Canvas Kingdom > Unfiction

Off the top of my head, unfiction is basically any piece of fiction that tries to convince you it's not fiction. Of course all media does that to some extent (suspension of disbelief and all that), but here it's the focus or at least a very important aspect of the work.

Another definition is "an ARG without the puzzles and just the vibes", which is completely wrong but it also makes a lot of sense if you're familair with the genre(s) so you can use that to guide your own perception but never say this shit in front of me or I'll get you.

Anyways, on this page I'll be talking about some pieces of unfiction I've consumed and my thoughts about them! The amount I have to say about each of these is wildly inconsistent, and I might include some general internet horror that doesn't really fit in here too because I'm a fraud.

To Watch/Read:

• Kraina Grzybów TV/Smile Guide
• Daisy Brown
• Welcome Home
• Weird Stuff That Happens
• Nebula & Quasar
• Mr. Samuel's Teatime Stories for Confused Adults (watched the first episode)

I've watched Marble Hornets twice so far. The first time I watched it, I thought it was pretty fun and didn't think much about it. Some years later when I saw a video about it come into my recommended videos section, I had the thought: man, it must have been a really long time since I've watched Marble Hornets, because I barely remember anything about some of the plot details. So I watched it again with my boyfriend. And it turns out, I didn't remember anything about those details because they were actually never elaborated!

For being such a cornerstone of many different genres of internet horror, a lot of the things that "originated from" Marble Hornets are actually imposed on it in retrospect from the series that were inspired by it. I think the best example of this is the Proxies. The term was coined in TribeTwelve, but Marble Hornets has something similar enough that is never fully elaborated.

I'm not saying Marble Hornets doesn't have anything original, though. I really do think it has something special that none of the series inspired by it have managed to capture so far, in fact. The dynamic between the characters is truly the most prominent and best aspect of the series in my opinion, even if it gets kinda exaggerated by the end. The "Operator" itself isn't the star of the show in my opinion, it's actually how all of the characters react to its presence (and powers) and how their coping methods contrast with each others'.

As much as I like to joke that Marble Hornets is "9 hours of Jay getting lost in the woods" and "a thinly veiled metaphor for gay sex", I do think it's very entretaining and charming and that it deserves all the praise it gets. People have been turning on season 2 and beyond ever since a few years after the show ended, but I unironically think it is the best part of the show. As soon as you stop thinking of it only as a "series about the Slenderman", you'll start to truly enjoy it.

This is going to sound like a bad joke or an "uninformed zoomer take", but to me it kinda feels like a worse version of Marble Hornets. Like, Marble Hornets (and other analog horror series) have taken every element of this movie and made it so much better. I don't think it's a bad movie by any chance, and I think a lot of the experience is lost when you haven't lived through the whole marketing campaign and are aware that it's a fictional movie. But it just doesn't click with me. I think I might appreciate it more after I rewatch it, watch the sequels and learn more about the lore in general, but right now I don't have a lot of strong praise toward it other than it being fun and a landmark in inspiring internet horror.

It's not overrated in the slightest, it is pretty good and fun to watch. I really like how subtle it is, it doesn't need to reveal much of its own lore due to how it's presented and so it doesn't. You get just enough info to know what's going on, but not really how it got to be this way. And that's alright by me. A lot of series inspired by it try to explain their own lore in such an excessive level of detail that all the mystery gets annihilated and replaced with the vague threat of violence and cheap distorted faces jumpscare.

I can't be too mean about this one, honestly. It's clearly made by (mostly) only one person and they make the best with the resources they have. The masked and long haired monsters are obviously just Mary with a different outfit on, but that's intended so I can't complain too much about it other than the effects and some of the dialogue being kind of cheesy in retrospect. The metaphor about mental health and self image was pretty alright up until they straight up explained the whole premise of the series to you at the end. Plus, I don't know about how I feel about the whole "she didn't kill herself because she had Twitter followers" thing. I do get what they were trying to do with it, but it really does come off the wrong way to me. The shadow monster looks sick as fuck though.

I don't really have a lot to say about this one, honestly. I know a lot of people who really liked it, and I enjoyed it a lot too when I watched it myself, but I dunno. It's more of a cool and fun series to me than something that sticks in my mind and permanently alters my perception of things. That said, it's really well done and pretty much the golden standard when it comes to representing fake games. It's so full of symbolism and pretty much all of the seemingly meaningless gameplay is important to the plot (and also this) in some way which is an issue I have with a lot of other video game focused series.

I don't know if I would call this a classic, but it fits better here in my opinion. It's funny and silly. I really enjoy the concept and the execution of "guy gets haunted but is kinda chill about it". The execution is top notch, and the plot progression is pretty nice up until the very end when it pulls some odd thingsI'm still not sure of the meaning. I'm also not very fond of what I assume was an attempt for a season 2 or a reboot (what the last couple episodes feel like), to me making the character relapse and/or become an actual influencer after all that he's been through feels kind of disingenuous.

Not all of his projects fit into the unfiction category, but I've already established that I'm breaking my own rules and also all of his works that I've watched rule a lot. Alantutorial falls into the "it's more fun when a video essay filters the nothing footage out" category a little bit, but I am nostalgic to it and its theme is very unique among the genre. Unedited Footage of a Bear is really nice despite being one of the shorter experiences, especially with the accompanying website now being gone. This House Has People In It is truly unique, I was intimidated by the sheer amount of footage at first but it doesn't feel too grating or overexplain the original videos' lore. Children of the Mirror didn't do a lot for me though, and I haven't watched any of his other works yet, but I really look forward to it.

• June Archives
• BrandonWorks
• SCP
• Walten Files
• Some series I don't like and issues I have with them
• Backrooms
• Dog Nightmares
• MyHouse
• Chainmail Chasers
• Some r/nosleep stories
• Youtube One-Offs/Oddities