This is the painting.
The Painter is an Analog Horror Web Video series created by UrbanSLUG on November 3, 2022.
The series centers on the discovery of paintings depicting the victims of a string of increasingly bizarre murders carried out by an elusive serial killer. An investigation commences in hopes of finding the person or people behind these paintings and the carnage left behind, but those involved may end up getting more than they bargained for.
The videos thus far include:
- "Faces
" - "The Lighthouse"
- "In the Walls"
- "The Clue"
- "Witness"
- "Pigs"
- "Family"
- "Meat"
The series is available to watch on YouTube.
The Painter contains examples of:
- A Day in the Limelight: "In The Walls" focuses exclusively on the discovery of the body of Cory Beck from the Fucktoy Cory painting, and reveals that Cory actually had a run with — and escaped — the Painter before they later kidnapped him and his sister Margaret.
- Ambiguously Human: There are a few hints that imply the Painter may not be human - or at least not entirely human. For starters, he looks different every time we see him (although that may be the other painter). Their face is also very pale, has uncanny eyes, and moves erratically. On top of that, they're startlingly strong and agile for their sickly, frail appearance.
- An Arm and a Leg: Happens on a couple of occasions:
- Tina Rosenberg's feet and arms were cut off, but she survived... at least, for awhile.
- Tom Harris' arms were also cut off, along with his eyelids, but unlike Tina, he didn't survive.
- Arc Words: "This is the painting."
- Bad People Abuse Animals:
- The killer broke the legs of Sean's dog, and rather than kill her outright like her owner, left her to suffer and die in his apartment. She was barking in agony for nine hours before someone finally called the police, after which she was rescued.
- Pigs has the killer(s) injecting a horse with sildenafilnote until it died of a heart attack, and gutting a large pig to hide one of their victims in.
- In "Meat", it's implied that something really bad happened to Fred's cat, if the painting Pocket Pussy is any indication.
- Big Bad: The titular Painter, an incredibly deranged artist whose favorite hobby is murdering people in bizarre ways and painting abstract portraits themed prior to their demises. They spare absolutely no one in their killings - civilians, law enforcement, animals, and private investigators alike are the targets of their relentless brutality.
- Bestiality Is Depraved: Heavily implied. Judging by the title of her painting, the state her body was found in and traces of Viagra in a horse's bloodstream, Mae Ford was forced by the killer(s) to mate with said horse until she bled out and died.
- Call-Back: Some videos show paintings of previous victims, like Fucktoy Cory.
- Content Warning: All videos except "In The Walls" begin with a warning that the video contains violent and disturbing content. "Pigs" has an additional warning right before the recovered paintings are shown, cautioning that they could be very distressing to some.
- Cop Killer: The killer has targeted both former and current police officers. Ian Ford's painting is also titled Ian the Pig, referring both to how his body was found inside a pig carcass and to the fact that "pig" is sometimes used as derogatory slang for a police officer.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: The fates of the Painter's victims.
- Carla Grey (from Carla's Teeth) was stabbed 36 times in the face and all of her teeth were ripped out.
- James Miller (from James' Secret Face) had his face ripped away from his skull and his wrists slashed open, leaving him to suffer in agony until he eventually died days later.
- Whatever the Painter did to the Collins family in order to reduce them into shredded flesh and bones, it wasn't pretty.
- Tom Harris (from Wax Doll Tom) had both his arms and eyelids cut off before being buried in candle wax and left to suffocate to death.
- Breeding Mount Mae. Both her and the horse.
- George White, subject of Wet Skin George, was stabbed roughly 487 times all over his body, and that was only after his face was cut off. To add insult to injury, stab wounds were tightly clustered around his crotch.
- Double-Meaning Title: Ian's portrait is titled Ian the Pig. His body was found stuffed inside a dead pig; Ian was also a police officer, which "pig" is a derogatory term for.
- Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: One of the killers has long black hair and is very pale, almost looking like a Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl.
- Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: Played for Drama with the titles of the paintings, which are sometimes puns referencing how the victim died, such as Hide and Zeke.
- Isabelle Jackson, the subject of Blowhole Isabelle, was a heavier woman. Her killers murdered her with a hammer drill and then stuck a riddle about whales into the resulting hole as a cruel jab at her weight.
- Eye Scream: In "Pigs", a pig's eyes are gouged out and replaced with those of Fiona Ford.
- Facial Horror: A staple of this series, as the Painter appears to go after the faces of their victims.
- Forced to Watch: It's implied this is what happened to Paul in "Pigs," if his painting Observing Paul is anything to go by. We learn what happens to Paul in "Family," as he is forced to watch his wife and unborn child get brutally murdered, then has his baby's head stuffed down his throat, leaving him to choke to death.
- Giallo: The series takes heavy inspiration from the genre, combining mystery and suspense with graphic violence and a persistent atmosphere of tension.
- Gorn: A lot of the horror of the series lies in the detailed and graphic descriptions of how The Painter murders his victims.
- Groin Attack: Played for Horror instead of for comedy, and on two occasions to boot: Jackie Gramm suffered 27 stab wounds to the perineum, and poor Cory's genitalia were apparently pulled off.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: The Painter kidnapped twins Cory and Margaret and sawed them in half, then stitched Margaret's upper half onto Cory's lower half. What happened to Cory's upper half and Margaret's lower half is unknown, but judging by the name of Cory's portrait (Fucktoy Cory), it wasn't anything pleasant.
- Hanging Around:
- As implied by the name of his portrait, the Painter killed Jimmy by hanging him.
- The police find the youngest member of the Collins family, baby Angel, hanging by a noose in the attic.
- Hell Is That Noise:
- The soundtrack to "Pigs" sounds like the tape is progressively decaying, and by the end it's nothing but a barely rhythmic scratch.
- When Fiona's eyeless, decapitated head is shown, a loud scream of a woman plays.
- I Want My Mommy!: While recalling the night they were attacked, Tina says the last thing Flora did before the killer bashed her face in was scream for their mom.
- Kill It with Fire: Daniel Williams (from Daniel After the Fire) was burned until his entire body was charred.
- Mad Artist: The Painter enjoys painting grotesque pictures of their victims.
- Nightmare Face: Many of the Painter's portraits, and the Painter themself.
- Off with His Head!: In "Family," Bruce Jackson was beheaded and stabbed in the chest seven times, and his head was swapped out with a painting titled Infinite Maw Bruce.
- Pædo Hunt: The Painter calling their portrait of the eleven year old Cory Fucktoy Cory implies they molested him before or after his death, and potentially his twin sister as well.
- Shout-Out: Cory's last name is Beck, which references Cory Beck of OneyPlays. This is strengthened by Cory's two friends who dare him to enter a cabin being named Chris and Zach.
- Sole Survivor: So far, Tina Rosenburg is the only one who went through one of the Painter's wicked acts and lived to tell the tale, and was put under police care after they discovered her. However, given she has her own painting in "Pigs", either she's still in the Painter's sights (since it's implied that some of their paintings are done before the murders), or it may already be too late for her.
- Strictly Formula: Someone goes missing. Police find the mutilated body. There is a graphic description of how they were murdered. Police finds the painting corresponding to the victim. Though sometimes paintings are found before the body
- Super-Persistent Predator: The Painter appears to go to seemingly impossible lengths to find and kill their victims. Once, they shimmied up an apartment building's drain pipe just to bury a man in candle wax after they chopped his arms and eyelids off.
- Surreal Horror: All of the Painter's portraits are heavily distorted caricatures of their victims, with malformed and grotesque faces usually related to how they killed them.
- Tear Off Your Face: James Miller (from James' Secret Face) and Lisa White (from Lisa's Secret Face) both had their faces torn off by the Painter.
- This Is a Drill: It's indicated the Painter may have killed Isabelle using a power drill. Because her painting is titled Blowhole Isabelle, they went for her forehead. This is confirmed in "Family," where we hear a 911 call that ends with her being murdered with a power drill, with the borehole being forced through the top of her head.
- Uncanny Valley: All of the paintings have a deeply realistic style that turns right back around into surreal, with most of the subjects/victims staring creepily at the viewer.
- Wham Line: In "Family":The presence of two sets of footprints in the blood suggests that there was more than one culprit.
The police now firmly believes that whoever is behind these paintings and murders does not work alone. - Would Hurt a Child: Several of the Painter's victims are children. The youngest of their victims is a two month old baby.
- In "Pigs", another of their paintings is titled The Jigsaw Baby, with a pacifier is also seen floating in the middle of the canvas; the obvious implication being whoever the baby was, the Painter chopped them into pieces.
- "Family" takes it a step further by having the Painter dismember an unborn fetus, scatter their remains across the house and shove the head down the husband's throat, suffocating him to death by sewing his mouth shut afterwards.
