ARTMS’s “Virtual Angel” is analog horror. Let me explain.

“Virtual Angel” tells the story of two sets of girls – the idol group ARTMS and their fandom, portrayed by a separate group of actors. ARTMS is portrayed as angelic, in white flowing clothing and metallic accents, even on their airbrushed faces. They appear wholly disconnected from the fandom, to the point that they didn’t even film on the same day – instead, they were filmed on a separate studio set, then played through CRT TV screens for the fandom members to interact with and emulate. ARTMS becomes, quite literally, analog through this technique.

Meanwhile, the fandom members don street clothes with white accents but bolder colors. Their hair and faces are adorned with gems and makeup, but aren’t airbrushed – their skin looks natural, not like porcelain. They also interact with the real world, breaking cars outside, and on actual sets in buildings.

Noticing these details, however, can be a bit…difficult. Considering the editing.

As someone who knows people with severe vertigo, as well as a frightening amount of knowledge about the Porygon incident of the 90, I would say that the flash warning at the beginning of “Virtual Angel” is a welcome sight if not a necessary one. The rapid cuts on ⅛ of a beat are disorienting, to the point the video is physically hard to look at. I am not exaggerating when I say your eyes hurt while watching. The band ended up releasing a “Human Eye” version of the song so that it wasn’t as hard to watch.

However, that was the intent. Historically, angels and gods have been described as impossible to look at, for fear that their true form will destroy you. This is what happened to Dionysus’s mother Semele, and this is what happens in the Old Testament to Lot’s wife. The presence of divinity is corrosive to those not ready for it.

With that in mind, I’ll be honest, I’ve never been so happy to have my eyes physically hurt while watching something.

“Virtual Angel” is the best Retraux fever dream I’ve had since my discovery of analog horror and lost media. It inundates your senses with CRT screens and film grain, bright colors and intense contrast. The ARTMS members are just shy of overexposure, whereas the fans are bathed in shadow. It doesn’t give you a moment to rest between shots. Both the physical sets and the backgrounds of the studio sequences are so gorgeously put together that when your eyes do register what they’re seeing, it’s absolutely breathtaking.

And because it’s so distractingly beautiful, you almost miss the disturbing imagery at play.

Almost…but not quite.

Redditor u/Marcey747 points out in their post “The storyline in the ARTMS – ‘Virtual Angel’ MV is a very sinister commentary on idolizing stars” that…well, exactly that. It’s a commentary on the idolization of stars. Marcey747 even compares it to NewJeans “Ditto” in how it addresses fan worship and nostalgia. However, as pointed out in their post, the take ARTMS has is much more sinister angle. Whereas “Ditto” took a nostalgic approach with the story and showing someone who grows up and out of a group, ARTMS depicts the opposite.

The fans of ARTMS are dead at the end of the video.

It is a “blink and you’ll miss it” situation on purpose. While watching the bright visuals and flashing lights, it feels almost euphoric to watch. It’s so elevating, in fact, that you don’t even notice the shots of the fans collapsed on the ground, often off the edges of the buildings. In their worship of angels, they chose to become some themselves.

The thing about angels, though, is that angels are more than just messengers of God in the Bible. Well, sort of. Actual angels are humanoid, but there are lots of other celestial beings – for example, ophanim, the giant wheels with eyes – that are referred to as angels outside the mainline Bible. In the past couple of decades, this concept of angels being so otherworldly that they don’t even look human – complicates the understanding of humanoid angels being fully good and righteous. Take, for instance, the TV show Lucifer – Amenadiel, one of the principal characters, is very righteous, but comes into conflict with himself when he realizes that his actions hurt the people he cares about. As such, while the members of ARTMS are being depicted as divine and worshiped within the video as such, we are not meant to trust that assertion fully – especially when the screens read with ominous text like “Be not afraid.”

To that end, it’s interesting to me that ARTMS uses the actual full name “Artemis” in the music video, on tattoos that cover the fans’ bodies. The Hunters of Artemis, mythologically speaking, were a very insular group of women who worshipped the thrill of the hunt, Artemis herself, and nothing else. There is relevant imagery in this – the fans breaking car windows, surrounded by teddy bears, running and chasing, the predominance of nighttime and arrows as imagery. The hunters of Artemis have to swear off men and other earthly pleasures, and the video depicts these girls finding solace in being on the periphery of society – on top of parking lots, in hideouts, and in nearly empty neighborhoods. Even the limited queer overtones of the video, like when a fan kisses Choerry through the screen, fit the mythological thread of Artemis the goddess.

The fans worship ARTMS, but in return for what?

Throughout the video, there is actually a sixth girl alongside the fans. Much like Heesoo in Ditto, she’s holding a camera and filming her friends, but unlike Heesoo, her friends aren’t the band, but the fans. We aren’t given her name, but we see her throughout the video – she’s in the car when the fans break it, she’s present for their dance practices and summoning rituals, and she is who we are left with at the end. It is implied that, as commenter u/714c said on Marcey747’s post, that when the summoning ritual does take place, she’s the only one to see the band through her camera. It’s not the fans who destroy themselves living in fantasy that get to experience the band in their purest form, but the fans who see the reality that get to experience them.

At the end of the video, the girl with the camera is standing alone, and she puts her camera down. She is completely in shadow, but daybreak appears to be on the horizon. Floating above her are five curved crosses, reminiscent of the crosses the fans hold in their worship. Are they the band members? Are they the souls of the fans? We don’t really know. I can’t help but be reminded of Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding in this final scene. In fact, I would be shocked if it wasn’t on the storyboard artist’s Pinterest board.