Unmasking the Horror Behind "The Girl in the Video" (Part 3)

In the previous post I briefly considered how author Michael David Wilson develops horror in his new novella—The Girl in the Video—through the suggestion that even the most innocent use of social media emotionally weakens his narrator-protagonist and opens him up to the unwanted, dangerous attentions of a psychotic stalker.  

In this third and final brief post I will focus on social media and surveillance technologies as the tools that enable “the girl in the video” to hunt and hurt her target. I begin this post by suggesting that the ubiquitous nature of social media and related communications and surveillance technologies have changed the rules that once dictated what correct behavior within most societies is. It is not necessarily a change for the better, as Wilson’s novella suggests in its portrayal of the psychopathic stalker who is targeting his narrator.

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Every well-functioning human group is built upon a set of expectations—limitations provided in the form of cultural taboos or legislation backed by actual state power—that determine how individuals behave in a way conducive to the safety and orderly operations of the community.

One major area of concern for the smooth-functioning society is “privacy,” a “dynamic and temporal” concept that is learned through individual interactions. Societies teach their members what is acceptable and unacceptable regarding privacy. “Privacy is a cultural compact to protect the space of individuals” so that each person can function properly within and to the benefit of the larger society, notes David H. Holtzman in his book, Privacy Lost. Technology and the ever-expanding “realm of the possible” are constantly re-shaping concepts of privacy, Holtzman says.

Michael David Wilson develops horror in The Girl in the Video from the dissonance created when two irreconcilable cultural concepts of “privacy” clash. This terrifying discord at the heart of Wilson’s narrative is born when Freddie and his wife Rachel—both British expats teaching English in Japan—realize that their cultural notions of what is private are challenged by a psychopathic stalker who threatens not only their personal privacy but their lives, as well.

In many ways, Wilson’s novella is a critique of social media. The short work presents social media as a window that gives the public a view of the private realm. Going one step further, the technological prowess of the stalker enables her an unimaginable power of invasive surveillance.

The stalker—the anonymous “girl in the video”—is a product of the social media culture. Her concepts of “public and private” are shaped by the technology that allows and even encourages her to ignore the cultural expectations of both Western and Asian societies delineating what is appropriate and inappropriate behavior.

To a large extent, the girl in the video fits the profile of a heavy social media user as extrapolated by various research studies: she is narcissistic and displays signs of addiction in her becoming upset when denied the fulfillment of constant acknowledgment.  She desires recognition from Freddie, a craving that is actually a hunger for control masked by expressions of love. Psychological profiles of real world stalkers have revealed this urge for power over another person as the motivation behind the predatory behaviors of observation and pursuit. Freddie’s narrative as a victim of his stalker provides a textbook example of psychopathic predation, from the invasiveness of unwanted communication to physical intimidation and the use of violence.

But always at the center of this novella is a critique of social media and the advances in surveillance technology that shape the psyches of both the victim and the predator. As a victim, Freddie’s use of social media does nothing to boost his self-confidence at an especially stressful period in his life. Freddie’s terror builds with his slow realization that an anonymous psychopath, a gifted hacker, is using readily available surveillance tools to observe, interpret, and invade his own mind. He feels responsible as a user of social media for opening himself up to the attentions of this stalker, and is overwhelmed with guilt for having responded to the girl’s brilliant use of erotic subliminal messaging and hypnotic suggestion. “What the hell was wrong with me?”

His psychic vulnerability made worse by the stress of his victimization, Freddie goes so far as to doubt his own memories of innocence when faced with threats of unspecified blackmail by the girl in the video. “You need to take me seriously, Freddie,” she warns. “I have something on you, something you thought you’d buried a long time ago. So don’t fuck with me.” And much to his own horror, Freddie has come to believe the stalker’s psychotic threats are based on some long-buried misbehavior rather than being products of a psychopath’s fantasy. It is the insecurity of thinking he deserves his own victimization and is responsible for the nightmarish acts of the girl in the video that finally sends Freddie over the edge.

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Watch the Weird Reads YouTube review of The Girl in the Video

Read the Cemetery Dance Online review of The Girl in the Video

Read what Kendall Reviews has to say about The Girl in the Video

Listen to Michael David Wilson talk about The Girl in the Video on the Booked Podcast

Listen to an Interview with Michael David Wilson about The Girl in the Video on the This is Horror Podcast

PURCHASE YOUR COPY OF THE GIRL IN THE VIDEO FROM PERPETUAL MOTION MACHINE PUBLICATIONS 
(Links available to Amazon and other online booksellers)