The Lost THX Trailer

My name is Claire. I am a 16-year-old high school student and a big fan of watching movies. Ever since I was young I have been obsessed with the big screen. I’ve enjoyed movies from various studios, directors, genres, and more. However, there was one specific thing about my hobby that has horrified me since I first saw it, and ironically it isn’t even related to the horror genre. The company THX has done the audio mastering for some of my favorite films, but their logo at the very start of the movies they worked on has always scared me. It usually consists of a bold metallic statue that reads “THX” in a black void accompanied by an intense ascending deep note played on a synth. Something about this logo always made me uneasy, but the company’s other logo variant scared me even more. The logo in question consisted of the company’s mascot Tex, a robot handyman, hooking up the THX logo to a cow can and making it shake violently. I saw the logo for the first time when I was young and it traumatized me. I’ve covered my ears and closed my eyes whenever it appeared on the screen ever since. Fortunately, this logo doesn’t appear in most movies I watch nowadays, so I’ve largely forgotten about it. However, on one fateful day, it all came flooding back.

It all started on a winter afternoon. It was snowing outside, so our school was called off for the day, and I had the day to myself. I decided to visit my local thrift store and see if there were any new movies to add to my collection. When I first looked through the catalog, I didn’t see anything of note, but when I glanced through it a second time I noticed something was off. There was a completely blank DVD case amongst all the ones with their original labels. I opened it up, and inside there was a DVD-R disc with the letters THX written in Sharpie. That’s when the trauma came back. The memories of all the times I had been scared by the logo in the past had begun flooding my mind. The fear that I had experienced for years had returned. I stared at the disc in anguish, thinking to myself. After some consideration, I decided to purchase the disc. Not only because of my curiosity about what was on the disc but also because I decided it was time I got over my childhood trauma.

When I got home, I went into my room, put the disc into my DVD player, turned off the lights, and got ready to get this over with. Upon loading the disc I was brought to a barebones yet ominous main menu. The only option on the menu was a large “PLAY” button resting alone in a black void with an ominous droning noise playing in the background. I haven’t even started the disc yet and I was already on edge. There wasn’t much else I could do in the moment so I pressed play and hoped for the best.

After around 7 seconds of loading, I was brought to the THX logo cloaked in shadow in the black void. Nothing happened for about 10 seconds, but then suddenly the lights turned on. The black void now switched to a pleasant sky blue, and the THX mascot Tex rolled onto the screen in front of the camera. He said nothing, but he waved at the camera in a friendly manner as if he was happy to see me. He pulled his moo can from his back pocket, showed it to the camera, and tipped it upside down causing it to make a mooing noise. Afterward, he turned on his jetpack and flew over to the side of the THX logo, where he opened a hidden hatch and grabbed a wire. I could already see where this is going. He flew back towards the camera, hooked the wire up to the moo can, and tilted it upside down. The sound of mooing could be heard echoing throughout the void, but Tex looked at the camera with a completely deadpan expression. I began to get very nervous as the logo started to shake violently accompanied by the now panicked mooing noises from the cow can. “This is usually where the video ends,” I thought. “What’s going on here?”

Tex continued to look at the camera displaying no emotion as the logo began to shake frantically and ferociously. It got so uncontrollable that the logo started smashing through the floor. Cracks and fissures began to appear across the floor and were spreading rapidly. All of a sudden, the camera sunk into the broken floor and began to fall below the ruined floor of the abyss. When the camera hit the ground it was accompanied by a loud thud and a groan from some unknown character, whom I can only assume to be the cameraman. Underneath the logo, the camera was now in a pitch-black room lit by a single candle. After about 10 seconds of silence, a second candle was lit behind the first one, followed by a third, fourth, and fifth. The circle of candles across the floor illuminated the room ever so slightly and revealed that there is a pentagram painted on the floor in what I can only assume to be blood. One candle is placed on each end of the star, illuminating the room ever so slightly whilst still keeping things vague and hidden. In the center of the pentagram, a man is lying unconscious with a garbage bag over their head. I couldn’t quite make out who it was.

Before I was able to take this all in, Tex emerged from the inky black darkness behind the pentagram. He approached the man on the floor and held up a rusty old knife. The candles began to glow brighter as Tex held the blade above the man’s chest. Tex stayed silent as he raised his metal claws upward and prepared to implant the rusty knife into the man’s innards. The candles’ glow intensified as the blade rose higher into the air before being thrust directly downward. All of a sudden every candle that once lit the mysterious room all went out at once and the screen was drenched in the pitch-black abyss again. Only the sounds of agonizing screams could be heard alongside the sound of the knife repeatedly sliding in and out of the man’s flesh. I was incredibly disgusted and shocked by the events that had just transpired in front of me. I paused the disc to give myself time to comprehend what I just witnessed.

“What on earth did I get myself into?” I thought. “I don’t remember this trailer being this graphic at all.” I was about to grab the remote and press play to continue watching, but I hesitated. Did I want to continue watching? The content on this disc was horrific, yet I was morbidly curious as to how it ended. After a few seconds, I hesitantly grabbed the remote and pressed play.

I was greeted by a pitch-black void upon starting the disc again. Nothing could be seen or heard. Eventually, the THX logo gradually faded into view, now broken and fragmented across the collapsed floor. Tex was standing in front of it facing me with no expression on his face. He slowly moved towards the camera and smiled eagerly as he drew nearer. When he stopped moving I could hear a voice, but his mouth did not move. It whispered in a gravelly voice as if it was talking to me directly.

“I see you.”

I reached over to grab the remote again to pause the video, but I didn’t feel anything on the table. I looked over and the remote had suddenly vanished! My heart stopped. I couldn’t find it anywhere. I panicked and rushed over to my DVD player to eject the disc but the buttons did not work. I began to hyperventilate. I heard something happen on the TV so I glanced over to see Tex’s face in the same place as it was before, but there was a large crack across his face. More cracks began to appear in his face and a thick black ooze began spilling out from each gap. Soon his entire head shattered and the ooze began to pile up and form a shape that vaguely resembled a human.

The camera panned out as if it was picked up by someone and we got to see the ooze begin to take the form of a giant entity. It was colossal, larger than even the THX logo behind it. It had rows upon rows of razor-sharp teeth, large talons, and inky black ooze dripping from every part of its body. It reached next to the camera and grabbed the person who was holding it. The person resembled me. They had a body type, hairstyle, and even an outfit identical to mine. I was horrified. The beast held the person up to its mouth and bit the upper half of their body clean off, tossing the other half aside. The creature then looked at the camera and grabbed it with its imposing talon. It stared directly at me. He then let out a guttural roar and slammed the camera directly into the ground, causing everything to go black.

The DVD ejected itself from my player. I picked it up and saw that written under the ‘THX’ letters on the disc the word ‘Claire’ was written. I instinctively threw the disc across the room in fear. “What the hell was that?” I thought to myself. I had too many questions and zero answers. I decided that I would email THX and try and get to the bottom of things. I sent THX an email and awaited their response. I knew it was going to be a while until they replied so I decided to get some food to take my mind off things, but no matter what I did, I couldn’t stop thinking about the horrific things I had seen. Questions darted through my mind. Who was the person on the pentagram? Was the person in the video supposed to be me? How did my name appear on the disc? Would I ever find out the answer to any of these questions?

Eventually, I received a response from THX. I was relieved. The email read as follows. “Hello, Claire. Thanks for reaching out to us. We, unfortunately, don’t know anything about the video you saw, but we can assure you that we would never make a video that contains the amount of graphic or disturbing content that you described. Perhaps the video that you saw was made by someone outside of THX. If you have any further concerns don’t be afraid to contact us. Thank you!”

I was disheartened. I was left in the dark and had no hope of finding out more. I decided to sleep it off and try to forget about it. However, every night from then on, I would have nightmares of it. Tex would kill me in more brutal ways each night. Even after seeking therapy, I’m unsure if I’m ever going to forget about the video. It’s as if it’s a parasite that has implanted itself within my mind and it will never leave.