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Ted the Caver

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"Ted the Caver" is a short horror story self-published on an Angelfire website in 2001. It is presented as the online diary of a man who excavates an unexplored cave with his friends. As he unearths the passage further, the entries become increasingly unsettling.

"Ted the Caver"
Short story by Ted Hegemann
LanguageEnglish
Genre(s)Creepypasta
Publication
Published inSelf-published Angelfire website
Publication typeElectronic
Publication date2001

The story was widely shared on the early internet, where message boards constantly debated its authenticity. Some users thought it was true by virtue of the many images and technical details, insofar as the cave in the story was able to be identified. After several years, the author Ted Hegemann revealed that "Ted the Caver" was based on his real caving experiences but he had added numerous creative embellishments.

An early internet horror story, "Ted the Caver" is sometimes considered the first creepypasta and popularized several of the subgenre's tropes. An independent film titled Living Dark: The Story of Ted the Caver (2008) loosely adapted the story.

Synopsis

"Ted the Caver" is presented as the online diary of a recreational caver. At the beginning, the narrator refused to disclose any actual names or locations for the apparent safety of his readers. He and his friend, "B", decided to go caving and found a small hole within the local "Mystery Cave". He found that the hole led to a tight passage before opening up further in; excited that it may be an unexplored passage, the pair spend days tirelessly excavating it.

As the explorers move further into the cave, strange hieroglyphs and winds are encountered. In a final blog post, Ted writes that he and his companions would be bringing a gun into the cave after experiencing a series of nightmares and hallucinations, as well as an encounter with what could be presumed as a supernatural being. The blog has not been updated since the final post.

Background

The earliest internet horror stories, such as "the black-eyed children", consisted only of text and had to be posted to bulletin board systems or Usenet newsgroups. The rise of free website-building services in the late 1990s meant that anybody could create their own websites and incorporate non-textual elements such as images, animations and hyperlinks.[1]

"Ted the Caver" was self-published as a series of blogs on a free Angelfire website.[2][3] The first entry is dated March 23, 2001,[4] and the final entry is dated May 19, 2001.[2] The author was later revealed to be an American man named Ted Hegemann.[5] It is considered by some to be the first creepypasta, Internet slang for a kind of horror story which is widely circulated online.[3][6]

"Ted the Caver" was widely shared on the early internet, where message boards constantly debated its authenticity.[3] The Daily Dot's Aja Romano wrote that it "may be the earliest viral example of what we think of as creepypasta".[6] However, academic writer Tosha R. Taylor cited "Ted the Caver" as an online horror story which did not go viral but largely remained within online "spaces dedicated to discussions of gothic experiences", where it continues to be circulated today.[7]

Some users argued that it was genuine by virtue of its many images and details, insofar as a group of cavers were able to identify "Mystery Cave" as an actual cave in the U.S. state of Utah. Another short story, Thomas Lera's "Fear of the Darkness", was controversially shared by some users as a completed version of "Ted the Caver". Its ending explained elements of the story which were left as a mystery in the original. However, "Fear of the Darkness" was merely a fan-made version. After several years, Hegemann resurfaced online and revealed that while "Ted the Caver" was based on his actual caving experiences, he had added many fictional aspects to it.[3]

Analysis and legacy

In Twenty-First Century Digital Gothic (2019), Joseph Crawford, a lecturer at the University of Exeter's English department, argued that "Ted the Caver" was significant because it was one of the first internet horror stories to use real-time updates and hyperlinks as narrative techniques. These techniques are distinctly digital and cannot be replicated in print.[2]

Crawford observed that "Ted the Caver" follows the traditional story structure of "found document" or "found footage" horror stories. However, unlike print works where the events described have already concluded, "Ted the Caver" was updated irregularly, giving the sense that the audience was witnessing the events unfold as they happened. Crawford added that "the final entry only became 'final' retroactively after its readers had given up hope of a new entry ever appearing", exploiting the fact that readers did not know when the website would receive a new update.[2]

Bloody Disgusting's Luiz H.C. wrote that "Ted the Caver" has had "a notable influence on internet culture" because of its status as one of the earliest creepypastas. The story influenced later Internet horror, such as Eric Heisserer's "The Dionaea House" and the SCP Foundation.[3]

Romano observed that some elements would become creepypasta tropes: an unsettling setting inhabited by a supernatural entity, the "obsessed narrator" who nevertheless continues to return to the setting, and an ambiguous ending implying the continued existence of the danger.[6]

Film adaptation

David L. Hunt directed Living Dark: The Story of Ted the Caver (2008), an independent horror film loosely based on the creepypasta. Chris Cleveland and Matthew Alan play two estranged brothers who, following their father's funeral, reunite to explore a cave which may hold the answers to his death.[8][9][10]

Originally produced in 2008, Living Dark made its way around film festivals.[3] The rights were eventually sold to New Films International, which released the film for theatres and video on demand on October 2, 2015.[11][12] The film received little attention. Reviewing Living Dark in 2020, Screen Rant thought that although it was a "solid" horror film, it could not convey the source material's psychological tension and had an ineffectual twist.[9] H.C. believed that, despite its low budget, the film retained the original's atmosphere.[3]

References

  1. ^ Crawford, Joseph (2019). "Gothic Digital Technologies". In Aldana Reyes, Xavier; Wester, Maisha L. (eds.). Twenty-First-Century Gothic: An Edinburgh Companion. Edinburgh University Press. pp. 73–74. ISBN 978-1-4744-4094-3. OCLC 1124782430.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  2. ^ a b c d Crawford, Joseph (2019). "Gothic Digital Technologies". In Aldana Reyes, Xavier; Wester, Maisha L. (eds.). Twenty-First-Century Gothic: An Edinburgh Companion. Edinburgh University Press. pp. 74–76. ISBN 978-1-4744-4094-3. OCLC 1124782430.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  3. ^ a b c d e f g C, Luiz H. (March 17, 2018). "Before Slender Man and CreepyPastas There Was 'Ted the Caver'!". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved November 19, 2023.
  4. ^ Hegemann, Ted (March 23, 2001). "3/23/01". Angelfire. Retrieved November 23, 2023.
  5. ^ Boltic, Nick (September 26, 2020). The TRUE Story of Ted the Caver - 100% True - Creepypasta History S01E01 with Ted Hegemann!. YouTube. Retrieved November 23, 2023.
  6. ^ a b c Romano, Aja (October 31, 2012). "The definitive guide to creepypasta—the Internet's scariest urban legends". The Daily Dot. Retrieved November 20, 2023.
  7. ^ Taylor, Tosha R. (2020), Bloom, Clive (ed.), "Horror Memes and Digital Culture", The Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary Gothic, Cham: Springer International Publishing, p. 990, doi:10.1007/978-3-030-33136-8_58, ISBN 978-3-030-33135-1, S2CID 226618766, retrieved April 22, 2023
  8. ^ Bencic, Sandra. "Living Dark: The Story of Ted the Caver (2013)". AllMovie. Retrieved November 19, 2023.
  9. ^ a b Cotter, Padraig (January 31, 2020). "Living Dark: The Story Of Ted The Caver Adapts Creepypasta's Eeriest Story". Screen Rant. Retrieved April 22, 2023.
  10. ^ Greenwood, Douglas (March 8, 2023). "7 movies and TV shows inspired by creepypasta". i-D. Retrieved November 19, 2023.
  11. ^ Moore, Debi (October 2, 2015). "New Films Releasing Living Dark: The Story of Ted the Caver Today!". Dread Central. Retrieved November 19, 2023.
  12. ^ Brill, Karen (September 30, 2015). "'Living Dark: The Story of Ted the Caver' to See Light of Day in October Release". IndieWire. Retrieved November 19, 2023.
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