We’ve all heard of Slenderman, but not everyone knows about the YouTube series that fleshed out the mythos of the creature. It all started with Marble Hornets and their character the Operator.
Marble Hornets is an analog horror series on YouTube. The channel published its first video back in 2009, mere days after the Slenderman image circulated online. It follows a man named Jay, who acquires tapes of an abandoned film project called “Marble Hornets.” Jay uploaded these tapes on YouTube while also being followed by the Operator (another name for Slenderman). The footage on these tapes contains clips of the people in the film also being stalked by the Operator.
When exposed to the Operator, people feel what’s called “slender sickness.” This means they’ll experience coughing fits, paranoia, hallucinations, nightmares, nausea, and memory loss. It’s not just people; cameras also malfunction around the Operator, leaving recordings pixelated and distorted.
I’d also like to mention that there is another channel called “totheark” that ties in to the series. It provides information for the main character, Jay, anonymously. I won’t write anything further on that to keep this spoiler free.
The series came to an end in 2014 with the release of the final episode for season three. There are a total of 87 entries, not including the extra videos on the main channel and the videos on “totheark.”
Marble Hornets made Slenderman more than a creepy image on the internet. The series gave Slenderman complex lore, displaying it as a powerful creature with potential motivations. Most of the tropes associated with Slenderman came from the series. The style of using found footage as a way of narration made everything more realistic.
I highly recommend giving Marble Hornets a try. If you’re interested, look for a playlist that has the Marble Hornet entries and the totheark videos in order to make your life easier. It should appear as soon as you type it into YouTube, but I’ll link it down below for anyone that wants it.
