Marble Hornets
| Marble Hornets | |
|---|---|
 Official title logo | |
| Genre | Horror |
| Created by | Troy Wagner Joseph DeLage |
| Written by | Troy Wagner Joseph DeLage Tim Sutton Kirill Baru |
| Directed by | Troy Wagner Joseph DeLage |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 92 |
| Production | |
| Producers | Troy Wagner Joseph DeLage Kirill Baru |
| Editor | Troy Wagner |
| Original release | |
| Network | YouTube |
| Release | June 20, 2009 – Present |
Marble Hornets (abbreviated MH and sometimes stylized MarbleHornets) is a YouTube webseries and ARG inspired by the Slender Man online mythos.[1] The first episode was posted on YouTube on June 20, 2009, following a post its creator Troy Wagner created on Something Awful the previous day.[2]
To date, there are 87 entries chronicling the series and 92 episodes. The series also has 39 accompanying videos from a side-channel, "totheark". These videos, as well as the eponymous "totheark", have been featured multiple times throughout the story. As of February 26, 2015, the principal channel has over 80,600,000 views.
Plot
The series follows Jay (Troy Wagner), a young man trying to discover what transpired during the filming of his friend Alex's film school project, which was titled Marble Hornets. Alex had been filming the project sporadically for about two months before suddenly stopping without any explanation. Afterwards, Alex withdrew from society and his friends, never mentioning the tapes until Jay persuaded Alex to give them to him. Alex handed them over, but with the explicit instructions that Jay was to never mention the tapes to him again. Alex then transferred schools and dropped out of contact with Jay. Three years later, Jay remembers the tapes and begins to watch them in order to find out why production was stopped. Shortly thereafter, Jay begins to experience strange and eerie phenomena surrounding the tapes and a mysterious persona known only as "The Operator".
Characters
 |
- Jay Merrick: The protagonist of the majority of the series. A friend of Alex, Jay uploads the entries in an attempt to discover exactly what happened during the filming of Marble Hornets. He is portrayed by Troy Wagner.
- Alex Kralie: The director of the original Marble Hornets student film project and the protagonist of roughly the first half of the first season. Alex used to attend the same school as Jay, but transferred schools. He is the director of an unfinished student project entitled Marble Hornets, which he dropped without any explanation. During the latter part of the series, he serves as a secondary antagonist towards Jay and Tim. He is portrayed by Joseph DeLage.
- Timothy Wright/The Masked Man: A former actor from the Marble Hornets student film, and initially the only cast or crew member that Jay can find. Later on begins stalking Jay under his alternate masked persona. However, Tim eventually allies with Jay in the third season of the series. He is portrayed by Tim Sutton.
- ToTheArk: A persona that has uploaded several responses to Jay's entries. For the first season of the series, it is operated mainly by Tim under the influence of the masked persona. It is later taken over in the second and third seasons by the hooded man (revealed to be Brian towards the end of the third season).
- Brian Thomas/The Hooded Man: Brian was the main actor in Alex Kralie's project, and was assaulted by Alex, later returning as a mysterious hooded figure who works against Alex and Tim. He is portrayed by Brian Haight.
- Jessica Locke: A woman that Jay meets in the second season and is somehow connected to Alex and the Operator. She is portrayed by Jessica May.
- The Operator/Slender Man: An entity of unknown origin. Begins appearing to Alex during the shooting of Marble Hornets. When Jay personally investigates Alex's disappearance, he encounters The Operator as well.
Development and reception
Wagner and DeLage began working on the webseries after reading about the Slender Man mythos and because both liked the ease of creating a YouTube series.[3] The initial budget for the series was about $500, which the two used to create the first 26 episodes.[3] They decided against making a set time for each entry, as they both determined that the characters filming the entries would not consider the length of the episode and that the random entry times would help add to the realism.The entire series is edited with the software Sony Vegas Pro[4]
After its release the series' popularity grew,[5] drawing comparisons to Lonelygirl15 and Connect with I.[6] In 2013, Dread Central named Marble Hornets one of their "Top 10 Horror Fan Films", noting that while it "isn’t technically a film" it still contained an "interwoven examination of the mythical Slender Man" and that they felt it was "what quality fanfare and found footage is really all about."[7]
Early during the airing of season 1, the series received praise from Roger Ebert.[8]
In May 2014, the developers launched a Kickstarter campaign to raising funds for the DVD release of the third season. The response was overwhelmingly positive, with the original goal of 8000 dollars in donations being exceeded by 76,271.[9] These funds went towards further projects, including a box set and new supplementary material in the form of scenes from Alex Kralie's Marble Hornets.
Film adaptation
In February 2013, Variety announced that plans were underway to produce a film adaptation of Marble Hornets.[10] They also announced that the script will be written by Ian Shorr, that James Moran would direct, and that Doug Jones would be portraying The Operator in the film.[11][12] In October of the same year, Wagner announced on his blog that the movie had finished filming and it would not be a continuation of the YouTube series but would be set within the same universe.[13] The film, titled "Always Watching: A Marble Hornets Story", was released on VOD April 7, 2015, starring Doug Jones, Alexandra Breckenridge, and Alexandra Holden. The film opened in select theaters on May 15, 2015.
References
- ^ "YouTube Horror Series Marble Hornets Will Bring Slenderman To Theaters". Cinema Blend. Retrieved 18 December 2013.
- ^ "Creepy Things That Seem Real But Aren't: The Marble Hornets Project". Crushable. Retrieved 18 December 2013.
- ^ a b Nolfi, Joey (24 August 2011). "The 'Marble Hornets' Web series becoming a smash on 'Net". Post-Gazette. Retrieved 18 December 2013.
- ^ "Webseries interview: Marble Hornets creator Troy Wagner". Hypable. Retrieved 18 December 2013.
- ^ Powell, Kathryn. "Stalked by Slenderman: A review of "Marble Hornets"". The Gargoyle. Retrieved 18 December 2013.
- ^ Alexander, Bryan. The New Digital Storytelling: Creating Narratives with New Media. ABC-CLIO. pp. 87–89. ISBN 0313387508.
- ^ Molgaard, Matt. "Dread Central Presents: The Top 10 Horror Fan Films". Dread Central. Retrieved 21 December 2013.
- ^ Ebert, Roger. ""Marble Hornets," a YouTube serial. A forsaken indie film meets "Paranormal." All episodes to date". Retrieved 28 January 2014.
- ^ "Marble Hornets Season 3 DVD". Kickstarter.com. Retrieved 25 June 2014.
- ^ "Mosaic adapting horror web series". Variety. Retrieved 18 December 2013.
- ^ "WEB SERIES MARBLE HORNETS FLYING TO BIG SCREEN". JoBlo. Retrieved 18 December 2013.
- ^ "Web Series 'Marble Hornets' Getting Its Own Movie". Spill. Retrieved 21 December 2013.
- ^ Wagner, Troy. "So about that movie". Troy Wagner. Retrieved 21 December 2013.