Lost Tapes / YMMV - TV Tropes

Alternative Character Interpretation:
- Ambiguously Human Nora in Hellhound is seen petting the titular beast at the end, hinting that she might possibly have been in league with it.
- The ending of "Wendigo" leaves it up to interpretation whether the titular monster was truly supernatural or simply a human who went crazy.
- Was Quetzalcoatl really given the Sadly Mythtaken treatment, or did his cultists make a mistake and anger him enough to kill them for it?
- Is the Fouke Monster really more vicious than the Bigfoot? While Bigfoot was shown to be generally peaceful, he still rather savagely kills the poacher who attacked the park ranger that he developed a fondness for. The Fouke Monster doesn't actually attack the hunters until after they try to shoot him, meaning that he could normally be peaceful and was only defending his home from people who were obviously a threat to him.
Broken Base:
- Whether the Enigma Corporation is an improvement to the show or the old continuity-free format is better.
- The show is disliked by many, with many treating it as Animal Planet’s first major sign of Network Decay. Yet the number of tropes the pages have does show the series has its fans, with many willing to point out it does have some genuinely good episodes.
Complete Monster: "Poltergeist": Charles Weatherly, the previous owner of the Golden Family's house in life, brutally murdered his own wife and children before killing himself, later returning to haunt his home. After the Golden Family moved in, Charles began tormenting them—especially their young son, Troy, who they suspected of having telekinetic powers. After he pushed a bookcase onto Troy's older sister—nearly killing her—the family called in paranormal investigators Dr. Jeremy Reinhold, Kristy Johns, and Bill "Shots" Cooper. After they witnessed a sleeping Troy's stuffed panda being turned into a knife, the team moved the family out of the house. Later attempting to exorcise Weatherly, Charles possessed Kristy, making her scream "Leave", before slamming her against a wall, killing her. When Jeremy made it clear they weren't going to leave, Weatherly murdered Bill, propping his body up like a statue. When Jeremy decides to leave, Weatherly stabs him to death with a knife anyway.
Creepy Awesome: Many of the cryptids are understandably incredibly scary. But at the same time, they're also incredibly awesome creatures to behold and imagine the possibility of actually being in existence.
Faux Symbolism: The action in “Monster of Monterey” centers around a sailboat named ''Artemis''—- while the heroine is a lone female adventurer in the wilderness, having a boyfriend onshore makes her very different from the goddess, and instead of being a mistress of wild beasts, she ends up killed by one.
Fridge Brilliance:
- Considering how its own mother reportedly treated it before it was even born (at least according to the most commonly known backstory legend applied to it), there's a reason the Jersey Devil might have a special desire to kill the pregnant mom.
- How does the father in Vampire kill the titular creature? With a shard of wood—i.e, a wooden stake.
- How is the Dover Demon able to dismember people much larger than it in mere seconds and tank direct hits from a shotgun? It isn't of this world, i.e. an alien or demon.
- In "Wendigo: American Cannibal", one of the rescue crew briefly holds off the wendigo by lighting a flare, which sadly isn't enough to ultimately save her from it. The wendigo here is established as being very powerful, at least against its unarmed victims, but a bit of fire holds it off? Makes perfect sense if you know the original wendigo legends, though, where they're associated with ice and cold and the only way to kill a wendigo is to completely burn it to ash until absolutely nothing is left of it.
Fridge Horror:
- In "Wendigo: American Cannibal", it's mentioned at the end of the episode that the bodies of Matthew and Lane were never recovered. Matthew, of course, is the Wendigo. And in keeping with the legends, it is possible for a Wendigo to force a victim into becoming a Wendigo themselves. So what if Lane's body was never recovered because she's become a Wendigo as well?
- If you interpret "Devil Dragon" as a self-parody of Discovery Communications’ own real survival shows, then it’s possible that In-Universe Tim Akron’s show was produced for the Discovery Channel, which would mean they would be partially responsible for his death by not requiring him to carry a radio or satellite phone in case of emergency... and then turned the footage of his death into this program, profiting off it—- and we never hear of his wife or daughter receiving any compensation.
- The fact the Skinwalker knows what Brian's mother sounds like in the first place.
Growing the Beard: Depending on who you ask, it was either "Death Raptor", "Hellhound" or "Wendigo".
Moral Event Horizon: Charles, the evil ghost in Poltergeist, crossed this in life when he murdered his own family in cold blood.
Narm Charm - Sometimes, the episodes fall flat on their faces (often with blatantly supernatural creatures). Other times, they manage to hit some actual tension (one featuring the giant monitor lizard Megalania and the Bigfoot episode) in the direction. Watching someone suffer from Blood Poisoning is pretty terrifying since that sort of thing can happen when bitten by certain venomous animals. Still, nothing can grant forgiveness of the terrible acting in the opening of Lizardman.
Nightmare Fuel: Sometimes, the show manages to break out of Narm Charm and actually work
Older Than They Think: Detractors will often accuse the Wendigo episode of "bastardizing" the work of Algernon Blackwood and cite him as the sole creator of the creature, completely ignoring the creature's actual origin with the Algonquian people and native American lore.
Paranoia Fuel: every episode closes out with the question "Do they live among us?", often after making it quite clear that the cryptid featured in each episode is still out there and still very dangerous. Some more specific examples include:
- The Wendigo; it eats humans, is super strong and can bend reality to get to you, so no matter where you run it will always find you and kill you.
- After the Alien episode, do not be surprised if you start expecting your doctor to tell you that s/he hears two heartbeats inside of you at your daily check up.
- The Owlman reaches near Slender Man levels of this, what with the fact that it spent a long time stalking an unfortunate old woman to the point that she was driven almost completely insane by it, traumatizing a young girl and somehow being aware of the presence of people who plan to get rid of it before they even show up.
- The Reptilians are stated to be more advanced than us, masters of infiltration, and can take any form they wish. If they've marked you as their target, they will find you no matter where you hide. Call the cops? The sheriff is one of them. Run away? They can track you. Try to warn others? Nobody will believe you, unless they are Reptilians themselves. What's worse? We never find out what they want.
- The Skinwalker? Stalks its prey, a shapeshifter, and mimicks the voice of loved ones — and there's Fridge Horror in that they know who your loved ones are in the first place.
Retroactive Recognition: Anime fans may recognize a young Elizabeth Maxwell in "Zombie", "Strigoi Vampire" and "Q: The Serpent God".
So Bad, It's Good: Admittedly, even the episodes that fall flat on their face can still be entertaining to watch, for one reason or another.
The Woobie: Some of our protagonists are genuinely tragic. Special mention goes to Su-Ann Mills and Hazel Van Lear from Death Raptor, both menaced by the titular monster and the latter being Driven to Madness in the process.

YMMV / Lost Tapes

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