ARG Digest

I have been a freelance writer for the ARG Digest magazine since July 2023.

This has included the following articles:

A review of the Relived Eternally ARG (issue 4, July/August 2023)
"The Monster is the Camera": An essay about the impact of Slenderman webseries on contemporary unfiction and analog horror projects (issue 5, September/October 2023)
- with sources
"This Game I Found": An essay about the "this game I found" unfiction trope and the appeal of telling urban legends about children's media (issue 6, November/December 2023)
- with sources
Mini-reviews of three animal-themed unfiction projects (issue 7, January/February 2024)
"The Brain-Eaters": An essay about psychological horror themes in unfiction stories (issue 8, March/April 2024)
Mini-reviews of two spring-themed unfiction projects (issue 8, March/April 2024)
A review of the Stephanie Lawson Stevens ARG (issue 9, January/February 2025)
Mini-reviews of two Slenderman webseries (issue 9, January/February 2025)
Mini-reviews of three edutainment/lost video game unfiction projects (issue 10, March/April 2025)
A review of the Kane Pixels Backrooms series and Backrooms extended universe content (issue 11, May/June 2025)
Mini-reviews of two analog horror unfiction projects (issue 11, May/June 2025)
A review of the Giggleland ARG and demo (issue 12, July/August 2025)
Mini-reviews of three internet-based ARGs - Unedited Footage of a Bear, Buckshot Roulette, The Colonel's Secret/KFC (issue 12, July/August 2025)

"The Monster is the Camera" Sources/Recommended Reading

I have included here a bibliography of sources/recommended reading as a supplement to my article in the Halloween 2023 issue of ARG Digest. I thought it would be useful to track my sources as I wrote. But because the publication is originally a magazine, I didn't consider that a useful way to spend a printed page. That is why it's here and not in the magazine itself.

[1] The original “Create Paranormal Images” post on Something Awful, 2009 (archived) https://web.archive.org/web/20090618121538/https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3150591&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=3

[2] The original “Marble Hornets” trailhead post on Something Awful, 2009 (archived on Reddit)

https://www.reddit.com/r/marblehornets/comments/vg2my6/forgot_to_post_this_yesterday_but_june_18_2009_we/

[3] The Marble Hornets YouTube channel

https://www.youtube.com/user/marblehornets

“Many critics have noted the collaborative appeal of Slenderman for indie filmmakers and amateur artists.”

[4] Erik Knudsen describes Slenderman as “an open-source creature” in this interview

Movie Trailer News’ video “Victor Surge Talks About Creating The Original ‘Slender Man’, 2019

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6ruzqr

[5] Night Mind’s video “Slenderverse: MLAndersen, TJAProjects, Whispered Faith & Keratin Garden”, 2016

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnF3dIi0-XM

[6] Valeria Santiago’s video essay “The Slenderverse: Art for Everyone (Essay)”, 2017

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGR19zN-0UU
as well as his work in general, some of which is also cited later

https://www.youtube.com/@EvanLSantiago2

[7] Valeria Santiago’s video essay “Slender Man (2018): Misunderstanding Ten Years Of The Internet (Essay)”, 2018

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGpoB4BCVmM

[8] Luiz H.C.’s article “[Editorial] Remembering Marble Hornets”, 2018

https://bloody-disgusting.com/editorials/3481206/editorial-remembering-marble-hornets/

[9] NezimuVA’s video “SLENDERVERSE: A Collaborative Mythos”, 2019

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDItkedqYmo

[10] In Praise of Shadows’s video “Slenderman, Analog Horror, and the Rise and Fall of Marble Hornets” (2023) discusses more of the Internet’s cultural context at the time of YouTube’s inception, the spread/adaptation of similar Slenderman characters, and “Marble Hornets” in particular. It also mentions Skinamarink, which is referenced later in the article.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJiJOmTs3l8

“Slenderman’s career is impossible without the Internet’s ability to spread and reach new audiences.”

[11] The concepts of technological reach, the ability for a social practice to spread in a given technology medium, and technological replicability, the ability for a social practice to spread outside of its original technology medium, are discussed in detail in Nancy Baym’s book “Personal Connections in the Digital Age”, 2015

https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=personal-connections-in-the-digital-age-2nd-edition--9780745670331

[12] Simone Corletto’s article “No Gods, No Masters: The Rise of Slenderman, ARGs, And Internet Horror”, 2018

https://junkee.com/slenderman-args/179984

[13] Jess Joho's article "How Slenderman embodies the fears of our digital age", 2018 also makes comparisons to TV shows like "Black Mirror", which has similar contemporary themes of technological cynicism.

https://mashable.com/article/slender-man-scary-fears-millennial-digital-age

[14] See also "Black Mirror" creator Charlie Brooker's editorial "The dark side of our gadget addiction", 2011

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/dec/01/charlie-brooker-dark-side-gadget-addiction-black-mirror

“However, this intimacy is often betrayed by well-intentioned inexperience. When a filmmaker, such as yourself, must balance film time with both character drama and direct communication with the audience, Slenderman appearances can come across as abrupt.”

[15] Hippie Rat's video "When Kids Made Slender Man Videos", 2021

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=ygSsAmhDVYU&feature=youtu.be

[16] @heathermooch Tweet including a cartoon depicting a person saying “Slenderverse in 2019? God, you’re pathetic” and the user’s additional caption “I need to make an updated version of this each year”, 2023

https://twitter.com/heathermooch/status/1689335341872807942

[17] @GregtheDice Tweet replying to a Tumblr screenshot depicting a tall, thin silhouetted man in a bright pink doorway: “I like how the one on the right is genuinly [sic] just a slender man picture edited to be darker, shows how even the creator of that picture knows this is just slenderman [sic] reinvented but also fucking terrible somehow”, 2023

https://twitter.com/GregtheDice/status/1689413264721989632

[18] Izzzyzzz’s video “The Rise and Fall of Slenderman”, 2022

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sx3S0ErEKvE

[19] Luiz H. C.'s article "‘Slender: The Arrival’ – Revisiting the Playable Jump Scare Machine Ten Years Later", 2023

https://bloody-disgusting.com/video-games/3752375/slender-the-arrival-revisiting-the-playable-jump-scare-machine-ten-years-later/

“They are pointing at ‘stranger danger’ residue from the late 1980s and early 1990s.”

[20] Nancy Mcbride’s bulletin “CHILD SAFETY IS MORE THAN A SLOGAN: ‘Stranger-Danger’ Warnings Not Effective At Keeping Kids Safer, 2011

https://ojjdp.ojp.gov/sites/g/files/xyckuh176/files/pubs/252024.pdf

[21] ABC News article “Experts warn against teaching the phrase 'stranger danger'”, 2017

https://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/experts-warn-teaching-phrase-stranger-danger/story?id=46427626

[22] Alex Mar's article "Out Came the Girls: Adolescent Girlhood, the Occult, and the Slender Man Phenomenon", 2017

https://www.vqronline.org/essays-articles/2017/10/out-came-girls

“They are reacting against some of the “gratuitous” violence from horror trends at the turn of the millennium.”

[23] David Edelstein’s article “Now Playing At Your Local Multiplex: Torture Porn”, 2006

https://nymag.com/movies/features/15622/

[24] Clark Collis’ article “Saws, Hostels, Human Centipedes: A history of torture porn”, 2020

https://ew.com/movies/2020/01/28/history-of-torture-porn-saw-hostel-human-centipede/

[25] Kristen Tillotson’s article “April 2011: Tall, skinny, scary - and all in your head”, 2014

https://www.startribune.com/april-2011-tall-skinny-scary-and-all-in-your-head/120717934/?refer=y

“Teleport you hundreds of miles away?”

[26] This refers to the “1975” Corenthal letter in-game document from the ARG EverymanHYBRID, 2011

https://everymanhybrid.fandom.com/wiki/Corenthal_Letter_dated_2-27-1975

“Make you lose your memory of the past few months?”

[27] This refers to the “Entry #27” video from the ARG Marble Hornets, 2010

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hn7Qow98Gr4&t=157s

[28] See also this discussion of memory as a central theme of “Marble Hornets”:

Valeria Santiago’s video “Decoding the ‘Full Picture’ of Marble Hornets (Essay)”, 2021

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4pO6IDgH7I

"The exact abilities are flexible to fit your story."

[29] This is one of the appeals (and sources of horror) in Mark Z Danielewski's novel "House of Leaves" (2000). The novel is also source material for much of the visual language of Slenderman vlogs, with doors and hallways that lead to impossible spaces.

See also Robert Kelley's review "Home Sweet Hole", 2000

https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/00/03/26/reviews/000326.26kellyt.html?module=inline

“If you need to threaten or otherwise delay your hero from reaching their goals, that role is best left to other characters.”

[30] KomradApex’s article “Creating a Slenderman Proxy OC”, 2014

https://www.deviantart.com/komradapex/art/Creating-a-Slenderman-Proxy-OC-483476099

[31] The Slender Man Wiki’s article “Proxy” (2020) has a conceptual overview of these types of characters.

https://theslenderman.fandom.com/wiki/Proxy

“When friends mislead, betray, attack, the pain is far worse.”

[32] See the EverymanHYBRID video “:D”, 2012

https://everymanhybrid.fandom.com/wiki/(Colon)_D

[33] See also Night Mind’s video “How To Make A Webseries: Starting Point”, 2017

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKWb_5SGMOY

[34] And specifically Night Mind’s video “HTMAW - Yellow Path: Part A”, 2017, outlines this technique in detail

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5MBj8WY4us

“Many other horror works from the past ten years have been influenced by my client’s body of work. Horror movies like “Skinamarink”, “We’re All Going To The World’s Fair”, and even the poorly-made and poorly-received Slenderman movies all stem from the type of horror made available by Slenderman’s creative reputation.”

[35] Rotten Tomatoes audience score is (at time of writing) 8% for “Always Watching: A Marble Hornets Story” (2015)

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/marble_hornets_the_operator

[36] Rotten Tomatoes audience score is (at time of writing) 16% for “Slender Man” (2018)

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/slender_man

[37] Jane Schoenbrun’s article “Why I Spent Months Making An Archival Documentary about The Slenderman”, 2018

https://filmmakermagazine.com/105519-jane-schoenbrun-slenderman/

[38] K’s video “hiimmarymary: Official Post-Series Q&A” (2022) mentions the Slenderverse as an inspiration for her ARG “hiimmarymary”, about 2:00.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEJtQVdj3Eo
as well as her work in general

https://www.youtube.com/@hiimmarymary923

https://www.youtube.com/@k.6068

[39] Margot Harrison’s article “A Creepy Internet Fable Has Timely Resonance in 'We're All Going to the World's Fair'”, 2022

https://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/a-creepy-internet-fable-has-timely-resonance-in-were-all-going-to-the-worlds-fair/Content?oid=35801738

[40] Joe Hoeffner’s article “How 'Skinamarink' Uses - and Expands Upon - the Tropes of Analog Horror”, 2023

https://collider.com/skinamarink-analog-horror/

[41] Nicolás Delgadillo’s article “Kyle Edward Ball discusses the making of ‘Skinamarink’ and going backwards to create something new”, 2023 https://knotfest.com/series/screen-crusades/kyle-edward-ball-discusses-the-making-of-skinamarink-and-going-backwards-to-create-something-new/

This Game I Found, My Uncle Works at Nintendo, and Other Immersive Urban Legends

I have included here a bibliography of sources/recommended reading as a supplement to my article in the November/December 2023 issue of ARG Digest. I thought it would be useful to track my sources as I wrote. But because the publication is originally a magazine, I didn't consider that a useful way to spend a printed page. That is why it's here and not in the magazine itself.

"Okay, so does everyone remember the Meta Crystal stage from Super Smash Bros?"

[1] Meta Crystal stage from the original "Super Smash Bros" for Nintendo 64, 1999
https://www.ssbwiki.com/Meta_Crystal

"I told my uncle about it (he works at Nintendo) and he told me one or two of the software engineers put those extra stages in there."

This references the popular "my uncle works at Nintendo" gaming meme.

[2] E3: Interview With A Guy Whose Uncle Works For Nintendo
https://www.somethingawful.com/news/e3-uncle-nintendo/

[3] For the younger crowd, what was the "my uncle works at Nintendo" of your time? | ResetEra
https://www.resetera.com/threads/for-the-younger-crowd-what-was-the-%E2%80%9Cmy-uncle-works-at-nintendo%E2%80%9D-of-your-time.171814/

"So why do urban legends take this form, of 'this game I found'?"

[4] A trend of stories about fictional games, named and made infamous as part of the first lines of the first Petscop video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6e6RK8o1fcs

"There is no shortage of supposed hidden levels, secret glitches, and accidental patterns found in video games."

For example:

[5] Super Mario World 100% Walkthrough - Star World (All Secret Exits)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Du15B0KQom4&t=1s

[6] How Barrier Skip Changes Wind Waker Speedrunning
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPOV68kUs7Q&t=0s

[7] 10 Ways Link can make it up to that Divine Beast on his own.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYhcn85S3MY

[8] Twilight Princess' Longest Speedrun Got 10 Hours Shorter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viw8kDwr-i4

"Players really can impact their experiences through manipulations of the game or console’s hardware, and often the console can detect those manipulations."

[9] This is a common trope in "This Game I Found" stories. The most common real-life example of this is anti-piracy detection screens.

Anti-Piracy Screens Are Unnerving. But, why?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dL9gUli_7L0

"Movies for kids sometimes include out-of-context jokes that are only funny to adults, like the infamous 'Pink Elephants on Parade' sequence from Disney’s 'Dumbo' (1941) or basically any of Robin Williams’ lines from 'Aladdin'."

[10] Dumbo Pink Elephants on Parade HD - infamous because of its surreal visuals even by cartoon standards, and because of its reference to the main character's intoxication
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcZUPDMXzJ8

[11] When Disney got trippy
https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20151112-when-disney-got-adult-and-trippy

[12] 'Aladdin' Director Remembers How Robin Williams Changed Feature Animation - discusses the quick pop culture-focused comedy of Robin Williams

https://variety.com/2021/film/spotlight/aladdin-robin-williams-1234893550/#!

"The idea in the US that children are not just small adults but are their own unique classification, doted over - and not sent to work as soon as possible - comes from labor reforms in the 1930s."

[13] History of child labor in the United States-part 2: the reform movement

https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2017/article/history-of-child-labor-in-the-united-states-part-2-the-reform-movement.htm

"The neat tidiness, the friendly faces, the bright color palate of a cartoon is not the reality you live in."

[14] A good example of this is "Mickey Never Came Back", a gritty Vietnam War spy drama with Mickey Mouse and friends in the cast.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhQDX21YCZ0

[15] Another good dissonant tone example is Bray Wyatt's "Firefly Fun House" promos and match in WWE.
What the Firefly Fun House is really all about
https://fansided.com/2019/08/19/bray-wyatt-what-the-firefly-fun-house-really-is-all-about-wwe/

[16] Revisiting the Firefly Funhouse Match
https://wrestleinn.com/2021/03/10/revisiting-the-firefly-funhouse-match/

[17] Remembering Bray Wyatt: The Man Who Brought True Horror To The WWE
https://www.dreadcentral.com/editorials/461417/remembering-bray-wyatt-the-man-who-brought-true-horror-to-the-wwe/

"We’re surrounded by creepypasta. We get to constantly reinvent stories, like I have mentioned before regarding Slenderman webseries."

[18] See "The Monster is The Camera", my previous ARG Digest article about Slenderman in Issue 4
https://www.argdigest.com/previous-issues

"Stories that follow a dramatic trajectory of “your favorite video game, but it’s evil” (Ben Drowned), or “your favorite TV show, but it’s evil” (think Candle Cove or the Rugrats theory), or “for legal reasons, not Chuck E. Cheese, but it’s evil” (think Five Nights at Freddy’s) are not new."

[19] Specifically, the Haunted Cartridge arc of the Ben Drowned creepypasta-turned-ARG
https://jadusable.withinhubris.com/The_Haunted_Cartridge_(arc)

[20] The Candle Cove creepypasta
http://ichorfalls.chainsawsuit.com/

[21] Here's The Real Deal On The 'Rugrats' Theory That All The Babies Are Dead
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/rugrats-fan-theory_n_5797ac23e4b01180b53071ef

[22] ‘NOT YOUR NORMAL KIDS SHOW’ IS TIKTOK’S NEW FAVORITE CREEPYPASTA SERIES
https://www.intheknow.com/post/not-your-normal-kids-show-tiktok-beeveekee/

[23] Why Five Nights At Freddy’s Is So Popular
https://www.kotaku.com.au/2015/02/why-five-nights-at-freddys-is-so-popular-explained/

[24] See also Sagan Hawkes's video "Mascot Horror's Past, Present, and Uncertain Future" for an in-depth discussion of this trend
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yT8SKxnqwRU

"Some of these are done really well, like the Mandela Catalogue’s religious horror themes."

[25] The first video on the Mandela Catalogue YouTube channel, "Overthrone", is a potent (if goofy) example.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0EpOiu8YkI

"This inspires the stories they tell, in turn."

[26] Jennifer Kent interview: directing The Babadook
https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/jennifer-kent-interview-directing-the-babadook/

[27] One example of a comedic "dark subversion deconstruction" take is the Paint "After Ever After" Disney song parodies.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNg-igiqcG3Q5gGYfmQGy-QmJEiCaH7-Q&si=iU58O2aaQWoplVZu

"Kids, just like adults, use horror to make sense of what they experience."

[28] Kids Draw Weird Shit, but It Doesn't Make Them Murderers
https://www.vice.com/en/article/3b7y7v/kids-spooky-drawing-in-horror-movies-212

"Scary instead of cute isn’t enough for a deconstruction, and “Don’t Hug Me, I’m Scared” knows it."

Becky Sloan and Joe Pelling make a noticeable effort to not support any one fan interpretation over any other, in a sense rejecting the ethos of the teacher characters.

[29] Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared press pack interview with Becky Sloan, Joe Pelling and Baker Terry

Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared press pack interview with Becky Sloan, Joe Pelling and Baker Terry | Channel 4

[30] The creators of Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared offer us a glimpse behind the puppets
https://www.itsnicethat.com/features/channel4-dont-hug-me-im-scared-film-200922

[31] Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared: Interview with creators Becky & Joe

Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared: Interview with creators Becky & Joe | Metro News

[32] The decade-long journey to bring ‘Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared’ to television

The decade-long journey to bring ‘Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared’ to television - Rolling Stone UK

"Unfiction analyst Nick Nocturne from the Night Mind YouTube channel notes that the teacher figures in the show don’t just fail to teach coherent lessons to the main characters."

[33] Don't Hug Me I'm Scared: Explained [Full Series]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=At6aUZGWZXg&pp=ygUXZG9uJ3QgaHVnIG1lIGknbSBzY2FyZWQ%3D

This is a common thread in other popular videos analyzing the series:

[34] "The Sinister Dystopia of DON'T HUG ME I'M SCARED" places the ironic horror tone of DHMIS in an educational British cultural context.
The Sinister Dystopia of DON’T HUG ME I’M SCARED - YouTube

[35] "Film Theory: Don't Hug Me I'm Scared DECODED" suggests that the series depicts characters on a TV show, and this in-universe TV show is an anti-art brainwashing program.

Film Theory: Don't Hug Me I'm Scared DECODED! - YouTube

[36] "So what's up with Don't Hug Me? I'm Scared | An Analysis" emphasizes the cultish aesthetics and educational tone of the series.

So, what's up with Don't Hug Me, I'm Scared? | An Analysis - YouTube

"[The teacher figures] are more willing to use terror and violence than to teach."

[37] See also Michel Foucault's Discipline and Punish for an extended philosophical argument about how this violence works to reinforce cultural ideas
https://bpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/sites.psu.edu/dist/d/37602/files/2016/01/Discipline-and-Punish.pdf

[38] This thread is also explored in terms of childhood development with autism, for example.
The Autistic Horror of Don't Hug Me I'm Scared (season 1)
https://youtu.be/EZ7cStxqgFE?t=782

"And there are many other projects with just as much love behind their creation."

[39] For example, the Welcome Home ARG
https://www.clownillustration.com/welcomehomeyou

[40] See also Becky and Joe's guest-directed episode of the cartoon "The Amazing World of Gumball"

The Puppets by Becky & Joe - Blinkink

[41] See also the work of the Blinkink animation studio in general, which includes Becky and Joe

About - Blinkink

If you like these articles, ARG Digest, or ARGs in general, you will probably also like these other pieces from me:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YC4STznlLpy_1NN0ICFnrzWrdgDRPKHf93W-CXWU0Bs/edit?usp=sharing

A monster horror mystery ARG I made, Box Elder Public Library and write-up here
A guide to making your own immersive storytelling props, like those that commonly appear in ARGs.
Short stories I've written in epistolary document formats, like cellphone app histories, postcards, computer programs, forum posts and archaeological artifacts
Essays about the "personalized video game" trope and how House of Leaves has inspired and influenced ARGs