Editorials
‘Bodycam’ and the Enduring Legacy & Evolution of Slender Man
Spoiler Warning: the following article contains major plot details for Bodycam, which is now available to stream on Shudder.
Ideas evolve over time, and horror fans are more aware of this than most. After all, Friday the 13th first began as an Americanization of whodunnit Giallo pictures and later turned into an episodic rival to Halloween – and who can forget how John Carpenter took Christian Nyby’s classic sci-fi flick about an alien vegetable man and transformed it into a paranoid piece of body-horror cinema?
My point is: while not every change is necessarily positive, narrative evolution has always been an inevitable part of human culture, and this process was only accelerated by the rise of the internet.
In fact, easily accessible online spaces have led to the creation of countless communities obsessed with establishing modern mythologies. These communities often condense entire generations’ worth of narrative adaptation into the span of just a few days, with some of these works of collective fiction (such as the SCP Foundation and even the Backrooms phenomenon) going on to influence mainstream genre fiction in increasingly curious ways.
This is what was going through my head as I watched Brandon Christensen’s Found Footage gem Bodycam during a special theatrical screening last week. While the movie itself is a highly entertaining piece of standalone horror fiction, using the titular bodycam gimmick to great effect as it places viewers in the unenviable shoes of a pair of morally questionable police officers who bite off more than they can chew when they encounter a supernatural cult, there was a certain familiarity to the experience that made it even more enjoyable.
Bodycam
You see, what stood out to me the most about Bodycam was how Brandon (alongside his brother Ryan Christensen) somehow made the best big-screen adaptation of Slender Man despite not actually including the faceless monster in their movie. This peculiarity then got me thinking about how the complicated legacy of Slender Man continues to influence the horror genre despite the once-popular entity now being mostly regarded as a dated relic of the digital past.
But what a past it was!
For those who aren’t aware, Slender Man was originally the result of a horror-themed Photoshop contest on the Something Awful forums. User Victor Surge came up with a series of eerie photographs and accompanying text describing children being abducted by a mysterious faceless figure, with these creative seeds soon blossoming into a terrifying urban legend that grew more complex as fans of the character began adding their own unique spins to the lore. This is how Slender Man became a meme, with the online folklore surrounding the entity inspiring incredibly successful web series (such as Marble Hornets) as well as a viral horror game that helped to revolutionize indie genre releases.
For a while there, it really seemed like the monster had joined the ranks of Dracula and the Wolfman as a folkloric nightmare that would continue to stalk movies, games, and literature for decades to come. Yet, this collective work of fiction would eventually come crashing down as overexposure began to reduce the meme’s scare factor, with this downfall being accelerated by a real-life tragedy involving Slenderverse fans using their obsession with the character as an excuse to hurt others. It soon became taboo to even reference Slender Man media altogether, with the urban legend’s uncomfortable associations even affecting Sylvain White’s cinematic adaptation from 2018 (an alleged good movie that ended up being butchered by the studio).
It now seems like enough time has passed for folks to begin to look back fondly on the heyday of collaborative internet mythology. Filmmakers like Alex Hera have waxed nostalgic about the rise and fall of the original Slenderverse creators, and even the team behind Marble Hornets returned last year with a meta sequel series about an alternate universe version of the main characters once again falling victim to the Operator after visiting an iconic filming location from the original series.
This brings us back to Bodycam and all the ways that the film appears to be connected to the Slenderverse. While there’s no need to do a deep dive into all of the film’s Slender Man references, I think it’s safe to say that these elements were put there intentionally. Not only does the ultimate big bad resemble Victor Surge’s nightmarish creation with its pale complexion and spindly tentacles (not to mention its hunger for children and the eldritch influence it exerts over its followers), but Bodycam even depicts the entity’s thralls almost exactly like the “Proxies” featured in the Slender Man ARGs that once dominated the internet.
The supernatural forces at play even make the cameras glitch out almost exactly like Jay’s footage in the aforementioned Marble Hornets, and don’t even get me started on the recurring graffiti that looks like an alternate universe version of the classic Operator symbol.
Details like these seem like they were deliberately placed by the filmmakers in order to pay homage to the stories that inspired their latest project, and from “The Demon of Memes” episode of Evil to the Rosswood miniseries, I’d argue that this reverence towards the early days of the Slender Man phenomenon is something of a recurring trend in modern horror. This makes a lot of sense, as we’re finally seeing a new generation of filmmakers who actually grew up alongside the mythos.
Sure, plenty of horror critics have (rightly) criticized the Slenderverse for its repetitive tropes and entry-level takes on Lovecraftian terror (and that’s not even bringing up valid criticism concerning the fandom’s questionable actions in the real world), but original projects like Bodycam serve as further proof that the Slender Man lives on as something of an unseen influence hovering over the entire horror genre – a position that I think is appropriate considering the entity’s description as a “living meme”.
At the end of the day, it’s doubtful that the Slenderverse itself will make a full recovery (especially since younger internet users are now more familiar with recent creations like Trevor Henderson’s Sirenhead), but it doesn’t really need to. The idea of a viral entity spreading through cult-like followers and pulling strings from behind the scenes continues to be a poignant parable for modern times, so it stands to reason that we’ll continue to see Slender-Man-inspired media for years to come. However, while I can’t wait to see how this new generation of filmmakers manages to update our favorite internet-borne monster, I think it’s worth looking back on the online scares of yesteryear as both an inspiration and a potential warning about the dangers of memetic horror.
After all, you can’t kill an idea – especially one with a mind of its own.
The great Ernest Dickerson turns seventy-five years old this month, so we’re looking back at his most memorable contribution to the horror genre – 1995’s Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight!
The film hit screens while the Tales from the Crypt series was winding down its run on television, and it stands apart with a story that feels a step or two removed from the franchise norm. That was the smart play, though, as the show’s stories – and those from the original EC comics – work best in short bites. The result is a film that holds up beautifully as a gory good time.
Now keep reading to see what I heard on the commentary for…
Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight (1995)
Commentator: Ernest Dickerson (director), Michael Felsher (moderator)
1. Dickerson was in post-production on Surviving the Game when he got a call from his agent saying that producer Gil Adler wanted to meet about a Tales from the Crypt feature film. It went well, so Dickerson met with Joel Silver next and secured the job.
2. The original screenplay for the film came to the producers as a spec script wholly detached from the Tales from the Crypt brand. They added the Crypt Keeper (voiced by John Kassir) bookends to make it fit.
3. Dickerson was more familiar with the original EC comic books having read them as a kid, but he had watched a few episodes of the HBO series, so he knew what the current vibe was for the project.
4. Adler directed the film’s wraparound segments, meaning Dickerson never actually got to work with the creepy puppet. “Gil and the Crypt Keeper had a great relationship,” he adds, “they worked together for years.”
5. While he was new to the Tales from the Crypt family, Dickerson had previously worked as a director of photography on the Tales from the Darkside anthology series. That show is underappreciated in my humble opinion, and I will go to bat for both it and the equally underloved Monsters.
6. A big appeal of the horror genre for Dickerson is the idea of dark mysteries that challenge our imagination. For this film, that came down to the mythology being created between the characters.
7. Five executive producers are listed in the opening credits, but Dickerson says the only two he had dealings with were Silver and Richard Donner. The other three were Walter Hill, Robert Zemeckis, and David Giler.
8. Dickerson had only ever seen Billy Zane in movies with a full head of hair, so he was surprised when Zane showed up on the first day with a bald head. “He had this case, and he opened up the case that he had all these hair pieces in, and he says, ‘So which one of these do you think I should use?’” Dickerson looked at him and suggested he just go bald for the character.
9. While the bulk of the opening exteriors were filmed in a desert just outside Los Angeles, the shot of the old church at 11:26 was created on a warehouse hangar soundstage where the film’s interiors were shot.
10. When he had read the script, Dickerson pictured the character of Jeryline (Jada Pinkett Smith) “as a little, tough lady.” He had recently seen Smith in Menace II Society, and while the producers had someone else in mind for the role, he fought to get her instead.
11. Just as Zane surprised Dickerson with his hair (or lack thereof), Smith arrived on the first day with her hair dyed platinum white. He “liked the idea” but asked her to please get it tweaked so it looked more yellowish blond. “It’s definitely a statement.”
12. He had seen Brenda Bakke in the 1989 sci-fi/action film from Japan, Gunhed, and thought she’d be great here as Cordelia. The rest of us might recognize her from Death Spa or Trucks.
13. Felsher comments that the film’s setup does a good job not telegraphing who’s going to live or die, and he uses the “nice guy” (Charles Fleischer) and “the kid” (Ryan O’Donohue) as examples. “You don’t play by those rules here,” he says, and Dickerson replies that he wanted to subvert those rules. That extends to Smith as well because she’s Black, “and usually in movies like this they’re the first folks to die.”
14. Dickerson says they had forty days of filming, “which, the way I’m used to working, was a very generous schedule.” It was budgeted at around $10 million.
15. This probably won’t surprise you, but Zane improvised the bit at 26:25 after he jumps out the window and says, “Fuck this cowboy shit! You fuckin’, hodunk Podunk, well, then, motherfuckers!”
16. In the original script, the demons that The Collector (Zane) raises from the dirt actually looked more like the people they used to be. “They were more human,” but the very smart decision was made in pre-production to make them look far more unique instead.
17. The demons are killed by shooting their eyes, but Dickerson felt there should be one more element to it. “Shoot out their eyes, you gotta duck because the souls come shooting out, and if it hits ya, boom, it can kill ya.” This is a fun touch.
18. He’s been asked more than once if these demons are where Peter Jackson got the idea for how the orcs would look in his Lord of the Rings movies. “They do look like orcs.”
19. He recalls having seen Ronny Yu’s The Bride with White Hair shortly before going to work on Demon Knight, and he hoped to bring some of that staged style into his own film. An example of that in practice is Brayker’s (William Sadler) brief flashbacks to Christ on the cross.
20. Character deaths were mostly based on the idea that “each person’s downfall was going to be predicated by their weakness.” The Collector discovers someone’s weakness and then uses it against them. Cordelia wants to be loved, Jeryline wants to travel, Uncle Willy (Dick Miller) is a horndog for both liquor and ladies, Danny loves horror comics, etc.
21. Dickerson says that plenty of genre classics were in the back of his head while making the film, including Assault on Precinct 13, Alien, Aliens, and more.
22. Cordelia is possessed into a demonic form, and Dickerson’s idea for how she’d look was originally a bit different. “Since Cordelia was a prostitute, I thought that her mouth should actually be a vertical slit that was in her stomach… which would open up with teeth and a tongue.” It was nixed, he says, when “the wife of one of the producers read that and said ‘no way you’re putting that in the movie.’”
23. The key makes an appearance in the followup, Tales from the Crypt: Bordello of Blood, but it wasn’t originally meant to. Apparently, early test audiences expected it to be a more connected sequel to Demon Knight, so the filmmakers added it in to appease them. This is where I go on record saying that Bordello of Blood is a fun time. Can’t touch Demon Knight, obviously, but it’s more entertaining than its reputation suggests.
24. They had to film Uncle Willy’s bar scene “dream” twice, once with the women topless and once with them in bikinis, to have versions for both theaters and television broadcast. “Dick’s a pro.” (To be fair, Dickerson says this in regard to Miller having to endure the makeup application, but the sentiment fits both situations, so…)
25. Dickerson says he’s “always amazed at the love that people show this film,” and adds that fans bring it up to him incredibly often. This is great to hear, as we should always be telling artists how much their work means to us while they’re still alive and able to hear it.
26. Zane also suggested the gag at 1:08:21 with the sponge coming out of his mouth. The beat reminds Dickerson to praise the actor even more, adding that he was an “ally” to the director when “bad ideas” came down from the studio suits.
27. He didn’t get any pushback on killing little Danny. He did insist on one added element, though, as he wanted to immediately follow the boy exploding in the air with a shot of his bloody and torn sneaker hitting the ground below. “And the sneaker had to be a hightop.”
28. Dickerson says there’s “something kinky sexy about” Smith being covered in blood, and then the two commentators go quiet for almost two minutes out of respect for the scene. It’s a good opportunity to reflect on how Dickerson had previously mentioned Alien and Aliens as films being in the back of his head during filming, and how two scenes here reflect that – Jeryline stripping down to her underwear for the final confrontation feels like a nod to Ridley Scott’s film, while an earlier scene with Irene (CCH Pounder) and Dep. Bob (Gary Farmer) realizing they’re surrounded and choosing to blow themselves up alongside some of the demons is something of a callback to the air vent sacrifice in James Cameron’s film.
29. Asked about the film’s critical reception at the time of release, Dickerson says it received good reviews from horror-loving critics and then talks about the importance of horror in general. “Horror has always been a great way of putting out ideas, of talking about some of the things that affect us as people. Some of the best horror, like the best science fiction, talks about what it’s like to be human. Some of the best horror gets very political.”
30. The original ending would have featured The Collector showing “his true self, which is a demon made of fire.” They spent a lot of time trying to make it work, but it was “extremely difficult… back in the day of analog effects.” It was rewritten into the faceoff between him and Jeryline featuring the dancing, the crotch fire, Zane’s attempts at saying “love,” and his eventual demise from her bloody spit.
31. They both agree that a direct sequel to Demon Knight could be a lot of fun, but Dickerson says he’s unaware of any talk on the possibility.
32. Dickerson was super excited about this new Scream Factory Blu-ray in 2015, and he mentions that before its release, he had imported a Blu-ray from Germany presumably to enjoy the film in HD. He’s just like us! (Or am I the only one here who’s imported a German Blu-ray of the much maligned werewolf flick Big Bad Wolf…)
Quotes Without Context
“I was so happy to get Dick Miller for this movie.”
“There was a time when guys used to put ketchup on everything.”
“I’m a big student of Hitchcock, and the best way to make a moment of horror work is to lull the audience into a false sense of security.”
“A villain should always be the most interesting person in a movie.”
“They were a really great bunch of performers who were performing on these little leg-extension stilts wearing a diaper that had a radio-controlled tail that was being manipulated by a special effects tech right out of the frame.”
“It’s hard to direct air; it doesn’t do what you want.”
“The only censorship problem came from the producer’s wife, who didn’t want the vagina dentalis [sic] in the movie.”
“One of the executives wanted to know why the devil didn’t try to have sex with Jada.”
“It always starts with the script.”
Keep up with more horror commentary breakdowns here.
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