Always Watching: A Marble Hornets Story

Last updated

Always Watching: A Marble Hornets Story
Always Watching poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJames Moran
Screenplay byIan Shorr
Based on Marble Hornets
by Joseph DeLage
Troy Wagner
Tim Sutton
Produced byJimmy Miller
M. Riley
Starring Alexandra Breckenridge
Alexandra Holden
Chris Marquette
Jake McDorman
Doug Jones
CinematographyUlf Soderqvist
Edited byWendy Nomiyama
Production
companies
Mosaic
Good Universe
GraceSam LLC
Distributed by Gravitas Ventures
Release dates
  • April 7, 2015 (2015-04-07)
(Video on demand)
  • May 15, 2015 (2015-05-15)
(Limited release)
Running time
92 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$714,058 [1]

Always Watching: A Marble Hornets Story is a 2015 American found footage horror film directed by James Moran and starring Chris Marquette, Jake McDorman, Doug Jones, Alexandra Breckenridge and Alexandra Holden. In some countries, it was retitled as Marble Hornets: The Operator. The film was released on video on demand on April 7, 2015, and opened in select theaters on May 15, 2015. [2] [3]

Contents

The movie is a film adaptation of the YouTube web series Marble Hornets inspired by the Slender Man online mythos. [4]

Plot

The movie starts with Eli (Brendon Huor) fleeing through the woods with Jamie (Mickey Facchinello), who is holding a camera. Jamie stops when she realizes that Eli has disappeared. She searches for him, but instead spots The Operator (Doug Jones), a tall, faceless creature in a suit. She reaches and starts the car, but is blocked by Eli standing still in front of it. He suddenly rushes to Jamie's door and bashes his head through the door's window, before dragging Jamie out of the car and pulling her to the ground. A loud crack is heard before the tape abruptly cuts off.

Milo (Chris Marquette) is a member of a news reporting team and has a crush on his coworker, Sara (Alexandra Breckenridge). However, Charlie (Jake McDorman), an Ivy League graduate, has just transferred to the team, upsetting Milo and his chances of getting with Sara. The three are tasked with investigating the mysterious disappearance of a man named Dan (Michael Bunin). Milo is tasked with investigating a series of Mini-DVR tapes that Dan shot. After some analysis, he begins finding images of the Operator in the tapes.

While watching the tapes, he is struck by an odd power outage. Eventually, Milo finds the Operator Symbol, a circle with an "x" through it, engraved into his neck. Then, the Operator appears in his backyard. Milo demands that he leave, but he instead teleports closer to Milo, and Milo reenters his house. He eventually flees to Sara's home, interrupting her and a shirtless Charlie, which angers Charlie. Charlie eventually forces a screaming Milo out of the house. He refuses to go home and decides to sleep in his car.

The following day, he returns home and finds Charlie in an upstairs bedroom. Charlie angrily confronts Milo over the months of footage he has of Sara going about her day. Sara comes in and is disgusted by what she sees, and Milo begins to panic. Charlie refuses to let him touch a camera, and Milo then tells him to grab the camera and look around. Through the camera, Charlie sees the closet door flying open, and The Operator rushing towards him. Charlie panics and drops the camera, and all three take off from the house.

Later, they turn the camera on to find an Operator Symbol inside Milo's car. The three go on the run, trying to escape the Operator and find out what happened to Dan and his family. Eventually, Charlie's informant tells him that Dan used his money to purchase a home in a new location. However, they discover that the house has been burnt down. They locate a storm shelter with a working camera feed that caught everything going on in the house. The feed reveals that Dan smothered his daughter Tara (Morgan Bastin) before being killed himself by his wife Rose (Alexandra Holden), who then burned the house down.

They then go to the local sheriff (George Back), who informs them that Rose survived the fire and that she is locked up in an asylum. The three manage to contact Rose, who proceeds to calmly inform them that she believes the monster came into their life because Dan became interested in it. However, when she sees the Operator Symbol on Sara's arm, she attacks her. Sara, Milo, and Charlie are forced to leave while medical staff restrains Rose.

Completely out of options, they decide to make a last stand in a cabin. After setting the whole place up with cameras, Milo notices that the camera picked up a detail he missed at the hospital: Rose's mark was gone. The crew is then attacked by The Operator. Milo hangs himself, believing that if he dies, Charlie and Sara will be safe. The Operator seemingly leaves after Milo dies, but Milo's dead body suddenly rises from the ground like a zombie. It grabs a pipe and beats Charlie to death before catching and killing Sara. Milo then falls to the floor, his eyes a solid white. Moments later, The Operator appears, and his movements seemingly loop. He then vanishes, and Milo's eyes return to normal.

The movie ends with Dan and Rose leaving a sale, where Dan has purchased a camera with a "college project tape" inside, presumably a tape from the student film-within-a-film of the original Marble Hornets webseries.

Cast

Reception

Critical reception for Always Watching was predominantly negative. [5] Dread Central gave the movie a mixed review, writing, "For fans, it will be a fun little bonus story that lets you down in the substance department. For people looking for a fun horror movie, it won’t be super memorable, but will give you a good time. If you don’t think about it too much and just experience it, it is quite fun. As a film/horror nerd, I was let down, but general audiences will like this a whole lot. It did enough interesting to earn my respect, but too much wrong for my adoration. A solid good time, but not a masterpiece." [6] One of the most common complaints about the film was that it failed to live up to the original web series, despite having a much higher budget.

That said, Noah Dominguez of CBR spoke rather highly of Always Watching in a retrospective piece published in 2022, seven years after the film's initial release. Dominguez's article described Always Watching as a superior alternative to other feature films based on the Slender Man mythos, such as the 2018 Sony release Slender Man : "As a standalone film set in the same universe, Always Watching enriches the world of Marble Hornets, giving established fans new lore to chew on by showing that The Operator's horrifying machinations went well beyond what [series protagonist Jay Merrick] and the gang experienced. At the same time, though, you don't have to have seen Marble Hornets to understand Always Watching, meaning there's no barrier to entry for newcomers who just want to watch a Slender Man movie." [7]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen</i> 2004 film by Sara Sugarman

Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen is a 2004 American teen musical comedy film directed by Sara Sugarman from a screenplay by Gail Parent, based on Dyan Sheldon's 1999 novel of the same name. It stars Lindsay Lohan as an aspiring teenage actress whose family moves from New York City to New Jersey, Adam Garcia as her favorite rock musician, Glenne Headly as her mother and Alison Pill as her best friend. The film introduced Megan Fox in her theatrical film acting debut.

Operator may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Doug Jones (actor)</span> American actor, contortionist and mime

Doug Jones is an American actor, contortionist, and mime artist. He is best known for portraying non-human creatures, usually via heavy make-up and visual effects. He has most notably collaborated with acclaimed filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, appearing in the films Mimic (1997), Hellboy (2004), Pan's Labyrinth (2006), Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008), Crimson Peak (2015), and The Shape of Water (2017).

<i>Halloween: Resurrection</i> 2002 film by Rick Rosenthal

Halloween: Resurrection is a 2002 American slasher film directed by Rick Rosenthal, who had also directed Halloween II (1981), was written by Larry Brand and Sean Hood, and is a direct sequel to Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later and the eighth installment of the Halloween franchise. It stars Busta Rhymes, Bianca Kajlich, Thomas Ian Nicholas, Ryan Merriman, Sean Patrick Thomas, Tyra Banks, and Jamie Lee Curtis, with Brad Loree as Michael Myers. This was the final installment of the H20 timeline of the Halloween franchise, which had just been rebooted with the previous film in 1998, before it was rebooted again in 2007 with a remake and again in 2018. The film follows Myers continuing his murderous rampage in his hometown of Haddonfield when his childhood house is used for a live internet horror show.

<i>Get a Clue</i> 2002 film

Get a Clue is a 2002 American mystery comedy film released as a Disney Channel Original Movie. It stars Lindsay Lohan as Lexy Gold, a teenage high school student who investigates a mystery after one of her teachers goes missing. The film premiered on the Disney Channel on June 28, 2002. It was directed by Maggie Greenwald and was written by Alana Sanko.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philip H. Lathrop</span> American cinematographer

Philip H. Lathrop, A.S.C. was an American cinematographer noted for his skills with wide screen technology and detailed approach to lighting and camera placement. He spent most of his life in movie studios. Lathrop was known for such films as Touch of Evil (1958), Lonely Are the Brave (1962), The Americanization of Emily (1964), The Cincinnati Kid (1965), Point Blank (1967), Finian's Rainbow (1968), The Traveling Executioner (1970), Portnoy's Complaint (1972), Earthquake (1974), Swashbuckler (1976), The Driver (1978), Moment by Moment (1978), A Change of Seasons (1980), Foolin' Around (1980), Loving Couples (1980), and Deadly Friend (1986).

<i>Rings</i> (2005 film) 2005 supernatural horror short film

Rings is a 2005 American supernatural horror short film directed by Jonathan Liebesman, who co-wrote with Ehren Kruger. It serves as a sequel to The Ring (2002) and a prelude to the opening sequence of The Ring Two (2005), both written by Kruger. The film was initially released on March 8, 2005, as an extra disc with a re-release of the first film on DVD.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexandra Breckenridge</span> American actress (born 1982)

Alexandra Breckenridge is an American actress. She began her career with supporting roles in the teen comedy films Big Fat Liar (2002) and She's the Man (2006). She later played reporter Willa McPherson in the FX series Dirt and had a supporting role in the short-lived series The Ex List. She starred as a young Moira O'Hara in the first season of FX's American Horror Story, and played Kaylee in the third season. She played Jessie Anderson in the AMC series The Walking Dead and Sophie in the NBC series This Is Us. She is also the voice of various characters in the animated comedy series Family Guy. Since 2019, she has starred as Melinda "Mel" Monroe in the Netflix series Virgin River.

<i>Scary Movie</i> (film series) American horror parody film series

Scary Movie is a series of American parody films, mainly focusing on spoofing horror films. The films have a combined gross of almost $900 million at the worldwide box office. The two recurring actresses are Anna Faris and Regina Hall as Cindy Campbell and Brenda Meeks, respectively, appearing in all installments except the fifth film.

<i>My Kid Could Paint That</i> 2007 American film

My Kid Could Paint That is a 2007 documentary film by director Amir Bar-Lev. The movie follows the early artistic career of Marla Olmstead, a young girl from Binghamton, New York who gains fame first as a child prodigy painter of abstract art, and then becomes the subject of controversy concerning whether she truly completed the paintings herself or did so with her parents' assistance and/or direction. The film was bought by Sony Pictures Classics in 2007 after premiering at the Sundance Film Festival.

<i>The Burglar</i> (1957 film) 1957 film by Paul Wendkos

The Burglar is a 1957 American crime thriller film noir released by Columbia Pictures, based on the 1953 novel of the same name by David Goodis. The picture stars Dan Duryea in the title role and Jayne Mansfield. The movie was the first feature film directed by Paul Wendkos. John Facenda, a well-known Philadelphia sportscaster, is featured as a news anchor in one scene. Much of the film was shot on location in Philadelphia and Atlantic City.

Found footage is a cinematic technique in which all or a substantial part of the work is presented as if it were film or video recordings recorded by characters in the story, and later "found" and presented to the audience. The events on screen are typically seen through the camera of one or more of the characters involved, often accompanied by their real-time, off-camera commentary. For added realism, the cinematography may be done by the actors themselves as they perform, and shaky camera work and naturalistic acting are routinely employed. The footage may be presented as if it were "raw" and complete or as if it had been edited into a narrative by those who "found" it.

<i>Slender: The Eight Pages</i> 2012 video game

Slender: The Eight Pages, originally titled Slender, is a short first-person survival horror game based on the Slender Man, an infamous creepypasta. It was developed by independent developer Mark J. Hadley using the game engine Unity and was first released in June 2012 by his one-man studio Parsec Productions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slender Man</span> Fictional supernatural character

The Slender Man is a fictional supernatural character that originated as a creepypasta Internet meme created by Something Awful forum user Eric Knudsen in 2009. He is depicted as a thin, unnaturally tall humanoid with a featureless white head and face, wearing a black suit.

<i>Slender: The Arrival</i> 2013 video game

Slender: The Arrival is a first-person survival horror video game developed by Blue Isle Studios and Parsec Productions as a fully realized, commercial version to Parsec's Slender: The Eight Pages, with Chapter 9 being a remake of the aforementioned game. The game is based on the Slender Man creepypasta created by Eric Knudsen, who served as a producer. It was released on Microsoft Windows and OS X on March 26, 2013. Thereafter, the game was released on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in September 2014. It was released for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in March 2015, before shipping onto Wii U in October. A port for the Nintendo Switch was released in June 2019. In October 2021, ports for Android and iOS were released.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Creepypasta</span> Horror-related media shared around the Internet

A creepypasta is a horror-related legend which has been shared around the Internet. The term creepypasta has since become a catch-all term for any horror content posted onto the Internet. These entries are often brief, user-generated, paranormal stories that are intended to frighten readers. The subjects of creepypasta vary widely and can include topics such as ghosts, cryptids, murder, suicide, zombies, aliens, rituals to summon supernatural entities, haunted television shows, and video games. Creepypastas range in length from a single paragraph to extended multi-part series that can span multiple media types, some lasting for years.

<i>Marble Hornets</i> YouTube web series

Marble Hornets is an alternate reality YouTube web series based on the Slender Man online mythos. The first video was posted on YouTube on June 20, 2009, following a post that its creator, Troy Wagner, created on the Something Awful forum the previous day. It was the first web series to be created around the character, with the first episode premiering exactly 10 days after the appearance of the original images of Slender Man on the Something Awful forums, and the first Marble Hornets affiliated post being 9 days after the character's creation.

On May 31, 2014, in Waukesha, Wisconsin, United States, two 12-year-old girls, Anissa Weier and Morgan Geyser, lured their friend Payton Leutner into a wooded area of a local park and stabbed her 19 times to appease the fictional character Slender Man. Weier and Geyser were both found not guilty by mental disease or defect and committed to mental health institutions. Weier received a sentence of 25 years to life and Geyser was sentenced to 40 years to life. After seven years in custody, Weier was granted early release and will be under supervision until age 37.

<i>The Rental</i> Horror film

The Rental is a 2020 American horror film co-written, produced and directed by Dave Franco, in his feature directorial debut. Franco co-wrote the screenplay with Joe Swanberg from a story by Franco, Swanberg, and Mike Demski. It stars Dan Stevens, Alison Brie, Sheila Vand, Jeremy Allen White, and Toby Huss, and follows two couples who begin to suspect they are being watched in the house they rented.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Analog horror</span> Subgenre of horror fiction

Analog horror is a subgenre of horror fiction and an offshoot of the found footage film genre, said to have originated online during the late 2000s and early 2010s with web series such as No Through Road, Local 58, Gemini Home Entertainment, and Marble Hornets.

References

  1. "Always Watching: A Marble Hornets Story (2015)".
  2. Clow, Mitchel (April 8, 2015). "'Always Watching: A Marble Hornets Story' movie review: Tell, don't show". Hypable. Retrieved September 26, 2015.
  3. HOYLE, BLAIR (April 8, 2015). ""Always Watching: A Marble Hornets Story" Review". Cinema Slasher. cinemaslasher.com. Archived from the original on October 8, 2015. Retrieved October 9, 2015.
  4. "YouTube Horror Series Marble Hornets Will Bring Slenderman To Theaters". Cinema Blend. February 26, 2013. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
  5. "ALWAYS WATCHING: A MARBLE HORNETS STORY (2015)". Rotten Tomatoes. Archived from the original on October 7, 2015. Retrieved October 9, 2015.
  6. Hentschke, Ted (August 9, 2015). "Always Watching: A Marble Hornets Story (DVD)". Dread Central . Retrieved October 9, 2015.
  7. Dominguez, Noah (November 15, 2022). "Always Watching Is a Slender Man Movie That's Actually Worth Your Time". CBR.