What makes lost media spooky?

Its the fear of the unknown I think. The idea that no one really knows what you're about to see and anything can happen. You might wind up seeing a forgotten masterpiece, a horrifying exploitation film or a weird sincerely crafted mess with a few "WTF??" moments sprinkled in. My go-to example for this is To Kill in Silence, an obviously serious attempt at an anti-abortion message peppered with random Mom-tits, a motorcycle race that goes on for 10 minutes and has nothing to do with the plot, a creepy freeze frame of a baby's face in darkness at the end and a baby sucking a plastic mannequin's tits during the opening credits. The whole time I was almost unnerved wondering what I might see next.

I think it's also a reminder of mortality, that this film that was once someone's passion project, and had media blitz and hundreds of crewmen and was reviewed by journalists could just be forgotten like it was nothing. It's a reminder that everything you do, and your own life, is going to fade into obscurity. Something you thought was gonna be a big important work celebrated by millions ultimately wound up in a landfill, or a dusty basement, or some chick's fourth harddrive amidst a sea of disreputable pornos.

It evokes the feeling of being alone. You may physically be in your house but mentally you're off experiencing no man's land. Your eyes are watching something no one has seen in years or decades, few will ever know what youve experienced or care. To me, this sometimes feels like I'm in a dark cave by myself with no one who can relate to what Im seeing.

Having to go to shady websites is scary for obvious reasons. It feels like youre on the brink of the internet sometimes, which in turn evokes the same feelings I spoke of in my previous paragraph

I think when you do have the experience of media you grew up with, or saw years ago, and then you can't find it anywhere to be very jarring.

I bring this up on the forums a lot, but I saw the DBZ JBVO episode when it aired. So when I found out in 2017 that the episode cannot be found, I was blown away. It was also very unsettling to have people speculate it wasn't real, and I felt gaslighted by my memories. Which even now with evidence, I still do feel gaslighted. The person who submitted the request came forward with their story and it doesn't totally match my memory. I remember it being a little girl who knew her brother liked DBZ and that's why she asked for it, which doesn't match what the person said. BUT, I don't totally trust my memory because I was a little girl who had a brother who liked DBZ, soooo I very well could have just impressed my own experience onto the memory.

I think it's scary to know we can also just conjure false memories, and finding proof in itself is unnerving. But of course it's impossible to remember every insignificant detail from our lives.

You know what I consider creepier? If the media has been found, but we have no idea who created it, what/who it was for, when it was made, why it exists, if there was more made, etc., etc. There are SEVERAL pieces of obscure media that have been found(or partially lost, or partially found in some instances) throughout the years that pretty much is this.

The thing that's the spookiest about Lost Media to me is how we know it once existed in some capacity and we know people saw/heard/played it, but it got buried in the sands of time due to poor archival. As my friend put it, it "only exists in memory."

And I think the other big thing is the fact that SOMEONE in the world is likely to have said media and may be the only one who does, or nobody would have it at all besides the creator.

I'm gonna get started on the script for the video soonish. A lot of responses so far seem to be around the idea that it's creepy the media once existed/was in public eye. Which is a valid point imo.

If anyone has any differing theories, lemme know. I personally think to some degree lost media got a creepy reputation because a lot of popular lost media youtubers made their videos about it creepy? Again I get the NSFL stuff, but it's definitely not isolated to that. Not complaining either, I like to watch Blameitonjorge's vids in particular because they make me uncomfortable.