Among the Followers: Jonclubs113

Alright alright. I've avoided posting Jonclubs on here for a couple of reasons, firstly, the creator had a rather famous flamewar with the guys of EverymanHybrid: which, I'm sure doesn't need repeating but in the most basic sense Jonclubs did a less-than-wowed review of EMH (the kind which I specialize in), the EMH guys were not please and got rude (which, they seem apt to do, as seen on their channel comments; they tend to get defensive rather than try and listen to what fans are saying) but then they apologized. Jonclubs would have no part of the apology and an epic flamewar burst forth, destroying Jonclubs forever.

Such a shame.

Secondly, I watched Jonclubs about a year ago (or so) got about halfway through and then wanted to kill myself. I wasn't particularly eager to watch it again. But, what the heck. Lets do it.

HERE THERE BE SPOILERS

Ooooh, Jonclubs, Jonclubs.

First you come on youtube with your poor acting, weird Slenderhauntings and a must-prove-I'm-gay lisp. Then you try to build popularity by creating an epic gay-rights, free-speech, EMH-vs-Jonclubs, Unfiction-vs-Slendernation flamathon. Well, it did make you famous, too bad it also shut down your vlog.

Jonclubs starts with awkward, slightly douchey Jon asking for help from the internet regarding strange noises and a stupid practical joke. Apparently people have been leaving, hold onto your shit boys and girls, circles! (dun dun duuuuun) around his dorm. Not even operator symbols, but circular objects, like cowboy hats and masking tape roles, on his floor; which he someone manages to trip over and bash his head into walls. How one trips over well-spaced roles of masking tape beats the hell out of me, but lets not quibble over details. He leaves the prankster a firm warning that whoever is doing this will not be invited to Gabriels party and won't they be sad.

Shit, if I'd known all I had to do to not go to Gabriel's party was leave circles on this asshat's floor, I'd have done it years ago.

Anyway, he hears strange noises on the tape and finds a weird shadow being cast on the wall. The noises worry him (they say, "come save her" and "It's ok" backwards) but the shadows were caused by a tree outside. Really guys. A treeeeeeeeee.

At least he had the decency to not make the demonic noise sound like the exorcist at 140 decibles.

The downside is the voice sounds like Yoda with Emphysema. Of course any subtlety or good planning goes out the window over the course of the next few videos. He wears the same shirt and sits in the same place for multiple videos, leading me to believe he filmed them all at the same time, or is just disgusting. When he first glimpses Slendy in the trees at a friends house, it's as if he saw it with his ear. His head is completely turned away from the window when he reacts to seeing it. Futhermore during the whole first Slendy appearance, only three of the four people at the 'party' are present. I wonder whhyyyyy...

Things start living in his shed, (as one fan points out "I know a good tool for cleaning up your messy backyard. The Rake), Slendy keeps tenticuddling him, and he starts finding ordinary pictures with "Creepy red letters on them!"

Moreover, evidence mounts that this whole ordeal is effecting Jon in a not so good way, after he starts essentially hacking his own posts. He admits he's starting to lose time, and memories, and is shortly encountered by what I can only pray to God isn't supposed to be Slender Man. Then he goes to his friend Gabriell's house and vanishes. His theatrically challenged friend starts to upload the footage from Jon's visit and subsequent vanishing. 


Shortly thereafter, the series itself vanished. 

It was a tree guys...

Yup. Just a tree.

A short...white face...alien tree...

Characters: 
Jon: Lispy, pissy little twat who starts bitching the moment the camera turns on and doesn't stop well after it's over. Furthermore, he breaks my cardinal rule of what irritates me. He films for no reason, he posts video that he sees no reason to post simple to scare fans, and he stops during intense moments to give long diatribes about his take on whats going on. Whats more, he's about as emotional and believable as a Taxidermied squirrel carved out of wood. The few times he acts emotionally, are when he's overacting, like the multiple times he sees Slender Man with his left ear, or gets startled by his alarm before it even goes off. 

Gabe: Boring, poorly acted, hipster nerd. Antagonizes Jon about whether or not the Slenderman is real, resulting in more pissy complaining from Jon, and then proceeds to panic when Slendy shows up at his house. Also as wooden an actor as a carving of a dead squirrel. 

Other guys at the party: and who really gives a flying fart about these guys anyway?

Various other Youtube accounts: who are clearly plants to move the plot along. If you're going to have plants, and for christsakes don't have plants, at least attempt to make them slightly believable, instead of Professor Justin Thyme and his use account ProfessorJustinThymeKnowsEverythingNeededToMoveThisStoryAlong and his amazingly accurete insight regarding what's going on, despite the fact that it's obviously a guy, living in his parent's basement with a crazy case of pre-installed-Windows-movie-maker. 



My Rating: F


REALLY? You couldn't actually take the time to freaking find a black pen to draw your oh-so-creepy operator symbol? You just used the first friggin pen you found? For God's sake man! Since when does Slendy use blue pens??? 
REALLY??? You couldn't take the time to learn your damn lines? For Christ's sake we can see them reflected in your goddamn glasses. Not that we needed to see them, we could all tell that you were sitting there reading like a first grade illiterate troll. 
REALLY...you couldn't find a better Slenderman? I realize that it's tough but a prominently breasted girl with an alien mask and no stilts don't do Mr. Tall justice. Furthermore, you follow this appearance with the most weird-ass Slender reponse video, with bad special effects, Threatening messages written out on diapers, and dancing Slenderheads. 
REAAAALLLLYYY: You didn't even have the balls to be a decent human on the internet, then you went and shut everything down because you were having a pout-fest in your bedroom because not everybody liked you. I'm not saying that the EMH guys weren't dicks in response, irregardless, you were also a dick. Furthermore, you tried to promote your series with bad youtube proxies, and flamewars. What did you expect? Love and adoration for your shoddy slender effects? The only time you scared me was when you went from a whisper to a 100 decibel Slender-scream and I could scare people on the street that way with a bullhorn and my butt. 


I have no respect for this series. Sorry to all those who do. 


No, actually I'm not sorry. I've watched this series twice now and it has not improved with rewatching. I'm tired of people praising Slender series because some guy with a camera decides to post a video of him looking nervously out the window for 5 minutes.


I DEMAND QUALITY. I DEMAND PEOPLE WITH BRAINS ON THE INTERNET! I DEMAND
*brain aneurysm*.

Zodiac Killer

Slenderman has a long and complex history. Some people think he was present in Germany in WWII, and that's where he started; others believe he is a Tulpa, and has come because we believe in him. Yet, if we look through our historical record, there is both no mention of a Slender Man, prior to the SomethingAwful forum that dreamed him up, yet there are so many mentions of things that may, very possibly, be him. 

The further I get into this Slenderman thing, the more I see him everywhere I look. No, not physically, though, if he exists I'm sure it'll only be a matter of time. No, rather, I see him in the books I read, or the places I go. "This mythical monster sounds like Slenderman", or "This place looks like He belongs there".  It doesn't help that I have a fascination with the historically morbid. Humankind can be a dark and evil thing, when it really wants to be, and Slenderman, in all his evil, menacing vagueness, fits right in there.

Part of what drove me to create this blog, more that just an outlet for my overblown opinions, is the places that I began to see Him, long before I really knew what He was. In the historical oddities, mysterious and the darker proclivities of human nature.

In all degrees of deeper meaning, Slenderman represents that sort of urge or instinct. Vague, faceless, dark, authoritarian in both his height and accoutrement.  He doesn't attack, or act out. He just stands there and judges. Silently. Impassively . Inhumanly. He's everything we're really afraid of. Slow, but inescapable. He's a twisted version of what we are, physically and abstractly.

Robert Graysmith's infamous representation of the Zodiac killer, taken from Bryan Hartnell's eyewitness testimony of the Lake Berryessa killing.

 It was 1969. Nixon was just entering the White House, The Beatles give their last performance on the roof of the Apple Records, Led Zeppelin makes their first album, The first moon landing is taking place, the first known case of AIDS is documented, California is beset by the murders of the Sharon Tate and her household by the Manson family.

Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepherd are approach by a man wearing an executioner's hood bearing a circle and cross hairs mark on his chest. They are on the shores of Lake Berryessa, in the Bay Area of San Fransisco. He ties them up, explaining that he needs their money. Hartnell offers him his wallet, in hopes that he and Cecelia Shepherd will be left alone. The robber seems nervous, and Bryan Hartnell is confident that the situation will be defused. The man will eventually stab them repeatedly, before leaving, without taking a dime from either. Bryan survives, but Cecelia eventually succumbs to her injures and dies in the hospital.

This is not the first time this man has attacked. In fact, we know he had killed two times prior, likely more. He will eventually become immortalized as the Zodiac Killer.

The Zodiac Killer became famous for terrorizing the outskirts of San Fransisco from 1968 to 1979. Part of the reason for his infamy lies not only in his rather mundane style of killing, but rather his tireless self-promotion in the form of letters, codes, and bizarre clues. In fact, he seemed to feed off of the fame that his demand of the press had brought him. He perpetually sent codes, letters and cards to the police and, most notably, the local newspapers.

It's actually a fascinating case, filled with mystery and intrigue and extreme examples of the kind of narcissistic, obsessive behavior that results in a truly psychotic individual. More so, for the fact that the case was never solved.

So why are we including the zodiac killer here? Interesting note. Has anyone ever read about the Zodiac with the idea of Slenderman lodged firmly in their brains? I assure you, there are an odd number of similarities. Lets discuss.

- Fact: The Zodiac killer has never been identified.
- Fact: He most commonly killed young couples on dates.
- Fact: Often these dates were held in secluded outer regions of the San Fransisco Area. The three murders most attributed to him (excluding that of Paul Stine) were committed in park-like, wooded regions.

Lake Herman Road, the approximate location of the first known Zodiac Murder. Victims: David Arther Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen.

The parking lot of Blue Rock Springs Park, location of the second known Zodiac Murder. Victims: Darlene Elizabeth Ferrin and Michael Mageau Renault (survived).

Lake Berryessa, location of the third known Zodiac Murder. Victims: Bryan Calvin Hartnell (survived) and Cecelia Ann Shepard.

Only Paul Stine, a young cab driver was killed in the city. Most of the other suspected killings took place in wooded areas, late at night.

Fact: The Zodiac also tended to attack places heavily related to water. Lake Berryessa, Lake Herman Road, Blue Rock Springs Park, Paul Stine was killed on Washington street, which is a stretch, but he was also found near a fire hydrant. Now, this can either be a detraction or a supporting clue, depending on what Slendy-explination you believe in. Many Slendy theories invoke a relation to light and water. Either he likes them or is deterred by them, take your pick.

Fact: The zodiac killer often hid his face. His executioner's hood being his primary method of covering. He did not always hid his face, and was often seen, but his face covering antics are often seen among Proxies and the like.

Fact: Although his face was frequently seen, no one could ever identify him, even the woman who had reportedly been given a three hour hell-ride in the man's car.

Detraction: Potential detraction from a Slender theory is that Kathleen Johns, who was given a three hour car ride by, many believe, the Zodiac, was spared by the present of her infant child who likely unnerved the man. However, it didn't prevent her from having to escape the car when the man slowed. However, this doesn't detract altogether from a proxy theory. Or even fully Slendy, has it been shown that he attacks infants? Only children.

Fact: And this is the clincher for me. The letters.

Halloween card sent to San Fransisco Newsman Paul Avery

Who else besides me can think of people who taunt their hunters with bizarre codes and creepy misspelled messages? Anyone? Anyone at all?

Fact: Uh. How about that symbol guys? How about the fact that he would mark the sites of his killings with it?



I'm not saying the guy is Slendy, or even a proxy. I'm just saying...well...it's interesting. Isn't it?

If you have anything to add to this discussion, please! Add them in the comments or message them to me. I'll add them in the body here. I'm sure there are many other similarities and detraction-s. I'm just too tired to think of them at the moment.

Entry #41

New MarbleHornets posted last night! There's some pretty interesting stuff going on here, lets analyze.




Alright so I've watched this video an odd...ten or so times and this is what I've found.

First off, the video doesn't seem to really take us anywhere plotwise. I mean, 90% of the video is spent wandering around the frakking woods. If I wanted to see pretty trees, I'd get off my butt and go for a walk. I mean, come on, I'm on the internet for a reason.

Just kidding. Well, mostly. But we have been seeing an awful lot of wondering around the woods lately. I don't know if it's because they're trying to build up tension or they just don't friggin know what to do with themselves anymore. Actually, to be perfectly, frankily honest, most of this season has seemed like it's walking in circles. I understand that they kinda wrote themselves into a corner by having Alex show up again (although looking for him was getting pretty damn old) and finishing up with the Alex tapes. Still, there was a far amount to room for creative leeway. I think by forcing themselves to go back to the old "It's a tape! What could be on it?!?!?!" routine has damped the possibilities, though I salute the fact that the tapes are from Jay's point of view, rather than Alex's, as it adds a whole new flavour to the thing.

I'm not saying I'm not liking MarbleHornets, I was there with the rest of the internet psychotically refreshing the MH twitter feed every  3 seconds for news of a new update for the last week and a half. However, I'm just not getting quite the same mystery from this series as I think it used to bring.

Granted, it's about time to be wrapping some mysteries up. The revealing of Masky and the reappearance of Alex were well-timed and justified, and in a way, created some drama and intrigue. However, it's a matter of balancing the puzzle, solving it, but not solving it so far as to complete the series, without falling into the same pit that ate Lost; where we're so wrapped up in confusion and polar bears that even the creators re-watch Season 1 and go "Ooooooh yeeeeeaaaaah!...What was THAT shit about?"

but I digress.

The point is, this season has had a lot of hits and a few misses. I really liked the last episode, and I was clinging onto my butt in anticipation of what the next video would bring. I think was with a lot of people when the video ended with a big "Wha-huh?" from me.

The beginning was the most dull. For the first three minutes of film the video picks up, as though nothing happened, and trots through the woods looking at all the pretty trees and flowers for a while. Much like the last video. In fact, I was cursing the existance of "Filler" episodes for most of the episode before something finally happened.

However, whereas in the last episode, most of us were panicking as Jay wandered into the trees and looked around; this episode just left me bored. Entry 40 had me expecting Slender Man around every corner. Jay toddles through the trees for ten minutes and I spend the whole time gasping for air, and then the final payoff as Slendy makes his long awaited appearance. This episode left me yawning. We've just seen this schtick. Unconciously, we all knew that they weren't gonna pull the same thing twice. Slendy wasn't gonna show up and scare us all unconcious, and frankily I'd be pretty cyncial if he did; two episodes in a row.

No, this episode actually could have been interesting if we hadn't just seen most of it an episode prior.

Maybe if Slendy had approached the cameraman without him showing fear, or we knew, before the very end, that the cameraman wasn't Jay, or at least, Jay as we know him; it could've picked up. But it didn't. Furthermore, the big reveal at the end of Masky2, or "Sinclair" as he has come to be known, didn't elicit a fear response like Slendy, but rather a big "WTF" from just about everyone.

Again, perhaps if this episode hadn't been a watered down version of the episode just previous, we all would've cared a little more.

On the upswing, there are a few positive conundrums raised here.

Who is holding the camera?
Well, there was some discussion about this on the forums. Supposidly, Jay could've come back for his camera, as we never actually see Sinclair holding it. If you don't pay attention, it seems as though someone gets in Jay's car, and then Sinclair walks by.
However: if you pay attention, the car door opens, the camera is set down on the drivers seat, and we can then hear the car door open and shut once more, albiet quietly as the camera is now further away. Also, the camera shakes slightly as the movement of the individual leaving the car upsets it's balance.
so who has the camera: Sinclair; which, admittedly, adds a bit of interest to the fact that we know that we're briefly looking through the eyes of this masked enigma.

Why doesn't Jay lock his car?
He's a friggin idiot.

Sinclair never unlocks the door, or remote unlocks it, which leads us to believe that it was truly unlocked. Either Jay is feeling far safer than he should under the recent circumstances, or it's pretty amazing continuity error.

Who is Sinclair?

You know...I know a guy who looks like this.

Sinclair. Briefly spotted leaving the scene of the most recent slendy haunting. So what was he doing? Bringing back the camera so that Jay didn't have to go looking for it? Is it ToTheArk? Alex? Jay Himself?
Well, one thing's for sure, they're not risking us figuring it out in two videos based on the coat and epic sideburns anymore. After pouring through the entries, I can definitively say that I've never seen this particular sweatshirt before. They even turned it inside out, just to make sure nobody caught on.

Here's what I think though.
For starters. We've seen before that there are multiple masks of the Masky/Tim styling. This is not one of those masks. For all those people out there who believe that there are a society of masky's who run or serve slendy, we know that he is not on of them, on style alone.

Second. He's a bad guy. I know a lot of people are theorizing that he's a nice guy who just wanted Jay to have his camera, so let's break this down. As I've stated before, Cameras, in this universe, are a bad thing. What drew Slendy to Alex? His girlfriend turning on the camera. When did Slendy start seeking Jay for real? When Jay started filming himself. And as I stated before in my MH theories, I believe ToTheArk is a proxy, and what does TTA perpetually remid Jay to do? Stay on Camera!
Moreover, what the hell is this guy doing in a place that was being haunted by Slendy only fifteen minutes ago? Why is he breaking into Jay's car and how, out of the number of cars that we see in the parking lot, does he know which on belongs to Jay? and the clincher, distortion starts when he's on camera! Since when is that a good thing???

Where is Alex?

Parking lot in Entry #41, and Alex's car from Entry #36

It's hard to see in the screencap folks, but bear with me. In the background there, right next to Jay's car, with the same seemingly slanted back window and rag top, is, could it be? Alex's car?
Now, it's debatable, but I can only discuss what I think. I think Alex is there, logically parked next to Jay. Is he waiting for Jay? or is he sinclairing around? or is it just absentminded filmmaking? Who knows???

I theorize, judging from stance, height and other relatively meaningless hunches, that Sinclair is ToTheArk and ToTheArk is Alex. But that's just me.

However, he does walk in the opposet direction Alex's car (however, if so, shouldn't Alex have seen him?). And he does film in a similar style to Jay. (Also, he has Jay's eyes. Could they be related???)

What the hell is that in the trees?

The yard needed some Raking.

Slendersong - ORIGINAL

Have I mentioned that occasionally love humanity? Not often but, on those special, rare occasions. There are more meaningful implications of this, but on a lighter, more on topic note, this cheered me up immensely the other day when I was in my usual grumbly haze. I opened it expecting it to be a shitty bucktoothed teenage girl who thinks she's the next Hannah Montana. I was pleasantly surprised to find a slightly bucktoothed teenager with a good singing voice and pretty entertaining song. I'm actually hoping to get an MP3 of it at some point.

Three cheers for quality creativity!

Lyrics:

Alex Kralie was a friend of mine,
Skipped town, but left his tapes behind.
Told me to burn them, but I watched them instead,
I think that Alex is messing with my head.

'Cause everywhere I look I see this strange man.
He's tall and thin, he's got a suit and a faceless head.
I think I'm starting to see what drove Alex insane,
Because, oh, the Slenderman is messing with my brain.

The video responses give me my clues,
But where exactly is this ark we're going to?
Some kid in a mask is watching me sleep,
And I'm thinking maybe I'm in a little too deep...

Cause everywhere I look I see this strange man.
He's tall and thin, he's got a suit and faceless head.
I think I'm starting to see what drove Alex insane,
Because, oh, the Slenderman is messing with my brain.

The more you know, the more of you he can find.
You can run and run, but there's nowhere to hide.

Updates! MLanderson0 and EMH

Ok, so I've been neglectful of discussing the newest posts in our favorite series and the implication therein, so Here yah go. Maybe in the future I'll be a better person about posting those here.

EverymanHybrid

So EMH posted their newest video quite a while ago, but I ignored talking about because there were, very frankly, more interesting things in the world to discuss. The video: "One Step Forward, Two Steps Back" was an adventure in simultaneous good judgement and bad choices.

Alright, so we kick off the video with the guys discussing a recent finding and it's connection to a regional library which they plan to visit (in a bought of awkward discussion which suggests to me that they were trying to either remember lines or fly by the seat of their pants and were failing); when they're party is crashed by Jeff's little brother Alex. Alex is invited to come, but is prevented from coming by his stark raving insanity and tinny-electro-mom whose boom-box recreation forbids him from going out late.

Fans bemoan poor Alex's mental state and Jeff's having to deal with a psychotic little brother. I mostly bemoan the lack of acting ability on the part of the brothers. I give the creators props; it's an interesting idea but the lackluster, awkward, floaty acting performance forces me to purse my lips and blow a hearty raspberry.

After a long (but admittedly plot driving) trip to the library to discover that all roads lead to bodies; the boys return home, depressed.
Chin up boys! Things can only go uphill from here, no?

No. By the time it gets dark things are worse than before. Sparky, Alex's beloved dog, is prowling the backyard. Alex goes out to investigate the strange noises, followed by Evan and Jeff. Sparky has disappeared into the shed and now something seems to be making growling noises from within. Who could it be???

The Rake attacks Evan and the camera cuts out. When we return Evan is grinning over the bathtub, cleaning up the bloody mess that used to be his arm, and Alex is on the floor, weeping over the collar of his once-beloved dog (well, he would be weeping if he could express that much emotion).

My thoughts: Meh. I was underwhelmed by this episode. Not to mention immensely disappointed that they have brought back the rake.
Storywise, I understand that it's difficult to wrote a story surrounding a monster that doesn't really physically attack people. That's why MarbleHornets has Masky and that's why EverymanHybrid has the Rake; to add a little physical violence to the mix. Irregardless, whereas Masky completes the Slenderman Story, the Rake only seems to confuse it.

On the upside, I applauded the decision not to show the Rake. After his first appearance in "Cops Checked, No Body", where it became apparent that the Rake was just a guy on all fours wearing the Morphsuit left over from Slender Man; I think they picked up enough flack to know not to do that again. He's a lot more intimidating when he's just a snarl.

There was some character and plot growth here. The fact that people related to the Corenthal Kids have been dying off, (including Corenthal himself), both funnels the story in a specific direction and adds a bit of "What are we going to do now?" tension. I just pray that the series creators know where this story is going. And as much as I dislike Sad Panda Jeff and his Sadder Panda brother, I do have to admit that the insights into their family troubles in this episode add a bit to their interest-quotient. It also gets rid of damn sparky.

As I stated elsewhere, I mostly liked this episode for the mental image Evan gives us of the Rake using Sparky as a sock puppet. "Hey guys! Lets play fetch! Arf arf! Of course I'm your dog *eheh-eheh* <_<"

Although I thought that Evan took a bit of a hit in my book. Evan is my favorite character in this series for both his believable insanity and the fact that he's flippin' hilarious. But he hasn't really been growing much as a character for the last few videos. I'm waiting for him to do something. When I saw him on screen but he still really wasn't a present character (Although we did learn that that boy has mad pain tolerance; shouldn't those kinds of wounds really result in severe blood-loss???).


MLAnderson0

This was a pretty simple video, but it held a lot of weight, plot-wise.
Mostly it's just Michael telling off his brother and his brother's roommate for being dicks. But there's a crazy quality to what he's saying, and a definite undertone of menace that really draws me in here.

What I like about Michael is that they've made it wonderfully clear that he lies to us, as viewers. We never really know who to trust at this point. Every character has an agenda that we, as viewers, get jerked around between. It actually adds a lot of depth to the series.

This episode, given it's tone, and clear menace, along with this series version of Slender-Distortion (A unique orangy tinge and saturation to the set) tells me that Michael is more Slender affected that people realize. The big question now is, is he a proxy or isn't he?

I've heard a lot of talk about whether he's a proxy, and that this will break the series for a lot of proxy-weary viewers. Well, the boy's been stalked by Slender Man for a long time, and given the events of "Sleepwalking", where he took a knife into his brother's room while sleeping; I'd say, yeah, he's probably somewhat under Slendy's control. Is he a full proxy or just a Sleeper? I don't know. I actually think it'd be interesting to see a vlog presented by a proxy. I know that in the blogs, proxies have been used to death, but when you think about it, the vlogs haven't touched much on anyone but the Runners.

I'm curious.

Funny Story...

So I'm a college student and I'm in a mid-level business calculus class that's dull as Fuck. Or rather, Tribestwelve and I more or less nap through the class every single day. Sometimes I doodle.

Since I've been digging myself so deep into the Slendermythos lately its been about the only thing on my mind. Actually it's kind of annoying. I found myself walking out of the library the other day with a stack of books that were so painfully uninteresting but might generate some posts for this very blog. Yep, it's gotten that far.

So I'm sitting in math class and I start making slendersketchs, just very absentmindedly, humming rather happily...

Then I noticed that this guy who sits next to me is watching me sketch very intently, with a look of mixed curiosity and a tinge of horror, as if he recognizes what I'm doing...

For the next four class periods I kept drawing the Slender Man, as happily as possible, as if I were drawing puppies and rainbows.

Finally he comes up to me after class.
"Hey." He says shyly, perhaps even nerviously. "I like your Slender Man drawings..."
I blinked at him a couple times, and with the most innocence I could muster...
"Slenderwhat?"

Vlogs: ML Anderson0

So I discovered a new one today, thanks to my recent membership on Slendernation forums; which is a totally awesome slendercommunity that is not only large enough to provide interesting discussion but also just a fun group of people. They also don't suffer asshats well, which tickles me about purple.

Anyway, they are open to discussing just about anything slender-related; and beyond. If you like sharing theories or whatnot I fully advise you to go seek them out. Just make sure you bring good grammer and a healthy sense of humour.

Moving on.

HERE THERE BE SPOILERSSo none of that "you ruined the ending!!!" whining, ok douchecanoes?
Ahhhh...ML Anderson0
God Bless you.

Okokok. So it's not the most epic piece of filmary I've seen in my life. Is it going to terrify you the way MarbleHornets did? HA! No. Is it worth watching? A thousand times, yes.

ML Anderson0, or the Anderson Journals have really only just begun. Micheal Anderson; a young guy with numerous monsters in his closet (I mean that metaphorically, this is not EverymanHybrid) after spending most of his life in a mental hospital. The journals begin after he is released, so that his doctor can keep track of him; despite the fact that the doctor has done nothing to intervene in the following events.

Micheal has family problems. A long unresolved conflict with his parents regarding why they put him in the hospital to begin with (and thusly abandoned him); and the always present stigma of spending some 18 years in a mental institution. Problem is, its possible that Micheal isn't even crazy. Or is he?

He feels he's being followed. He starts seeing tall men in business suits whereever he goes. But his brother can't see them, and assumes he's still crazy. But every fan on the internet, at least those that know what Slender Man is, can.

After an intense sequence of dissapearances and reappearances, Micheals brother Shaun, and his roommate Eric begin seeing things they never wanted to see in the first place. Micheal claims that Shaun was always able to see him, but just didn't want to, citing the time when they were kids, being hunted by Mr. Tall; and told their parents, only for Shaun to lie and say he never saw him. Landing Micheal in the crazy ward.

Characters:

Micheal: Harried youth who has been seeing the Slenderman every since he was a very small boy despite the fact that no one else sees, or is willing to admit that he sees, Him. Immediately after leaving the hospital this time, Micheal starts having encounters again, dragging his brother and his brother's roommate into the heart of "Running".

Shaun: Micheal's gunshy, self-involved brother. Despite having been the only family member to keep in communication with Shaun during his stay at the hospital, Shaun immediately tries to cut all ties once the Slender Man starts reappearing into his life. Although theirs evidence that he's been slenderstalked since he was a child as well, his unwillingness to admit he sees or knows our Friendly Neighborhood Monster, seems to have kept him safe over the years; albiet kind of a douchebag to his brother; at one point accusing Micheal of infecting him with his crazy.

Eric: Shaun's roommate and best friend. He's no fan of Micheal though, often accusing him of duping his fans into believing his crazy lies, and, at one point, kidnapping Shaun. Never willing to trust Micheal further than he can throw him, Eric seems to grudgingly put up with him for the sake of Shaun and later, because he starts seeing the tall man himself. Considering the fact that Slendy has been communicating to Eric, I think we can safely assume that nothing good will happen to this boy ever again.

My Rating: B

This show is a solid good start for what could evolve into a great slenderseries; something which really hasn't been seen since MarbleHornets. For one thing, these boys are actors instead of film buffs. I've never seen a slenderseries with actors and My God its refreshing. Granted, sometimes their acting is a little stiff or forced, but often, particularly when monologuing, it's brilliantly impactful. Especially Micheal, who is a veritable Tour de Force at behaving oppressed yet potentially crazy all at the same time.

Granted, as actors, the other elements of the show, which is often the highlight of other slenderseries, is lacking. Their Slendy is short and a little saggy; and in desperate need of a new costume or at least better angles to cheat his weaknesses. They don't always utalize him well either, although it's cute, having him lean curiously over a fence, while obviously balancing on a stool doesn't really make me terrified. Albiet, the acting makes up for it in full.

Also, in a nice break from marblehornets (and perhaps taking away some of the fear but in a nice way) this series is a lot more character based. Because they are actors, they aren't afraid to focus on the people rather than the scenery or the monsters. This series becomes more about the interactions between those being hunted, rather than the hunting itself.

I think given a little time, and perhaps a tad bit of re-design, this series could really take off. It's still in the beginning stages, but I'm thoroughly hopeful for it's future.