everymanHYBRID: Introduction to Joke's Over

This is my first review on this blog, and it will be of the first chunk of everymanHYBRID. I hope you guys enjoy!

To start off, the first few fitness videos are not that great. Most of it is common sense, and some of the Slenderman shots are far too obvious, and amateurish. To start off, it looks pretty bad. It does kick into gear later, but the first impressions are not good at all. The fitness bits are mainly common sense, and it's far too easy to spot Ol' Faceless in the background, especially when Vince stares straight at it whilst he's pushing the car.

Of course, this makes a neat twist when they reveal that it was a fake Slendy, and the real one showed up at some point. It also makes for an interesting game, trying to guess which Slendy was real and which was fake.

'...', and the premise of 'hidden' videos that the cast can't see, is another creepy plot twist. The series is almost immediately propelled upwards in viewer estimations because of this particular twist, and the implications of what this unseen hacker can put up. First off, the man shows that Evan quite clearly has Slendersickness, and is obsessed with knives. It's probably hinting at something further down the line, as he's already acting incredibly weird.

Healthy Eating shows the first definitive Slenderman appearance. The weird head bobbing is far scarier than it should be, as is the way he disappears after the door closes. It's a fabulous entrance, and just as good an exit from our old pal Slendy. The levels of what-the-fuckery are high, and the way he gets so close to the boys before making his presence known is terrifying.

The characterisation of all of the cast is well done, and is showcased by A Day In The Life. It's a nice little trip through some woods, almost a breather episode (even though I'm sure I spotted something tall, dark and Slender in the background a few times). It shows off the acting talent of all of the people involved, from Ryan's general Pokemon love to Evan and Vince's bromance.

The Sleeping and Dreams trilogy isn't exactly necessary, other than the showing off of the weird shrine and Evan's Slenderdreams. It fits with the fitness and health series, but they wouldn't have lost too much without them, really.

'---' shows a lot of stuff, and it's hard to make sense of most of it. Other than Vince making Jeff continue, and Evan filming himself pretending to be Freddy Kruger (he's already insane), not a whole lot makes sense. The random shots from A Day In The Life don't exactly help, although it does look creepy.

Slushpops And Surprises doesn't show us too much, other than a sneak preview at what is to come in the fitness series, a creepy birthday card, and something about a 'tragic hero'. The end message is really weird (I assume it's hidden, but I'm not 100%), but it doesn't draw many emotions from the viewer. That makes me automatically think that it's some form of foreshadowing, but I can't be too sure.

Self Defense is another return to the health and fitness series, and I'm nearly totally sure that there's some kind of foreshadowing there. The lessons on fighting, and Evan being a martial arts teacher are details that are probably going to help the boys in some form during the series. There's some funny moments in it, and the quality of the fitness series appears to have improved (pretty sure that contest has ended by now), and it shows that the boys are letting Slendy get them down.

Joke's Over is where the series really gets it's arse in gear, and what a way to do it. The quality of the distortions, and Slenderman, is brilliant. He almost seems to roar to the camera as he appears. Evan laughing as the liquid (more on that in a moment) spills out of the bag is terrifying, and the defining insane moment for Evan.

By the way, the liquid is not blood. In the original mythos, Slenderman melted his victims and placed that liquid into bags, rather than just the organs. This is what appears to be the end result. With that in mind, the quality of that effect looks much better.

So far, it's a great series. It's engaging, the characters are all believable, Slenderman looks epic and there's some really creepy shit going on. I love it already.

Next time, the first few episode of the Sims Saga and The Tutorial. I hope you liked this review, stay tuned for more.

Introduction to Slenderman

For all of those that don't know, (and it is integral to some of the things I will be reviewing that you do know) Slenderman is a character originally created by the SomethingAwful forums. He originally spawned from a "Let's Create Paranormal Images" thread. He was added in to a few of them, and then he sort of overtook the thread.

From that, an icon of creepypasta was born.

Slenderman is different in most of his appearances. What people can agree on, however, is that he's a tall, faceless thing wearing some sort of business suit. He has freakishly long limbs, and sometimes has tentacles, depending on what you're watching (if it's Japanese, he probably does). His preferred targets are usually children, but he will go after adults if the plot demands it. His main powers include severe mindfuckery, breaking most cameras and an incredible ability to manipulate areas around him. He can either teleport or move really fast, depending on what you're watching.

His MO is usually mindfucking his victims into writing weird notes all over the place, and then either killing them or taking them to his pocket dimension for super happy fun times. Those super happy fun times usually end with him placing your organs into bags for other people to find. Again, this depends entirely on what you're watching. Sometimes he just straight up murders them, sometimes he adds his own special twist to the recipe.

His origin story is usually left entirely unexplained. The cryptic hints that the viewer is given vary wildly, from being a pedophile that was killed by stretching him from a tree, to an entirely meta perspective that we created him by writing on the SA forums, and that we basically doom ourselves by reading up about him. This twist is so meta it's like the Doritos Taco flavoured Doritos.With less Doritos.

So, that's the basics on Slenderman. Essentially, he's a child killing, mind raping, camera breaking, snappy dressing, tall, faceless motherfucker who cannot be harmed through normal methods, or at all. The exact description will change based on the creepypasta you are viewing, but it's essentially the same beast.

Coming up next time, what I've watched of everymanHYBRID so far (which is very little, just to warn you).

The Slender Review Hub is open for business!

Hey guys,

After seeing and reading some of the Slenderman stuff, and I decided that we need one place to review and check out all of this. The ARGs, the blogs, the vlogs and the videogames. I decided to create one myself, as a little project, something to do.

This is by no means the official place, neither is it definitive. If you have conflicting opinions for any of the work that I will be reviewing, please tell me in the comments. I value your opinion just as much as my own, so I'd love to hear what you guys have to say about it.

Also, as much as I'd love to, I will not be reviewing Marble Hornets. I have watched every single episode up to now, and my views will be tainted by the fact that what looked scary at the start of the series looks fucking hilarious now. Still, it is a great series, and I would recommend you go watch it, as it is one of the definitive Slenderman projects.

That being said, I have started reading a few blogs, and watching a few vlogs, just to get a feel for what I'm about to review. If you have any recommendations, please leave them in the comments and I'll go check them out.

My list to review so far:
The Tutorial (getuphigh.blogspot.co.uk)
Seeking Truth (openthedoorandyouwillfindme.blogspot.co.uk)
Dark Harvest (www.youtube.com/user/DarkHarvest00)
Just Another Fool (jafool.wordpress.com)
I Am Stardust (youandthestarsareone.blogspot.co.uk)
Sims Saga (www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL53E3BC0FC02E581C&feature=plcp)
Caught Not Sleeping (Lots of channels so I'll put up the video list from Wikidot instead (http://caughtnotsleeping.wikidot.com/uploads))
The Scarlett House (http://www.youtube.com/user/TheScarlettHouse/videos?view=0)
Let's Play Slenderman's Shadow (http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtBvVb99cf6S_j63sPFpKRLaMt2fcqdQb)

I will check out all recommendations that you give me.

My reviews will be honest, so don't expect glowing praise for everything and anything. Don't expect scathing criticism for everything either. I'll try and balance it out, unless it looks really shit or really amazing.

I will be reviewing every series as I read/watch them. I will put the name of the latest post/video that I have watched in the title of each review, so that you know how far along in the series I actually am.

In the coming weeks or so, I will put up an introduction to Slenderman, as well as the first evermanHYBRID review. Thanks for reading!