Adult Swim, the late-night television company that normally gives you your daily dose of “High at 2AM” comedy, has recently taken a step into the obscure and downright disturbing. Last year, the company launched their “Infomercial” series and a series of related videos, a collaboration between Baltimore art collectives “AB Video Solutions” and “Wham City Comedy.” Featuring short, nonsensical videos that would go from eerie, to funny, to downright horrifying in their 10-15 minute run times, these "Infomercials" are anything but informative. The most popular of these videos, “Too Many Cooks,” has been viewed 10 million times, and its theme song has become a part of the Millennial cultural lexicon. However, a common theme between many of these shorts has been that there is a humorous element to the violence, blood, and situations that makes up videos like “Too Many Cooks.” The idea of a sitcom intro turning into bedlam is so absurd and shocking that one has to laugh at it. However, with the last two popular additions of the series, Adult Swim has gone full horror, and that’s a good thing.
“Unedited Footage of a Bear” and the recently released “This House Has People in It” are some of the smartest, most terrifying videos I have seen this year. The videos are reminiscent of Stephen King-style writing, where the audience knows as much as the characters, and the mystery of what has occurred is up to the interpretation of the viewer. Both are a slow burn, building up confusion and suspense until an explosive finale that leaves you guessing. The use of sound and purposely grating music to keep you on the edge complements the disturbing nature of the videos, leaving you feeling uneasy and unable to forget what you just saw. The actors are superb, purposely acting in abnormal and extreme ways. Every part of these videos gives a feeling in your gut that amounts to the statement “Something is not right.”
The nature of these videos and their lack of explanation have launched many a conspiracy theory, and it seems that Adult Swim is encouraging it. Through interactive website links in the descriptions of the video on YouTube, planted evidence from fake accounts in the comments section, and “behind the scenes” looks at the products being advertised, AB Video Solutions and Wham City Comedy have created a truly viewer-based horror experience which is based entirely on how far down the rabbit hole you are willing to go. For some, you may just watch the video and go about your day a little bothered, but for others like myself, you may find yourself on the product’s website, scouring message boards for passwords and access to the site’s backend. In “Unedited Footage of a Bear” especially, the creators encourage exploration through the pure vagueness and inability to explain exactly what is going on without doing some digging for yourself.
Adult Swim is promoting a much-needed reinvention of the horror genre. Movies like the “Paranormal Activity” series and the dozens of other yearly horror films which rely on tropes like jump scares and cheap body horror (which is not to say either cannot be effective when done right) have left horror fans with a stale taste in our mouths, and the need for smart, stylistic horror media is there. These films tend to treat the audience like they are stupid, hammering a simple explanation for whatever is happening to the unrelateable characters into the last 20 minutes of an inspired script. However, films like “It Follows,” “The VVitch,” and “The Babadook” have demonstrated that one of the scariest elements of any situation is the feeling of having no idea what the hell is going on, left to only theories and suspicions. By giving the audience the ability to figure out what they just saw and form their own interpretations, Adult Films “Infomercials” series is breaking long unexplored grounds, and I cannot wait to see what’s next.
