YouTube Nation Haunted House

Want a haunted house experience without the long lines, cheesy sound effects, and “too cool for this” teenagers? YouTube has you covered with a new video series by YouTube Nation.

Several YouTubers recently joined together on YouTube Nation to create a virtual haunted house in the style of a choose-your-own-adventure novel. The videos are interactive and occasionally pause for a few moments, offering several options in the form of annotation links that skip to a certain time or take you to a different video entirely.

The series includes well-known YouTubers such as nerd icon Felicia Day; Tay Zonday, of Chocolate Rain fame; Steve Zaragosa; and others.

The summary for the video says:

A party guest has disturbed the spirit of the house, and one by one, the party guests are gruesomely killed off! The partygoers split up and YOU get to choose who you join up with! Do you — FLEE, INVESTIGATE or KEEP PARTYING?

The entire series is filmed at YouTube Space LA, which was recently redecorated for Halloween by filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro and Legendary Entertainment. Del Toro is known for his incredible sets and creature design from films such as “Pan’s Labyrinth,” “Hellboy,” and “Pacific Rim.”

Given the comedic cast and quirky tone of the haunted house series, the videos are funnier than they are scary, but Del Toro draws a thin line between humor and horror.

When talking about his redesign of the Youtube Space, Del Toro said:

I’ve never done horror quite straight. I’ve always liked the quirkier side of it [. . .] The genre defines us very much like humor does. Horror and humor are related in that they are very, very personal.

Here is the first video in YouTube Nation’s haunted house series to get you started.