Nerds That Geek Movie Review – ‘Always Watching: A Marble Hornets Story’

Written by Scott Edwards

There is always something exciting about uncovering the truth. As many people like to keep you in the dark about their lives, it only makes you want to find out what they are trying to hide from you. Finding the answers to the unanswered questions gives you a sense of accomplishment, but it can also hurt the person that you are looking into. Keep your eyes open as to what they are willing to show you, as it may be enough to go off of, but when you start digging, just be mindful that you are opening a box to something that may not only be hurtful for someone, but hurtful for you as well.
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Getting into a foreclosed house to work on their story, reporter Sara and her team find that the house has its little secrets running about. With the power and water still on, all of the previous owner’s property is still inside as well. Looking through the house and seeing that the Wittlocke family that lived there left in a hurry, Sara knows that there could be more to the story than just the house being foreclosed. Digging through the evidence, Charlie and Milo locate a box of home movies in a locked closet and decide to view them and see what they can find out about the family.

Watching the tapes one at a time, Milo is slowly starting to find that there is a stranger on them that cannot be seen by the human eye. When he gets to the tape that has Dan Wittlocke complaining to his wife that they are being stalked by this unseen force, he goes back to review the previous recordings and finds a faceless man in all of them. Showing what he has found to Sara and Charlie, Sara wants more to the story and gets plenty of interviews with the town locals and what they thought about the family. Wanting the story to be the next big hit in the town, the group continues their work in finding out what really happened to the Wittlockes, but it is opening the door to something that they never expected.

Feeling uneasy while reviewing the tapes, Milo starts to keep his camera on all of the time, fearing that the faceless man is stalking him. Finding out that his fears are right, and he has been marked by the stranger, Milo needs to convince his co-workers that they are in trouble. But Charlie and Sara are not as concerned about the faceless man as they are about Milo stalking Sara for months prior. Making his point and forcing Charlie to see the faceless man through the camera, all of the vendettas are put away as the group must find a way to beat the stranger at his own game. Being able to locate where the Wittlockes moved to, the group decides to ask them how they beat the stranger but finding that the new house is in ashes is not a good sign and a new set of tapes will change their lives forever.

Going into this movie blind, I must say it felt like a telling of the Slenderman that I have heard so much about online. Knowing nothing about Marble Hornet, I must admit that this movie makes me want to follow their series, at least to see how the story played out online as I have read that it is pretty different from the movie. This is a pretty solid found footage movie, I liked how the faceless man made his entrance into scenes with a flicker of the camera. The story plays out as you would expect without too much deviation from ones you have seen before, so it is a little predictable, but that is alright as you get to see a family’s life on video and see how they break down as the faceless man makes his way into it. With some jump scares, a faceless man in a suit, plenty of cameras, a projector and a creepy nighttime car scene, it is a pretty good movie that will leave you wondering how on earth can you defeat this kind of evil. Stay Scared.

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