So, The Mandela Catalogue. For those who don’t know but about The Mandela Catalogue, it’s a horror series on Youtube made by Alex Kister. The series talks about a threat they call “alternates”. I won’t say what they are, since part of the experience is figuring out more about what they are and what they do.
If you haven’t watched it and want to before continuing on, click here and it’ll take you to the video on YouTube! I would attach it but it is an age restricted video so it is obly able to be viewed on YouTube. I do recommend headphones though, it heightens the experience immensely. If you don’t want to watch it and want to just keep reading, that’s completely fair as well, just be warned I am going to talk about the content of the series.
Personally, I haven’t Dove down into the depths of analog horror as much as I have with other genres of it, but it is really good. It takes the old static tv and just the whole vhs look and puts a scary twist on it. Now I know saying it like that makes it sound like it’s not that scary. But holy crap. It’s absolutely terrifying.
I watched the first one I think by myself. I watched Markiplier play the Maple County game that’s based off of the series. He then proceeds to watch the actual first volume of the Mandela Catalogue. Later on, I washed it with my friends and honestly this, watching it then was 10 times more terrifying. If I remember correctly, we had the lights off, we were watching it on the tv, and it was kinda late at night anyway. Something about watching it when it’s actually pretty dark and late at night just makes it so much scarier.
I don’t remember if it was that exact same night, but it was when I was getting ready to head home, I was so paranoid that something was gonna show up in or by my car as I was driving. That’s happened to be a few times since watching it for the first time. And yes, it’s scary as hell, but that’s part of the fun with it!
See, I used to hate horror, but now it’s one of my favorite genres. And I think analog horror has become one of my favorite subgenres.
On the same channel the Mandela Catalogue is located on, there’s some videos before volume 1 that also help determine more of the story. Personally, I can’t depict it too well, but MatPat of course has done some theories if you are interested in the story behind the series. But it dives down into religion and the angels. So who knows, it could literally be the devil himself and we wouldn’t even know. Or it could just be weird looking creatures that are really really dangerous.
Alternates are seriously strange to think about. Imagine looking across the street and seeing yourself, just as a weird distorted version. That would be absolutely terrifying. And the voices that they have, I hate the voices. They’re so unsettling, and I think that’s the purpose of them. The way that they sound human but aren’t perfect, it almost makes the hair on my neck stand. it sounds like their voices glitch as they’re talking.
But that, my friends, is how you know it’s good horror.
If you enjoy The Mandela Catalogue, there is another series in the subgenre that is very good that I recommend watching called Local 58 TV. It’s about a “local tv station” being hacked into by other beings, trying to send us, the viewers, strange messages. I watched it before The Mandela Catalogue and I think it’s safe to say that it’s what got me into analog horror. If you haven’t seen it, please do so, it’s so so good. Of course, if you’re into that subgenre anyway!
The Mandela Catalogue installed a fear in me that nothing else ever has. And yet I keep going back to the series. In fact, volume two was released recently, and I know much more is planned on being released as well! So make sure to keep an eye on Alex Kister’s channel to see when there’s more Mandela content! Who knows, we might get some more lore here soon…
Coley Rose's Corner 