How Marble Hornets Effectively Presents A Scary Monster while Representing Mental Illness Accurately
what i enjoy the most about marble hornets is the clear synthesis between the ideas of a metaphorical monster representing mental illness and the reality and tangibility of said monster.
marble hornets simultaneously shows that the way to stop this monster, and keep one’s own existence stable, one must take pills. at multiple points in the series, and especially in the Solo Tim arc, Tim was shown being affected by the monster, and after he took pills, it dissipated and he was able to continue on. moreover, when Jay began having extreme mental issues, Tim expressly urged him to get some help and medication, just as one should do for anyone experiencing mental health problems. yet, in the end, Jay succumbed to paranoia and was manipulated by those already lost to the monster’s insidious nature, and as a result, died. Tim himself has had extremely traumatizing experiences stemming from his intense mental health problems from childhood, and this is a core structure of his character arc as a whole. in essence, marble hornets has an extremely clear and realistic take on mental illness, in spite of its simultaneous intent as a fictional horror series.
the tangibility of the monster is, in my opinion, similarly expressed to mental illness - it seems to have existed within Tim at first (the first chronological camera tear in the series was just as Tim sat down to audition for Alex’s role). the “virus” seems to have jumped from him into Alex’s camera, and from then on, the descent into hell began.
digital technology is a new advent, and i believe that even those who have grown up surrounded by it (as i certainly have) still feel a sense of absurd intangibility within the electronic frames of our phones and computer screens. the rapid, almost pathological, collective spread of internet memes, the subtle yet intense influence social media can have on our self-image, and the mere fact that we’re used to staring at a bright, burning tablet for entire waking days at a time, reflect a kind of “intangible tangibility” that i’m attempting to describe here. aside from the effect on mental health that this has, oftentimes beyond our own awareness, computers, and the internet, are absurd constructs. to those that understand little of it, they seem alien, incomprehensible. similarly, those who understand little of mental illness have viewed it in the same lens - the “devil” is possessing them, they’re “infected”, or people simply become frustrated and mistrustful because they just don’t know how to deal with the symptoms that mentally ill people express.
the reality of the situation that all characters in marble hornets experience is much like that of someone with intense, life-debilitating mental health issues. their 20s have essentially been deleted, they experience intense insomnia, have extreme issues with paranoia, have comprehensive forgetfulness, and are prone to intense mistrust and even violence. without help from others, professional or personal, this descends into a cyclical, exhausting, awful life experience, which eventually ends with the death of almost all but the narrative’s strongest stand-in for disciplined mental health, Tim. Tim was only able to protect Jessica, out of everyone in the series (he even tried to save ALEX, after all he’d done) and, also like those who have been treated for mental illness, neither of these living characters seem to have completely “overcome” their problems. indeed, mental illness can never be “fixed”, but simply stabilized, and the choices one makes are entirely influenced by a mental state that can so easily be influenced and changed, even after mental health is tended to. this is why the final shot of the series, with the viewer not knowing if Tim is going to go left or right, is perfect, because it punctuates this point.
to summarize, marble hornets presents its monster simultaneously as a tangible entity and a metaphor for mental illness, as proved by direct and textual pieces of its narrative. the comparisons between the two concepts as expressed in the series overlap so much that they essentially synthesize into one whole idea.
