"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/