Marble Hornets began in 2009 as a YouTube found footage horror series created by Troy Wagner, Joseph DeLage and Tim Sutton, loosely inspired by the Slender Man mythos. Alex Kralie is the student filmmaker whose tapes drive the story, filmed by his friend Jay Merrick as Alex grows secretive and hostile. Clips of Alex have circulated for years in creepypasta communities, fan edits and horror forums, where his short lines became shorthand for paranoia and for the early era of web horror storytelling.