Editorials
[Editorial] Remembering ‘Marble Hornets’
When Troy Wagner and Joseph Delage first uploaded Entry #1 onto their Youtube Channel back in June of 2009, they couldn’t possibly have imagined the impact that their no-budget Slender-Man inspired web-series would have on internet culture. Now, nearly four years after a fulfilling yet bittersweet finale that left many fans in shock, not to mention a couple of less-than-satisfying spiritual successors, Troy has announced a follow-up comic-book series that might finally appease fans of the legendary Marble Hornets. With a studio-backed Slender-Man film also on the horizon, I figured that maybe it’s time for us to look back and reflect on the web-series which helped popularize Alternate Reality Games and the internet’s favorite monster.
After years of parodies and over-exposure, Slender-Man might seem like a hokey digital bogeyman, but he used to terrify internet users back when he was a lesser-known online folk tale mostly relegated to underground image forums. While the faceless character was created by Eric Knudsen (also known as Victor Surge) for a photoshop contest on the Something Awful Forums, the story soon spread to every corner of the internet, and the so-called “mythology” behind Slender-Man has been expanding ever since.
The flexibility of the source material combined with the believability of this internet legend made Slender-Man a prime target for online storytellers like Wagner and Delage. Drawing inspiration from The Blair Witch Project and even Mark Danielewski’s excellent House of Leaves, the group that would eventually become known as the now-defunct THAC (Troy Has a Camera) produced a complex and interwoven online narrative that is now remembered as one of the best ARGs that the internet has to offer.
Focusing on a young man named Jay (played by Troy Wagner), the story revolved around his investigation of a failed student film directed by his friend Alex Kralie (Joseph DeLage), who entrusts Jay with a collection of tapes from the unfinished production before disappearing. As Jay reviews the tapes, he soon finds himself entangled in a supernatural conspiracy involving an otherworldly entity known only as the Operator, and turns to Youtube in order to record his horrific experiences.
Deliciously Lo-Fi.
The series was roughly organized into three seasons over the span of 5 years, plus a plethora of complimentary videos that antagonized our main characters while also providing clever puzzles for fans to unravel in order to further the plot. As the story progressed, Jay’s search for the truth eventually turned into a mind-boggling fight for survival, with encounters with the faceless Operator and his minions (known as Proxies) growing more frequent and even more dangerous.
Combining pertinent online fears with clever storytelling gimmicks and solid direction, Marble Hornets provided us with some of the best Found-Footage moments since the original Blair Witch, with each season improving upon the last. However, while the story and scares were delightfully well-crafted, immersion and realism were the series’ greatest strengths. You honestly felt like you were a part of some vast conspiracy while watching these videos and following the complementary social media accounts, despite the low production quality. At their best, characters usually felt like real people reaching out for help online instead of just actors playing a part, making this one of the most dramatic (and human) examples of found-footage. An abundance of copycat series would eventually emerge, but most of them lacked this crucial element of believability that made Marble Hornets stand out in the first place.
Of course, the low budget nature of the show resulted in quite a bit of criticism, as some of the series’ most memorable moments are undermined by amateurish performances and less-than-stellar special effects. The storyline also stumbles with its own obtuseness at times, though much of this can be attributed to the interactive nature of the plot. Ultimately, having the audience try to work together with the protagonists in order to figure out what the hell was really going on was both a blessing and a curse. Nevertheless, considering the independent nature of the production, most of these missteps are forgivable, though they are still a blemish on an otherwise admirable show.
Roughly a year after the series ended, a spin-off film entitled Always Watching: A Marble Hornets Story was quietly released, facing criticism from both fans and general moviegoers alike. While marketed as an adaptation of the web series, the film was, in fact, a self-contained story that took place in the same universe, though it didn’t do much with the extensive mythology that the series had accumulated by that point. Overall, most people found the film to be yet another unimpressive found-footage flick, without any of the scares, charm or plausibility that made the original series such a success.
It still has a few good moments, though.
More recently, we’ve seen the rise and fall of Clear Lakes 44 and ECKVA, which were meant to be spiritual successors to the original show. Nevertheless, the disbanding of the THAC team and lack of viewer interest resulted in the canceling of Clear Lakes, and ECKVA is still miles away from achieving the notoriety of the original show. While neither of these shows were outright failures, they weren’t exactly on the same level as Marble Hornets.
While the choice of format is questionable, hopefully, the new comics will be able to connect with fans in a way that other spin-offs haven’t, capturing that elusive urban legend feel while still having relatable main characters and a complex plot, though it’s a bit early to make any meaningful predictions. It wasn’t necessarily Slender-Man that made Marble Hornets popular, but the engaging narrative and the simple yet effective filmmaking behind it. Viewers were left thinking that this insane tale looked and felt just real enough that it could be true, which is something that both the copycats and spin-offs lacked. There’s a reason why some of Marble Hornets’ early entries went viral as internet goers began sharing the videos as real-life footage of Slender-Man.
In the end, the whole point of both found-footage and ARGs, in general, is to bring the viewer closer to the media they’re consuming, providing certain stories with a greater impact than they might have had if presented in any other way. The legend of Slender-Man is a natural fit for this kind of storytelling, as the entity is nothing more than a terrifying representation of meme culture (which is something that I really hope is addressed by Sylvain White’s new film). However, the same principle can apply to any scary story attempting to connect with viewers on a more intimate level, especially on the internet.
We may yet see a new found-footage influenced phenomenon that takes the internet by storm, inspiring memes and online urban legends, but Marble Hornets will forever be remembered as a landmark in online entertainment, and proof that great ideas can often overcome a lack of budget or even experience. It may have its flaws, but this is one chilling online adventure that I’d recommend to any horror fan. After all the Operator is always just a few short clicks away.
College kids, strippers and vampires—those were Donald P. Borchers’ only requirements when he approached Richard Wenk about writing and directing a movie for New World Pictures. As requested, Wenk cooked up Vamp (1986), a tailor-made blend of the decade’s teen movie craze as well as its horror boom.
Grim and earnest stories were still very much a part of the ’80s horror landscape, yet Vamp is something of a comedy. One difference between it and, say, Saturday the 14th, though, is the former avoids using schtick. Wenk’s movie proves that horror comedies also don’t have to subtract thrills from their recipes. Of course, it takes a minute before reaching that point; college antics and culture shocks preface this one macabre misadventure.
Vamp‘s initial setup is apt for a typical college-set, sex-driven comedy; to bribe their way into a fraternity house, two pledges (Chris Makepeace, Robert Rusler) go looking for some adult entertainment. Without wasting time on any further exposition, the characters embark on an all-in-one-night trip that quickly detours into terror.
To procure their elusive MacGuffin—a stripper willing to gyrate for some frat boys—Keith (Makepeace) and AJ (Rusler), plus a third wheel named Duncan (Gedee Watanabe), trade the safety of their remote college campus for the seediness of some unnamed city. The setting is recognizably L.A. by day, but as soon as night falls, downtown, along with the characters, slips into a kind of surreal universe. Director of photography Elliot Davis gave this early entry on his prolific résumé an unusual yet distinctive look; that Mario Bava-esque, magenta-green lighting is omnipresent, so much so that it’s almost its own character.
Chris Makepeace and Robert Rusler in Vamp
The faint comparisons to Martin Scorsese’s After Hours are merited, although not just because of Vamp’s distinguishing nighttime aesthetic. Save for the primary characters, the supporting roles in Wenk’s movie are also quite colorful and transactional in their behavior. The difference here, though, is the additional urge to ruin Keith and his friends at every turn. Some of that harm is humorous and tolerable enough, whereas the moment Vamp dishes out its first fatality, it’s abundantly clear how this movie qualifies as horror.
Vamp falls into that category of horror movie that reveals its genre with a scream rather than a series of whispers. The opening scene can function as a hint of what lies ahead—things are not at all what they appear to be—but otherwise, Wenk is more than happy to hold off on the horror. When that time does come, though, it catches the viewer off guard. In addition to the pure shock value is that sudden decision to upend the movie’s foremost feature. Or so it would seem.
If afraid of major spoilage, those new to Vamp would be wise to stop reading here. There’s just no skirting around the fact that the central fellowship in this buddy movie hits a serious snag when AJ is killed. That development causes the story to become more of a “long, bad night” journey for Keith and his romantic interest. So while Wenk scores points for subverting expectations, there is also a touch of sadness in his decision. Because if Vamp does anything well, it’s making the characters likable.
Something that comes easily to Vamp—and other teen horror movies from this same era—is its ability to invent young characters worth caring about, or at the very least, are interesting and not so immediately off-putting. More impressive is how Wenk did all this without actually fleshing out those characters. Still and all, Keith and his kind are a grade above cookie-cutter, and in some cases, aren’t completely devoid of growth.
Grace Jones in Vamp
Vamp appeals with an assorted cast of characters. No two are the same, nor are they operating on the same wavelength. The cinematically extroverted AJ, whose actor conveyed charm and vulnerability in near equal amounts, comes alive when he’s at his most undead. Makepeace then makes the chronically cautious Keith a sympathetic fellow, even as he’s more and more affected by the night’s bizarre events. Meanwhile, Duncan is indeed the designated loser of the whole bunch, but Watanabe still manages to humanize him. As a bonus, the role didn’t require him to pull a Long Duk Dong.
As for Dedee Pfeiffer, she is plain adorable as the mysterious After Dark server nicknamed “Amaretto”. She spends all night fixing her dress strap while at the same time trying to get Keith to remember how he knows her. As their offbeat romance grows, it becomes another highlight of this movie. Whether or not Pfeiffer’s character is really a vampire also creates some welcome tension in the story.
Like a lot of its contemporaries, Vamp went on to become a bit of a cult classic. That current status is determined by several factors, but without a doubt, the casting of Grace Jones is the most considerable. The image of her writhing on that unique-looking chair, a Keith Haring original, springs to mind whenever this movie is brought up.
Chris Makepeace, Billy Drago and Paunita Nichols in Vamp
Prior to that first display of unequivocal horror, local vampire queen Katrina (Jones) took to the stage and delivered a strip show like no other. One would expect nothing less from that renowned model and performance artist. By now reports of Jones’ tardiness on set are no secret, yet it’s also hard to deny her commitment to the part of Katrina. It was, in fact, Jones who took charge of her character’s appearance—on top of Haring painting her body and that now-iconic chair, she had Andy Warhol handle her costuming. And not too many actors could seize a room’s attention without saying a single line of dialogue.
In 2022, Vamp received a retrospective novelization from Encyclopocalypse. This literary union of preexisting source material—Wenk’s original screenplay—and new ideas from author Christian Francis amounts to a more comprehensive visit to the After Dark Club. The basic story there is no different than what’s shown on screen; however, Francis gets creative with the characters’ origins and designs, and he enhances a number of key scenes.
The novelization expands on the urban and social decay of the main setting, and supplies a background for the After Dark Club. Sandy Baron’s character, Katrina’s emcee and familiar, is given ample motivation for sticking around; up until the fiery end, he is loyal to his friend and former business partner “Squeak”, who looks like he was “fed through a combine harvester, and left as nothing more than a heap of mangled remains”. Then there is Billy Drago’s character Snow, the leader of a street gang called The Dragons. His reason for menacing Keith and AJ is more altruistic than in the movie; he and his peers act tough to scare off any potential food for the vampires.
Lisa Lyon in Vamp
If not for all the backstories, Francis’ Vamp would be a hell of a lot shorter. Instead, this tie-in read dives into how AJ met Keith—the orphaned Anthony Joseph hailed from a broken home back in Brooklyn—and how their friendship flourished over the years. Keith’s archership is no longer just an assumed part of his entire being; it’s a confidence-building extracurricular for a boy who got picked on before coming into the protection of the new kid in town. These supplemental, in-depth looks at the protagonists, plus their close connection, are maybe unnecessary. The movie already did a fair and concise job of addressing their platonic intimacy without the need for flashbacks and insights, specifically in that scene where AJ lays it all out as he sacrifices himself.
Where the novelization gets off course is its approach to the minor characters. Intermittently backstorying the likes of Katrina’s indentured servants, Seko (Leila Hee Olsen) and Vlad (Brad Logan), ends up disturbing the flow of the writing. Was it absolutely essential that readers know Vlad was the Grand Duke of the House of Romanov, or how Snow’s accomplice Maven (Paunita Nichols) became so dentally challenged? No, not really. However, one’s mileage with these random biographies may vary.
The novelization is a more substantial experience, but for a movie like Vamp, less is more. And as plentiful as they are, it never simply coasts on its campy charms, either. The character work sits comfortably in that realm between cursory and meticulous, the script is sharper than first realized, and Greg Cannom’s vampire makeup is straightforward yet effective. Most of all, the movie didn’t squander its out-of-the-box concept. Richard Wenk made his vision of a “comic nightmare in which just about anything that can go wrong does” come true, and it is very enjoyable.
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