8 Films & TV Shows Based On Internet Horror Stories
1. Channel Zero
Channel Zero is the epitome of creepypasta on screen. Taking stories directly from popular Reddit forums and striking deals with amateur writers, the series now spans three separate worlds as created online, beginning with the famed Candle Cove. Telling the tale from a string of thread comments, the original Candle Cove story is about a TV program that only a certain group of adults remember, featuring creepy puppets and disturbing content not fit for regular broadcast.
The Channel Zero version is somewhere between outright laughable and downright disturbing. Featuring a child made up of teeth and a band of walking pirate puppets, you'd be forgiven for thinking the whole thing is pretty weird - and not necessarily the good kind. But, in some warped way, that's what makes it so perfect: it's such a direct translation from the usually outlandish and often sh*tty amateur writing that it encapsulates its themes with precise exaction.
Further series follow NoEnd House and the incredible Search and Rescue series, both of which made waves online upon their release in written form. Channel Zero as an anthology is the visual representation of its online counterpart then, and potentially the future of the medium when looking at the continuous trend of adaptation cinema has long had a taste for. All in all, if we can power through the wildly flailing quality and let the visionaries extract something workable from what could be remarkably entertaining and original stories, the future of horror for both amateurs and professionals alike is bright.
Long live the tragic by name, tragic by nature, world of the creepypasta.