I’ve been a fan of Kris Straub’s surreal and unsettling horror project, Local 58, for a number of years. Although only totaling nine entries over the past four years, Straub’s ingenious analog-styled videos disguised as late night public access channel programs are sneakily creepy, and sometimes even convincing to the point of going viral many times over. What’s especially clever about Local 58 is its entirely bloodless content — not that that’s what makes it any less inappropriate for actual children.
Speaking of which, take Straub’s “Show For Children,” for example. It doesn’t take very long for the black-and-white animated cartoon to go off the rails in a way that would give the young’uns serious nightmares. And yet, YouTube’s algorithm gods apparently have taken “Show For Children” at face value. As Straub recently pointed out via Twitter, the site has his show classified as “Made for kids,” and unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be much he can do about it.
