Orphaned Letterboxd Reviews #2 — MARBLE HORNETS
[Originally published on Letterboxd on January 21st 2017.]
(NOTE: This is part of a little series, wherein I’m archiving old Letterboxd film reviews of mine that were deleted by proxy when the films themselves — or in this case, the web series — were removed from the site. However, these reviews were saved as “orphaned” text files in my downloaded Letterboxd data, which has allowed me to resurrect them in a somewhat more quasi-permanent form for posterity.)
“WE WILL WAIT FOR YOU NO MORE. CONTROL IS BEING TAKEN AWAY FROM YOU. FROM THE START, THIS HAS BEEN A GAME FOR US. NOT ANYMORE. I’M COMING FOR YOU… AND YOU WILL LEAD ME… TO THE ARK.”
The complete series, in chronological order, including totheark’s entries, can be viewed here.
I haven’t had a piece of media of the horror-genre persuasion FUCK. MY. MIND. UP. This. Much. Since I finished reading House of Leaves.
Sure, it’s not a perfect series — with the acting being merely okay, and the super low budget causing the scope of the series’ geographic possibilities to be limited to just a handful of locations that get visited over and over and over and over again (but what locations they are, though!), and the plot in the later episodes becoming somewhat repetitive, and the ending being somewhat baffling, and the scare tactics becoming predictable — but still… THIS FUCKED ME UP, FAM.
The ingeniously conceived story solution to the inherent problem of the found footage genre — (i.e. “why must they film EVERYTHING?” / “why won’t they just PUT THE CAMERA DOWN?!”) — is utterly inspired.
The mind-bending manipulation of the laws of time and space and memory are queasily brilliant.
The ever-expanding mythology the series creates for itself is majorly engrossing, what with its twists and turns and puzzle-box structure and mystery-box mysteries infuriating you just as much as it draws you in.
And when it gets round to the business of scaring you, BY GOD, DOES IT FUCKING WORK.
The unfathomably unsettling sound and visual design works wonders here, with unnerving audio distortions working as both atmosphere and a score of sorts as it assaults your eardrums, and every instance of picture errors (static, stuttering, fuzzing out) instilling a sense of skin-prickling dread.
Add to that the story’s constant lurking in the dark underbelly of American suburbia — through disorienting woodlands, abandoned hospitals, empty hotels, subterranean tunnels, and rotting school buildings — and the ways in which its signature monster makes it so that no one, and nowhere, is ever safe from it, making you perpetually paranoid as you always think you see it somewhere but you’re not sure if you really saw it, and extremely keen-eyed as you try to spot it before it attacks, your eyes darting around every corner of the frame, looking for that horrifyingly slender figure… searching… hiding… waiting…
…simply put, it’s the most chillingly effective horror story I’ve seen in quite a long time, even in spite of its aforementioned imperfections.
And in case you get through the whole thing (in one piece), and you want some explanations for any questions you might have at series’ end, I recommend starting off here.
Good night.
Good luck.
And don’t have nightmares…
