1. FMP Project Research Emily Mynheer

2. Main Project Idea

3. Primary Research Online Poll / Questionnaire

4. Online Poll Results What media platform do you use the most? What gender do you specify as? How old are you? Is horror a genre which interests you?

5. Online Poll Results Do you read fiction? Do you read fictional horror stories / ‘creepypasta’? For my primary research, I decided to do an online poll, using Twitter. I got about 30 answers to each question, giving me a better idea on who my audience will be and who my project will appeal to more; for example, the majority of people answering were female and over half said they did not read fictional horror. This suggests to me that the target audience for my project will be male. This was beneficial to me as it allowed me to obtain accurate information quickly.

6. Secondary Research The history of Creepypasta Original story of Ticci Toby The psychology of persuasion News paper articles on real life crimes, inspired by this fiction Other characters Psychology of suggestion

7. The original story of Toby Rogers – Ticci Toby Who is Toby Rogers? 17 Suffers with Tourette's syndrome Ticks a lot – given nickname ‘Ticci Toby’ Lost his sister in a car accident – Lyra Rogers Bad / No relationship with his father Close to his mother Bullied in school Cannot feel pain – Congenital Insensitivity to pain (CIPA) All facts taken from the original story – referenced in final slide Significant events involving Toby Bullied during childhood for having Tourette's syndrome Car accident with his sister – was wounded but unable to feel pain Lyra passed away, father returned Toby began hearing voices and an unusual static sound in his head Became increasingly irritates by his father Combined with the voices, he was pushed to psychotic behaviour Toby stabs his father Then goes missing with a hatchet Multiple teens killed a few days later, Toby main suspect but still missing Stabbing of his father; Toby then began hearing voices in his head; he was developing schizophrenia. The voices encouraged him to move forward and end his fathers life. Events in detail Death of Lyra Rogers; Toby was involved in a car accident with his sister, who died (my first news report will be about this). Toby cannot feel pain as he has ‘Congenital Insensitivity to Pain’ or CIPA. Toby didn’t take the death of his sister well and soon started showing signs of psychotic behaviour; hearing voices and static in his head, chewing the skin away from his hands (resulting in having them bandaged up) and so on. Going missing; After Toby goes through with the murder, he then goes missing. The story explains how he takes a hatchet, and disappears into the woods. Some claim he left to become a ‘proxy for Slender Man’ and had to end his fathers life to be worthy for him. The story also says that he left in flames. Another murder To end the story, it explains how a number of teenagers were murdered with a hatchet, merely a few days after Toby went missing. These teens are suggested to be the people who bullied Toby throughout his school life. At this point in the story, his whereabouts is still unknown, however he is the main suspect because of the murder weapon used. What fans believe Toby to looks like based of his description in the story

8. History of ‘Creepypasta’ “Creepypastas are horror-related legends or images that have been copy-and-pasted around the Internet. These Internet entries are often brief, user-generated ghost or alien stories intended to scare readers. They include gruesome tales of murder, suicide, and otherworldly occurrences.” This is how Wikipedia explains ‘creepypasta’ stories. The name of the original forum was actually pronounced ‘Creepy Paste-a’, the term ‘creepy pasta’ coming from ‘copy pasta’ or ‘copy and paste’, which was the main driving force in this new internet subgenre. Traditionally, these stories were copy and pasted around the internet, sometimes modified slightly. This was originally seen as a very positive thing, allowing the author to gain more attention for their writing, however it soon turned into a negative aspect when people began stealing others work and claiming it as their own. A few of the most popular Creepypasta stories are Slender Man, Jeff the Killer, Ben Drowned and so on. Some of these stories are now in video game form; for example, the story of Ben Drowned is based on the story of a college student who had a copy of ‘Zelda’ (hence his appearance being extremely similar to the character). The game was sold in a yard sale by an old man who’s Grandson died from drowning. The game then became haunted by the decease boy, adding numerous scary glitches to the game. Another form this subgenre has been created into is ‘lost episodes’. These usually feature ‘some sort of hyper- realistic style of animation in an episode’. For example, ‘Squidwards Suicide’. This was posted to YouTube but deleted immediately and the creator claimed it was originally broadcasted on Nickelodeon. It featured disturbing images of dead children and shots manipulated to make it look as if the cartoon character was ending his life.

9. Comparing other ‘Creepypasta’ Characters The most popular ‘Creepypasta’ stories are listed on the public Wikipedia page; Slenderman, Jeff the Killer, Ted the Caver and Penpal. Although the stories all have a very similar purpose (to scare the reader) they are all slightly different in their own ways. The characters, all either paranormal or insane, were rumoured to be real people from true stories. Comparing a few, I’ve listed the similarities and differences. Slender Man Abnormal looking – extremely long arms and legs, no face Created by Something Awful forums user Eric Knudsen (a.k.a. "Victor Surge") in 2009 His story caused girls to believe he was real, stabbing their friend in attempt to kill her to try and ‘make themselves worthy for him’

10. Comparing other ‘Creepypasta’ Characters Jeff THE KILLER Deformed face – abnormal looking Backstory explains it was caused by bullying Became a serial killer Whispers ‘go to sleep’ before murdering his victims Laughing jack Known as an imaginary friend Befriends children, then cuts them open and fills them with candy

11. COMPARING OTHER ‘CREEPYPASTA’ CHARACTERS After looking at multiple other creepypasta characters, I discovered that many of them come from troubled childhoods and backgrounds; Ticci toby was bullied, along with jeff the killer. Almost all of the characters have abnormal appearances, either caused by themselves in their backstories or were created this way. For example, jeff the killer has a bleached face and a permanent smile cut into his cheeks. Laughing jack has sharp, jagged teeth and bright white skin, slenderman has abnormally long arms along with a freakishly tall height, and so on. Both of these aspects suggest that creepypasta characters are not like everybody else, even in their childhoods. Most were constantly treated as the outcasts.

12. Psychology of Persuasion – War of the Worlds I decided to include the psychology of persuasion within my project after listening to the ‘War of the Worlds’ broadcast, released in 1938. This is because the concept of my project is similar to the aim of this broadcast. Director Orson Welles hosted the radio announcement the day before Halloween, reading out an adaptation of the novel ‘War of the Worlds’, written by H.G Wells in 1898. He did this in a series of news bulletins, a different style to his usual within his American radio drama anthology series The Mercury Theatre on the Air. Rather than reading it as a regular story, he presented it as a series of news reports (this is a very similar concept to my project). Because of this new style Welles had used, the public who were listening along to the broadcast ended up believing the story as if it was a real life happening, causing ‘mass panic’. The novel ‘War of the Worlds’ was all about an alien invasion on earth, and that’s exactly what the radio’s (few) listeners believed. The first edition of ‘The War of the Worlds’ by H.G Wells A newspaper with the cover based on the events of the radio report and how it ‘terrified the nation’

13. Cases in real life These fictional stories have also inspired real life crimes. Of course, the stories and characters created are not real, and in the cases I have researched the crimes were committed by people who have now been diagnosed with mental illnesses. One example I looked into was the Slender Man stabbing. This took place in Waukesha, Wisconsin, where two twelve year old girls lured their friend into the woods and proceeded to stab her with a kitchen knife nineteen times. She was incredibly lucky to live, one stab wound landing just one millimetre away from vital organs. The two girls, Morgan and Anissa, were sent to court, Morgan found incompetent to stand trial after she was diagnosed with paediatric schizophrenia. The victim, Payton, made an eventual recovery, soon returning to school. They did this because they wanted to sacrifice somebody to the fictional character, Slender Man, so they were able to prove themselves to him. They ran into the woods afterwards with bags of supplies with the plan to live in Slender Mans mansion in the woods as his servants. Another case I looked at was a second stabbing pursued by another twelve year old girl, taking inspiration from the previous pair. The unnamed female supposedly did this in the direction of the fictional clown Laughing Jack. The young girl set fire to the family’s apartment and stabbed her step mother to death.

14. REFERENCES Bibliography: Completed, C. 13 (2016) Ticci Toby: Origin - CrimsonChaos13. Available at: https://www.wattpad.com/story/12948963-ticci-toby-origin (Accessed: 25 April 2016). In-line Citation: (Completed, 2016) Bobby Jay Kennerley (2013) The war of the worlds radio broadcast - short version. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClreKtEi4dM (Accessed: 1 May 2016). In-line Citation: (Bobby Jay Kennerley, 2013) The war of the worlds (radio drama) (2016) in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_of_the_Worlds_(radio_drama) (Accessed: 1 May 2016). In-line Citation: (The war of the worlds (radio drama), 2016) War of the worlds: How Orson Welles drew the nation into a shared IIlusion (no date) Available at: http://www.transparencynow.com/welles.htm (Accessed: 1 May 2016). In-line Citation: (War of the worlds: How Orson Welles drew the nation into a shared IIlusion, no date) (No Date) Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._G._Wells (Accessed: 1 May 2016). In-line Citation: ([CSL STYLE ERROR: reference with no printed form.]) (No Date) Available at: http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--2l-77FbQ--/c_scale,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/1497136197216768039.jpg (Accessed: 2 May 2016).In-line Citation:([CSL STYLE ERROR: reference with no printed form.]) (No Date) Available at: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/30/The_War_of_the_Worlds_first_edition.jpg (Accessed: 2 May 2016).In-line Citation:([CSL STYLE ERROR: reference with no printed form.]) (No Date) Available at: http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/villainsfanon/images/4/4b/Ticcitoby.png/revision/latest?cb=20140713210303 (Accessed: 2 May 2016).In-line Citation:([CSL STYLE ERROR: reference with no printed form.]) Creepypasta (2016) in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creepypasta (Accessed: 2 May 2016). In-line Citation: (Creepypasta, 2016) Creeps Plays (2014) The history of Creepypasta. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-OyVeDAcDs (Accessed: 2 May 2016). In-line Citation: (Creeps Plays, 2014) (No Date) Available at: http://tse4.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.M8238d5adc809225b232c9389f7be4a72H0&pid=15.1 (Accessed: 4 May 2016). In-line Citation: ([CSL STYLE ERROR: reference with no printed form.]) Copyright (2016) ‘Slender man’, in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slender_Man (Accessed: 4 May 2016). In-line Citation: (Copyright, 2016) MrCreepyPasta (2013) ‘Laughing jack’. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZSvPU8HzY8 (Accessed: 9 May 2016). In-line Citation: (MrCreepyPasta, 2013)

15. REFERENCES Bibliography: (No Date) Available at: http://tse2.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.M7c113d45ad16b39ad30da23b4d484de8H0&pid=15.1 (Accessed: 9 May 2016). In-line Citation: ([CSL STYLE ERROR: reference with no printed form.]) (No Date) Available at: http://th00.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/i/2013/110/c/2/laughing_jack_stare_by_snuffbomb-d62evp0.jpg (Accessed: 9 May 2016). In-line Citation: ([CSL STYLE ERROR: reference with no printed form.]) ABC News (2014) Slender man stabbing survivor’s remarkable recovery | Nightline | ABC news. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQZzJpRWFCY (Accessed: 9 May 2016). In-line Citation: (ABC News, 2014) Slender man stabbing (2016) in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slender_Man_stabbing (Accessed: 9 May 2016). In-line Citation: (Slender man stabbing, 2016) Slender man girls in court as judge rules they will be tried as adults (2015) Available at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3193156/Slender-Man-girls-13-appear-court- judge-rules-tried-adults-grisly-attempted-murder.html (Accessed: 9 May 2016). In-line Citation: (Slender man girls in court as judge rules they will be tried as adults, 2015) Graham, R.F. (2015) Girl stabbed her stepmother because ‘laughing jack told her to do it’. Available at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3326524/Girl-12-set-family-s- apartment-fire-stabbed-stepmother-death-creepy-fictional-clown-character-Laughing-Jack-told-it.html (Accessed: 9 May 2016). In-line Citation: (Graham, 2015)