Candle Cove

Candle Cove is an online creepypasta horror story written by web cartoonist and author Kris Straub. The story centers on a fictional television series, titled Candle Cove, that could only be viewed by a small group of people, predominantly children, who later recall the disturbing show on a web forum.[1] Straub has stated that he was inspired to write the creepypasta after reading an article by the satirical news outlet The Onion, titled Area 36-Year-Old Still Has Occasional Lidsville Nightmare.[2]

Straub's story quickly became popular, inspiring numerous YouTube videos and fan fictions.[2][3] In 2015, Straub self-published Candle Cove in a collection of short stories entitled Candle Cove and Other Stories. The Verge commented that Candle Cove differed from other creepypastas in that while most creepypasta have an "anonymous folkloric quality", Candle Cove's originated from a known source and author.[4]

The story was adapted for the first season of the Syfy anthology series Channel Zero, which aired in 2016. Additionally, Straub began the spin-off YouTube series Local 58, centered around strange broadcasts from the fictitious public access television channel where Candle Cove originally aired.[5]

Premise

The fictional puppet show's story centers around the cowardly Pirate Percy and his brave captain Poppy going on sea adventures in their talking ship, the Laughingstock; eventually they meet a little girl named Janice Stewart (the only human character), who joins the adventurers' journey to Candle Cove. However, the pirates will encounter many perils such as the evil baron sorcerer Horace Horrible and his master, the Skin-Taker (renamed "Jawbone" in later episodes), a skeleton summoned by Horace who collects human skin to create his clothes. As the show progresses it begins to become dark and morbid within each episode, with little examples of humor.

Sources say that the show itself does not actually exist, and it's revealed that the people remembering the show turned out to have been watching static on television the whole time it was supposedly airing, implying that the show is only visible to children.

Synopsis

The story is told via a thread on a forum called the "NetNostalgia Forums", where a group of users discuss an unusual low-budget children's television show, Candle Cove, that they all remember watching on Channel Local 58 when they were children. The show is about a young girl named Janice, who imagines herself to be friends with pirates. The pirate characters are said to be portrayed by string marionettes.

As the users continue to reminisce they begin to recall more disturbing details about the show, such as a character known as the "Skin-Taker", a skeleton pirate who wears clothing made out of children's skin, and an episode that consisted entirely of the puppets flailing and screaming while Janice cries. It develops that there are no external records of the show's existence and that even those who say they remember seeing it have different memories of certain episodes. The story ends with a user stating that he recently asked his mother if she remembered the show. She responded that every time the user claimed "Candle Cove" was on, there was only static on the screen, adding that she had always thought that he had a big imagination with the show.

Television adaptation
Main article: Channel Zero (TV series)

In 2015 the SyFy Channel announced their intent to adapt the Candle Cove story as the first season of a newly announced series, Channel Zero.[6] The season, named after the creepypasta, expands on the story and centers on a child psychologist who has returned home in order to investigate the 1980s disappearances of his brother and other children.[7] Channel Zero: Candle Cove stars Paul Schneider and Fiona Shaw, and premiered on October 11, 2016.[8][9]

Reception

Will Wiles of Aeon wrote that Candle Cove was "among the best creepypastas out there" and a good example of using the messageboard and forum format as a storytelling tactic.[10][11] The Verge has written praise for the creepypasta, stating that it was "a perfectly dark spin on our nostalgia for the half-remembered stories of our childhood, that realization that the things we liked as kids were much, much creepier than we thought."[4]

References
  1. Peters, Lucia. "Creepy Things That Seem Real But Aren't: Candle Cove". Crushable. Archived from the original on January 2, 2017. Retrieved August 10, 2016.
  2. Burkart, Gregory (August 25, 2016). "CREEPYPASTA: Revisiting CANDLE COVE — The Scariest Children's Show of All Time?". Blumhouse.com. Archived from the original on October 19, 2016. Retrieved October 19, 2016.
  3. Grundhauser, Eric (October 7, 2016). "Do You Remember Candle Cove?". Atlas Obscura. Retrieved October 19, 2016.
  4. Robertson, Adi (July 1, 2015). "SyFy is making a TV series based on one of the internet's best scary stories". The Verge. Retrieved August 10, 2016.
  5. "r/local58 - Comment by u/krisstraub on "Did they ever air Candle Cove on Local 58?"". reddit. August 12, 2019. Retrieved June 11, 2020.
  6. Hipes, Patrick (November 18, 2015). "'Channel Zero' Anthology Series Gets Greenlight From Syfy For 2-Season Run". Deadline.com. Retrieved July 28, 2016.
  7. Goldberg, Leslie (June 30, 2015). "Syfy Prepping Anthology Based on Web Horror Phenomenon 'Creepypasta'". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved August 10, 2016.
  8. Abrams, Natalie (August 3, 2016). "Syfy sets premiere dates for 'Incorporated,' 'Van Helsing,' more". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved August 10, 2016.
  9. Logan, Alex (September 15, 2016). "How SyFy Farmed 'Creepypasta' for New Horror Series 'Channel Zero'". Yahoo! TV. Retrieved December 13, 2016.
  10. Wiles, Will. "'Creepypasta' is how the internet learns our fears". Aeon. Retrieved August 10, 2016.
  11. Newitz, Annalee (January 7, 2014). "Has Creepypasta Reinvented Classic Folklore?". io9. Retrieved August 10, 2016.
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