Marble Hornets, the Slender Man, and the Emergence Of
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DIGITAL FOLKLORE: MARBLE HORNETS, THE SLENDER MAN, AND THE EMERGENCE OF FOLK HORROR IN ONLINE COMMUNITIES by Dana Keller B.A., The University of British Columbia, 2005 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Film Studies) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) December 2013 © Dana Keller, 2013 Abstract In June 2009 a group of forum-goers on the popular culture website, Something Awful, created a monster called the Slender Man. Inhumanly tall, pale, black-clad, and with the power to control minds, the Slender Man references many classic, canonical horror monsters while simultaneously expressing an acute anxiety about the contemporary digital context that birthed him. This anxiety is apparent in the collective legends that have risen around the Slender Man since 2009, but it figures particularly strongly in the Web series Marble Hornets (Troy Wagner and Joseph DeLage June 2009 - ). This thesis examines Marble Hornets as an example of an emerging trend in digital, online cinema that it defines as “folk horror”: a subgenre of horror that is produced by online communities of everyday people— or folk—as opposed to professional crews working within the film industry. Works of folk horror address the questions and anxieties of our current, digital age by reflecting the changing roles and behaviours of the everyday person, who is becoming increasingly involved with the products of popular culture. After providing a context for understanding folk horror, this thesis analyzes Marble Hornets through the lens of folkloric narrative structures such as legends and folktales, and vernacular modes of filmmaking such as cinéma direct and found footage horror. The focus then shifts to the ways in which Marble Hornets’ digital folk context amplifies the classic horror conventions with which the series engages. Primary attention is given to three key components: the monster, the narrative, and the audience. Folk horror might be a new term, but it is an old concept, one that reflects the important role that community plays in the forging of fear. It has been suggested that the ii Slender Man is a tulpa, a creature brought into physical existence by collective thought. As such he is truly a monster for the digital age as he reflects the many faces—positive and negative—of the increasingly “connected” individual. Through the lens of folk horror we may not only witness significant developments in the horror genre, but also those of storytelling on a broader scale. iii Preface This thesis is original, unpublished, independent work by the author, Dana Keller. iv Table of Contents Abstract .................................................................................................................................. ii Preface .....................................................................................................................................iv Table of Contents .....................................................................................................................v List of Tables ...........................................................................................................................vi Acknowledgements ...............................................................................................................vii Dedication ...............................................................................................................................ix Introduction .............................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1: Contextualizing Folk Horror ............................................................................14 Chapter 2: Digital Folklore ..................................................................................................43 Chapter 3: Digitally Enhanced Horror ...............................................................................66 3.1: Tradition ...............................................................................................................66 3.2: The Monster .........................................................................................................69 3.3: The Narrative .......................................................................................................78 3.4: The Audience .......................................................................................................87 3.5: Conclusion ...........................................................................................................95 Conclusion ..............................................................................................................................97 Works Cited ..........................................................................................................................108 Appendix ..............................................................................................................................121 Appendix A: J’s First Thread Post, Uncut ................................................................121 v List of Tables Table 1 Elements of Past, Present, and Future as Represented by the Characters of Marble Hornets ..................................................................50 vi Acknowledgments I feel both lucky and immensely grateful to have had the support of the following people, without whom this thesis might still be in my head (and not on these pages), and my head on the floor of some small, dimly lit, padded room. First and foremost I must thank my supervisor, Lisa Coulthard, for her time, patience, and support. I could not have asked for a better mentor. I also need to thank my second reader, Brian McIlroy, for his thought- provoking insights and feedback. Had Doris Baltruschat and Ernest Mathijs not taken me on as a researcher for their Digital Cinema in Transition project, I might not have had the opportunity to attend Merging Media’s inspiring 2012 conference. In addition, I would not have had the pleasure of meeting conference guest Lucas J.W. Johnson, who introduced me to Marble Hornets. On that note I must also thank Troy Wagner and Joseph DeLage for creating Marble Hornets, as well as Eric “Victor Surge” Knudsen and the rest of the Something Awful community for birthing such a wonderfully frightening creature—the Slender Man. I would also like to thank the rest of the Department of Theatre and Film at UBC, including Gerald Vanderwoude, Jennifer Suratos, and Karen Tong for their help with the many odd jobs with which I presented them, and film librarian Richard Payment for being exceedingly kind about my many random film request e-mails and lengthy rentals. It is not often that one has the pleasure of calling one’s colleagues friends, and I feel blessed to have had such a great cohort of people with whom to both celebrate and commiserate during my studies. I do not have the space to thank everyone, but I wish to vii acknowledge those students with whom I began grad school: Chelsea Birks, Andrea Brooks, Oliver Kroener, Shaun Inouye, and Babak Tabarraee. I also need to thank alumni Dax Sorrenti and Brent Strang, who I never shared any classes with, but who provided me with indispensable advice throughout my time in the program. At UBC we film and theatre students do not have many opportunities to interact, but I was lucky to cross paths with Selena Couture and Jennette White, whose kind words and sage advice throughout the past year have helped keep me as close to sane as possible. There are also those who barely knew me and really had no reason to help me, but they did anyway, and I can’t thank them enough. Enormous thanks to Mikel J. Koven, of the University of Worcester, who generously devoted time to responding to my questions and thoughts via e-mail, and provided me with delicious food for thought on folklore and its intersection with film. I must also thank filmmakers Jen and Sylvia Soska, who were kind enough to give me one of the world’s greatest pep talks at a time when I was truly struggling. Last but not least, I extend my undying gratitude to my friends and family—I am stunned and humbled by the fact that I have any left after this past year of self-imposed seclusion. I know it wasn’t always easy for them to understand why I would want to spend every day locked in a basement watching and writing about horror movies, but they always supported me, and I really cannot even find the words to adequately express how thankful I am to have such an amazing group of people in my life. This thesis was written with the financial support of the SSHRC. Pursuing a postsecondary education is difficult enough without having to worry about making ends meet, and I am enormously grateful for the grant that I received. viii Dedication To Mark Harris ix Introduction “It’s funny how the colors of the real world only seem really real when you viddy them on a screen.” - A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick 1971) On June 8, 2009, a member of the popular culture website Something Awful with the username Gerogerigegege opened a discussion thread entitled “Create Paranormal Images,” in which he invited his fellow forum-goers to join him in fabricating realistic-looking paranormal images with a view to passing them off as actual, undoctored photographs. He explained: “I always wondered if it were possible to get one of my own chops1 in a book, documentary, or web site [sic] just by casually leaking it out