Beginner Pasta
by Owen Bauman
ANTRAN is one of the creepypasta’s I recommend to people who are newly interested in the genre. It does a great job executing the creepypasta style; a recounted, short, horror story, told through first-person narration, with the goal to convince the reader that the story is true. ANTRAN is a great place to start because it hits all the important emotional beats, has believable characters, and a softer horror edge that leaves much up to imagination.
This is a story about a son and a father exploring a mysterious robot named “ANTRAN” that was found in a local dump. Right from the beginning, for any of this to land, the father-son relationship needs to come across to the reader. Through a quick paragraph of exposition the anonymous author not only hooks the reader, but catches them up to speed. Exposition can be dull, but when it's pulling weight in multiple avenues, it is being used effectively.
Illustration by Micah Liebowitz
Detail throughout the story is brief, but not sparse. What is said matters. The characters are generic dad and son, going unnamed and undescribed. But ANTRAN uses genericness on purpose to reach a universal audience of readers. This could be any dad and son. The genericness could have gone further. the narrator never has to tell us they are a father, and could always refer to their child as exactly that to keep characters ambiguous. In this case, narrowing it down to a Father and Son is completely fine, and works well, but it is always interesting to explore the choices an author makes.
One could say that ANTRAN lacks meaningful description and a clear ending. But I see those two critiques as compliments; strengths the story has to offer. Good horror gets inside the mind and seeps into every thought. The imagination will almost always come up with something more terrifying. ANTRAN takes advantage of that, and provides the reader with an ending that leaves the imagination spiraling.
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