Marble Hornets Essay

Season 1:

Marble hornets is a youtube horror series, written by Troy Wagner, with the help of Joseph DeLage and Tim Sutton. The first episode, "Introduction," was posted on June 20th 2009 and the last episode, "entry 87," was posted on June 20th 2014, making the series exactly 5 years long. The series was later released as DVDs, splitting it into three seasons.

Season one starts with Jay Merrick, the main protagonist, who is played by Troy Wagner, discussing obtaining tapes from his friend, Alex Kraile, played by Joseph DeLage, who was in the process of recording a student film "Marble Hornets." It discloses Alex describing "unworkable conditions on his set, which was less than a mile away from his house." He also said he wanted to burn the tapes, but eventually gave them to Jay, under the condition that Jay "never mentioned them to him again." This creates a sense of unease for the viewer, as we can tell that something serious has occurred on these tapes. At this point, we don't know what Alex has gone through, only that he was willing to do anything to get rid of them and he never wanted to see them, or anyone to "mention them to him again."

"Entry One," was the next video posted on the channel. It features no sound, before a faceless, white figure in a suit appears. This figure is known in the series as "The Operator." This entry also doesn't feature any of Alex's student film project, suggesting he was recording himself at all times and was most likely scared. This is also supported by clips of Alex by himself in later entries, which also often include appearances of The Operator. Entry 3 is of the same format, however includes visual tearing, which is also recurring in later entries. Entry 4 goes on to add sound distortion, as Alex is talking about the "climbing wall or something from the fire department," an important location throughout the rest of the series, commonly known as the "Red Tower."

"Entry Nine'' starts with Jay stating that he's "never seen Alex act the way he does," in this tape. Half way through this entry, there is then a cut in the camera, followed by Alex getting mad, saying "Did you not have it recording during the break?" This shows anger on Alex's behalf. As seen in earlier tapes, we know he was recording himself at all times. This shows him to be paranoid about something and at this point we can presume it was because of The Operator. After this entry, the channel got a video response (an old feature on youtube) by a channel called ToTheArk (TTA) called "regards," however I'll make a separate essay on that.

The next few entries feature small but valuable details. Entry 10 features The Operator's ability to teleport, or "SlenderWalk" as fans have now dubbed it. The next few entries feature a common use of the Operator symbol, which appears as the letter "O" with a cross through it. This isn't heavily mentioned in the series, but appears often, usually drawn by people experiencing "Operator sickness." A couple entries also feature the Operator not being noticed, but still in the background of the video. This suggests that the Operator is always watching.

Entry Fourteen is an entry worth mentioning, because it starts off as just a normal entry and it seems like there's nothing special about it. However, we see a thirty-two minute break in the recording. This provokes the idea that the Operator either has the ability to stop or delete recordings, or the camera died. The camera then turns back on Alex's face, covered in blood, suggesting that the Operator had either done some damage to Alex, or Alex had done it to himself. Either way, it could be believed that the Operator had something to do with it. It is worth remembering that the Operator was never shown to leave the room in the tape. The entry ends with a message from Jay, "I need to find out where Alex has gone," foreshadowing what the next entries are going to be.

The next entry, "Entry Fifteen - interview with Tim" appears to be the only entry with a title. Personally, I'm still not sure on the reasoning behind that, so you can think of that for yourself. During this entry, Tim reveals that he met Alex through a mutual friend, "Brian," but Tim and Alex never got along very well. Tim says that Alex "was a pretty decent director, well at first." This implies that something had taken over Alex later in the filmmaking process, until "it got to the point where he would be yelling at (them) more than he'd actually be filming the movie." This supports the idea that Alex was becoming paranoid, because of an unknown reason to the cast, but to Jay and the audience, it was believed to have been because of the presence of the Operator. Tim also proves this by saying that Alex "had a hand-held (camera) that he was carrying all over the place and a ton of tapes." This proves that Alex wanted to be recording at all times, most likely so he had evidence of The Operator. Tim then reveals that he hasn't "heard from Brian either. not for quite a while actually." This provokes the idea that maybe Brian's been experiencing some similar effects to Alex. Tim also reveals that "Brian did say something about...somebody was leaving dead animals in (Alex's) yard." This suggests that Alex had to find an excuse to get away quickly, and needed a valid reason for wanting to move fast, that wouldn't cause any suspicion. Finally, Jay then asks Tim if he remembers encountering somebody strange, most likely hinting to The Operator, but Tim claims to not remember anything.