HW#5: Marble Hornets

I always wondered where the Slender game originated. In 2012, Slender was names scariest indie game of the year by StarSports (channel) "Game". 80 % of us are familiar or have heard of Slender and 49.2 % fear him according to Escapist pole. I wouldn't mind actually seeing one in person, since he apears to be right up with Big foot, and U.F.O's. But that got me wondering, where'd he come from? 3 months after I first played the original Slender game, I came accross a video entry simple titled Entry #1

Now in a day and age where anything is possible with technology, you'd assume this was fake. But that matter here is not whether we are proving reality or hoax, we are looking into the origins of Slender.
The video account was equally mysterious, simply reading Marble Hornets. So I questioned myself, What is Marble Hornets?
 So I decided to look it up.

I found under wikidot.com an article titled Marble Hornet anonymously authored by a fellow name Jay.
 Marble Hornets was an amature film project by a young college film student by the name of "Alex". The film was to be based on his child hood origins and life. According to his friend, Jay...

"After about two months of off and on shooting, Alex dropped his pet project completely. It was really sudden when he let me know about it. When I asked him why, he told me it was because of the "unworkable conditions" of where he had picked to shoot. Which struck me as very odd since he had been living around that area since he was eight, and never seemed to have a problem with it. What's even stranger is that he acted incredibly distant when telling me this news. Soon after, he started avoiding me and from what I hear, everyone else. All he did was sit around his house."

~ Jay

 

According to Jay, Alex dropped the project unexpectedly and mysteriously. Jay, being a goof friend and fellow film student tried to reach out to Alex regarding the film. Alex upon time was now sickly and thinner then what Jay had last saw from his friend. Jay evidently asked Alex about the raw footages for the film and Alex simply quoted "burn them". This shocked and confused Jay even more. Alex did not want any part of those footages nor did he want them.

Jay eventually asked to take the footages out of Alex's hands Alex agreed but on one condition:
"He also highly discouraged me from showing any if it to anyone else."
Alex later quoted to Jay "don't ever bring this up around me again."

Jay took the raw footages and soon after, Alex had left and transferred to an out of state school. Jay never saw his friend and film comrade again. 2 - 3 years had past since Jay was given the footages and never did he watch a single one, he eventually forget about them until 2010 when he finally decided to watch the clips and upload them online (A year before the official Slender game was released).

According to Slenderman.wikia, Jay assumes task of finding out what had happened to Alex and begun his own investigation on the where-abouts of his friend.

Upon his investigation, a figure now named by Jay as "The Operator", has been mysteriously stalking Alex from the begining of his film project. Thus, he is the reason for Alex's odd behaviour and evident disapearance.
Jay continues to locate Alex, updating the public with his own video entries. His latest is entry # 66 (which was uploaded Jan 23, 2013)



"The Operator" According to Jay (Entry # 51)

Now the clips have been branded as controversial and possible up for debate. Is it real? Perhaps not. One big point for discussion in my opinion is the fact that from the begining, Alex's says and I quoted "film students", so what rings-a-bell in my mind is that these are guys who obviously know how to manipulate a video with the help of technology and special effects, not to mention a low-budget custom. As I mentioned, in a technical day and age, anything is possible.

Yet, the debate continues on the authentisity of the entries. So at this point, where do I stand on this controversial yet intriguing matter. I don't personally believe there is such a thing, but any thing could be out there. There are many unknown answers and creatures out there, perhaps this may be a new monster to add in out fear-book.

I now realize that Slender is based on something and not just a figment of the designers imagination. They found his origins and made gave him a name. We may not know if Alex or Jay or the Operator are real or if they are out there. What we do know is that they've made a huge impression in our society today.
It falls to your own toughts, opinons and imagination on the reality of Slender and his myth.