unforum

[noskirt6]

So... someone did die! And something happened to Chris- but what?!

I really enjoyed these entries. Yea, they were long, but like someone said, they were realistic. For me, those slow moments just added trepidation. Especially if you watch Chris' video first then Alex's because you know something has happened and you just want them to go and do something about it! I like that it took them time. Only in movies do things (have to) happen super fast in order to get everything in, but this series is trying to be real. And it feels real. Sure the effects aren't the best, but you have to remember that these are just some kids who are doing this for fun. Again, it's not Hollywood or anything.

Also, Chris wasn't very smart to look around alone. Especially when no lights would turn on and windows were shutting by themselves. I like how in charge Alex is. Breaking down doors, directing people where to go, yelling out orders. Go Alex! Plus, now it seems that we have at least one new character (Jesse).

[ArkyMcArkArk]

Okay, so clearly the Dark Rite innvolved taking some of Greg's organs, ostensibly under the command of slenderman, but other than that, there really doesn't seem like there's much of a reason behind it. I'd even wager that Slenderman isn't REALLY talking to this german fellow at all, and he's just cuh-razy, but then again he does seem to have supernatural powers of some sort.

This still doesn't seem to tie into any of the early stuff about the kid in his house. Unless... does anyone recall how they said that kid died?

As far as speculation for the future, I think we can definitely expect Jesse to be the next person to join their merry band, but other then that, its really too soon to tell.

[Lanz]

[Rebus]

I thought that was great (and by great I mean terrifying), especially the last few minutes of Chris's and then immediately seeing it all from Alex's perspective. The timing was spot on, and the acting top notch. That's definitely kicked things up a notch or two.

I don't know why, but there's something I don't trust about their new little friend that helped them both in through the window. Something about the way he tried to pass off not going in through the window after Chris didn't sit right. Though he did throw up, so who knows.

Great work all round, and I've only just noticed that Kind von der Ritter posted two vids in the last two weeks.

EDIT: By the way, for anyone randomly coming onto the thread without having looked at the videos. The effect is much greater if you watch Part 2 first, and then Part 1.

[VoidCaste]

I was thinking the same thing about that kid with them...until the puking part...which while gross was totally on track with how I believe teenagers would react to something like that.
And yeah...I think that kid from the past videos just disappeared, they never went into detail about it.

Something I have been wondering... instead of the whole "proxy" thing we have all heard and seen, maybe this kinvonderitter is like an extension or avatar of the slender man ...like his mortal hand to manipulate things in our world (IE: computers, cameras, messages etc) seeing as how he screws video up just by being near them.

sorry, just a thought.

[JacketWearer]

Heres something I was thinking about after I watched the videos. Was the house a trap from the beginning, or was slenderman in the middle of something when they came over? I can't remember 100%, but did they say that they were invited over? Maybe it was a trap designed for 1 person, or it could be a trap for any person who enters the house (and maybe the plan was foiled when the door was busted open?). I'm just throwing ideas out, but you get the point. Something is suspicious about a group of kids being invited to a slendy infested house, in the middle of the night, that shuts itself after a person enters.

[noskirt6]

[Rebus]

[ArkyMcArkArk]

H'okay, so if boy disappeared, then I think we can definitely expect he's our Kind friend. DURN IT, now we have no information to base speculation off of for the continuation of the story from here. Will the rite continue? Did they take a specific organ or just open him up? Is Slenderman actually a black markey organs dealer? (It would explain the bagging of them) Find out next time on DRAGON BALL- I mean, Dark Harvest.

[ZomgShaylex]

[VoidCaste]

[ArkyMcArkArk]

[ZomgShaylex]

[qaqa]

Okay. I am officially impressed. It takes a lot for qaqa to bestow his Tired Old Queen's Seal Of Approval, but I am doing it for Dark Harvest, which I promise to only call HARK DARVEST intermittently from now on.

It has not been perfect or up to the standards of MH and EMH, especially in some of the early videos. Kinder Von Rammstein is still goofy looking, as are his quasi-MyDarkJournal videos, though this was smartly mitigated by having the boys mock his appearance. Some of the early dialogue scenes were extremely stilted and forced. The various Slendies - Bourne Parkour Slendy, Fat Pilgrim Slendy - are somewhat hilarious, but fortunately the real deal seems to be on the scene. What counts are the scares and developing sense of realism. Also, the acting and naturalism has improved by leaps and bounds in the last several videos. Greg, who appears to be dead, was the best actor of the bunch, but the others improved mightily in the last couple.

What makes Log 14 so impressive to me is, first, how real it was, and how the staging was so perfect it felt as if there was virtually no artifice. A bunch of teens show up for a party but the host is not there. That happens IRL. As the scripted action develops around the main heroes, the extras - a huge group for a Slendyvlog - never break character while still carrying on regular conversations, and the illusion that this is happening, and that our protagonists' personal story is lost and ignored in the crowd, is perfect. When the extra people do have to react, they come off very real, especially the dude at the door. It's a typical situation - a party that is a dud, teens milling about - that slowly slips out of control as Chris finds himself lost in a dark house even though his friends are right outside, and often visible to him. That's the real terror of it. They're right there but you know something is going to happen, even as normal life is going on outside the walls of the house.

This is the other issue that makes this brilliant - intentional or not, DH picked up something from the [REC] handheld horror films (the Mexican franchise which Quarantine ripped off) that is so simple and effortless a way to widen the scope of the story and make it more cinematic, but which is so obvious that all creators to my knowledge have forgotten to use it - multiple cameras used by multiple characters, simultaneously, in different places, creating simultaneous perspectives on a single event, substituting for narrative character cross-cutting that you would see in a traditional movie. If this was a mainstream film, you'd have had the scene cutting back and forth between Chris inside and Alex and Jesse talking outside, and so on. That effect is replicated by showing us everything from Chris' POV in Part 2. The merging of the two POVs is seamless. If someone wanted - and if this was six or seven years ago and my Final Cut skills were still on point - you could do a mainstream sort of fan edit on the two videos and merge them together with cross-cutting and music and it would work great. But the separation works just as well, because the whole time the viewer is screaming for Alex and Jesse to get inside.

I don't know if DH can match up with the big 3, but Log 14 is a quantum shift. It had a rough start, but so did TribeTwelve. DH is easily my number 4, excepting the fact that I have not seen much of MLAndersen yet. DH could use a tighter overall story and a bit more character time, but I'm willing to give it a whirl. Sign me up.

[Cougar Draven]