LogFAQs > #968690297

ZaziGuado posted...

marble hornets

(8/6/7 = 21)

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCACDEE1E71FC8E5E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bn59FJ4HrmU

Marble Hornets... whether you look back on it fondly as a well-crafted fan project on the most famous Creepypasta monster of all time, or a cringe time capsule on the internet's worst aspects of fandom and web culture, well there's just no denying the massive impact this series had on 2010s horror. The whole of the Marble Hornets series, from its incredible set-up to its adventures into the darkest corners of the mind, made an incredible impact and now seen as a horror classic, the series continues to be a pillar and key reference point to any & all Creepypasta, analog, & lore-focused web horror series. The story began in 2009 as a series of short YouTube uploads; Slender Man was brand new at the time, and looking back, series creators Joseph DeLage
& Troy Wagner were extremely prescient and smart to capitalize on the now absurd and wide-spread popularity of the character before anyone else. The series portrayed itself much like a typical found-footage movie - emphasizing a sense of realism and built-in audience interaction, fostering community and becoming a must watch web series much in the same way a huge TV show would become must-watch television.

So what does make the series stand-out so much anyway? From the start, the creators clearly had a keen taste for the psychological, the almost taboo, and the weird, creating a series that was nothing short of pure, unadulterated, high-quality Creepypasta - taking the subtlety and instinctive creepiness of the original photos and legend and turning it into emotional & personal shock. From creepy little narrative descriptions to sparse but effective appearances of the Slender Man (known as the "Operator" in the series), the series pushes a narrative of mental exhaustion, paranoia, and a harrowing journey into the depths of unknown horror as what starts as innocent film shoot devolves into a doomed set of videos filmed in a desperate attempt to capture the truth before a seemingly unstoppable tragedy. The result is a genuinely unique, absolutely unforgettable cult classic. The short, bingeable nature of the videos ensures you're always clicking on to the next entry right away, ensuring a constant ebb & flow of tension while at the same time the format making you feel like you're entering this rabbit hole of horror you've just happened to stumble upon. It's mesmerizing to see the whole finished product, and a truly remarkable feat of horror filmmaking that manages to immerse you in a dark journey that grips you, twisting & turning you until you feel like you might fall right down into the black hole of what's really going on.

OR... you could see the series as a meandering bore in which the creators are basically dropping self-indulgent clues and teases along the way that becomes repetitive, and not worth watching in its entirety. I could see just as many viewers being turned off by the series' diminishing returns and exhausting antics as the viewers who were intrigued & challenged by the elements of creepy, immersive suspense that creeps & crawls throughout your skin.

Well... the fact that the series was so popular and successful I think shows the latter is more true. How many analog horror series nowadays follow the same format, slowly drip-feeding huge story turns and satisfying plot reveals and the big twists in between long scenes of stuffy, dated video footage? Hell, how many modern day, mainstream found-footage horror movies do the vlogger type filming scenes or present themselves as anthological pieces of a larger story? In this sense, Marble Hornets successfully reinvented the found-footage horror film and brought horror firmly into the 21st century, in the process becoming one of the most enduring, successful, and most imitated series on the web today.