Horror fans ‘terrified' after disturbing VHS recordings appear in US towns

Metro

18 hours ago

Horror film fans are going to be sleeping with one eye open after a series of very disturbing VHS recordings started appearing in the US.
Users on Reddit, Instagram, and TikTok are still desperately seeking answers for the unexplained videos… but it seems no one can help.
In a number of States, people are discovering VHS tapes featuring three hours of different horror scenes, which they reckon could be part of some new twisty marketing campaign for an upcoming movie.
Having taken to social media to exchange findings and theories, it was soon realised that the videos all showed the same footage, which has also appeared on YouTube.
On YouTube, we can see that the three-hour, 42-minute-long feature has been filmed in black and white and with night vision cameras.
Titled 'WHITEFACE' and uploaded on June 27 in a bid to attract people with more knowledge, the VHS has already clocked up 1,000 views on the one platform alone.
In the description, the uploader notes six locations where tapes have been found so far. These include a Hollywood video store, a bar in Nashville, a thrift store in Orlando, and an art gallery in Virginia.
Meanwhile, over on TikTok, horror fanatics are losing their minds with all the speculation.
TikToker Nicolas Curcio's video, currently with over 18,000 likes, sees him dissect the events, describing it as: 'This is either one of the best art projects ever or a case of the possible first-ever real found footage horror film.'
For context, 'found footage horror' is a subgenre of horror films that 'uses a style of filmmaking characterised by the use of 'discovered' video recordings.' The recordings are typically presented as if they were made by the characters themselves.
It's a genre that has had huge commercial success in the past, famous examples being 2007's Paranormal Activity, 2014's Creep, and, more recently, Late Night with the Devil, released in 2024.
The TikTok creator goes on to say the discovered VHS footage does not contain any recognisable actors, but it mostly appears to be just a guy with a white-painted face wandering around LA. At one point, he's around Universal Studios.
In some of the creepier moments, he films random people or even follows them home and into unlocked houses, harassing one woman at a bus stop for 30 minutes as she tries to ignore him.
While some believe the whole thing is 'fake', others think it could be a student film that's made its way online. However, sceptics reckon it's even too amateurish for that, given that 'Whiteface' has no titles or end credits, nor is it edited.
In the comments of the semi-viral TikTok video, people had plenty of thoughts.
'$5 this is viral marketing for a movie that's going to drop later this year', declared @portiaisheeere.
'feels very fake especially 2 being found at similar times, starting on reddit and no real footage', @gargledmesh countered.
'it's 3 hours long and back in the day it was hard to edit tape to tape, so it could be an unfinished project – therefore even the lack of credits. now anyone can edit just on their phones, back then it was a different story', speculated @thedearone_.
'Quite clearly viral marketing for a movie lol nothing will ever top Blair witch though these companies have been trying to mimic it for years gets boring when everytime the film they're trying to get you to watch is boring', @bluish vented.
The Blair they were referring to is, of course, 1999's horror/mystery movie The Blair Witch Project, which followed three students who vanished after venturing into a Maryland forest to film a documentary on the local Blair Witch legend. Only their footage was left behind.
At the time, the indie flick had so many people convinced it was actually real, largely thanks to the prior release of a mockumentary titled Curse of the Blair Witch, which was also presented as 100% genuine, featuring interviews with so-called family members of the students and historical experts. More Trending
Basically, the doc set the whole thing up, and it took a lot of people a while to realise it was just a marketing ploy, which is what some believe is happening again with Whiteface (2025).
Having none of it, however, TikTok's @bbgst blasted: 'why is everyone so doubtful these days, why not just believe instead of thinking its a movie marketing thing or something'.
So, what do you think?
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