

Tacoma wept

[@One.AutumnLeaf]

It's creepy and weird how many Subaru Outbacks are in the PNW.

[@jotarodidyoubustthisnut]

True that and trucks driven by men who don’t haul anything but want to feel tough

[@0hypnotoad0]

If you don't have a Subaru Outback or a Toyota Tacoma you're not legally allowed to reside in the PNW

[@LionMettled]

It's all the lesbians ghosts, oooooooo~ 🏳️‍🌈👻👻🏳️‍🌈

[@btbesquire5]

That is worth looking into. SO many Subaru Outbacks....

[@annalisasteinnes]

I think it's because they're good traveling vehicles for rainy/slightly rugged terrain. Lots of people who live in the city/suburbs like to camp, hike, rock climb, kayak, etc., and that can involve trips down dusty dirt and gravel roads. So they need something that's good for commuting/getting around town but can carry equipment/supplies to more remote locations.

[@TheFourthBlackReaper]

Thank you for the Spokane mention. There’s nothing interesting here, the town peaked 50 years ago with a World’s Fair everyone forgot about. It’s just scrublands, hospitals and mediocre colleges.

[@ianstewart-vital]

Well, there is the surrounding mountains, lakes, and rivers I would spend a lot of time at growing up. Not much beyond that though, lol.

[@polygon]

i went to a knowledge bowl tournament there once and the high school was really fancy - simone

[@sunnydfangirl]

Having moved from Olympia to Spokane, can confirm the vibes are big different. But hey, you get to celebrate the '74 World's Fair for the next month!

[@TheFourthBlackReaper]

@@polygon Highschool sports is one of the few things this town invests in, so we do have some nice ones. I’m glad you found something to enjoy! But do not feel obligated to return. We understand, we literally call ourselves the INLAND Northwest so we aren’t compared to the other side of the cascades, as we will always lose those comparisons.

[@imallfordabulls]

As an east coaster, I only know Spokane because of Gonzaga

[@JoesMusicandMemes]

As a fellow Washingtonian, Simone is making me very proud.

[@theadventuresofhuckletaryfin]

Just thinking the same thing

[@robertgronewold3326]

Dead Boy Detectives also was set in the Pacific Northwest for most the season, specifically Port Townsend Washington.

[@polygon]

I found out about this LITERALLY the day the video came out and I'm so mad!!!! - Simone

[@rosegiacomini260]

Gravity Falls and the adaptation of Coraline were so validating in terms of animation that takes the Pacific Northwest as a place where fucked up magical towns with oddballs seriously. I'm a writer who grew up in the Willamette Valley and Oregon is such a rich setting for weird and creepy stories, so most of my novels take place here. The closest I can think to our current brand is Appalachia? Which I want to see more use of, PNW should not be alone in our oddity. AND HOW CAN I FORGET GOING UNDER! EDITING TO REMEMBER THAT GAME EXISTS!

[@loslomo]

When Old Gods of Appalachia did a live show down here in Portland, they were commenting afterwards that it was the closest they had felt to home in their travels, so I think your point scans. and remember, if you hear someone/thing in the woods call out your name, no you didn't.

[@ryanwillingham]

GOING UNDER IS SO GOOD

[@sebarus8108]

Going Under is awesome, one of those little games that has unexpectedly lived in my head rent-free ever since I played it. But what does it have to do with the Pacific Northwest?

[@ryanwillingham]

@@sebarus8108 it's implied the game takes place there. jackie has a banner in her room from "neo-cascadian university" and swomp jokes that he had to go fight in the "cascadian revolution", potentially a reference to the cascade mountains. i've always assumed cubicle is a parody of amazon because of its focus on delivery services, and amazon's HQ is in seattle. also, thematically, the game is basically a big commentary on startup culture. that's not unique to the PNW, but it's very prevalent here, with the massive tech boom going on.

[@citizenkaneVII]

Something I never appreciated until I moved away is that the forest has a certain magic to it. It's a place where nature is more in control then other places. Out on the planes, you could build a house with little struggle. To make a habitation in the PNW is to activly fight the forest for the plot of ground you want. Everything is in a state of being reclaimed. The trees themselves are covered in moss and sometimes mushrooms. And it's always connected to water, wether thats the rain, the sound, or the coast. It's the edge where humanity and nature live. The supernatural isn't to hard to imagine being possible.

[@ryanwillingham]

as a lifelong washingtonian and horror fan, i do get where the creep factor comes from! i feel like the fact that we have hanford right across the mountains is underrepresented, and it always gives me pause when i think about how close we live to a nuclear cleanup zone. i'll be driving home at dark hours and the roads will cut through the trees, the same trees that obscure oncoming cars until you see their headlights glowing right around the corner. sometimes i get confused and lost and mistake one forested bend for another (but maybe that's just me and my terrible navigation skills). you can find a million trails along defunct railroad tracks or abandoned mining operations, a stark contrast to the genuinely gorgeous forests and mountains they lie on. abandoned, rotting homes are rapidly reclaimed by vengeful blackberry bushes, even in the middle of town. the rain will stop and start seemingly on a dime. every town is woven with nature at least a little bit. you drive down certain highways and are greeted by mount ranier looming over the horizon, reminding you of how small you truly are. the beaches are usually grey and rocky, unlike the bright, sandy california coast most are familiar with, and the grey skies and clouds really make you feel the chill of the salty ocean breeze right down to your bones. as i write this, i can hear the frogs call out from the wetland right at my backyard. the forests here are old and wet and mossy, ancient places that whisper of even more ancient creatures that may roam within. i stumble upon inspiration all the time! i love it!! i'm totally that weird local that speaks of the things betwixt the trees and does strange rituals at night by the moonlit shore. please keep setting games here. it makes me extremely happy. i will place a dark curse on you if you do not. i would be thrilled to see a game that grapples with the juxtaposition between the seattle area's modern tech culture and the forests that lie just outside. i think the shift to working from home really exacerbated the loneliness that already permeates classic pnw creepiness. it'd be amazing to have a game about an average lonely worker in a little ordinary suburb get swallowed up by two opposing beasts - one the urban, corporate tech dystopia enforced by amazon and microsoft, and one the natural-supernatural coming to reclaim what has always been borrowed. neither can truly be understood, as they were never designed for you in the first place. maybe i'll have to make that game someday... i think this video also made me understand part of why i loved citizen sleeper so much. a large part of the story was about fighting to live in an overwhelmingly corporate world, and finding safety and solace in an impossible forest without giving yourself up to its current. citizen sleeper is an amazing game. everyone should play it.

[@sebarus8108]

Reading this I understand why a lot of Nordic people moved there specifically. I'm Finnish, and the parallels between our environments are sort of uncanny. Of course, Finnish forests are not as tall and our terrain is quite flat, so perhaps a northwesterner would find our nature underwhelming. But aside from a handful of big cities, most of Finland is populated by sleepy little towns, each with their own brand of personal oddities but not much happening, connected by long stretches of roads running through forests and fields and lakes. Very often you'll run across a lone little farm in the middle of nowhere, or a dilapited barn in the middle of a field that's been left there for who knows how long. Add to that our unique weather patterns. How right now, in the midst of summer, the sun never falls below the horizon. Or on the opposite side of the year in winter, it's an endless night. Some towns don't see sunlight for months at a time. We are also known for our swampland, Finland has the most amount of lakes per square miles of any country, making our soil quite wet, so there are many places where a forest will transition into swamp and back again nearly unnoticeably.

[@JCDragonBall869]

Live in the PNW on the Canadian side, I love living inside of an episode of X-Files or Supernatural!

[@loslomo]

Lifelong Portlander here. I think that your commentary on the woods is pretty on point, I know I was definitely raised to respect them and all that they hold, but to not stray too far from the beaten path. Also, exploring the old forts and derelict towns/camps growing up was not something that I had specifically pinned as being a PNW thing, but it absolutely makes sense in retrospect. Also, good deflection about the weird stuff that goes on in those places, its better if the outsiders don't know...

[@lilsheba]

Port Townsend?! Bremerton here, waving back to you…and giving you a knowing look.

[@nickjones6707]

Definitely played in all the Ft. Worden tunnels as a kid. Would climb into small spaces above some of the bunkers' ceilings and slam doors behind tourists to make them think it was haunted

[@joeyfromschool]

it’s from the wet

[@aubreyxengland]

that unsightly wetness

[@polygon]

the wet

[@GoblinoAlaMode]

This might be a meme answer but there is a lot of cultural and spiritual association with water/wetness and the supernatural/the dead/things beyond human comprehension. Mother ocean always is calling for us to come home…

[@sunnydfangirl]

Seeing the abandoned WWII bunkers was the Washington-childhood-core shot I needed; shoutout Fort Warden, gotta be my favorite definitely-haunted place to play Capture the Flag

[@zaj_mahal]

I totally forgot the name of fort warden, as kids my parents took us camping near there almost every year and the bunkers were always a must-see!

[@LeviJoslin]

Holy crap! I took a media studies course from Professor Groening at UW back in 2015. It was an excellent course, and he is an excellent professor. So cool to see him pop up in this, and glad to see he's still teaching at UW. As a Seattle native since 2005 it's great to see some PNW love. And yes, big tech is ruining the vibe up here, so they can go away. But another great video from Simone!

[@lucyinchat]

Twin Peaks’ soundtrack being free to use in videos is such a boon for creators.

[@entropytheory8875]

I moved to PNW a year ago from TX and I love the doom and gloom, the rain and subtle uneasiness I feel when I look out into the forest at night Its best place

[@loslomo]

Remember, if you're out in the woods and you hear someone/thing call out your name, no you didn't.

[@JasonLihani]

One of your best, Simone. This rules.

[@Petch85]

These are the types of videos that reminds me why I am subscribed to Polygon. 👍

[@rahnee2274]

3:22 I didn't understand Twin Peaks when I tried to watch it. Now that you've explained it to me properly, I think I'm ready to try it again. Cool video!

[@wiremesh2]

Oh man, thanks for the reminder of how hilariously over-the-top rainy "The Killing" was. Seattle isn't nearly as rainy as its reputation (less annual rainfall than many other major US cities), but it is overcast a lot.

[@steverogers8163]

yeah. though i'd hate to think how many more people would move here if we hadn't convinced them it rains all the time.

[@ninja_tony]

One more comment lol. Even though Twin Peaks was one of the earliest “water cooler shows”, the very first was the night time soap “Dallas” in the 80’s. A lot of people that weren’t alive or old enough at that time don’t realize how big of a deal it was, especially during the “Who Shot JR” storyline. It was must-see tv before NBC coined the term, and everyone stayed home on Saturday nights to watch it, and then spent the following Monday mornings at work discussing all the newest events from the show. I also recommend it to anyone that loves well written drama. Don’t let the “soap” label fool you, yes it has plenty of typical soap opera tropes, but the characters are so intriguing, the stories are so well crafted, and the series as a whole is so perfectly paced that a lot of people would love it even if it doesn’t SOUND like something they would be into lol

[@bretscofield]

Polygon video team always kills it with their longform essays. Love it.

[@EsShinkai02]

Biggest surprise from moving to the PNW after (but not because of, mind) seeing movies like The Ring and Twilight is learning that those filters aren't as hyperbolic as they might seem. Sometimes this area just kinda, does that. Especially in early spring.

[@SquadCodeProductions]

As someone who lives in Spokane, thanks for the shoutout! But the image you guys showed is the from the Channel Scablands which are a couple hours west of us here! That region still has some breathtaking landscapes that reveal the geological history of the Missoula Great Flood, but Spokane looks nothing like that! I love living in the PNW and this video is terrific!

[@jaydenlangford6649]

I've lived in the PNW my whole life and I must say it's pretty spoopy

[@fintangeraghty96]

I love the Pacific Northwest music so much. Psychonauts 1&2 and Thimbleweed park are my favourite Pacific Northwest vibe games.

[@Orchidheart1]

My mom was such a Twin Peaks fangirl back in the day that she married a guy named Dale and moved to North Bend, one of the towns where it was filmed. Without Twin Peaks, I literally would not exist!

[@demonbard89]

Simone gives all the effort of BDG and makes it so much more grounded. Great ep!

[@brookswift]

Outside of the big cities, there are a LOT of skinheads and neo-nazis in the PNW. We had a few close calls going on tour through there.

[@diyromania]

it's also worth mentioning that the Oregon state constitution made it illegal for non-white people to move there until 1925, and the language in the constitution surrounding these exclusionary laws was still on the books until 2002, and even when it was finally removed, 30% of Oregon voters wanted to keep it

[@PKton509]

I also grew up in the Pacific Northwest but only the stuffy suburb parts, not the cool spooky woods parts >:( got a good chuckle out of the "Visit Beautiful Spokane" bit

[@MantasticHams]

Hey, hawk is pivotal! I agree though, past that. The indigenous peoples here are broadly ignored in twin peaks and elsewhere.

[@ambermiller3751]

I love when there is a Simone video it always improves my day :) also the soapbox bit made me laugh irl thank you

[@haxenheimer9707]

Simone always manages to get me hyped for things I never looked into, thanks for the video! 06:47 just a small lil funfact: while I'm sure they did some touch-ups in post, The Ring was shot with different blue tinted camera-filters, to give it its look from the get go. There was a thorough video about it somewhere on here, but I can't remember by whom. EDIT: It was by WatchingtheAerial !

[@acificap]

"...and british columbia. these regions were relatively late additions to the US." *nervously looks towards border*

[@Se7enRemain]

Fort Worden is goated. If you've never played hide and seek in military bunkers you're missing out

[@VikingBlonde]

The greater internet is not ready to deconstruct 'The Seattle Freeze'

[@ClericalError87]

It's interesting that Shadowrun, released originally in 1989, primarily set in the Seattle of the year 2050. Fun that they mixed the supernatural with the encroachment of tech-oriented megacorps that far back.

[@JosefTrejbal]

2:23 *sees that about half of those games are my favourite* Thank you for the other half of recommendations, just in time for Steam Summer Sale. :)

[@moeezS]

I would love media to focus more on the indigenuous representation in the PNW, and not just through the aesthetic and fashion but also the history and people. There is also creepy mythology in native american cultures.

[@normative]

As a huge Twin Peaks fan who was just a hair too young to be into it during it’s original broadcast run & caught it during the Bravo reairings a few years later, it’s easy to forget that this utterly bizarre Lynch show wasn’t some cult phenomenon in its day, but a massive mainstream hit. Which still sort of blows my mind.

[@nshkurkin]

I really enjoy your video essays. Keep up the good work!

[@dianethepunk6149]

Seeing Lighthouse: The Dark Being unlocked memories of playing that game as a kid. Small wonder I got as into horror as I did.

[@eduardokuri1983]

"it's not that weird" (proceeds to talk about how she went to the backrooms as a child)

[@cainola]

Gig Harbor resident here! I loved watching this video. I grew up near Spokane and moved to the west side later on. This is a fantastic piece that captures the vibe and "weird" of the western side of WA/OR. Love the east side roast too (it's all true).

[@ninja_tony]

3:00 I’m going to go ahead and pause right now and tell every single person reading this, if you haven’t watched Twin Peaks before, DO IT NOW! It’s one of the most original, peculiar, creative shows ever made, and a perfect entry point to the world of David Lynch.

[@kingkringle]

In Oregon; found a body in the woods when I was a child.

[@tylerf.145]

i think it's funny, as someone from central/eastern washington, how almost all media set in washigton is in approximately 1/4 of the state

[@supercres]

shoutout to bellingham and its high per capita serial killer representation

[@jordantm16]

It only took 4 seconds and I am already SO invested in this video thanks to that editing and Simone's expression! 😅

[@hurricanestarang]

I'm from Victoria BC (very bottom of the island she's showing on the map) and I love our forests and random sunny/rainy weather

[@sp4c3c4t]

what has gone unspoken of regarding pnw? banana slugs... found everywhere; in the forests, in the food, in the coffee.... 🐌 ;^)

[@polygon]

YES

[@CursedRose200]

And geoduck hunting

[@rick-deckard]

In the coffeeeee!?!? Wym

[@moreartthantime]

I grew up in Bellingham WA and the scariest stuff was the cost of living and entry level job market.

[@thefollowingisatest4579]

I always love the personal spin of Simone's vids, it really draws you in.

[@h00pla434]

This was a delightful break from watching Twin Peaks and an excellent segue back into watching Twin Peaks, thanks!

[@ace1diots]

You mentioned Alan Wake 2 and summoned me to this video I think xD! This is a great and very fun video!

[@hypnos1608]

I’m debating whether we can claim The Shining as a creepy PNW movie because the real hotel that was the exterior of the Overlook, the Timberline Hotel, is in Oregon

[@joybox8203]

Only halfway through the video, but this comment is the third time so far that there's weird interplay between the Pacific Northwest and New England.

[@boombabri]

when she said that that buisness campuses prevent folks for engaging with the city, it really made we realize like "woah, if I want the city I live in to be a beautiful city I need to engage in the community" I have never thought about how engaging in a city builds up the city!

[@oliverb7897]

Port Townsend shout-out! Those bunkers are cool as hell

[@lemonin4856]

as a non-american, i appreciate the explanation on where exactly the pacific north-west is! i never realized a bunch of these shows and games all took place in the same region

[@grahamgilmore42]

I remember having to run cross country runs in middle school through the woods. Vaguely threatening fits the description well. Shoutout to Comox, BC.

[@midnightripple]

It’s all the Pacific Northwest tree octopus doing this.

[@Michael_Lindell]

3:32 That's David Lynch as a child, right? Right? Somehow, right?

[@polygon]

it's his kid!

[@user-ir8fx6uv1j]

I work in big tech and I think we ruin things where ever we show up.

[@caseyneal1277]

Thanks for the Spokane shout out.

[@josepholiveira2873]

20:05 The article excerpted here hits at the thought that I had throughout the video: "Oh, so the Pacific Northwest is the new Maine." New England was The Place for horror for decades, influenced by Lovecraft and Stephen King living in the place. The two regions have a lot in common: Dense spooky forests, large cosmopolitan cities with prestigious universities, a history of brutal colonialism that exacerbates the sense that the European immigrants don't belong here.

[@michaelwolf8690]

Add to the setting that PWN is both eerily quiet and terrifyingly noisy. Between the soft pine falls and the fog the forests in the Northwest can be nearly silent. You could walk for miles and hear nothing but water softly dropping into moss, even if you're just a 100 feet away from a main road. Also it's a windy region in a lot of places with wind howling through trees and buildings, angry violent storms, crashing dark grey waves. There are almost no settling noises here. Our architecture is strange, a blend of early age of enlightenment buildings, Chinese construction from the gold rush, 1930's housing boom ranch houses and late 2000's all-glass smart houses. We have train tracks that vanish into tunnels that go to places nobody knows. The afor mentioned gun forts that vanish into blackness, Amusement parks that were built over cold-war bunker complexes. Our loose housing approval tend to allow some exciting and exotic constructions. Every neighborhood has a haunted structure. Every other block has something strange built there. Add to the people that we're the melting pot's melting pots. We have cultures from every corner of the world assimilated along with their cultures and traditions. We also have a lot of religion. We have Scottish Rite temples, legitimate Druidic Groves, Even a Satanic Temple, and much much more oddball cults and quasi religions. We have more occult book stores than just about anywhere else. The Seattle freeze isn't really a thing but legitimately the PNW kind of does it's own thing and folks who move here really struggle to figure out how we socialize so if you're from the east coast we probably feel a lot like Twin Peaks characters. We also LOVE the Hell out of being weird, to the point that we're technical fans of it. You'll see folks walking around in cosplay in the PNW just because. We organize bar crawls where we dress up like zombies. We do Bookstore crawls, which sounds like an adorable affectation until the bookstore you're quietly reading in suddenly packs full of folks who are trading knowing glances and trying not to giggle. We're weird. Add to Supernatural, in addition to Bigfoot and too many Indian folklore monsters we have a number of water cryptids from the Chelan Dragon to Giant Crabs. We're also one of the most active areas for UFO sightings. Despite having millions of people in urban areas we have a lot of actual wilderness where no person has touched. We also have a fair amount of crypto-occult stuff going on in our architecture and history because so much of cities like Seattle is built on top of wild-west era construction. Everywhere you look are little markers and cues that a location is actually a different location, buildings designed to create optical illusions, clues and puzzles that make the region even more weird. Modern cities in the PNW only complicate the issue. You can live in your corporate archology and drive to Costco who whole foods for supplies, but you take a shortcut or get off on the wrong exit, and you're deep in the winding neighborhood roads and dark trees of that old PWN without much warning, where the city gets stranger the closer you look. Nowhere exemplifies this like Portland where going on adventures to the weird is a popular hobby of the suburban residents.

[@kendalljennings3417]

Speaking as someone who grew up in Washington… my grandpa told me to watch out when peeing in the woods, or the Sasquatch might carry me away to be his forest bride. So… just keep that in mind.

[@nightwingphd8580]

Loved the quick but information rich land acknowledgment ngl.

[@fisheloph]

1:54 as a Seattleite, please do visit Spokane. It fucking rules. Completely unique vibe, great food, inexpensive. Gigantic park centered around a waterfall in the downtown. Hella orchards up in green bluff. Great bars. Do it.

[@gjits5307]

A low-key trope in many of the mentioned media include: the (pacific north)western diner. Especially as a place of tension between its function as the local public house (full of strange and surly "regulars") and its function as a roadside restaurant for travellers, truckers, itinerant FBI agents, Arizonan transplants...

[@zyaicob]

It's fascinating how the PNW™ as a concept is so much the colonists' experience of the PNW. Fear of the unknown and a sense of not belonging? That's unique to the colonial experience. Meeting a sense of unease and distance when it comes to newcomers? Check. And as the last place the colonists would have gotten to geographically it's probably the place in North America with the most surviving anthropological ingigeneity, which uncaring colonists would probably just characterise as the supernatural anyway.

[@Jdacosta1038]

Yes because native Americans were just frolicking and giggling their way around in a region that’s home to temperate rainforests that are shrouded in fog and rain most of the year. Most Americans crypids are from Native American folktales, and your gonna tell me they didn’t also have a fear and fascination of the unknown and morbid? Why think when you propagate more self righteous noble savage bullshit all over every comment section like most of the Internet does.

[@redfox7497]

omg the professor wearing seattle sounders shirt! xD I love him already!

[@rachelrachel9152]

Ive started watching frasier recently and i actually recognized that clip you showed! I'm glad my research paid off

[@batti591]

I'd like to add that IIRC the Icelandic delegation was the suggestion of an Icelandic producer; Sigurjón Sighvatsson, the co-head of the production company Propaganda Films.

[@RileyZilla1001]

If you counted season 3 of Twin Peaks you got 4 more squares on that bingo card: fog, mountains, water, and ghost towns (with how empty the town of TP is in season 3.) Tbh mountains and water should have been marked anyways with how iconic The Great Northern hotel is with its crashing waterfalls on the cliff side.

[@gwelengu]

It’s funny how the forests get this ‘dangerous and creepy’ reputation from the media when it’s like the safest natural environment to be in in the country (at least near Seattle). Theres no poisonous spiders or snakes, and it’s a very mild climate with a Mediterranean pattern (short, but very dry summers). Bears, cougars etc are more near the mountains or very isolated areas but you’ll probably never see one near where people actually live.

[@aurusallos]

I'm kinda intrigued that, in discussing the modern Seattle, there wasn't a mention of Boeing, which does also massively influence, and likely welcomed in, Microsoft and Amazon.

[@btmurphy88]

This was a fun watch before my Seattle/Portland trip next week. Time to get creeped out.

[@bubble.mp3]

Another banger from Simone, great as always ♥

[@tetrameryxx]

Grew up here my whole life and I can confirm that the eastern sagebrush steppes (of Oregon at least) are definitely scarier on a more rational level. I worked nights west of the Cascades literally in the middle of the woods and never had issues with people, but you'll see folks doing weirdass stuff in the middle of the day in the desert lmao. They tend to be more isolated as a whole out there, just in general.

[@Anngrl69]

Did she grow up on Whidbey Island exploring Fort Casey? That’s the vibe I was getting but idk where other bunkers may be found