Film Theory: The 5 Evils of HiImMaryMary

Summary

In this spine-chilling episode of Film Theory, MatPat delves into the online horror series 'HiImMaryMary,' examining its raw, unpredictable nature that transcends traditional media's safety nets. The series follows Mary, trapped in a house with no escape, haunted by four symbolic entities representing her deepest fears and insecurities. MatPat explores the psychological underpinnings of each monster, suggesting they are manifestations of depression, anxiety, regret, and self-loathing, offering a layered analysis that transforms the narrative into an ARG experience for viewers to decipher.

Takeaways

• 🏠 You're trapped in a house with no escape, facing eerie experiences at night.
• 🖥️ Online horror stories like HiImMaryMary are more unsettling than traditional horror films.
• 📹 HiImMaryMary is a YouTube horror series about Mary, who awakens in a house she can't leave.
• 🔍 The series combines videos, a blog, and Twitter to create a comprehensive ARG experience.
• 👹 The monsters in the house symbolize different aspects of Mary's mental struggles.
• 👗 Beauty represents Mary's insecurities and societal pressures on physical appearance.
• 😢 The Veiled Lady symbolizes depression, feeding off other negative emotions.
• 🌑 The Shadow embodies regret, following Mary and making her feel bad about past decisions.
• 🕸️ The Darkness signifies anxiety, amplifying all of Mary's existing problems.
• 📈 The series gets darker and deals with heavy, personal subjects, offering a raw horror experience.

Q & A

What is the main theme of the 'HiImMaryMary' YouTube horror series?

The main theme of 'HiImMaryMary' is the psychological horror experienced by the protagonist, Mary, who is trapped in a house and haunted by entities that represent her personal fears and insecurities.

How does the 'HiImMaryMary' series differ from traditional horror movies?

The 'HiImMaryMary' series differs from traditional horror movies by being raw, unpolished, and unpredictable. It lacks the commercial constraints and structured narrative of a movie, offering a more immersive and personal horror experience.

What is the significance of the character Beauty in the 'HiImMaryMary' series?

Beauty represents Mary's physical insecurities and societal pressures regarding appearance. She embodies the fear of not living up to societal standards of beauty and is a manifestation of self-loathing.

What role does The Veiled Lady play in the series?

The Veiled Lady is symbolic of depression, acting as the root cause of the other entities' existence within the house. She is the most aggressive and the only entity capable of direct communication with Mary.

What is the connection between the series 'HiImMaryMary' and the concept of an A.R.G (Alternate Reality Game)?

The series 'HiImMaryMary' extends beyond its videos to include a blog and Twitter account, offering different pieces of the puzzle and creating an A.R.G experience where viewers can decipher hidden messages and clues to understand the story's deeper meaning.

How does the character The Shadow in 'HiImMaryMary' relate to the theme of regret?

The Shadow is seen approaching Mary in situations where she feels safe and is associated with feelings of emptiness and regret. It represents lingering past decisions that cause self-blame and emotional discomfort when confronted.

What does The Darkness in the series symbolize, and how does it behave?

The Darkness symbolizes anxiety, behaving unpredictably by creeping and slowly devouring Mary or attacking her suddenly. It represents the inescapable nature of anxiety and its ability to amplify existing problems.

What is the significance of the 'The Garden' location in the series?

The Garden is a location outside the house where Mary initially finds respite from the monsters. However, it later becomes sinister, indicating that even the perceived safe spaces can become compromised by her fears and insecurities.

How does the series address the impact of social media on mental health?

The series suggests that excessive use of social media can contribute to depression and dissatisfaction with one's appearance, as represented by the character Beauty and the societal pressures she embodies.

What precautionary advice does the script provide for viewers who may be affected by the series' content?

The script advises viewers to watch the series for entertainment and scares in small doses, and to seek help from the provided phone lines if the imagery or topics affect them negatively, emphasizing the importance of self-care.

What is the significance of the mirror version of Mary in the 'Garden of Eden'?

The mirror version of Mary in the 'Garden of Eden' suggests a deeper symbolic layer to the story, possibly representing duality, internal conflict, or a struggle between innocence and the darker aspects of her psyche.

Outlines

00:00

👻 Introduction to the Horror of HiImMaryMary

The script opens with a chilling scenario of being trapped in a house with supernatural occurrences at night. The host, MatPat, introduces the concept of online horror stories, which differ from traditional cinema by being raw, unpolished, and unpredictable. He presents 'HiImMaryMary' as a modern equivalent to the Blair Witch Project, a YouTube horror series that has deeply unsettled him. The series follows the story of Mary, who wakes up in a house with no memory and is unable to leave, encountering four distinct entities that terrorize her. The host warns viewers of the intense and personal nature of the series, which deals with heavy subjects and recommends caution while watching.

05:02

🎭 Symbolic Representation of Personal Fears in HiImMaryMary

This paragraph delves into the symbolic meaning behind the entities that haunt Mary in the series. 'Beauty' is identified as an embodiment of Mary's physical insecurities and societal pressures, while 'The Veiled Lady' is portrayed as a representation of depression, which is suggested to be the root cause of all other issues within the house. The script references a study showing a correlation between social media use and depression in young girls, reinforcing the theory that the monsters are manifestations of Mary's personal fears and insecurities.

10:06

🌑 The Shadow of Regret and The Darkness of Anxiety

The analysis continues with the third entity, 'The Shadow,' which is suggested to symbolize regret, a lingering feeling that worsens when confronted. The script interprets tweets by Mary to support this theory, highlighting her feelings of emptiness and deserved punishment associated with The Shadow. The final entity discussed is 'The Darkness,' which is described as an inescapable force that amplifies existing problems, aligning it with anxiety. The script suggests that The Darkness represents the collective problems within Mary's mind, becoming overwhelming when faced directly.

15:07

🏚 The Haunted House as a Metaphor for the Mind

The script concludes the analysis by interpreting the haunted house as a metaphor for Mary's mind, plagued by the demons of depression, anxiety, regret, and self-loathing. It sets the stage for a fifth and more sinister entity to be explored in an upcoming episode, inviting viewers to engage with the content and subscribe for further analysis. The host also recommends another YouTube horror series, 'Local 58,' for those interested in similar content, emphasizing the importance of viewer safety and the theoretical nature of the analysis.

Keywords

💡HiImMaryMary

HiImMaryMary is a YouTube horror series that the video is analyzing. The series features a girl named Mary who is trapped in a house with no memory of how she got there, facing various sinister entities. This channel represents the modern era of online horror storytelling that is raw, unpolished, and unpredictable.

💡The Veiled Lady

The Veiled Lady is one of the four main entities haunting Mary in the HiImMaryMary series. Symbolizing depression, she appears frequently, grows stronger with the presence of other monsters, and directly interacts with Mary, often representing the root cause of Mary's other fears and insecurities.

💡Beauty

Beauty is another entity in the HiImMaryMary series, embodying Mary's physical insecurities. She appears in mirrors, mocks Mary, and represents the societal pressures and self-loathing that contribute to Mary's depression. Beauty’s presence highlights the impact of societal expectations on personal self-worth.

💡The Shadow

The Shadow symbolizes regret in the HiImMaryMary series. It appears in moments when Mary feels safe, reminding her of past mistakes and making her feel terrible about her decisions. The Shadow represents lingering regrets that follow and haunt a person, especially related to intimate experiences.

💡The Darkness

The Darkness represents anxiety in the HiImMaryMary series. It is a spidery essence that branches out and creeps around, overwhelming Mary when she tries to confront it. The Darkness amplifies all of Mary's existing problems, leading to panic attacks, symbolizing how anxiety entangles and intensifies other issues.

💡ARG (Alternate Reality Game)

An ARG is a game that uses the real world as a platform, incorporating multimedia storytelling to deliver a narrative that players interact with. HiImMaryMary extends beyond its videos into a blog and Twitter account, creating a complete ARG experience where viewers decipher hidden messages and piece together the story.

💡Depression

Depression is a key theme in the HiImMaryMary series, primarily represented by The Veiled Lady. This entity's increasing presence and strength as more monsters appear underscore how depression can be fueled by various fears and insecurities, becoming a central aspect of Mary's mental struggle.

💡Self-loathing

Self-loathing is depicted through the character Beauty, who mocks Mary’s imperfections and insecurities. This theme illustrates the impact of societal pressures and media on personal self-image, contributing to Mary's depression and overall mental turmoil.

💡Anxiety

Anxiety is embodied by The Darkness in the HiImMaryMary series. This entity’s unpredictable and overwhelming nature represents how anxiety can suddenly amplify existing problems, leading to intense mental and emotional distress for Mary.

💡Regret

Regret is symbolized by The Shadow, which follows Mary and makes her feel terrible about past decisions. This entity's close proximity and association with sleep suggest regrets related to intimate relationships, highlighting the long-lasting and pervasive nature of regret.

Highlights

Introduction to the eerie premise: You're trapped in a house alone; during the day, nothing happens, but at night, you're not alone anymore.

Comparison to Blair Witch Project: HiImMaryMary is a modern era YouTube horror story that's more unsettling than recent theater releases.

Comfort in commercial horror: Theater horror has a predictable structure and safety nets, whereas online horror like HiImMaryMary is raw, unpolished, and unpredictable.

The channel HiImMaryMary: Started in 2016, featuring Mary trapped in a house with no memory of how she got there and unable to leave.

Day vs. night: During the day, nothing much happens, but at night, Mary isn't as alone as she thinks.

Introduction of the Veiled Lady: A shadowy woman wearing a black veil, the first of four distinct entities attacking Mary.

The Garden: A new location Mary discovers outside the house, initially a place of respite but soon becomes sinister.

ARG elements: The story extends into Mary's blog and Twitter account, with hidden messages and additional details.

Warning about the series' intensity: The series deals with very real, heavy subjects and delivers a hard-hitting narrative.

Beauty: One of the monsters representing Mary's physical insecurities, mocking her imperfections and societal pressures.

The Veiled Lady: Symbolic of depression, appearing frequently and becoming stronger as other monsters appear.

The Shadow: Represents regret, looming over Mary in safe situations and making her feel terrible about past decisions.

The Darkness: Represents anxiety, creeping and attacking Mary, amplifying all her existing problems.

The house as a symbol: The house represents Mary's mind, plagued by demons of depression, anxiety, regret, and self-loathing.

Tease of a fifth monster: There's a fifth and final monster outside the house, more sinister and dangerous, to be covered in a future episode.

Transcripts

[MATPAT] You're trapped in a house.

Alone.

The doors won't open.

The windows won't break.

During the day nothing much happens.

But at night....

Well, let's just say you're not alone anymore...

(static)

(distorted) ♫ Film Theorist intro ♫

Hello, Internet! Welcome to Film Theory! Bringing the spooky to you way before Halloween comes around.

Still didn't beat the retailers though.

I mean there are jack-o'-lanterns and scarecrows on display at my local grocery store right now!

Come on people! Let summer have it's time!

Today though, in that spirit of horror we're covering what I consider to be a modern era Blair Witch Project.

A homegrown YouTube horror story that's put me more on edge

than anything I've seen in theaters for the past few years.

There's a certain comfort you have in structures, you know?

If a movie is rated PG-13 or R

you know the level of scare that they're gonna be able to reach within that movie,

and there's a level of comfort there.

You know something has to be commercially marketable to make it into a theater, and,

whether you realize it or not, that gives you a certain level of safety.

Stories and movies have three acts after all,

and whether the resolution of that movie is good or bad, it's still a movie.

It's still going to have to resolve.

Horror stories that exist online though... don't work that way.

It's the sort of horror that you can't find anywhere else.

It's raw. It's unpolished. It's unpredictable.

It rips away all of those safety nets that we hold dear,

and as a result, it's able to deliver experiences that truly chill you to the core.

Which is why today, we're talking about HiImMaryMary.

A channel I've had my eye on for a while,

and one that, after I covered local 58, a lot of you requested me talk about.

Fair warning, this is not one to watch a night.

Or in headphones, honestly, because the sound design is literally the most unsettling part of it.

Partly because of the creep factor, but mostly because audio normalization is ~not~ a tool in Mary's toolset.

Now, for the majority of you who've never heard of this channel, let me give you a little bit of background.

HiImMaryMary was created in 2016 with a video simply titled "Hello,"

where we're introduced to Mary:

a girl who awakens in a house with no memory of how she got there.

What she can tell us is that she's in what she thinks is her parents' house,

or at least a copy of it, and she's unable to leave.

The doors are locked. The windows won't break.

She has a camera and access to the Internet, but otherwise, she's completely alone.

Even on the Internet, even when she has access to Twitter,

which, let's be honest,

I know this is supposed to be a horror series and all,

but Twitter without people screaming at you doesn't sound like a nightmare

sounds more like a dream come true.

During the day nothing much happens, but at night... well...

Maybe Mary isn't as alone as she thinks she is....

The first video ends abruptly as we catch a glimpse of a shadowy woman wearing a black veil.

Over the next few uploads we're introduced to the scariest four housemates you could ever want.

Four distinct entities each acting in their own unique way.

Each stalking and attacking her as she tries to survive inside the house.

For the majority of the series she spends her time in that home

learning the rules of this new reality that she suddenly found herself in.

Eventually, however, she stumbles into a new location.

Somewhere outside. A place she calls "The Garden."

A place where she's finally able to catch a break from all the monsters that exist inside her house.

A place where she's joined by a version of herself dressed all in white.

But even that soon reveals itself to be a trap.

As she frequents the garden to escape from her home more and more,

even The Garden begins to change into something much more sinister.

And that's not all.

MaryMary is a story that spills out of its videos and over into her blog and Twitter account,

with each outlet providing different pieces to the puzzle of what's really going on in Mary Mary's world;

vague additional details from the tweets,

unreleased thoughts and images in her blog, secret messages hidden in that web site's source code.

IN the source code, people!

MaryMary isn't just a horror story about one young woman's torture, my friends.

It is a complete A.R.G experience just waiting for us to decipher.

So what's the theory today?

Oh, we're just trying to figure out what's really going on.

If the premise didn't already tip you off that there might be something deeper at play here,

the sudden appearance of a mirror version of yourself in a Garden of Eden

while you're fighting literal demons back in your horror house

seems like this story might be pretty darn symbolic.

So, that, my friends, is our goal today. Expose the evils haunting MaryMary,

and in the process, answer the cries for help she's been leaving across her blog and Twitter.

And, before we begin, I know I already made a warning earlier about the series,

but it does bear one final warning here as we get started.

This series is *really dark.* It gets intense.

It deals with some very real, very heavy subjects,

and it does so in a way that feels very personal.

So, what I would say is watch it for the entertainment.

Watch it for the scares.

Take it in small doses.

But if *any* of the imagery or topics that it addresses starts to affect you in *any* way,

we've included phone lines from around the world who are there

and available for calls and help down in the description below.

Again, the fact that I'm saying that sort of disclaimer on a series that was created

by a young woman here on YouTube and not any of the other wacky stuff

that we've ever covered on this channel should really tell you a lot about how effective HiImMaryMary (PLEASE take care of yourselves my peeps)

really is at delivering a hard-hitting narrative.

So, with those disclaimers out of the way,

let's begin.

The easiest place to start our analysis,

and the thing that starts toppling some of the other dominoes in this puzzle, is with the character Beauty,

one of the monsters that stalks Mary around the house.

Appearing only when Mary looks at a mirror,

wearing a tight black or purple dress, and sporting a flawless mask,

it's not too hard to identify Beauty as the embodiment of Mary's physical insecurities.

Beauty constantly mocks Mary and laughs at her imperfections.

This character represents Mary being haunted

by the fears that she has over her own self-image.

The fact that she won't be able to live up to the societal pressures of what she should look and behave like.

Pressures from social media, mainstream media, even her peers.

According to the Millennial cohort study - a study that looks into financial well-being, parenting, education, and heath and children

almost 40% of girls who spend more than five hours a day on social media shows signs of depression. And of those with depression

they're two-and-a-half times more likely than boys to be dissatisfied with their appearance.

*That* is the essence of beauty.

So if one of the monsters that are haunting Mary is an expression of her own personal fears and insecurities,

in this case her self-loathing, it stands to reason that the others must be as well, right?

Well, it's a theory that certainly seems to hold true for our second monster: The Veiled Lady.

The first one that we're introduced to during those final moments in Episode 1. Found in the videos hello, worse, Discovery,

DO NOT TOUCH, hide and seek, check in, rain, gone, and last 8 months, when we first meet The Veiled Lady

she's just a creepy thing that we see at the end of a video.

However, as this series continues on and as more and more of the monsters show up in her house

the more aggressive The Veiled Lady becomes. Not only does she appear more frequently than all the other entities

and appear to be a ringleader of sorts, she's also the only one who's able to directly speak with Mary.

In the video titled "hide and seek" we get an interesting

interaction where The Veiled Lady asks Mary to participate in the game of questions and answers.

When Mary asks The Veiled Lady what she wants we get ourselves a pretty straightforward answer.

That answer fairly well spells it out.

The Veiled Lady is symbolic of depression and it's *that* depression that's acting as the root cause of everything else that's happening inside the house.

The reason The Veiled Lady appears the most frequently of all the monsters, the reason she gets stronger as more of those monsters appear,

is because they all feed into her. They all feed into depression.

Take Beauty for instance, those insecurities of not being good enough, of not meeting society's pressures for physical appearance,

those all feed back into the depression that Mary is feeling, making it grow deeper. Making it grow stronger.

The same will hold true of all the other monsters that we're about to discuss. Later in the game of questions and answers Mary asks a different question:

Who are you? And The Veiled Lady responds

This is quite a literal answer. Mary does indeed know the names of all the issues that she's dealing with.

Things like depression, self-doubt, anxiety, self-loathing. And if that doesn't drive our theory home when Mary asks yet another question

"I-I don't understand what does this all mean? I-I just don't get it"

The Veiled Lady responds with

Giving us pretty solid evidence that these monsters are indeed all products that exist inside Mary's own mind.

So that's two of the four monsters in the house, and quite honestly they're the two most obvious.

The others are a bit more speculative, but I think I've got a good handle on 'em.

We'll call the third one "The Shadow" because it's a human silhouette found in the episodes goodnight, sleepwalker, and rain.

The Shadow is most notably seen approaching Mary in situations where she feels safe.

We see it looming over her while she's on the Internet.

We see it crawling over the foot of the bed as she's sleeping.

Other than that, it doesn't really do all that much outside of being creepy.

There is however another notable trait that it seems to carry with it.

Whatever it's around, we tend to see phrases flash on-screen.

"I feel nothing" is one of the most obvious. We can find this statement

along with other related sentiments on Mary's Twitter. Saying things like, "I hate looking at it, what does it even do?

It just follows me around and when I look at it, I feel all terrible."

In fact, that theme of looking at The Shadow and feeling bad seems to be the primary things that she's trying to communicate to us about this entity.

In another tweet about The Shadow (quote)

I don't like looking at it - staring directly makes me feel bad. (end quote) This in my mind seems to point to the shadow being representative of Regret.

Regret is one of those things that lingers, that follows you around and that you can largely ignore.

But once you start thinking about it, once you start looking at it, you start to feel really bad about yourself and the decisions that you've made in the past.

It makes you feel like a terrible person.

It's slow. It's creeping. And regret never truly goes away.

Exactly the things that Mary says about The Shadow on twitter (quote)

It's watching me. Why doesn't it move quickly? It's like it wants me to feel like this.

It's looking at me right now. At least I think it is. I'm gonna go into another room and close the door. It will probably open it. (end quote)

Regret looms over you. It follows behind you. It's like a shadow.

In "sleepwalker" we see the phrase, "I messed up" over and over and over and over again on the wall

as it creeps up behind her. And not seconds later it's on the couch.

Uncomfortably close. The messed up tells us exactly what we need to know here.

Mary made a bad decision and The Shadow is the entity that reminds her of that.

Which is why the next phrase that we see in the briefest of flashes is "i get what i deserve."

She made a mistake and now she feels like The Shadow is her punishment.

The thing that she rightfully earned because of that mistake.

Based on the intimacy of The Shadow, the fact that it's able to get so close to her, the fact that it's largely associated with the bed and sleeping,

I'd say this is a series of regrets born out of getting intimate too early in a relationship.

Or getting pressured to do things that she wasn't quite ready for. Which would not only prompt the regret that she's experiencing

but also that empty nothingness that she feels whenever she's reminded of that moment by The Shadow.

What should have felt special is now cold, hollow, empty

she

feels

nothing

Which leaves us with one final entity in the house.

The Darkness. Found in the episodes darkness moves, do not touch, and the last 8 months.

The Darkness isn't so much a humanoid figure like the others, but rather a spidery essence that branches and creeps around.

On Mary's Twitter she plays a game with her future self called "guess which entity based on the ways to deal with it."

And while she has a solid solution for three of those entities, The Darkness is the one that confuses her the most.

Let's look at those tweets and play along shall we?

"Don't hang out near mirrors" Obviously referring to beauty.

"Move around every once in a while, don't settle in one place and especially don't fall asleep."

The reference to sleep here seems to indicate to us that this is The Shadow.

"Run very very fast and also hide - but you can't hide for long because she's smart enough to find you. So you have to do it all night."

Well since Mary specifically refers to this one as a she, (and) we have a very obvious connection to Beauty in the other tweet, this is definitely referring to The Veiled Lady.

But then we get to Tweet #4 and we have ourselves one last remaining contestant in this little game show. The Darkness.

"Still not sure about this one, try your best to ignore it and stay far away from it."

In the video "DO NOT TOUCH" she actually catches the darkness.

But instead of being in her palm when she turns her hand around, it's stuck *on* her palm with the words

"i'm a monster" appearing on screen immediately after.

At this point we suddenly enter a frantic montage of scenes where we're shown all the other entities in the house in rapid succession.

Something of note here is that boundaries suddenly seem to be gone.

Beauty is no longer trapped inside mirrors and is able to remove her mask revealing the ugliness underneath.

The Shadow has suddenly grown taller. The Veiled Lady looks way more enraged and aggressive than normal.

Since all of this craziness happens right after The Darkness absorbs itself into Mary,

I'm inclined to think that this one represents Anxiety. In "DO NOT TOUCH" Mary chases after The Darkness.

It's actually one of the few times in the entire series that she tries to face her demons head-on.

But when she finally gets a handle on it, what does she get in return? Basically a panic attack.

She's overwhelmed by all the entities attacking her all at once to a degree that the series has yet to see.

And the behavior of anxiety matches the actions of The Darkness.

Anxiety can creep and slowly devour you or it can just jump out and attack you all at once unprompted.

It entangles you. It ensnares you. It amplifies all your existing problems to a new extreme.

And anxiety has no face. It has no name or identity.

Instead, it's the collection of all your other problems balled up and tangled into one.

All of this matches how The Darkness behaves when it's onscreen in HiImMaryMary.

When it absorbs itself into Mary suddenly all her existing problems get amplified and attack all at once.

The Darkness may not seem like a lot but it's literally inescapable. Able to strike anywhere at any moment.

So those are our four monsters.

With the house Mary's trapped in representing her mind.

A house that is plagued by demons of depression, anxiety, regret, and self-loathing.

But our story isn't done. There's a fifth and final monster we've yet to cover.

One that doesn't roam the house. One that lurks outside. One that may just be the most sinister and dangerous evil of them all.

But more on that in an upcoming episode. If you guys really like this one maaaaybe I can squeeze it in for next week.

Let me know down in the comments if you like this one and if you want me to continue analyzing the series.

If you do make sure you hit the subscribe button you see on screen right now.

But in the meantime while you wait for that video to get released check out the box to the left where I cover Local 58,

an equally creepy scary story right here on YouTube. An undiscovered gem. Go and check that one out.

Just make sure that you stay safe. Oh, yeah, and remember that it's all just a theory - A film theory.

aaaaand - cut