Adult Swim’s Latest WTF-ery Will Break Your Brain
Remember Too Many Cooks? Of course you do, how could anyone possibly forget that happened? Adult Swim unleashed that popular short film with little fanfare during its 4am slot usually reserved for infomercials and it quickly went viral. It was hilarious and weird and about as dark as dark comedy can get. Then came Unedited Footage of a Bear, which was definitely weird and dark, but decidedly less funny. This week saw the release of another installment of Adult Swim’s plan to freak out stoners and insomniacs. Enter: This House Has People In It.
Written and directed by Alan Resnick (the same guy behind Unedited Footage), the 11-minute clip is made up of surveillance footage inside a suburban home. A young boy is waiting for his birthday party to begin when his sister’s worsening condition threatens the family’s peaceful existence. Then there’s this guy who shows up randomly in split-second flashes. Think Paranormal Activity, but somehow even creepier? Before I even begin to try and describe it (what’s the point, even?), watch the video above and then we’ll figure out what to make of it.
Resnick, a comedian, was asked by The Creator’s Project, whether he thought this video was supposed to be funny. “To me it is funny, so I want to call it a comedy. To other people it’s not funny at all and just upsetting.” Funny or not, it’s definitely not just a viral video.
The video is just the beginning of an ARG (alternate reality game) not unlike the recent 10 Cloverfield Lane stuff, but infinitely weirder. Here’s how to get started: First, go to the website listed in the description of the YouTube video above for AB Surveillance Solutions. At the top of the page, you’ll notice a login. Click “Forgot Password” and you’ll be able to enter your e-mail to request new login information. When the e-mail arrives, use the username and password provided to login. Turn off your pop-up blocker, turn your volume up and start digging around through the archive (which has a password of sadday).
That site includes much smaller versions of the surveillance footage seen in the full Adult Swim video and someone went through the painstaking task of compiling them all into one giant video.
What all of it means is up to you (everyone) to find out. There’s information about something called Lynks Disease and even a playable video game called Boomy the Cat. There’s also a 44-page document on Google Docs that has collected all known information. At the top is an e-mail from Resnick stating, “Don’t go too crazy looking for stuff.” It might be too late for that.