youtube trend The creepy new YouTube trend with an Australian at the centre

[Reefa]

AN UNEXPECTED digital trend — horror narration — is surging in popularity on YouTube, attracting tens of millions of views over the past 12 months.

 

Sydney-based social worker, Brendan Bishop, is one of a handful of high-profile ‘horror narrators’ who are amassing devoted global followings online.

 

In the past year, Brendan’s YouTube channel gained more than 236,000 subscribers — which is around the readership of Rolling Stone Australia magazine.

 

Operating under the pseudonym Be. Busta — a combination of two of his real life nicknames, Brendan reads out traumatic experiences which his fans have written up and sent him.

 

It’s not stories about vampires, aliens and werewolves chilling his audience, instead it’s the grim reality of home invasions, encounters with stalkers, malicious hackers, narrow escapes from paedophiles and other living nightmares.

 

It’s realistic horror, told from the victim’s perspective and taking place in everyday settings like at home, at petrol stations, on Tinder or when walking home at night.

 

“People want realism,” says Brendan. “Real terror … is something that most of us can relate to”.

 

One video features a young man house-sitting over a long weekend when he hears a smash coming from the garage at 3am. He creeps up to a window to inspect, but can’t really make out anything in the dark. After a minute, his eyes adjust to the scene and he realises a pale dark-haired man is facing him with a hostile glare, trying to stay still.

 

Another story starts with a mother and son checking into a hotel where an odd, lingering bellman helps them with their luggage. In the middle of the night, the son wakes up screaming as he sees the bellman standing over the mother staring at her blankly. The man scurries off and the police are called. They find him hiding in the laundry room — it turns out he had a knife on him and he was a registered sex offender

 

Four disturbing Tinder horror stories

 

 

 

Since 2015, a few high-profile storytellers have risen to YouTube fame with Brendan, under usernames such as Lazy Masquerade, Corpse Husband, urmaker, Doctor Horror, and Eden Reads. Their combined channel views top 57 million.

 

The subculture is defined by videos which have few visuals and sound effects. They are carried by a lone voice, which is expressive but not theatrical, with an individual video often going for 20 minutes or more. The stories they read out are mostly submitted from fans or curated from popular websites like Reddit, particularly their message board called Lets Not Meet.

 

Their stripped back approach to media is defying trends in a world of six-second videos on Vine, headline-focused news audiences and where research tells us 100 characters is the optimal length for a tweet, instead of a rambling 140 characters.

 

Brendan says the success comes down to community and the audience’s desire for lasting emotion. “Terror is something that sits with you for a long time, and it differs in respect to a quick jump scare that will be forgotten in moments,” he says.

 

“It is many things to many different people,” says Brendan, “a sense of connection, a therapeutic experience, entertainment, a rush or a moment of distraction …”

 

It’s true that these YouTube videos are not like the funny cat ones people watch in the office with a crowd. They’re consumed differently — commenters say they listen with headphones, often in bed and in solitude. “If you’re not listening in the dark you’re doing something wrong,” writes one commenter.

 

Brendan says people feel connected to horror narrators because they’re a refreshing change from the “silky radio voices where you can almost smell an advert through your speakers”.

 

Beyond enjoyment, viewers write that the videos help them to sleep, calm down after a long day, and Brendan confides people have thanked him for helping them to escape their depression, anxiety and Post Traumatic Stress Disorders.

 

“This, for me, has been totally unexpected”.

 

“I think there is something about the paradox of a comforting voice that walks you into a terrifying scenario that builds true terror and yet keeps people psychologically safe”.

 

Because all stories are personal recounts, there is comfort knowing the main character will survive every time. Brendan is also conscious of his role to help the audience come to a soft emotional landing.

 

“As a way to lighten the mood, I try to bring in a joke at the end of each video to help people come out of a fearful state of mind,” he says, referring to triumphant puns he makes in the style of television horror icons like Elvira or The Cryptkeeper.

 

“Many of my fans call my jokes ‘dad jokes’,” he says, “but I just like to think of them as ageless classics.”

 

As the subculture grows on YouTube and the narrators’ subscriber numbers increase, Brendan’s plan is to continue to “build a community where more and more people can share experiences, discuss stories and listen in to small pieces of other people’s lives.”

 

When asked for his final thoughts to share, Brendan simply adds, “Hey did you hear about the guy whose whole left side was cut off?”

“He’s all right now.”

Five psych-ward stories

 

http://www.news.com.au/technology/online/the-creepy-new-youtube-trend-with-an-australian-at-the-centre/news-story/67975054cabbdcf8649854a16ceb71b1