after two years of silence local 58 is
back not just with another video but a
fully realized arg complete with
mysterious phone numbers and broken web
pages all repeating the same cryptic
message someone or something wants us
dead don't look up
[Music]
hello internet welcome to film theory
the channel that made the jump to
digital a decade before it was required
by shady government organizations a
quick gentle reminder here at the top of
the episode that film theory merch is
still available including the nice warm
film theory cap with rubber embossed
logo and secret phrase on the underside
it works great for keeping you snuggly
or hiding your eyes from the blinding
glory of our lunar gods above there's
also this asymmetric hoodie that was
designed by a member of the theorist
community links are right below this
video order now and ensure that you get
it in time for the holidays and with
that out of the way let's get back to
the theory today we're returning to the
terrifying world of local 58 the youtube
series credited for the creation of the
analogue horror genre for those of you
who don't know analog horror is
classified as a type of content that
uses technology like vhs tapes radio and
old television broadcasts to tell
cryptic stories in the case of local 58
each upload is a clip from a local
access channel you know the type that
you'd see in any small town around the
us city council meetings old black and
white movies that have fallen into the
public domain crudely made home videos
relaxing music playing against a generic
schedule of upcoming programming it
sounds like the makings of the most
boring thing ever like there's a reason
people do not watch local public access
television oops my anarchy symbol but
each one of local 58's uploads comes
with a horrifying twist a shadowy figure
here dead body there diagram showing us
how we can lie in our yards to die
sinister threats warning us against
looking at the sky now back in 2019 i
watched all these videos and came to the
conclusion that the overarching story
had to do with aliens from the moon
intercepting our television broadcast
frequencies in order to get people to
kill themselves and each other at the
time i thought it was a pretty solid
conclusion but now with these new
uploads i'm having second thoughts and
no it's not just because the creator
came out and debunked the whole alien
theory it's mostly the reason but not
all of it when you re-look at all the
evidence it seems like the threat that
we're dealing with is actually much
bigger than just an alien species but
understand what it is and why i think
that we have to start with the latest
upload digital transition the video
starts with an old black and white
television show which we can figure out
as a 1959 anthology series named one
step beyond a series in the vein of the
twilight zone and the outer limits where
each episode tells its own spooky
paranormal story once the show's over
we're brought back to our usual
programming schedule and we're told that
local 58 will be switching from an
analog to a digital signal in accordance
with fcg guidelines so a few things to
pick apart here first what does it mean
to switch from an analog to a digital
signal well analog television signals
are transmitted through airwaves over a
set frequency this makes them
susceptible to interference and the
further away you are from the source the
more likely you're going to get
interference static or ghosting now last
time we covered local 58 we concluded
that whoever was trying to communicate
with us they were hijacking that exact
signal we even found the frequency that
they were broadcasting at digital
signals don't have that problem they're
packets of compressed data ones and
zeros which can only be received and
read by your appliance in one way
there's no half signals or interference
it's either working or it's not as the
packet of data is one secure thing if
it's interfered with you just don't get
a signal in terms of local 58 what this
transition is doing is silencing
whatever was hijacking the analog signal
trying to communicate with us the second
major detail here is the fcg now i
looked into it and there are a couple of
fcgs out in the real world the foreign
clearance guide for the department of
defense and this one which provides
financial regulatory and technological
support but their logos don't seem to
match up with the one that we see
fortunately the creator chris straub
graced us with an answer to this on
twitter fcg is the federal
communications governance basically his
in-universe version of the real world's
fcc the federal communications
commission we see in the video that the
change is mandated to happen tonight
july 13th 2021 and that's not an
arbitrary date back in 2011 the fcc
actually mandated the change from analog
to digital signals for small local
broadcasters when did they have to make
the change by 2015 but that eventually
got pushed back to you guessed it july
13th 2021. good job chris you did your
homework but just as the clock strikes
midnight the transition is happening we
see something resisting faint messages
in the background that appear to be
trying to break through the conversion
it's a bit hard to read but with some
effort you can make it out i the one you
watched i the always hear they make you
thought from pieces they cut the
thoughts i am all knife all knife
thoughts shape in needles they dream
themself in knives and along the top of
the screen the header updates to
betrayal i come in through the window
don't know what that whole thing means
yet but they're talking about knives and
that makes me real uncomfortable that's
why i break out into a cold sweat
whenever i watch a cooking channel also
not a good thing for a guy with his own
cooking show but whatever eventually a
stronger signal breaks through and we
end on the final words unthinking they
move to cut his throat only to make a
thousand mouths if he is silenced we
will speak for him signs and wonders
flood our little sky no stars above us
only eyes waiting to open there are
other receivers notice here that there's
actually a switch from first person to
third person the actual broadcast text
was i the one you watched whereas this
breakthrough signal is they cut his
throat we speak for him that means that
there appear to be two different
entities talking to us here but who or
what are they well we know from the
first set of messages that whatever is
speaking to us has always been here for
us was something that we used to watch
notice the past tense it also comes in
through the window that coupled with the
moon imagery that appears in pretty much
every upload of local 58 leads me to
believe that it is in fact just the moon
talking to us the moon does indeed come
through our window every night it has
always been up there for us and humanity
used to watch it and felt marveled by it
but now we have ourselves television
thought from little pieces little
packets of data put together to show on
a screen which pulls us away from being
in awe of nature from worshiping things
like the stars and the moon hence why
the moon feels betrayed and while i
fully recognize that the theory of the
moon is a talking entity sounds insane
in the lore of the series there actually
might be some more truth to it than
you'd think the second most recent
upload is sky watching in which we see
close-ups of the moon covered not with
rock and dust but with organic webbing
like veins or sinews it also seems to be
breathing as we see gases or souls or
something flowing across the surface of
it the moon in this upload can also
disappear and reappear much closer to
earth so weird detail there there's also
some older evidence to this too chris
straub as i mentioned before the series
creator has said that whatever this
series is quote it's alien to our
existence but no i never get excited
about extraterrestrials and an article
on tv tropes claims that chris has
stated that it's a cosmic horror story
though i gotta say i wasn't able to find
the primary source to verify that so it
could very well be that the moon is an
eldritch type monster or is home to an
eldritch type monster similar to other
cosmic entities like cthulhu there's
also one little easter egg that i
learned about from reddit useromni87 who
pointed out that the opening clip of one
step beyond at the top of the upload has
actually been altered the narrator's
name has been changed from john newland
to john newman a german word for new
moon the other voices then seem to be
worshippers of whatever the moon is
notice that it says signs and wonders
flood our little sky implying that these
people are here on earth if the moon is
silenced or in their words if his throat
is cut then these individuals will take
up his message hence the thousand mouths
that are being referenced and again we
actually see a bit of this in sky
watching when the moon reappears at the
end of the video a man walks into frame
raising his hands and the words rejoice
appear on screen he's welcoming the
moon's arrival just makes me wonder no
stars above only eyes waiting to open
are these worshippers right is
everything in the night sky alive i mean
if the moon is why not everything else
but this is only scratching the surface
of what this video brings to the table
you see digital transition also gives us
a phone number to call the phone number
is certainly creepy but not all together
helpful calling it plays some distorted
audio
which contains morse code when decrypted
it spells out there are other receivers
just like the end of the video if you
send that number a text message you're
gonna get the same result a reply saying
there are other receivers so i think at
this point we get the message they're
gonna try to communicate with us through
other receivers other devices they've
already proven that they can do it with
phones but what else well below that
phone number as well as in the text
crawl at the start of the video is a
website it's actually a really clever
move the video is all about switching
from analog to digital and now there's a
digital element to the story so bravo
local 58 well thought out so we checked
it out and sure enough there was in fact
an arg lying in wait for us though we
were actually a little bit late to the
party apparently this one's been going
on for months and the latest video was
just drawn in all us stragglers that
hadn't been following the series or its
creator on twitter better late than
never i suppose the page you're sent to
has what appears to be a broken image of
a diagram explaining how to use your
analog to digital converter below that
is another massive image which is just
compressed beyond recognition there are
some words that can be made out here and
there like public eye paid programming
civic development agency emergency alert
system but all of those are just ripped
and distorted images from previous
uploads from the series there might be
other things in here but so far neither
us nor the local 58 subreddit found
anything i will say that the last part
of this massive image looks to me like a
hand reaching down and infecting the
ground in some way or someone kneeling
on the earth but that's just vague
speculation no to me the main thing of
interest here is actually at the top of
the page here we can see that the actual
website seems to be a knockoff of the
wayback machine something called look
back this sort of website allows you to
look at a website's history and see what
edits have been made to it over the
years if you have never tried this i
highly recommend that you do it is super
fun and you would be amazed by the
changing looks of some of your favorite
web pages for instance early 2000s
youtube was wild here's us at just under
100 000 subscribers in 2013. here's the
angry video game nerds channel from 2008
youtube was a very different beast back
then these little spikes that we see on
the graph above represent these
different saved states in time and by
clicking them we get to end up at
different pages some take us directly to
the youtube channel for local 58. others
give us a bit more to chew on the one i
really want to focus on is the first one
the one from 1999. clicking on this
gives us a very old website which
doesn't show us much except another
glitched technical manual this time for
a vestigial low-band filter i was
initially worried that this image was
just gonna give us info for a tool that
we needed to buy in order to convert
some analog code to a digital one but if
you adjust the contrast and brightness
multiple times a qr code is actually
revealed in the bottom right hand corner
the qr code doesn't take you anywhere
but instead reveals a unique phrase
parasite is to host as inhabitant is to
environment if you ever paid attention
in math class or have ever taken
standardized testing this sort of
problem might seem familiar to you and
that's not the only secret phrase that
we can find across these websites
returning to the lookback header you'll
actually see some entry points from
2001. if you click the first one you get
a 500 internal server error which has
itself a fun little easter egg the
server information at the bottom should
read apache but instead uses the word
apogee another moon reference in this
case the point at which the moon is
furthest from the planet but that's not
all in an erg a broken web page is
rarely actually a broken web page in
this case we see information about the
server error but you'll notice that
there's a forward address that looks to
be a folder location i tried plugging it
into the url bar and got this
this secret page takes you to another
document this time talking all about the
wonders of home recording it also has
itself a creepy final paragraph all
about our mortal eyes lifting up to the
empty throne of the master hmm
feels good man
the throne here is a reference yet again
to the moon as we see back in sky
watching that the moon is labeled his
throne so again more evidence suggesting
that the moon itself isn't alive but
maybe some massive monster living inside
of it gotta admit that seems like
splitting hairs against the whole
extraterrestrial thing but whatever
anyway behold right below that paragraph
there's another qr code this time hidden
in the tv screen which gives us yet
another phrase a predator cannot
differentiate prey from accomplice
the final piece of the arg that i want
to mention is the 404 page i actually
wasn't able to find this one myself but
lots of people over on the local 58
subreddit have been data mining this
page trying to find any new clues and
the earliest screenshot of this i could
find came from lordgaben5841
apologies if lord gaben isn't actually
the first but as far as i could tell
that was just the first instance of this
being found anyway this page at first
seems like a glitchy 404 page nothing
too special but if you inspect the
source code of the website which feels
so good to do because it's been a long
time since we've had to check the source
code of a web page the data text reads
what you need is no longer here yes we
gotta keep looking underneath there's
more text this one looks like a jumbled
mess but if you highlight it copy paste
and then spread out the spacing of the
letters or again just check the source
code for the site you'll see what it
says beyond a certain point watching is
no different from doing so at this point
we have ourselves three random phrases a
parasite is to a host as an inhabitant
is to the environment a predator cannot
differentiate prey from accomplice and
beyond a certain point watching is no
different from doing so what do they all
mean and how does it connect to a living
and homicidal moon monster well let's
take the first one what if we humans are
the parasites we inhabit this
environment this planet taking advantage
of the host for our own means regardless
of the consequences we destroy
rainforests for profit we throw millions
of pounds of trash into the oceans we
pollute the skies every single day
sounds like an apt analogy to me and for
all of you who are sitting there
thinking well i don't do that i recycle
i walk to work too bad because of the
second phrase beyond a certain point
watching is no different from doing this
planet is too far gone in the eyes of
whoever is leaving us these messages as
such the fact that you're just sitting
by and watching it happen makes you just
as responsible as everyone else so is
that it it's just a just an
environmental message yeah i think the
piece is largely fit but i do think
there's more to it from a lore
perspective but stop just looking at
earth from what we understand and
instead start looking at the idea of
killing the planet more literally
if the moon and stars in local 58 are
actual entities or home to greater
cosmic beings then who's to say that the
earth isn't also one of those things a
cosmic entity that we the parasites are
actually killing and that is where our
third phrase comes in a predator cannot
differentiate prey from accomplice i
spoke earlier about the moon worshipers
but who are they i believe that they're
an organization called the thought
research initiative in canon they were
the ones that made the 1983 video real
sleep now why them well their logo
appears to be on the latest web page
from 2021 though it is super distorted
you can definitely make out the slanted
tee and even parts of the r and the i
also according to the game detective's
wiki which has been tracking changes to
the local 58 website when the 404 page
was originally discovered on september
13th there was a nearly invisible
element at the bottom of the page that
read copyright 2021 fault research
initiative llc so it would seem like
they're trying to help the moon
accomplish its goal of wiping out the
parasites stopping this environmental
destruction by eliminating us but
there's one problem with that they too
are gonna get caught in the crossfire a
predator cannot differentiate prey from
accomplice this organization or cult or
whatever you want to call them may be
helping they may believe that by doing
so they're going to be spared by the
moon for doing it like so many other
religions do but i believe that this
message is a warning for them they will
not be spared because they are still
human they are still parasites that must
be removed when speaking about a cosmic
entity the lives of a few humans are too
minuscule to care the predator cannot
differentiate the prey so there you have
it friends what i've been able to figure
out so far when it comes to local 58 the
moon or a giant monster in it is mad
about being ignored and a series of
cultists on earth are hijacking
broadcasts to fight on its behalf but
clearly there's more here a huge shout
out to the local 58 subreddit as well as
to the game detectives wiki who've been
doing a great job of tracking all the
changes to this site allowing me to
catch up on things that happened long
before i was made aware of these
websites even existing and sure i've
tried to piece together a narrative
based on the information that we have
now but there are still a few things
that may change that conclusion for
example there's that big colorful image
on the main webpage which some members
of the reddit community have theorized
might reveal more information if you use
an analog television system as a monitor
the compressed tri logo feels like
there's got to be something there i also
wonder if we're fully finished with the
phone audio sure it's kind of solved
because we did the morse code but
there's also some muffled audio near the
end that nobody seems to have gotten
anything out of user shades 10318
actually called out that it sounds
similar to an old radio scrambled signal
and reminds us that the article about
the low band filter might be a clue to
solving it this is known as voice
inversion scrambling but without an
old-school radio with a sideband
frequency setting it doesn't seem
totally possible to solve it digitally
at least not that i could find with the
limited amount of time that i had to
research this one in short if any of
this is interesting to you i highly
encourage you to go over to the local 58
subreddit as well as the game theorists
subreddit to join in and let me know if
you find anything new this franchise is
far from over and i'm looking forward to
covering it again when we've solved more
puzzles in the meantime don't look up
look up look up
and especially don't look at the moon
instead you could look at this awesome
poster of the moon thanks to our sponsor
for today's episode diss plate it's not
just any poster either disc plates
posters are printed directly onto metal
ensuring that they keep that high
quality finish for years and years and
years regardless of how many times you
have to move as you attempt to avoid the
moon's all-seeing eye but if you'd
rather just avoid celestial bodies
altogether and after today i wouldn't
entirely blame you then diss plate has
still got you covered if you check out
the website you'll easily find something
that you're passionate about including
officially licensed designs from
franchises like marvel and star wars i
personally recently ordered this dune
poster after i saw the movie and yep
that is indeed the whole collection of
squid game shapes that you see that i'll
soon be displaying for anyone who comes
to visit me in the basement plus thanks
to the posters being made out of metal
you don't have to worry about tools or
screws or punching into the wall all
that's attached with magnets and
stickers this in turn makes it really
simple to swap out if you want to go for
a different style for some reason
stephanie decided that cats was the way
to go and i don't get much say in the
matter another great thing about display
is that for every poster you buy one
tree gets planted in exchange so you're
not just making your home super stylish
you're also helping to offset your
carbon footprint for that purchase maybe
that will be enough to appease the moon
we're doing our best down here damn it
if all that sounds good to you click the
link in the description to head on over
to display and get a huge discount
that'll be automatically applied when
you check out which let me tell you for
the quality that you're getting is just
a fantastic deal i love this service i
love the quality of the prints that you
get i love the variety of art styles
that they have on the website and when
you get them it's so simple to install
like why aren't all pictures like this
anyway that discount is only available
for a limited time so what are you
waiting for use that link down in the
description below to get your discount
and start building your collection today
and as always remember it's all just a
theory a film theory and cuts