the scariest book I've read
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- Опубліковано 26 вер 2024
- today we're talking about a book
→ ᴘᴀᴛʀᴇᴏɴ: / jeffiot
the book is "The Moustache" by Emmanuel Carrère
Voice work:
Agnes - HoneyBeeJones
/ honeybeejones
Jerome - Blaholtzen
/ blaholtzen
Stroller lady - liminalitea
Veronique - Hannah
Taxidrivers, australian, hotel receptionist - Evan Diem
open.spotify.c...
American Tourist - Nick Nocturne
/ @nightmind
Subtitles by:
Red Slendy
Thanks to the following people for lending their photos/faces/other visuals:
Evan Diem
Sonya
yankeewhite
AustereRR
BigYaggert
impostorsneedle
Ilacksleep1
ConnorHippy
jackson___lol
JonathanBaker27
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▶️ Recommended companion video:
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Habanera & Friendly Day by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.
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☞ About me:
Name Jeff (haha like the meme), used to create an ARG webseries called 10 tapes. Now I talk here on youtube about stuff both spooky and otherwise, stream on twitch (off and on) and attempt to hunt down the man that killed my family. I’m also a certified gamer, my uncle invented nintendo.
⚠️CONTENT WARNING ⚠️
Dont watch this video if you are sensitive to topics such as s*icide and self harm.
This video has a pretty graphic scene (in youtube standards) towards the end.
Your mental well being is more important than any number of views.
Thanks. I’m going to watch the video but probably skip the end
I have experience with self harm and suicide attempts.
The warning is appreciated
You're so real for that, thank you for coming back to this video to post that warning. Amazing retelling of this novel, by the way, I'm going to give it a read myself some time soon. Did you know that there was a film adaptation, too? If I recall correctly, the author of the novel actually wrote and directed the film, as well. I wonder how it is.
I wish you’d put that at the beginning of the video tbh x.x
Oh my god. The ending was gruesome, but I cried at the bit where he bolts from his home. I had a friend who struggled with paranoia and schizophrenia and was diagnosed quite late in life and it just sounded so much like how he'd think about things. He'd get ideas about people wanting to hurt him or plotting against him, and usually he'd talk to me, I was the person he always chose to trust even when it felt like he couldn't trust anyone, and I'd say, ok, say these things are true, can you think WHY they might be true, what's the process or motivations that have led to people wanting to hurt you or plan to do this. Amazingly it seemed to help most of the time, but when he had no one to talk to, no one he could trust, the urgency of the feelings would mean the why wasn't important right now- and it lead to some unfortunate incidents. Regardless of the authors intent, this deeply reminded me of my friends struggles and his conflict with reality.
I don't see him any more. He left the noise of the city we lived in to live with his family in the country. He's on pretty intense meds now but he seems to be doing as ok as you could expect.
I was really rooting for "Jeff". Really great retelling here, very evocative. You absolutely nailed it. Haunting.
Thank you for the heads up ❤
There's an alternate universe where gaslighting is called mustacheing
Not anymore. Im gonna start using it
@@masonmcdonald1556No your not 🥸
Oh, quit mustacheing everyone.
There's no such thing as gaslighting. It IS called mustacheing.
Do you think alternate Jeffiot has a video about the movie Gaslight instead?
The foreshadowing on the ID mustache removal removal really had me
What was it forshadowing? The bathtub thing?
oh shit i didn't make that connection
@@randomenvelopesorry to necro and you probably don’t care/remember anymore but Agnes scrapes his ID with a razor blade to remove the mustache and accidentally scratches his nose and mouth as well. In the end he seemingly accepts or at least pretends to accept that he no longer has a grasp on reality and makes himself “look” like his scratched ID. Many ways you could read into that.
Personally the ID scraping is such an insane thing for Agnes to do that it makes me question if it’s real or perhaps it’s her being ill, him misrepresenting (not necessarily on purpose) it due to being an extremely unreliable narrator or him just being very ill.
@alfredandersson875 but spain is missing on the map, and she appears elsewhere with a different personality.
So the problem is clearly with him.
Yeah, that definitely comes through as horror. The idea of not being able to trust your own mind is so powerfully terrifying. The reason our main character found himself in this situation is unimportant. Whether he is insane or not, he is experiencing his reality shifting and seemingly no one will believe him. In a world where the only things we can trust are those our brain and senses tell us, I can't imagine the terror of your own core memories slowly being erased and overwritten by the entire world except for you.
this is what living with a gaslighter is like
For me this brings to mind the statements regarding The Spiral in The Magnus Archives, which embodies the idea of straddling that line of making the victim feel like either they are insane or the world is, and being wholly unable to figure out which. They always hit me the hardest, because even if that isn't a fear that I would call my biggest or most prevelant one, they really do a good job of putting the listener into the shoes of the statement giver. Up until she appeared again in the aparment (and the scene after that which I was wholly unprepared for dear god) it felt extremely remincint of André Ramao's statement in MAG 34: Lost and Found, that deep dread of trying to figure out which is worse: They are fucking with you in a way that is knowningly and uncharacteristically malicious, something supernatural is happening and your entire worldview is being upended, or there is something seriously wrong with your head and you cannot even tell it's you.
I agree the reason doesn't matter but there are clues. She references cancer and "its grown back hasn't it" at a certain point.
This is kind of what it's like having certain kinds of mental illness
I- I actually cannot believe this. Right after the scene in the hotel bathroom, I got a travel ad beginning with a cheery voice saying “What makes a trip unforgettable?” HUH I WONDER
😂😂 this just made me nervous laugh! damn this story was unsettling ah
I can’t believe it just ended with him dying! I want answers!! Also lol, bio travel ad
@@casvirgileAnother comment theorizes he had a brain tumor. At one point around 23:00 the wife mentions “It’s growing back, isn’t it?” and the narrator mentions how Agnes doesn’t let cancer scare her.
My interpretation is his brain tumor was slowly sending him into more and more delusions. He probably hallucinated a lot of things and had false memories that to him, actually happened.
A lot of things like the mustache on the ID scenes were probably his deeply injured brain desperately trying to make sense of anything it could. Same with his paranoia. And we never learn what his issue was because _he_ never learns.
😳
@@DeathnoteBBthat makes so much sense! I assumed she was talking about the mustache, but that fits, too. My only thing though, is how did they end up in Hong Kong together without her being panicked?
The bathtub scene was so grotesque and descriptive that it literally made me ill. Amazing work Jeff
I was plugging my ears waiting for it to be over and what I caught was still bad enough.
I rarely have much reaction to reading strong things. That passage made me clench, cringe and so, so uneasy. I was shaking and I did not want to keep reading/listening. Amazing stuff
I actually saw this movie when it came out and completely forgot that it was based on a book-I have almost no memory of any of it, including the bath scene you’re describing (if it was in the movie), and I haven’t been this anxiously intrigued in ages lol.
I actually squirmed and doubled over to keep from throwing up lmao
Came down to comments to see if that happened to anyone else, actually got light headed and needed to lay down
by just beyond the middle mark of the narrative I assumed that the main character was experiancing early onset dementia but by the end I didn't think that in the slightest
I thought something like that, too, but for me, in the end I still might think that. Just like the character, I'm not all too sure! I'm curious, though, what did you think by the end?
@@FionavanDahlliterally same
He has a brain tumor, he mentions her feelings about cancer and then she says “it’s growing, isn’t it” at a later point
I found this really sad that the only constant was their love and he still felt like he had to end it with her right next to him
This is so incredibly haunting. I went on this whole journey from "Really Geoff, you're totally overreacting to your coworkers not commenting on your lack of moustache," to "Okay, you're in an alternate universe with a couple minor differences, it's spooky but you'll make it" to, when Agnes said his father had died despite saying "your parents" moments prior, viscerally feeling the horror Geoff is experiencing. The slow burn, as you put it, adds so much to the horror because you're in Geoff's head! You witness the journey from "this is weird, I guess everyone is pranking me" to "holy shit I can't trust anything I know about the world." Thank you for this retelling!
That bathtub part at the end made me physically move around in discomfort, like I'm fine with that kinda thing, but the strangeness of Agness returning snd him seemingly not knowing what he's saying and the sudden dive into shaving away his face really got me
@@FionavanDahljust turn off the video oh my god 😭
@@ssouljagrlthey still wanna hear the conclusion LMAO
i had to disasociate at tht part and just multitask something else as i was audibly grossed out by it, which just solidfys how much more horrific our imaginations are.
American tourist saying "Nothing. Forget it." was a nice touch to the overall theme of the story haha. also, NightMind
Yeah, what was that about? I thought at the time maybe it was something that had disappeared just after he'd seen it, but no idea after watching the ending.
@@JimboDoomface my guess would be it's a meta joke at the main characters expense, when he asks what he missed the response is "Nothing. Forget it." Which is a normal response but given the context of his memory issues and all that, is pretty goddamn sinister
heyo, i made this one despite knowing that itd not be everyone cup of tea, especially not the algorithms, so a like really goes a long way! thank you!
also, please check out the credits in the description and go follow everyone who helped me with this!
ur awesome
This was outstanding.
Putting this much work into something knowing full well that it's not going to be algorithm bait is admirable. I am just a random person on the internet, but I quite enjoyed it. Thank you for the entertainment.
I found you on the algorithm!!! And I’m so happy I did ❤ that was amazing, and I love your story telling and the sound of your voice 😊 I’m now subscribed 🤗
🎠
I definitely interpreted it as Geoff suffering from dementia, it explains all the little logical inconsistencies (his deteriorating ability to make and recall memory is impacting his ability to undertand how things are logically progressing) and also some of his more peculiar behaviour like aimlessly wandering, taking the same feryy ride over and over again.
On a side note, I can't help but feel terrible for Agnes too here. She's trying her hardest to support her husband who is clearly having a massive mental health crisis, but she doesn't have the resources to give him the care he needs at all. That's gotta be terrifying.
Yep…and that ending…Agnes would definitely come to blame herself for Geoff’s death, probably thinking that she should’ve done more to help him.
Naw his wife is just a psycho torturing him mentally.
Imagine if this guy had a $1M budget to make his next movie.
check out patreon.com/jeffiot and make it a reality😎
Or become a youtube channel member ☺️
This man could single handily revive UA-cam red
At this point in time, he could make 3 WHOLE scenes (in the woods) from Blaire Witch with 1 million dollars!
@@redwiltshire1816 What is UA-cam Red?!
Ohhh man. I had a long psychotic break back in 2018-2021 and this reminds me a lot of what i went through during that time. I'm much better now.
Excellent recreation of the novel. Especially with how real it becomes when he enters the hotel room at the end. It seems like the only real thing that happens.
The red light on the record player going out and him not recalling seeing her press the button was my first clue that something was wrong with him. From then, until he enters the hotel room at the end, I couldn't trust a thing he said, thought, or did. Which is just how psychosis is unfortunately.
That light, and the fact that Agnes theoretically put on a record for just the duration of a song, as far as he's concerned? It's not easy to just put a vinyl on and listen to just a song, you risk scratching it if you don't start from the start of the album anyway. And if she put on a whole album, then he lost time in the bedroom. If he lost time, he can't be trusted.
@@beckstheimpatient4135That's an excellent detail I didn't catch, thanks for pointing it out.
There's also a very subtle detail I caught onto where "Geoff" wishes that he and Agnes owned a VCR the night they watch the movie, but then on the day that he leaves their apartment, he notes specifically that she's staring at the VCR in their living room. Not sure what version of reality that points more towards, but it's a tiny little thing that really freaked me out while reading.
@@ASmidgeOfPidge I missed that detail! Nice catch. I had a feeling there was something about the VCR when Agnes was staring at it, but I had missed the previous reference so it didn't click for me.
@@beckstheimpatient4135there’s also vinyls that are just single on each side , so there it could be that. But that’s a good observation that matches thematically!
So, apart from being such a good horror story, the middle part where Geoff starts to wonder about things being real or not, when he describes the numbness and apathy towards things changing after a huge time of paranoia... it's a really good look into how psychotic episodes can be, the mistrust in your loved ones and the feeling of dread at things not being the way you expect them to be!
It gave me chills in a very different way and your video is such a great way to bring all of it across!
When paranoia and other symptoms make you hyperfixate on irrational thoughts and, eventually, act on those thoughts... the prospect of going back to a normal life can be depressing. You not only have to remember those actions, motivated by a part of your brain that you don't feel you are in control of, but end up trying to imagine how to include all those actions you can't erase into a normal life once again.
I have the feeling that in the end, the protagonist just felt that he had gone too far, guided by his paranoia, and couldn't really come back to a normal life... but since all his memories were randomly turning out to be unreliable, he didn't seem to be able to make a decision. What if his absurd reactions never happened? What if he was wrong, or right? Or what if all those possibilities were true at the same time?
The end of the novel was inevitable... all that self doubt making him unable to live any longer. But the time travel thing is the only part that confuses me. Maybe it was all a memory of his journey to Indonesia mixing itself up with the reality he was living in during his last moments? Maybe everything else in the novel was a glimpse into the possibilities that the future had for him, since back in his journey to Indonesia he had already felt the symptoms of his illness? Maybe both options are wrong and he actually did time travel?
As a French person who absolutely loves that book, your video made me shiver.
This is the best adaptation of any book I have ever seen.
The amount of creativity oozing out of this video is mind-blowing.
Thank you for your work.
this feels like one of those infuriating dreams where you’re the only one behaving normally and everyone else is on board with being insane
man i was not in the right head space going in this video that ending fucked me up
Fr this drove me nuts
@@TaidaAle I watched this doing dishes, not thinking too much of it before I began watching. Afterwards, it gave me a very strange headspace. I was in a fine one beforehand. I guess it's some powerful stuff!
@@jordankeller4253i was playing some games while listening, and the moment it got to the bathroom scene i legit had a "Hold up." Moment and paused my game just to listen better at what the hell was going on there
Same jfc
Nice
I think this is the first time I've heard "In The Hall Of The Mountain King" not used comedically but at that point I was so invested into it, it didn't even seem out of place
It reminds me of dementia. My mother is a caregiver who works primarily with dementia and other memory-impaired clients. On top if that, my great uncle had dementia. I have not looked into any statistics, but with my deda (as we called him) and multiple past clients, they relied heavily on their spouse. When the rest if the world seemed to dissolve into senselessness, they seemed to be brought back to the present quicker with their spouse's help. When my baba died, he'd been deteriorating, but physically he was mostly well. In less than six months, Deda had fallen apart. He was always a big man, every kid but me always seemed scared of him for his size. At the end, he was skeletal. Unrecognizable physically and mentally. I was still pretty young at the time and hadn't ever seen what dementia was, what it did. I just thought it was memory loss. But it's not just that. And my mother's clients were similar, dying soon after their spouse. I don't know why it happens. And in the end stages of the disease, they can't explain it.
As the disease progresses, they do often get confused, make things up, misremember. They seem to jump back in time, process the world differently. Deda would call me by my mother's name, even as my mother stood right there. And she, being adopted, certainly didn't resemble my grandma, so he'd often be wary of her. I imagine the frustration of one's experience of the world contradicting reality so often causes fear and anger. Imagine being convinced the people you love and trust are constantly gaslighting you all of a sudden. Outbursts of anger or even violence are not uncommon. I think it comes from a place of fear and, when clarity settles in again, realization and grief.
Of course, I haven't read this story, so I haven't analyzed the text. This is just the feeling it gives me, which is obviously coloured by my own biases and experienced.
That being said, I am genuinely terrified of dementia. As someone who spends so much time in my head, I fear it no longer being something I can navigate. I fear being lost there with no roadmap. I fear who I'd become without the ability to conduct the jumbled mess inside.... So a story that invokes those themes... Yes, that qualifies as horror for me.
I actually started crying when his dad was dead, it was building up from the friends we saw them having dinner with not being real, but his dad being dead BROKE ME
I like that every depiction of jeff shirtless is kinda shredded as hell. Im sure weve all had THAT delusion
He randomly references her attitudes towards cancer at one point, and her "it's growing back, isn't it" is a huge red flag.
He's got a brain tumor.
That's an interesting theory.
I think you might be onto something!
I’m only at 12:35 but that would explain a lot
The point is 23:43 btw!
honestly hate when a brain tumor is the twist in things, im not saying youre wrong... but the fact brainm tumors can have almost ny symptom with no explaination always feels lazy to me.
early onset dementia would make sense to me, it would be very very rare to have a brain tumor to have all of these symptoms and affect every part of the brain without just killing him waaaaay beforehand.
but stranger things have happened in fiction, for it to be cancer and foreshadowed like that i would like to have more references to it throughout the book but i dont think i will be reading the whole thing. neat story tho
HOW do you not have MILLIONS of subs, Jeff?? It makes ZERO sense. You're an incredible storyteller and your analysis is amazing. I'm so frustrated by my own inability to increase your reach to the levels it deserves. You're a hidden gem on this platform and I'm asking you, nay I'm pleading with you, please keep making content. It will happen eventually. It just HAS to. And I guess even if it doesn't, I still selfishly really want to see more content 😅
Seriously though. Love your work, man.
doot doot
I whole heartedly agree 😭 I wish I had thousands of friends just so I could shove this channel down their throats. The world needs more Jeffiot!
Because people think he supports plagiarism
I just watched the film adaptation that was directed by the original author, and in that the protagonist is actually given a name - Marc Thiriez.
The Jeff/Geoff distinction is really funny though so I fully stand by your creative decision for naming the main character.
This made me really sad so in my mind the ending is just a particularly bad episode, agnes comes to the bathroom, he tells her everything hes been experienced and she gets him treatment right away, its a long adjusting process but he gets a good support group of other psychotic people and they all go out for sundays on sundays. Canon is whatever i want it to be etc (this was a great video and really touched me)
What jumps out to me most about the bathtub scene, at least the way I interpreted it, is its this sort of...reaffirming of the consequences of his own actions?
Like, he shaves his moustache and no one notices. He leaves his wife, and somehow, she reappears- it's as if his choices are even less real than his false memories, like they have no effect on the world around him or what he sees.
So he shaves his moustache again. A lot this time. He shaves his moustache so hard that nobody could ever question whether or not he had shaved his moustache. The area where his moustache was *has been shaved,* among other things, to put it lightly.
As someone who's done self-harm before solely for the purpose of making sure I was still here and that I could still feel and that I was still alive, and that I could do something and see the visual consequences of it, that resonates.
I realized the foreshadowing in the story…the moment where Agnès is scratching off the mustache on his ID card with a razor…only for him to shave everything off of his face at the end of the story…
Very unsettling but we’ll done.
The horror to me, as a sentimental person, is that truth only resides in the moment. Anything else is a figment of the imagination.
There's one part of the book that I feel like is more important than it lets on, and it's when he takes her out to dinner after making up his mind that she's lost it. "And just as such a woman would make it a point of honor to prove the word 'cancer' didn't frighten her, Agnes, as she stroked his cheek, then his upper lip, murmered, 'It's growing back, isnt it?' " And I think that's all the hint we need. This isn't just about mental illness which it is somewhat, he has cancer. The book starts with them getting ready for a perfectly normal evening, they do this all the time, but..Something changed that day, and even if they can't perceive it yet it's already started. Everyone around him acts like everything fine, but they get home and he loses it over "the mustache". No one else can see the way he's now changed, he knows he's not the same anymore, but nothing changed for anyone else. He's sure that he has nothing to worry about after he pretends to be blind to talk to the woman on the street which I'd say is some doctor appointment, comes home convinced everything is going to be ok, and his wife is just worried for nothing. But the fine balance is broken when she says out loud "It's growing back, isn't it?" That's when the delusions really start. He's losing more and more of reality as his body is ravaged, and he's convinced he's not the one with the problem as everyone else grows more concerned. The repeated shavings are the repeated trips to the doctors, Hong Kong is the hospital, and eventually he's lost it all, he's had all of his being striped away..And as he sees his wife for the one last time at the end, living life as if nothing has happened, that's his real end. The razor takes his life-blood, and his real torture is finally over. I see a man in denile of his own existence, and constantly running from a reality he doesn't want to face, one that keeps making him sicker, drains more and more from him as the book goes on, and in the end his reluctance to give in to his pride kills him.
this... would make a FANTASTIC movie.
i'm tempted to see if there really is one, because it just seems absolutely perfect for an artsy horror film.
thank you for bringing this story to my attention, i'm going to be thinking about it for weeks.
There is actually an movie made in 2005 based on this book,
but honestly I only found out about it after looking it up on google after watching this video.
@@StephaneTheardjust read this comment after doing the exact same thing 😭 I’m tempted to watch it and see if its any good
@@Deepseadread6 It's directed (and I think still written) by the original author, if you didn't already know! Or for anyone else who didn't know.
@@Deepseadread6 It's ok, I think. I mean, it's weird (duh) :P but yeah, it exists and it's a freaking mindgame!
Try Don Hertzfeltd's it's such a beautiful day, it's an animated movie and it's not an adaptation or anything but there are similarities and it carries the same "vibes" so to speak.
The chills that went up my spine when you translated that message from the cop omg
Wait what did the message say? I missed it 😅
@@ezrastardust3124 did you not watch the video?
@@ezrastardust3124at the very end he says it
This felt so terribly tragic. The protag's self-reflection while repeatedly riding the ferry had me sobbing -- I definitely interpreted this as a wrestling with dementia or Alzheimer's. Everything from finding comfort in a repetition that can keep you in the present instead of worring over the continued loss of memory, to knowing that your love for your partner is something that can still persist through the deterioration. When my grandma was going through the stages of Alzheimer's, she never forgot her husband or most of the important details of their relationship, and he was always there by her side. Perhaps this is personal experience colouring my narrative interpretation, but that ferry scene in particular invoked that kind of feeling for me.
I have a relatively rare, reality-bending, amnesiac mental disorder. It’s not psychotic, but often misdiagnosed as schizophrenia. Some people with the same diagnosis as me do experience false/re-written memories, or hallucinations that help the external experience align with the current conscious idea of self. It’s related to maladaptive daydreaming. Amnesia barriers prevent these experiences from being apparent, and much like the character in this book, it can create confusion and paranoia when people’s accounts of reality differ from your own. It wouldn’t surprise me, if I was to interpret the story through this lens, if the protagonist had (for instance) superimposed a memory of going to dinner with friends based on something he’d seen in the movie he watched with Agnes that night.
With this disorder, too, the brain often only begins to allow conscious awareness of inconsistencies once you have been in a stable environment with a safe person(s) for an extended period of time.
In my own case, while my symptoms aren’t that extreme (especially at this stage in therapy), I can’t have people close to me in my life that can’t be 100% relied upon for honesty. I am supremely easy to gaslight due to the tenuous and non-linear experience of reality that I live in. I already cycle through varying degrees of distrust with people in my life, depending on what memories and emotions are available to me in the moment.
At the time that this book was written, my condition was not documented or understood in any real sense, especially in popular culture. But, I think the author did an excellent job capturing the sensation of realizing that your working model for reality is magical thinking. And then snapping hard back into denial to protect yourself…only to have it smack you in the face again…feeling you’ll never escape. Not knowing if it’s you, or everyone else. Cognition is a strange thing. Everything we live, while we call it the present, is already a memory. We believe it is being written, but already it could be re-written. Beyond that-the existential terror of realizing you are the reader and not the scribe, the passenger and not the pilot, is truly difficult to illustrate without the use of a full narrative.
The ending in particular really hit me. Going about your business, fully believing you’re living one version of events, and then like a light switch…reality changes. But once you know the problem is within you, you can never stop knowing. Your brain won’t make reflexive adjustments to keep up the facade for the outside world anymore. There is no accepting it because there is no way to make reason of it. There’s no escape because your maladaptive illusions are dilapidated. You can only vacate the body, and if you can’t bear to return, the consequences are unspeakable.
That cop trying to warn him was a nice touch. I thought something that was actually refreshing about the story was that the environment wasn’t that cynical-everyone around the protagonist, even a cop in a foreign country that didn’t speak his language, tried to help him at least a little. It does lend to the tragedy of it, though-I get the impression that this character must be a good-natured person, to have people around him respond to him the way they do. He could have been recovered.
The finale really speaks to your filmmaking chops. I know you said you didn’t want to spend another month on this, but I’d venture to say that if you put the time you took on this video and doubled it, and crowdfunded a budget, you could make a stellar short film based on the novel in a similar format.
I’d like to read the full novel, but I’ll have to wait until I’m in a good headspace for it.
I have bipolar disorder, it’s pretty much in full remission(havent had any kind of an episode in 12 years), but stories like this fuck me up big time. That feeling of doubting your reality and your sanity is the most intensely terrifying feeling, it’s primal, cuts right to the bone. I won’t be reading this book, it gave me anxiety just listening to your video about it! But it was a really wonderful video, you’re very well spoken, and I loved the editing 😂
Love your accent, its painfully Swedish but in a good way.
I'm not disagreeing with you, I have a pretty heavy swedish accent, but that being said: you ain't seen nothing!
@@jeffiot ajj spiik verri guud engelska yes
@@jeffiot i've found through years of listening to so many accents speaking english that the Swedish accent is one of my favorites. it's always easy to listen to, and smooth..? soothing, I guess? not sure how to describe it, but yours fits the bill as well.
it certainly makes longer and narrative-heavy videos like this even more of a treat to listen to.
..perhaps it's the blood of my ancestors indirectly chastising me for being American, lmao. "if only your great-grandfather had stayed here, you could have this nice accent too"
@@ArmundJayhey, I have no Swedish ancestry whatsoever (at least not in the last 800 or so years) and I feel the same way 😂
As someone with DPDRD this hits too hard. Some events in my life are remembered differently by me alone and theyre like jeff with his mustache, no matter what im wrong but my brain cant accept that things happened differently
Approximately 30 seconds before you said you were the type of person to pause a movie to be insufferable, I had just paused your video to turn to my partner and make a literally insufferable comment 😂 Something about how Agnes had said they'd never gone to Indonesia, and then there they are at the end, in a hotel room, on holiday. It felt like the two of them had intersected at an accidental convergence point of two very similar but very different time lines. (also, kind of like "the man from Taured"?)
The restaurant scene where Agnes scrapes off his moustache using a razor blade, and nicks some of his nose and lip in the process, that part was replaying in my head as I watched the final chapter in the bathtub (which was remarkably well done in my opinion, the pacing, the filming, what you chose to focus on close-up). Yes, the blood and the mutilation was disturbing, but also seeing "Geoff" without the mask of his face on his face, stripped down to nothing, in a sense. Also unsettling!
Anyway, thank you for introducing me to this book, it's definitely my cup of tea! I'm definitely going to request a copy from my local library.
the foreshadowing with the scratched ID and the ending.. it's so perfect. i love this story.
me being a person that over-absorbed the magnus archives to the point that it may as well be the only horror I know: getting a lot of magnus archives vibes from this
I was just about to comment this!!! It gives me such Spiral vibes!!!
@@seeyouspacecowboy_98 Or stranger/lonely
God stories like these are always my absolute favorite. Ambigious storytelling can often be incredibly frustrating, but when done well, I think it has the absolute highest payoff in terms of satisfaction despite never really having a proper payoff at all. My first introduction to that style was with Bird Box (before Netflix butchered it, fuck you Netflix) which my mom had previously read and recommended to me. It still holds such a strong place in my mind as not only was the story incredible, but my favorite part about reading it was discussing all my crazy ass theories about what was going on with my mom as I was reading through it. On top of that, the style really lends itself to these moments of intense gut-punches incredibly well as the stories themselves force you to invest in their narritive with how much you're asked to really dig into these minute details to try and gain an understanding, just to have it ripped away in an instant.
Definitely gonna have to give this book a read, and thanks for the incredible content as always, mr. iot
Watched a few minutes, left to read the book, now I'm back. Glad I did so.
I haven't been disturbed by anything horror related since I was 12. But this story... bothers me. The ending especially was insane. I don't usually leave comments, but the fact that something managed to disturb me is truly remarkable, and your delivery of this story was incredible. Props to you and to the author.
This story reminds me of the episode "Remember Me" from Star Trek the Next Generation.
EDIT: Also the urban legend of the Man from Taured. It gives me definite parallel universe vibes.
Also relatable because my old Garmin from 2013 refuses to recognize that the state of Kentucky is a place that exists.
What's Kentucky?
Shifting from one parallel universe to another is also my interpretation.
Yeah the Next Gen episode is what I was thinking of too, kept expecting more and more things to disappear as his reality got further away from everyone elses.
Glad he didn't go the sci-fi route or explain what was happening though, just let people interpret it for themselves.
It’s giving me really strong yellow wallpaper vibes
Genuinely your adaptation of rhe book, and that final scene? Genuine art, genuinely beutiful and horrific and just, amazing
It was scary, it was great
You should genuinely be a director, you'd be a great one
oh wow, this just unlocked memories of reading this for a school assignment in like grade 7, which is kinda wild considering the way it ends? I completely forgot about the ending until watching this. it was fun to revisit this way, thank you for reminding me of such an interesting story!
your delivery of the stories you recount in your videos does such a good job at setting the tone, really captivating atmosphere and ability to highlight the most compelling aspects. I can't not check out your original work if you're this good at storytelling.
In 7th grade??
😳
I think this is how most 'I think you should leave' sketches would end if they weren't like, 5 minutes long.
As Geoff started cutting up his top lip, I had assumed the ending was going to be when he came out of the bathroom and had no top lip, that Agnes was going was going to be like "what are you talking about? You've never had a top lip"
As someone with schizophrenia this has a whole other dimension of horror for me personally.
Wow, this was... intense.
And yeah, this is definitely Horror. Not just because of the gore at the end, but not being able to trust your own perspective is probably the most horrifying thing I can think of other than oblivion itself.
When you are your own untrustworthy narrator, it makes the whole globe feel like a gaslit hellscape that you cannot run from, and the one fueling the fire is you.
This story really felt like cosmic horrory to me. People disappeaing and being forgotten without any reason. At first I thought it was like a paralel dimention kind of thing where he switched places with an identicle version of him that never had a mustache. But the scratching off the ID and asking about the mustache to a stranger and them saying "Yeah you have a mustache in the picture" felt more like memories being tampered with, so someone unrelated would be unaffected. The friends disappearing, spain being gone on the world map just being another thing that disappeared. For all we know he might be the only one that remembers, and knowing you live in a world with someone like that, something unknowing making your loved ones and whole countries disappear, it would scare anyone. It felt like he took the trip back and fourth to hong kong almost to see if it would disappear too. And I think a lot of people in that situation would rather take their own life instead of waiting to for more things to disappear, and yourself. If that is the only thing you're able to do to go against the inevitable, it's not an irrational move.
this story resonates with me a lot as i do struggle with schizophrenia and my family (especially the women) have a history of dementia. ever since i was a child i was warned that when i get old, i’ll get dementia, and i’ve just had to live with that. it’s even more likely that it’ll be worse because of my schizophrenia, and that’s something that really keeps me up at night. i’m terrified that one night i’ll wake up and not recognize my husband (i kinda doubt that will happen since we’re high school sweethearts, but hell…you never know).
i personally believe the character of this story has some kind of early on-set dementia, as he didn’t show signs of delusions earlier in the story but it worsened. that or he was already dead and experiencing life in a backwards state or hell, he got transported to an alternate parallel universe. likely story is early on-set dementia. i think the point of this story is how one small thing can easily spiral a completely sane person into insanity. that’s the true horror.
Reminds me vaguely of when I was a young child and my father shaved his beard for the first time. He woke me up, we ate breakfast, the entire time him and my mom were acting weird. My mom finally asked me if I hadn’t noticed my dad had shaved his beard, and I looked at him and screamed. I genuinely hadn’t noticed, even though up until that point he had a beard my entire life.
So, while I was hearing you tell this story, it really reminded me of what it felt like in dealing with someone who had struggled with substance abuse issues. I am married to someone who dealt with this and the slow progression of distrust to conspiracy theories really hit home. My partner started to think that I had contacted all of his friends and family and turned them against him. He ran away and wouldn't tell me where he was because he thought that I was going to call the cops on him. Something I would never do to him. So yeah, I can really see how this story can come across as a horror story. I felt completely helpless and like my presence was just causing more pain. Things are better today, my partner eventually went to rehab. I just hope we don't have to go through that nightmare again.
I watched this video a while ago, and it's one of the few videos I've watched over my long time on youtube that really left an impact on me. I've never seen anything like it, and the way you told the story, both visually, and verbally was so unique, it left me sitting there not knowing what to do with myself afterwards (especially after that ending sequence, holy shit). I just finished watching all of Night Mind's videos on your 10 tapes project, and I was absolutely blown away. I went straight to your patreon because I really truly want to see what you're able to create next, whether that be another ARG, or a video going through M Night Shyamalan's entire filmography. Seriously, a huge round of applause to you dude, I'm truly in awe of what you're capable of.
I'd like to think the protagonist might be travelling between dimension, maybe.
I love your work ! the narrative and the visuals, perfect.
Jeff: "Oh this is a slow-burn"
Me: -immediately gets anxious the moment the mustache shit starts happening-
I picked up the book after watching the beginning of this video and man… it shook me to my core, and you definitely do the book justice with this video. Keep up the great work.
Every fucking video is a masterpiece.
Being a Hong Konger the twist of heading here was a pleasant little surprise. Got real nostalgia from watching the scenes of the Star Ferry, when I lived on HK Island I'd take it pretty frequently but now that I live in Kowloon I almost never take it. I might give it a visit this weekend for old times sake, thanks for such an interesting and entertaining visual presentation of this awesome story.
I love that! generally i tried to keep the backgrounds/boat visuals etc accurate to the locations mentioned!
@@jeffiot You did a great job with that, I'm enjoying going through the rest of your content as well. Subscribed 🥳
Look this was great. But that bit at the end caught me so off guard and made me so uncomfortable that I could barely make it through it and I wish I’d been given the choice ahead of time as to whether or not I wanted to experience that.
@@stagwoodink interesting take
I totally get this guy. A while back, my brother decided to get a mustache, by letting his beard grow and just shave everything else. We had dinner together that evening and all had a good laugh about his new mustache..The next day, I was certain I had a dream about him getting a mustache, and even told my other brother about it. He just laughed. It felt so unreal when I realized it wasn't a dream.
This seems a lot like an allegory for losing one’s identity.
After reading it, I noticed a neat little detail:
Early on in the story, the narrator mentions that he wished they had a VCR. Later on, after Agnes tells him about his father, she is “staring at the VCR”.
I liked that it was told from the narrator’s perspective because even the reader doesn’t know what’s real or not.
Jesus Christ. I need to find a translation in my language right now ! This really was fascinating . As someone who went thru a schizophrenic episode as a kid(and still deals with the effects of it) this really brought back some memories.
Well done on the video. :D Absolutely fascinating and terrifying book. Very Twilight Zone-esque, though there's usually a moral of some kind to those. I suppose here, it's, "Remember, kids! Don't shave your mustache off or you'll destroy Spain!"
“The Moustache? Why have I heard of this before?”
50 minutes later
“oooooh. yeah now i remember.”
This video's underrated as hell. honestly incredible storytelling and production quality, gonna check out the book now
God that scene was grotesque, I could barely stand to hear your narration of it.
psychological horror is absolutely up there when it comes to horror writing. having a monster (supernatural or mundane) hunting your protag is unsettling, but carrying a story like this is absolutely * chef's kiss *
This is an incredible video.
The way you’ve portrayed this story, with visuals and how you’ve adapted the text, instilled such a sense of first sadness and then dread in me towards the end.
Wonderful job
I think that the way the author makes you think 'is he the one who is ill' is exactly what they wanted. Even the audience isn't sure what's real, to me, that's petty horrifying .
I would immediately think I’ve gone insane and not that my wife is playing a joke on me lol.
What if Agnes isn’t real and he really did go to Indonesia, really were best friends with Serge and Veronique, his father wasn’t dead, etc. But his imaginary wife convinces him that everything is false. Maybe he really is an architect and Jerome is his real boss who only thinks Agnes exists because Geoff has mentioned her, but has never actually seen her to confirm her existence. Or who knows, maybe he’s been in a coma and all these memories and experiences were the last dying thoughts of his brain as he was experiencing death. There’s a real dream like quality with how inconsistent things are, yet they continue forward like you’re stuck on a ride, especially the ending with the spontaneous travel and the ominous message in Macau.
it does give off a sense of horror, but more than that really heavy sadness. to me at least, because it seems like dementia got to him. personally I have no experience with people who have dementia, but oddly retail seems to be a second choice to caretakers from nursing homes who couldn't handle it anymore physically and especially mentally/emotionally. I have lots of coworkers who worked with people who have dementia and it is such a grim disease. no wonder one would feel like they're going crazy when memories turn into a blur and you don't even know what's real or not. what's present and past or even just a delusion.
this story is just heartbreaking...
I think the dreadful fear of this story is the fact that it's not some supernatural thing or a creepypasta that could end your life in a million different ways. It's just.. the story of a man seemingly losing his grip on reality and everything he knows. A very real threat that could happen to any of us, akin to the horrible experience of watching a loved one's descent into Alzheimer's. You know something is wrong, but there is absolutely nothing you can do to stop it. Thank you for sharing such a story you enjoyed that I wouldn't be able to read myself. Keep growing your channel, please ❤
I’m having such a fantastic time going through your backlog. Every single thing you’ve uploaded has impressed me in some way.
dude i cant believe this video has less than a 1k views wtf, i know this channel gona blow up one day. dude keep doing what you are doing, watched the whole thing and was captivated the whole time, came to this channel from the scp video and stayed for the moustache.
cant wait till i see you at the top
this is not scary. it's a comedy. A man falling into an existential crisis when nobody realizes he shaved off his mustache. I love it.
I loved this adaptation so much im making an audio adaptation for a school assigment, ty jeff :3
Just wanted to say, I’m a huge Jeffiot fan. I usually lurk and “like” and try to support however I can. That said, I’m not a hard of hearing person, but I watch with subtitles on pretty much every video on UA-cam. Just wanted to show my appreciation for the bold, underlined, and italicized inflections in the subtitles. I’m sure there are folks out there who really get a lot of benefit out of that and it’s such a nice level of care to not just let UA-cam caption your videos for you. So thank you for that.
Also, this really is an actually good story and thanks for making a video about it. Such a strange concept and it materialized fantastically. Every one of your projects feel like a whole ass month of effort went into it (or longer) and I love the comedy elements, the drier humor, the changing camera angles when making a specific point, the art appreciation and overall just really good feeling I get from watching every video. You found the science to keep it engaging and whatever this formula is, it works. Every time. Also, I don’t know if you are animating this yourself, but I’d give a standing ovation for that weird, modest mouse/franz ferdinand style feel, it’s really fun. Don’t know the word for it but I’m sure you do. Hope that doesn’t sound shallow.
Really truly love how much effort you put into everything. It’s ambitious every time, and it really shows and this is why your content is so unique and you are my favorite person to watch.
I loved everything about this video. And I’m honestly a bit sad that if I do decide to read this book, which this video definitely made me want to, I won’t be able to experience it as if it was the first time. But your storytelling just was hypnotising and I had to know what happened next, though I have to admit it was probably due to the book’s story itself as well.
That was a beautiful book, and a beautiful video.
It is truly fascinating how extremely good this channel is. I never watched something so good with so little views. Keep going Jeffiot!
JEFF, JEFF, HOLY FUCKING CHRISTLER!!! Thank you for making this and exposing me to what definitely one of the creepiest stories I've ever heard! Im usually not a fan of ambiguous "open" endings, with the only exception being horror, meaning that yes, I in fact do agree with you on The Moustache being a horror story, especially on the supernatural front, which in the most classical versions tends to go unexplained. Also I absolutely freaked out when the filming switched from you and your partner's png faces to actual full body you, that was great (also had to come hide in the comments when the slicing began)
Cannot wait for the next video, every new one is better than the last, keep it up!!
(sorry if this makes no sense its literally 3 am, the demons in my room refuse to let me go sleep. guess that's why so many people refuse to play "invoke a demon pal" as a party game, huh)
holy shit. i usually have youtube videos playing in the background while i do other stuff. never locked in as hard as i did for the bathroom scene. beautiful telling, i will be immediately buying this book!!
Such a simple but brilliant premise. Who knew a mustache could be so specific.
Reminded me somewhat of the move The Father about Dementia. Describing the onset of confusion and disorientation, very clever.
I think its about being seen. That you can express yourself and be clear and plainly open and still struggle to feel seen, heard, comprehended, by those in your life. Its maddening and lonely.
It sounds like a well written book from the point of a person with schizophrenia, psychosis can really convince you of so many weird things and you're so paranoid when your reality doesn't align with the reality of others
(Your last line, hah!) I started watching this a few days ago, then decided to read the book first, and I'm glad I did. Watching your animation of the book literally an hour after I finished reading it was almost as traumatising but just as enjoyable. Particularly when Agnes gets a razor blade from her purse and starts slicing his upper lip I was just... oh my god. Thank you for putting this together. It's clear that an immense amount of work and passion went into it.
This is genuinely WAY too entertaining. I love this. Please do this more.
This is his niche and we need to see more
Broooo you really animated everything omg!
extremely well-crafted retelling. please do many more of these, might i suggest The Stranger?
this story comes off as incredibly depressing to me, but also terrifying as it seems to be someone suffering early onset dementia
Plot twist: there was a False Hydra in their near vicinity the whole time
Cool vid, I was really confused by the end and don't know what to think of the story, but nonetheless love the way you told it, really liked the animation idea
Man, I am so glad the algorithm kept pushing the Mr. Jazzskull video on me. Discovering your channel and the wonderful back catalog of videos has been such a treat.
This was absolutely incredible. From the tone with which you recounted the story to the incredible live-action work at the end, I couldn't take my eyes off of it from the first few minutes all the way to the end.
I took it as him shifting into a separate timeline after shaving his mustache. The moment it was back on his face, he shifted into another one.
I've never heard of this book before. You articulated the horror behind it beautifully, and I makes me want to pick it up and read it for myself.
I was gonna stop the video here because I realized that I absolutely MUST read this book, but I can't find it in English. Thank you for this fantastic video and for showing a story I would have never found on my own.
only halfway through and i feel like I'm watching a full-length movie, it's amazing
Jeff! Honestly, your content is AMAZING! I found you from your David Firth video and i feel like I've found a home on UA-cam here. Thanks for actually making me feel like i was going to turn myself inside out with ick at the end of this video too haha. I appreciate all the work you put into this animation!
Also do you watch Inside No. 9? I feel like it would be right up your street!