The Blue Channel is a surreal Analog Horror series created by Gooseworx (creator of Little Runmo and The Amazing Digital Circus) and Evan Alderete. It centers around the titular Blue Channel, a mysterious TV channel with a completely blue backdrop.
The series can be found here
on Gooseworx's YouTube channel. It consists of:
- "ＴＨＥ_ＢＬＵＥ_ＣＨＡＮＮＥＬ" (2018)
- "Ｄ Ｅ Ｅ Ｐ _ Ｂ Ｌ Ｕ Ｅ" (2020)
- "BLUE_CHANNEL: THALASIN" (2021)
The Blue Channel provides examples of:
- Deliberate VHS Quality: The videos are made to look like VHS recordings with windowboxing and grainy flickers.
- Facial Horror: In "THALASIN", when you experience some of the artificial emotions created by Thalasin+, your facial features twist into unnatural positions. Some emotions go even further into straight Body Horror territory.
- Fictional Disability: In "THALASIN", the medication in question is the treatment of AED, Advanced Emotional Deterioration, which affects seven in ten adults.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus:
- At the end of "ＴＨＥ_ＢＬＵＥ_ＣＨＡＮＮＥＬ", a face shows up for a couple of frames.
- In "THALASIN", some of the Thalasin+ faces flicker by quickly.
- Nothing Is Scarier: "ＴＨＥ_ＢＬＵＥ_ＣＨＡＮＮＥＬ" is for most of its length a chipper commercial tune with nothing happening onscreen, leaving the viewer anxious for the scare. It happens at the end, when the TV experiences static and the audience gets a glimpse of an alien. "Ｄ Ｅ Ｅ Ｐ _ Ｂ Ｌ Ｕ Ｅ" is more sinister and provides a better look at the alien.
- Sudden Soundtrack Stop: In "THALASIN", when the face of someone experiencing dorcelessness is shown, the background music suddenly cuts out, leaving only the faint sound of static as it lingers on the image for a few seconds. The same thing happens for the loric face, but with a shorter pause.
