I'm gonna make a lot of comparisons to most of this series' genre, but trust me, it's warranted.
In a sea of low-effort, Amateur analog horror, The Painter is the most graphic series in the genre by far and its reception shows. Most analog horror often relies on high-sharpened visuals, walls of distorted sound, and cliché dialogue in an attempt to overwhelm the viewer with as much stimulation and confusion in hopes the viewer will be scared, often leading to results that seem like tribute works by inexperienced creators. The painter does the exact opposite, letting the content itself do most of the work as opposed to its arrangement. Unlike its competition, it's not dependent on already existing IP's as the source of its lore or compositions. It's not the Five Nights at Freddy's lore told in the analog horror format for the hundredth time, it's a serial killer who kills their victims in ways that are as shocking as they are artistic. Despite its minimal presentation, it conveys more urgency than it may appear at first, due in large part to the music. The music, again in contrast to most analog horror series, was originally composed by UrbanSpook themself, and ranges from unsettling drones to harrowing Post-Industrial akin to musical artists like Xiu Xiu, Uboa, Swans, and Lingua Ignota. UrbanSpook's music amplifies whatever mood is meant to be set by the scenarios described and the paintings shown. The paintings are a bulk of the series and what makes it unique. Some of these artistic depictions of murder victims would be the most disturbing frames in any other series, but in the painter, these pieces of art are often showed back-to-back-to-back, staying up for an amount of time that barrages the viewer, but stays up for long enough to let the viewer absorb what they're seeing. It's incredibly apparent from how many paintings there are and how much detail they have that UrbanSpook is someone who understands what can make a still image scary, almost to the point where one would question the sanity of UrbanSpook. Couple that with the brutally matter-of-fact descriptions of the murder victims that correspond with the paintings alongside the disgusting creativity used by the murder and you've got a series of disturbing events that could rival that of "Se7en". However, with this left-of-left-field approach to story telling, it does leave a small amount to be desired. As many skeptics of The Painter have pointed out, the police briefing style of these videos leaves the world-building lacking. Obviously, for what The Painter is going for, that's not entirely necessary, but a sense of place could help the series a tad. A sense of time, however, could ruin the fear factor of this series. Despite the VHS format in mind, grounding The Painter in any decade could compromise the suspense. The scenarios described alone are just vague enough that they could apply to any time period, whether that be 1983 or 2023.
Overall, The Painter is by far the most horrifying analog horror series to date. It may not have the most effort put into it, but it's definitely one of the more creative, innovative, and hair-raising series on the internet as of today.
In a sea of low-effort, Amateur analog horror, The Painter is the most graphic series in the genre by far and its reception shows. Most analog horror often relies on high-sharpened visuals, walls of distorted sound, and cliché dialogue in an attempt to overwhelm the viewer with as much stimulation and confusion in hopes the viewer will be scared, often leading to results that seem like tribute works by inexperienced creators. The painter does the exact opposite, letting the content itself do most of the work as opposed to its arrangement. Unlike its competition, it's not dependent on already existing IP's as the source of its lore or compositions. It's not the Five Nights at Freddy's lore told in the analog horror format for the hundredth time, it's a serial killer who kills their victims in ways that are as shocking as they are artistic. Despite its minimal presentation, it conveys more urgency than it may appear at first, due in large part to the music. The music, again in contrast to most analog horror series, was originally composed by UrbanSpook themself, and ranges from unsettling drones to harrowing Post-Industrial akin to musical artists like Xiu Xiu, Uboa, Swans, and Lingua Ignota. UrbanSpook's music amplifies whatever mood is meant to be set by the scenarios described and the paintings shown. The paintings are a bulk of the series and what makes it unique. Some of these artistic depictions of murder victims would be the most disturbing frames in any other series, but in the painter, these pieces of art are often showed back-to-back-to-back, staying up for an amount of time that barrages the viewer, but stays up for long enough to let the viewer absorb what they're seeing. It's incredibly apparent from how many paintings there are and how much detail they have that UrbanSpook is someone who understands what can make a still image scary, almost to the point where one would question the sanity of UrbanSpook. Couple that with the brutally matter-of-fact descriptions of the murder victims that correspond with the paintings alongside the disgusting creativity used by the murder and you've got a series of disturbing events that could rival that of "Se7en". However, with this left-of-left-field approach to story telling, it does leave a small amount to be desired. As many skeptics of The Painter have pointed out, the police briefing style of these videos leaves the world-building lacking. Obviously, for what The Painter is going for, that's not entirely necessary, but a sense of place could help the series a tad. A sense of time, however, could ruin the fear factor of this series. Despite the VHS format in mind, grounding The Painter in any decade could compromise the suspense. The scenarios described alone are just vague enough that they could apply to any time period, whether that be 1983 or 2023.
Overall, The Painter is by far the most horrifying analog horror series to date. It may not have the most effort put into it, but it's definitely one of the more creative, innovative, and hair-raising series on the internet as of today.
