Image Source: “Vita Carnis - Living Meat Research Documentary 2 - Trimmings”
“Vita Carnis” is an analog horror series created on YouTube by the user Darian Quilloy, presented in an almost documentary-style format, featuring 17 videos, with the first documentary being aired on April 23, 2022. Set in the period just after World War II, “Vita Carnis” introduces us to a new species that appeared out of nowhere, spreading across the world with unparalleled momentum. These organisms are almost entirely made up of muscle, bone, and organs, dubbed the “Living Meat,” along with various vastly different sub-species, each with their own characteristics and temperaments. The documentary illustrates how the Living Meat interacts with various ecosystems and how it has affected human society.
The majority of the “Vitas Carnis” documentary walks us through the hierarchy within the Living Meat species, ranging from the harmless “Crawl,” “Trimming,” and slightly ghoulish “Meat Snake,” to the more dangerous subspecies, the “Mimics,” “Harvesters,” and “Hosts of Influence.” There are other species that are a bit more mysterious than the rest. The first of these is the “Monoliths,” which consist of only seven independent organisms that seem to stand in a circle around the second organism, the “Singularity.” While there are an estimated seven total Singularities, it is unknown if every Singularity is surrounded by Monoliths. The documentary notes that the seven Monoliths and the Singularity appeared much later than the other Living Meat species and questions the reasoning behind this.
“Vita Carnis” takes world-building to another level, creating ways for these Living Meat species to coexist with Earth’s seemingly complete ecosystem, something that not many creative media try to achieve. The fruits of Darian Quilloy’s labor and planning is the immersion effect of the world they’ve created. Explaining how the Living Meat species live and interact with the environment and ecosystem results in everything feeling solid and realistically plausible, adding to the general eeriness of the documentary.
The graphics and visuals of “Vita Carnis” leave little to desire, consisting of realistic lifelike abominations and convincing news clippings. Occasionally, live-action footage is played, and those are arguably the most terrifying sequences of the entire series, mainly because they break us away from a spectator’s point of view, and throw us straight into the horrid reality in the “Vita Carnis” universe.
“Vita Carnis,” being an analog horror series, gains the ability to perform theatrical techniques and manipulate our point of view in ways most other types of horror cannot, feeling like a breath of fresh air. Merging documentary-style and live-action genres creates an unexpected shock as we come face-to-face with the creatures we’ve been introduced to. While the documentary isn’t particularly scary in a traditional sense, it has a certain aura of unease that affects viewers, not to mention the various mysteries surrounding the Living Meat and the hints towards something far greater and scarier than any creature mentioned. Overall, while it may not be the scariest series, it is an enjoyable and entertaining experience that gets viewers’ minds working.
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