“Ditto” by NewJeans is all about nostalgia. An article by “Teens in Print” very aptly states that the lyrics about sharing memories and the second person perspective of a girl filming her friends, who may or may not even be real, puts the viewer in the place of someone who is parasocially invested in an idol group. As a longtime fan of K-Pop who has seen both the good and bad, I am well acquainted with the concept.

So then why did the video scare the crap out of me?

You may laugh, but I am dead serious. The main character of the video and observer of the band, Heesoo, films empty spaces where her friends should be, but aren’t. It’s very similar to VIXX’s “Eternity” MV, wherein the band spends the whole video doing romantic things with a woman who, by the end, you find was never there in the first place. This is that general concept, but on steroids and with a more dreamlike aesthetic.

When I became aware that she was possibly hallucinating her relationships with these characters…I just felt something shift under my skin. Discomfort. Which scared me.

And, as a horror lover, that made me want to watch it more.

“Ditto” fits the bill for analog horror, despite being a music video for a “cutesy” song. Going down the list, it features an in-universe camera or perspective – that being Heesoo. Side A focuses entirely on Heesoo, while Side B creates a dissonance by focusing in equal measure on Heesoo and the members of NewJeans. Thematically, this serves to show how the members of NewJeans only exist in this story parasocially, as their scenes center almost entirely around Heesoo’s outgrowing of their presence. That mismatch makes the viewer feel discomfort upon watching both “sides”.

The Retraux aspect of it appears in two spaces – the footage Heesoo takes on her 90s/2000s camera, and the omniscient footage that follows a more traditional K-Drama style. Since the former is more self-explanatory, I’ll focus on the latter. The third-person-omniscient footage, particularly in Side A, has a warm, dreamy feel, like a haze is over everything. Side B has a similar haze, though it’s cooler toned. It honestly looked like something out of a mid-2000s/early-2010s K-Drama. I got big My Love From Another Star vibes because of that haze. Ergo, it’s not just invoking nostalgia in the camcorder footage, but the video itself.

However, this optimistic haze actually contributes to the horror elements. We, as an audience, are predisposed to be scared of found footage, because of The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity, Ringu, and, yes, the new era of analog horror series. But we are not predisposed to find that particular K-Drama aesthetic ominous or threatening (unless you watched Super Junior’s Mystery 6). The use of it in “Ditto”, therefore, lowers our guard. It makes us think that “Ditto” is going to be all nostalgia.

So when it isn’t, it puts you on edge.

Lastly, the soundtrack dissonance – we hear Heesoo’s name being called at the beginning of Side A – and then that same audio plays at the end of the video, when it’s revealed the members aren’t even there. Then, at the end of Side B, we hear the distorted audio of the members through the TV speakers, followed by a real world door opening, and the members of NewJeans appearing in the room. Is this real? Is this not real? Who knows?

And that’s why “Ditto” is so unsettling, but in the best possible way. It wants you to take part in the fun parts of nostalgia before it pulls the rug out from under you. It’s what makes the video memorable. It’s what keeps you coming back.