If you love horror and gaming, you’re probably aware of the game Slender, which is actualy a low budget, low-tech title.
And like the best low budget horror films, Slender provides scares without fancy frills, and by leaving your fears up to your imagination.
While many have been wondering what could be the next great step in horror, some have pointed to Marble Hornets, which is the acclaimed webisode adaptation of the Slender game. Now reports are telling us that Hornets may be going from YouTube to the big screen.
As Cinema Blend confirms, Marble Hornets, which was created by Troy Wagner and Joseph Delage in 2009, has gotten over 55 million YouTube views for the 67 episodes they’ve created. (Hornets also has 250,000 subscribers as well). The big screen version of Hornets will be helmed by James Moran, who directed second unit for three Paranormal Activity films.
This will be Moran’s first time as a full-blown director steering the ship of a film, and in addition to working second unit on three Paranormal flicks, he also directed second unit on Vacancy, the remake of Prom Night, the remake of The Stepfather, and Lords of Salem, to name a few. The screenplay is being written by Ian Shorr, who also penned the 2008 horror film Splinter.
The big screen edition of Marble Hornets is being produced by the production company Mosaic, who also made Bad Teacher with Cameron Diaz, and The Other Guys with Will Ferrell.
So Marble Hornets has proven to be quite an indie / DIY phenomenon on YouTube, could it provide the next step in the evolution of the horror genre? The game and the webisode series has already scared the hell out of a lot of people, let’s hope it can translate well to the big screen. At least one person I know who’s a fan and follows the series regularly feels it could be the horror genre’s salvation, and it’s about time horror has another game changer.
