Rapid Eyes is a Digital Horror "Unfiction" series, the first episode of which was uploaded on June 23, 2023. A YouTube playlist for the series itself can be accessed here
, while a Night Mind video analyzing the first eleven episodes of the series can be viewed here.
A guy upset with a mysterious "Rapid Eyes" program on his computer decides to record himself actually opening it, and is surprised to see that it's some kind of game with levels based on liminal spaces. Although he claims to not be a "Let's Player", he decides to continue exploring the game and get to the bottom of this mystery, even when the game itself tells him that he's better off not knowing.
Tropes:
- Addressing the Player: "Episode #4 Demo Video" ends with the player character turning around to see Red Eyes staring at them from a black void and the "DEMO" text change to state "LEAVE". Later videos that cut to DEMO footage make it more clear that, rather than addressing the player/uploader, Red Eyes is addressing the audience.
- Animation Bump: Episode #12 includes a scene at the end of a fully-animated Red Eyes grabbing a copy of Radio that's invaded to offer unwanted critique, and smashing it against a table.
- Arc Symbol:
- Rapid Eyes has a lot of eye imagery, such as the game's logo being an eye, the antagonistic figure being named Red Eyes, the school level having an alphabet with an eye replacing the O, and a large red eye on the monster in the school's wall.
- One of the most frequently reoccurring props is a stop sign, usually placed in front of something that the uploader wants to investigate that then tries to hurt him in some way, highlighting his admitted stubbornness and willingness to fight his instincts to get the answers he wants.
- Art Shift: The final shot of Episode #13 is a return to the pier on the lake, but as a pixelated adventure game with a top-down perspective depicting the player character, instead of the regular first-person view in a 3D world.
- The Call Knows Where You Live: The first video opens with the uploader stating that they tried to completely defragment their computer and start fresh in order to get rid of the "Rapid Eyes" executable, but it still ended up on their desktop.note
- Color-Coded Speech: The dialogue text is colored differently for each game character, as well as using different fonts and sound effects.
- Elevator Failure: Episode #11 opens with the player ignoring another stop sign to enter an elevator in an island, which rapidly descends until crashing and breaking apart at the bottom.
- Fictional Video Game: Rapid Eyes, the mysterious game that's being explored, is not real.
- Green-Eyed Monster: The first in-game note that the uploader finds defines the difference between Envy and Jealousynote , while most of the successive notes accuse them of being envious of the peace and tranquility of liminal spaces.
- Haunted Technology: The moment that the uploader starts theorizing that the oddities about Rapid Eyes are due to a ghost in his computer, his recording suddenly cuts mid-sentence to more DEMO footage in which Red Eyes directly addresses the people watching the series and mocks the player for missing obvious hints before cutting back to the uploader.
- I Warned You: The uploader's most notable flaw is a habit to ignore clearly-stated warnings. A series of stop signs that lead to a malfunctioning machine that crashes his computer, Radio's request to just shut the game off instead of progressing to the next level, a note from a child not to feed a thing in a wall that gets angry and chases him down corridors after he tries feeding it, and so on. He even admits in Episode #13 to being too curious about the game to actually give up despite the clear risk involved and that whoever's behind it should've just made it unplayable instead of leaving warnings or solvable puzzles if they truly didn't want him to keep playing.
- The Most Dangerous Video Game: The second appearance of DEMO footage makes it clear that the video game is specifically targeting the uploader, and also that Red Eyes is frustrated at the uploader for being so slow to realize that.
- My Greatest Failure: Episode #11 ends with an in-game transcript of a phone call between the uploader and a relative that shows he ignored a warning about his father's health and regrets not calling for help in time, which clearly hits a nerve with the present-day uploader.
- Offscreen Reality Warp: Episode #13 has the uploader encounter a room with the school lockers prop, which change into flowers when he looks away and then back at it. The uploader remarks on the "you-change-when-I-look-away thing" and then plays around with how fast he can turn away and back to make it change again, with the thing eventually changing into a lever he needs to flip to make progress.
- Out-of-Character Alert: In Episode #13, Radio is found during a segment without light, but starts talking about embracing the darkness and just giving up to the Hate. Her text then starts looping faster and faster, and when the lights come back on, it's revealed to be a shadowy monster with Radio for a head that starts chasing the player with ill intent.
- The Pollyanna: Radio, who, despite existing in a rather sinister digital world, is effervescently positive and enthusiastically encourages the player when little else in the game does.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: The shadowy entity that's antagonizing the uploader and directly communicates with the audience has pure red eyes, with Episode #7 giving it the name Red Eyes.
- Shout-Out:
- When the uploader finds the first note, stuck to a tree in a dark forest, he immediately compares it to Slender.
- Episode #7 starts with the player falling into The Backrooms, with the uploader complaining about how cliche and expectable it feels. Given that Red Eyes' notes in the area constantly deride the uploader's lack of creativity, the feeling was intentional.
- Villain Episode: Episode #12 is from the perspective of Red Eyes, with text in their font and color labeled as "YOU".
- Villain's Dying Grace: Near the end of Episode #13, the monster chasing the uploader collapses near the orb that signifies the exit to its maze, but the uploader decides to go back and talk to it now that it's prone. Surprised that he's willing to listen to a monster's Last Words, it remarks that as a failed creature with a head of love (Radio) and a body of hate (Red Eyes), it has realized that both pure love and pure hate are flawed; there should be empathy when you hate, and a willingness to fight for what you love. It then apologises for following its nature and chasing after the uploader, and wishes to repent by giving some advice: that the tormentor's designs are imperfect and escapable, but failure will mean the uploader could be trapped forever.
- Voice Changeling: In Episode #13, there's a monster with Radio for a head that initially talks in Radio's speech pattern, but when its true form is revealed then mimics the uploader's voice, thanks to him using his computer's microphone to try interacting with a walkie-talkie that was given to him.
- Wham Episode: Episode #9 reveals that Rapid Eyes is an old game project made (and apparently forgotten) by the uploader.
