Marble Hornets: The Operator (DVD) – Movie Review
Today, we’re going to talk about a movie which is based on the web series ‘Marble Hornets’. If that doesn’t ring a bell, well, it’s basically a web series dedicated to the Slender Man figure. Yeah, that sounded familiar, right? Played the game and had a good scare? Well, unfortunately to say, The Operator is not really a good movie, even for fans of the video game. It’s cool to see the references but besides that, the Operator fails in multiple aspects. Be sure to read the review to learn more.
A local news team consisting of cameraman Milo Burns (Chris Marquette), reporter Sara Kovic (Alexandra Breckenridge) and producer Charlie MacNeel (Jake McDorman) is always out to find a new intriguing story to share with the local residents. One day, they stumble upon a collection of seemingly normal family video tapes in an abandoned house. People believe the family couldn’t pay the rent anymore and just left with everything they could grab but why is everything still in the house if that’s the case? Why is the basement filled with weird symbols on the wall, making the house look like the headquarters of some sick serial killer? The team won’t rest until they dig to the bottom of this situation and it’s Milo who watches those tapes, sometimes hours on an end. Nothing special to see at first glance, just some ordinary family videos about kids playing around and everybody having the time of their lives. But then he appears…
After a while, the tapes shift from a light hearted, cozy mood to panic, suspicion and despair. The father (who’s always the cameraman in the videos) is starting to see a freaky looking person without a face in the camera. Apparently, other family members can’t see the creep as only the camera can show its appearance. The more Milo continues to watch the tapes, the more he’s convinced something is very wrong and that feeling grows exponentially when he wakes up with a weird mark on his shoulder. The same marks they found in the basement of the abandoned house…
The movie then shifts the pace into a higher gear as Milo desperately tries to convince Sara and Charlie of the stalking faceless guy. Of course, the two think Milo might have gone mad and throw him out immediately. Soon enough though, Sara and Charlie can’t do anything else than to believe the cameraman and together, they go on the run for the mysterious person who seems to keep stalking them in the eye of the camera. In the end, the story is not all that good and very shallow at first sight and this feeling continuous throughout the whole movie. It’s all just an excuse to get the Slender Man in a shot a couple of times to give the audience a good scare but all movies are just more enjoyable to watch when the story is decent and the characters fleshed out, which is not the case in The Operator.
The pacing is done quite alright with some parts a bit too slow at the beginning but that soon corrects itself later in the movie. The Operator makes use of a manually controlled camera point of view like we’ve seen in Cloverfield and The Blair Witch Project in the past. You’ll either like this kind of movie shooting or you’ll hate it. When things go south, the mobile camera gets so shaky; it’s kind of hard to get a decent look at what’s going in.
Concerning acting, the performances are somewhat in the line of the whole movie: not really that spectacular. The acting often feels forced an unnatural which only enhances the B-movie vibes you get from watching The Operator. As you often don’t see the faces of the actors and actress (because of the mobile camera which is often faced at the wall or away from anything worth seeing), the viewer only hears most of the conversations instead of actually seeing them with additional facial expressions. The acting never truly convinces although there are some parts that are pretty decent. Still, if you’re looking for high-quality performances where you start to truly care for the characters because of the way they get portrayed, you’ll most likely be disappointed by The Operator.
Conclusion
The Operator is not a movie to get excited about on multiple aspects. First of all, the story is shallow and it feels like the creators quickly put a script together just to let Slender Man makes it appearance. Secondly, the shaky camera point of view will not be appreciated by everyone as it’s often hard to follow what’s going on. Lastly, the acting is in line with the rest of the movie: average at best. We can conclude that The Operator can be a fun watch if you want to see the Slender Man references but otherwise, the movie is not really worth watching.
No Comments