Entertainment
Disturbing YouTube Series Will Force You To Document Your Dreams
By Robert Scucci
| Published
Some of my favorite horror entries live on YouTube and are created by up-and-coming filmmakers who have not yet seen their big break. Series like Alex Kister’s The Mandela Catalogue, Steven Chamberlain’s No Through Road, and channels like Bitesized Nightmares and Kepther e, in my opinion, are leading the charge when it comes to the new wave of found footage and analog horror. I am drawn to this corner of the genre because of how visceral it feels, largely because these videos are framed as legitimate uploads that you are not necessarily supposed to be watching.
Given my fondness for this brand of horror, the almighty algorithm eventually led me to a relatively new series known as VCR Willie, which started making its rounds on YouTube this past November. Updated sporadically by YouTube creator Alexanderthetitan, with videos ranging from eight to 20 minutes, VCR Willie plays like a found footage experiment but has far more going on beneath the surface. The key distinction is that the footage we are seeing was not voluntarily recorded, but instead documented by Alex, the owner of the channel.
A Chronicle Of Nightmares
VCR Willie keeps you in the dark until its fourth entry, “NAK,” where Alex finally addresses his audience and explains what is happening to him. Alex, if we take everything he says at face value and suspend our disbelief for a moment, claims he was living a normal life until he woke up from a lucid dream where he discovered a Sony Handycam sitting in his closet. When he wakes up, he realizes the camera is physically there in his house, despite being a make and model he has never owned.
Things get even stranger when Alex finds a tape already inside the camera but has no way to play it, which leads him to send it out to be digitized. Once he receives the file and watches it, he realizes the footage is exactly what he has been seeing in his recent dreams. Every time he wakes up, the process repeats. A new tape appears in the camera, he sends it off to be digitized, and then reviews what was captured. It is heavily implied that Alex himself is behind the camera in the footage, as the people he interacts with refer to him by name.
Mimics, Shadow People, And Apartment 40
The footage itself, which is not presented in a clean chronological order, begins to paint a picture of what is happening in Alex’s alleged dream world. He is paid by a woman named Scarlet to document her boyfriend Jared’s increasingly strange behavior. Scarlet insists that while the person looks exactly like her boyfriend, it is not actually him, but rather an entity mimicking his appearance to deceive her. The real Jared is hiding inside her apartment, cowering in fear, while another version of him stands outside, trying to get in while pretending to be the real thing.
Most of the videos in VCR Willie follow this same basic structure in different variations. They are almost always set in what appears to be the same apartment during different time periods and with different occupants. Someone hires Alex to document unsettling events involving a real person and their mimic, and the line between who is real and who is not grows more difficult to define as the series progresses.
The mimics themselves vary depending on how far along they are in replacing their subject. Some appear nearly complete, while others still feel unfinished, as if they are learning how to pass. One recurring detail, at least so far, is that they all offer Alex water at some point. They prefer to drink straight from the tap, but they always direct him toward the water cooler in the far corner of the kitchen, often referring to it as “the good water.”
The most recent uploads in the series, with “VHS NIGHT” being the latest entry as of January 18, 2026, push the story into increasingly violent territory. It feels as though the mimics are tightening their grip on the narrative itself, subtly pressuring Alex to join them.
A Visceral Thrill Like Nothing You’ve Ever Seen Before
What keeps me coming back to VCR Willie is how it sidesteps many of the genre’s most familiar beats. There is shaky camera work, the occasional jump scare, and all the expected trappings of found footage, but there is an added layer of unease that is difficult to explain. The people Alex interacts with feel dangerous and welcoming at the same time. They will casually chat with a smile, then suddenly shift into something hostile, storm off into another room, and peek back around the corner as if they believe they are hidden, despite standing in plain sight.
For the first time in a long while, I found myself watching through my fingers because I genuinely have no idea what kind of horrors Alex is walking into inside this apartment. Throughout every video, there is a persistent feeling that I am being watched as well. The idea that these tapes originate from an alternate dream world that does not intersect with Alex’s waking life only makes it more unsettling. In my mind, the mimics have not crossed over yet, but it feels inevitable, and that possibility adds another layer of dread to the experience.
VCR Willie feels like a breath of fresh air in a genre that often leans on familiar frameworks. We receive the creator’s explanation early on, and everything that follows is left to our imagination as we wait for the next update. It is a genuinely exciting time to be a horror fan when creators like Alexanderthetitan have the freedom to push boundaries without studio interference, resulting in some of the most unsettling horror being produced right now.
Entertainment
Who is the Super Bowls Black national anthem singer Coco Jones?
“Lift Every Voice and Sing,” also known as the Black national anthem, has been sung at every Super Bowl since 2021, when Alicia Keys performed the song.
This year, at Super Bowl LX, Coco Jones will perform “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”
So, who is Coco Jones?
Mashable Top Stories
Coco Jones is a Grammy Award-winning R&B artist. In 2024, she was nominated for 5 Grammys and won one award for Best R&B Performance for her platinum-certified song “ICU.” She earned two more Grammy nominations in 2025 and was nominated for Best R&B Album at this year’s award show.
The artist’s father, Mike Jones, is a former pro football player. Jones was an NFL linebacker who played for the New England Patriots, St. Louis Rams, and Tennessee Titans.
If you’re not familiar with Coco Jones as an R&B artist, she might look familiar to you if you watched the Peacock series Bel-Air. Jones is the actor who played Hillary Banks on the drama that reimagined the Will Smith sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. As a child actor, she was also a well-known Disney Channel star, appearing in So Random!, Good Luck Charlie, and the Disney Channel Original Movie Let It Shine.
Entertainment
Netflix's Perfect, Offbeat Documentary Is A Masterclass In Undetected Living
By Robert Scucci
| Published
With rent prices spiraling out of control, the average person has to figure out how to be thrifty enough to survive in this brutal economy if they want to maintain a comfortable quality of life. Personally, I freelance full time because it allows me to work from home and keep a flexible schedule. That lifestyle choice lets me stay home with my kids, saving a ton of money on child care. I’m also saving hand over fist on car maintenance and fuel costs because I don’t have a commute. In a past life, I remember dropping about 10 grand a year just getting to and from an office setting that made me miserable, so I don’t do that anymore, and my wallet thanks me for it.
Most importantly, I like staying home so I can actually enjoy what my rent pays for. I’ll stand in the vacant corner of the living room that we don’t quite know what to do with yet, simply because we’re paying for every single square inch and might as well use it. When my wife asks what I’m doing, I tell her I’m getting my money’s worth and enjoying my rent. While this behavior sounds a little silly, it’s nothing compared to what’s uncovered in the 2024 documentary, Secret Mall Apartment.
It’s Exactly What It Sounds like
If you’re wondering what Secret Mall Apartment is about, there’s no need to read between the lines. It’s about a collective of Rhode Island-based artists, led by Michael Townsend, who secretly lived inside the Providence Place shopping mall for four years without being discovered. What began as a creative solution to displacement ultimately became a long term, living art installation and a quiet protest against gentrification. Along the way, the documentary also makes a strong case for using art as a way to reclaim your life, which might be exactly the kind of inspiration you’re looking for right now.
It all started in 2003, when Michael Townsend and his friends Colin Bliss, Adrian Valdez Young, Andrew Oesch, Greta Scheing, James Mercer, Emily Ustach, and Jay Zehngebot needed a new base of operations after the dilapidated Eagle Square district, which functioned as a creative hub for local artists, was leveled to make way for the sprawling shopping center. Providence Place mall was never exactly welcomed by longtime residents, largely because it was seen as a development that would drive up costs and push lower income families out of the area.
While reluctantly wandering through the mall to see what all the hype was about, Townsend discovered a chunk of unutilized space where several structures intersected. That discovery sparked the idea to slowly transform it into a hidden apartment. With the help of his friends, they turned the space into a modest but functional living area of roughly 750 square feet. Using a Pentax Optio camera, they documented the entire process, from sneaking furniture into the space to tapping electricity from a nearby store. They even hauled in dozens of cinder blocks to construct their own wall and a locking door, all without drawing attention from security.
Technically Theft And Trespassing, But Also A Living Art Installment
Townsend was eventually discovered, cited for trespassing, and evicted from the secret mall apartment in 2007. Even so, it’s hard not to admire the initiative behind the whole thing. As the documentary makes clear, Townsend is the kind of person who sees art in everything, and transforming the space was simply another creative challenge. While living inside the mall, the group continued to work on ambitious projects under the radar, including contributing to an elaborate 9/11 memorial in New York City and creating large scale tape murals at children’s hospitals, more often than not working tirelessly for free.
Between these demanding projects, the group returned to their secret mall apartment to talk shop, plan their next ideas, and unwind by playing video games, watching TV, and simply having a place to exist without paying rent. The stunt itself is impressive, but it also functioned as a pointed commentary on gentrification. Providence Place was a massive development designed primarily for tourists rather than locals. After the construction of the 1.4 million square foot mall displaced a thriving underground art community, Townsend felt reclaiming 750 unused square feet was a fitting way to push back.
Secret Mall Apartment is a satisfying watch because the apartment represents more than just a clever place to live. It stands for reclaiming autonomy through unconventional means and tells a genuinely inspiring story about eight people who followed a strange idea because it felt like their calling at the time. Every person who lived in the secret mall apartment still works in the arts today. Meanwhile, the mall itself is currently under state receivership, which feels like an ironic footnote in a story about creativity outlasting corporate progress.
If you’re looking for a feel-good documentary that might spark something in your own creative life, or if you’re just looking for some thrifty interior decorating tips, you can stream Secret Mall Apartment on Netflix.
Entertainment
Odell Beckham Jr., Kane Brown, and More Stars Serve Up Fun at Cîroc Athletic Club's Pickleball Tournament
Game, set, sip! Odell Beckham Jr., Kane Brown, Terrell Owens, Estelle, and more celebs headed to Cîroc Athletic Club at M Ranch, a private estate established in 1919, in Napa Valley, California on Feb. 6 to debut its inaugural Super Bowl pickleball tournament.
Celebrity pickleball coach Matt Manasse, who has trained Jamie Foxx, Matthew McConaughey, Kelly Rowland, Will Ferrell, and Emma Watson, hosted the day’s matches, with Owens stepping onto the court to compete.
Between rallies, guests recharged with Leisure Well experiences, including IV drips and B12 shots from Recovery Suite and massages by Hyperice.
Throughout the day, attendees embraced wine-country living by sipping Cîroc vodka specialty cocktails, crafted from fine French grapes and distilled using a cold fermentation process, as they soaked in vineyard views across the property’s 12 acres.
Inside the home, partygoers browsed curated artwork by Gordon Parks, courtesy of Jenkins Johnson Gallery, before making their way to an outside stand to grab custom Cîroc pullovers, windbreakers, disposable cameras, and travel bags.
As golden hour faded into evening, DJ Millie kept the energy high with a live set, before guests enjoyed a performance by IDL and a dinner by Chef Kwame Onwuachi, followed by dessert and cupcakes to go.
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