Internet Screamers: Some Examples of the Internet's Most Known

by: Naomi Avilés, for Professor Ramos' Intermediate English Course. Originally written on 15/10/23.

During the early 2000s, the internet was plagued by Screamer videos, also known as Scary Pop-ups. These videos initially pretend to be a game, a test, a still image, or a non-scary video. The viewer is then instructed to look closely at the image or turn up the volume. Suddenly, a scary image pops up with either a scream or Scare Chord.” (TV Tropes) Internet users would often fall victim to these pranks, mostly from acquaintances, coworkers, and even family who would share a website link or a video clip. The unsuspecting viewer would then be bombarded with stock screaming sound effects, accompanied by a still image of a scary face, most commonly, Regan McNeil, a popular character from The Exorcist movie. In this essay, we will be discussing the most popular ones, as well as their stories.

The K-fee “Auto” caffeinated drink advertisement, also known as Ghost Car, and The Maze by Jeremy Winterrowd are some of the most popular Screamer videos. However, they were not the first ones to make their way onto the internet. As far as the screamer community knows, Kikia is the first screamer published on the World Wide Web. It was first posted on a Taiwanese blogging site called Kimo by user Netspooky in 2002. It is uncertain whether Netspooky created it or if it is a reupload of a different creator's work. Kikia consisted of a flash animation with crude drawings of what seems to be a child sitting on a patch of grass, with two strings of Chinese characters in blue on the top section of the screen. The text roughly translates to "How long haven't you taken a look at the sky and daydreamed?" The scene then transitions to the child walking down a city street, the red-colored text reading "Walking down the street, you see..." and then a flashing image of Koji Ogata from the 2001 game Fatal Frame fills the screen. This would kickstart screamers, and Kikia was spread around the internet through e-mails, social media posts, and later onto YouTube.

Undoubtedly, Jeremy Winterrowd is one of the most famous people associated with internet screamers to date, as he is known on the internet for his simple flash game The Maze. He is a senior software developer and web designer, and occasional Disk Jockey from Texas, United States. “I made this game in October of '04 for Halloween and sent it to a few of my friends in an email. About 5 months later, someone had sent the same email back to my mother! It had turned into a viral email joke. I was very flattered and figured I should make a website for all the stupid prank games I've made.”, answered Winterrowd on a Yahoo Answers thread who asked about the game’s creator. This site was winterrowd.com, which hosted his resume before becoming home to his screamer pranks after The Maze went viral, with multiple people posting their reactions on YouTube. The friendly-looking website hosted other flash games and videos such as: Hit the Dot, Optical Illusions, Swearing Baby, Save Justin Bieber, and several others. It was so popular that it once went offline on April Fool’s Day due to server overloads from people attempting to get their friends with these pranks, as evidenced by Winterrowd.com’s official Facebook page in a 2014 post.

In 2005, a German beverage company by the name of K-Fee released a series of advertisements to promote their caffeinated coffee drink to be aired on television. The most famously known advert is Auto, known as Ghost Car on the internet. This infamous advertisement begins with a Chevrolet Malibu driving down a road with foliage surrounding it, soothing music plays as it progresses. The vehicle then goes behind a group of trees, actor Brad Johnson, dressed as a zombie pops out and scares the viewer. It then cuts to German text that translates to “Ever been so wide awake?” with a picture of the can with a heartbeat effect pulsating. This was supposed to simulate what drinking their product would feel like. Along with K-fee Auto there were eight other videos that followed the same format: soothing scenery and soothing music, then sudden shock. These were: Fishing, Yoga, Meadow, Surfing, Beach, Boardwalk, Buddha, and Golf. The last four listed would have a gargoyle rather than a zombie, played by Adam Johnson, brother of Brad. In recent years, many photos resurfaced showing the behind-the-scenes of K-Fee auto and other advertisements as well as a YouTube channel named Rhys Lapsley releasing a documentary featuring both actors and the rest of the crew. K-Fee won three awards for their advertisements: The bronze award at Clio Awards in 2005, the Silver Award at Cannes Lions 2005, Shots Award in 2004, Issue #83.

It is unclear when the trend of internet screamers dwindled, and the internet moved on to other things, especially with Adobe Flash shutting down, a program that supported these creations and playing of them. In Alec Bojalad’s article on Den of Geek, “The Forgotten Era of Internet Jumpscares”, he interviewed Rhys Lapsley and Toby Bouchard, the latter is a content creator who gained popularity making videos on this subject, which continues to be a significant part of his content. “I think people got tired of it,” Bouchard says. “It’s the same schtick over and over again. That’s what I’ve noticed as I’ve been making videos on my channel. A lot of people now expect it. If a video is too good to be true, they think ‘Oh yeah, this is a jump scare.’” “There aren’t many originals,” Lapsley adds. “I gave [making one] a go myself for the documentary. It didn’t go well. It got no views and I’m quite glad it didn’t.”

Screamers were everywhere during the early two-thousands. People were pranking their loved ones with the spooky Ghost Car or with the Infamous Maze. These videos would trick their viewer into paying attention so they could scare them with a cheap jumpscare image. These became viral memes on the internet, with users uploading their reactions mainly of The Maze onto YouTube so others could enjoy and have a good laugh. This was only enhanced when Jeremy dedicated his site, Winterrowd.com, to jumpscares, where he and other users would submit their creations to continue pranking their loved ones. These quietly faded away as the years passed, a combination of people expecting it and the lack of creativity, a possible cause. These pranks now remain in the memory of the people who grew up surfing the web during that time.

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“Screamer Prank” TV Tropes, TV Tropes Screamer Definition Accessed 14 October 2023.

“Kikia” Screamer Wiki, Kikia Screamer Wiki Article Accessed 14 October 2023.

Winterrowd, Jeremy. “Jeremy Winterrowd” LinkedIn, 2023, Jeremy Winterrowd's LinkedIn

“Jeremy Winterrowd” Screamer Wiki, Jeremy Winterrowd Screamer Wiki Article Accessed 14 October.

xoxoD@NI_ELLExoxo. “Who Made the Scary Maze Game?” Yahoo Answers, 2013, Yahoo Answers Post

Winterrowd.com. “Wow! April Fool's Day crashed my website for half an hour! Hahaha! It's back up if you still have people you need to get.” Facebook, 1 April 2014, Facebook Post

Shots, UK “The Award-Winning Spots for K-Fee in issue #83.” Internet Archive, July 2004. Shots, Uk award video

Cannes Lions. “CL_2005_Film_Winners” Cannes Lions, 2005, Cannes Lions 2005 Flim Winners PDF

“Clio Awards” Clio, 2006, Clio Awards

Bojalad, Alec. “The Forgotten Era of Internet Jumpscares.” Den of Geek, 20 October 2021, Alec Bojalad's Article Accessed on 15 October 2023.

Some additional things I wanted to mention

I wanted to share this paper I wrote to the web because I thought it'd be pretty cool, lol. I got the idea of coding my own site thanks to the feedback I got from my English professor, Mr. Ramos. He believed that ths belonged on a site of its own.

I wanted to link both Rhys' Documentary and Toby's channel. You can find them here: Documentary, Toby