The CarnEvil Cult is a creepypasta that was first posted to 4chan's /x/ board by an anonymous user on June 13, 2020 and was intentionally done in the style of the early video game creepypastas from the late 2000's and early 2010's. An incomplete YouTube recap of the thread can be found here
The premise is that in the late 1990s, there was a bizarre and violent militant cult that was dedicated to the darker side of Celtic paganism, active mainly in the Midwestern United States, and that the narrator was recruited into the cult as a young adult and lived on a compound in Iowa. The narrator claims that two members of the cult worked on the game CarnEvil at Midway Games and tried to hide a series of messages of occult significance and coded references that only members of the cult would fully understand.
The thread focuses on a few things and emphasizes several elements, the first being the violent and abusive nature of the cult. The second is that they actively sought to recruit outcasts (namely gamers and anime geeks, both of which were seen as more unusual in The '90s when compared to today) and the third is the cut or hidden stuff in the game itself, as well as the abandoned attempt at a console version of the game (supposedly outsourced to a small third-party company that was a front for the cult before getting cancelled).
The story particularly fixates on weird things in the game's code like random anime screenshots and a deleted Tunnel of Love stage that was seen as too graphic and too up front with its occult intentions.
The CarnEvil Cult contains examples of:
- Ax-Crazy: The Michigan branch of the cult is heavily implied to be this, and that even other cult branches are creeped out by them.
- Ancient Conspiracy: Explicitly defied and averted. The cult was founded by gang members in the 20th century, most likely in The '70s or The '80s.
- All Hallows' Eve: CarnEvil is released on October 31, 1998. Truth in Television
- Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: Subverted. CarnEvil is stated to have cult members working on it, but the game's creator and lead designer Jack E. Haeger is explicitly stated to not be a cult member and is more or less oblivious to the fact that people on his team are part of a violent cult.
- Blood Magic: The cult definitely practiced this and the narrator personally saw (and is implied to have took part in) animal sacrifices. There are rumors that one of the cult's chapters in Michigan have even done acts of Human Sacrifice, but the narrator doubts it.
- Combat Sadomasochist: The cult training rituals mentioned by the narrator indicate that their ideal of a perfect warrior is along these lines.
- Cult: The main antagonists overall, they are a cult who believes in a vaguely Celtic pagan theology and are described as violent and right-wing, and were active in the American Midwest during The '90s and the Turn of the Millennium
- Double Standard: Rape, Male on Male: Averted. The narrator states he was more or less coerced into sex with male cult members and was also raped as part of his initiation. It is not treated as humorous and is very much stated to be horrifying, with the narrator mentioning nightmares and a self-loathing sense of guilt, both being common symptoms of PTSD.
- Flyover Country: The cult is almost exclusively based in the Midwest, with the largest chapter being the mother chapter in Chicago followed by the Michigan set and the Iowa based set the narrator was affiliated with. There is a Canadian branch based in Ontario, and a throwaway reference to very small chapters being set up in rural Appalachia.
- Genre Throwback: To the early creepypastas with its focus on 90's video gaming and being posted in a thread on 4chan's /x/ board.
- I Know Mortal Kombat: The cult seems to believe this to some extent, although it's meant more as a psychological conditioning technique.
- Left Hanging: We never know what happened to the cult and whether or not they are still active or if they disbanded completely. It's also theorized the cult as he knew it fell, but reformed into another organization, or were absorbed by a larger and more powerful group.
- Murder Simulators: The cancelled console version of CarnEvil is very much implied to be this
- The '90s: The bulk of the narrator's involvement with the cult took place from 1997 to around 2002.
- No Name Given: The narrator himself, given that he is posting anonymously on an image board.
- Nothing Is Scarier: We don't fully know why the cult was infiltrating the video game industry and what the cultists were exactly hoping to achieve with their involvement in making CarnEvil. The narrator's memory is fuzzy and he isn't quite sure if it was meant as some sort of bizarre electronic ritual for Samhain or if it was some kind of recruitment tool or coded message for new cultists. All are given as potential motives, but none are confirmed as being the actual truth.
- Occidental Otaku: Several of the cult's recruits are these, and several of them move ranks by physical and psychological conditioning that separates them from their fandom and more towards the cult's ideology.
- This even spills over into the game itself, with various references to the old dub of Sailor Moon buried in the game's code and end credits
- Right-Wing Militia Fanatic: The cult is all but outright stated to be a variant of this trope, with the narrator mentioning stockpiling weapons, ammunition, and essential supplies such as food and water as well survival and combat training that is disguised as a LARP. We don't know the actual specifics of the cult's political ideology other than it is "right-wing" and possibly an apocalyptic cult. Unlike the standard depiction of this trope, the cult is explicitly stated to be Celtic pagans as opposed to fundamentalist Christians.
- Satanic Panic: The narrator states that the cult was likely trying to get into video game development as a way to brainwash new recruits (or broadcast messages to the cult) and they even talked about the old Satanic Panic of The '80s but it's also subverted when the narrator says that the cult dismissed the Satanic Panic as nonsense, but believed that gaming could be used as a tool for mind control if one knew what they were doing.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: The narrator leaves the cult in early 2002 out of fear and his escape is simple. He gathers up some of his things, gets in his car and drives away in the morning. It is implied he was trusted enough by the cult that they did not know he was leaving the cult and thought he was getting more supplies instead.
- Truth in Television: Most of the details about CarnEvil that are in the original thread actually do exist.
- There actually was a cut "Tunnel of Love" in the game and the only hard evidence of the stage is in fact the music track that was supposed to be be in that level.
- The random references to Sailor Moon are also actually in the real game, with a special thanks given to "Princess Serenity" and a screenshot of Sailor Jupiter used as a placeholder image in the game's code. Same goes for the placeholder images of Al Capone and Jeffrey Dahmer that are buried in the code as well.
- There was an attempt at a console version of the game that Midway licensed out to a third-party company and it was supposed to be a reboot of the game that told the same basic story but in a more detailed and story-driven form (as opposed to the Excuse Plot that comes with being a Light Gun Game for arcades)
- The Almighty Gaylords, Stoned Freaks, and Taylor Street Jousters really were gangs that were predominantly white (mainly Irish, Italians, Greeks, and Poles) and based in the Chicago area between The '50s and The '90s. All are completely defunct except for the Gaylords, who do not have a main chapter in the city proper but are now more centered in the Chicago suburbs as well as Indiana, Kentucky, Iowa, and Michigan
- Western Terrorists: The narrator leaves the cult in early 2002 partly because he's worried that they would be labeled as this following the events of 9/11.
- White Gangbangers: The founders of the cult are stated to be this, and a few real-life Chicago-based white gangs are explicitly mentioned by name in the original thread complete with actual vintage photos of the gang's graffiti.
- Shown Their Work: The gangs mentioned were all closely allied in real life and all are or were part of the wider People Nation alliance (which also contains more well-known African-American gangs like the Vice Lords and the Bloods and Latino gangs like the Latin Kings)
- Zombie Apocalypse: The cult uses this as a code for a "Shit Hits The Fan" scenario like a massive natural disaster or a second civil war and even watch zombie movies as part of their conditioning.
