Cameraheads (found early creepypasta; 2009)

Screenshot of a 4chan post asking about the story.

Status: Partially Found

Cameraheads (otherwise referred to as Camerahead, The Cameraheads, "I killed a Camerahead", etc.) is an early creepypasta first posted on the paranormal boards of 4chan on August 8th, 2008 (reportedly predating popular creepypastas such as Slenderman, The Rake, Smile Dog, and Jeff the Killer among others).

Initial Post

“/x/ what's a camerahead? I was walking home through a nearby gully and came across a weird stack of rocks and a torn envelope with some writing on it. It appeared to have been written in charcoal or ash. It said, “I KILLED A CAMERAHEAD” on the next line “IT TOOK TREVOR” and the last line “GET HELP IF I DON'T COME BACK” and there was a miniDV nearby. this was all that was on it besides static, though i had to watch it a few times before i found this clip. Who took this video? A camerahead sounds really silly if it's a monster with a camera for a head.”

Story

The plot of the creepypasta involved a person who discovers a pile of rocks, a MiniDV videocassette, and a torn envelope scattered on the ground while walking, with signs of a struggle being indicated. Inside the envelope, there was a note written in ash or charcoal that contained the phrases "I killed a Camerahead", "It took Trevor", and "Get help if I don't come back". The person uploads the contents of the cassette to YouTube, and begins to research what happened and what the Cameraheads are. They soon find themselves being stalked by the creatures however, whereupon they begin to descend into madness.

Supplementary Material

The story is purported to be similar in format to the novel House of Leaves, and featured elements of an ARG, with "cursed" images and videos from the tape (claimed to be memories of what the Camerahead itself had seen) and documents of the Camerahead's previous victims being posted alongside the story itself.

Descriptions as to what the Cameraheads themselves look like vary, with some sources describing them as outwardly human creatures that acted (perhaps unwittingly) as living surveillance cameras, others describing them as having cameras instead of heads (hence the name), and some claiming that they were of a biomechanical design similar to the works of H.R. Giger.

Availability

Following the initial posting of the story in 2008, it became the first creepypasta to be detailed on the paranormal board's wiki "/x/enopedia" following its establishment in 2009. It is here that details related to the story would remain for several years, even being featured in the "bullshit" category of the wiki, indicating that it was frequently reposted to the point of oversaturation. Over time however, interest would gradually begin to wane in the site, which, alongside numerous attacks from other image boards, lead to its rebranding and eventual shutdown. When this occurred, all media posted on the site, including Cameraheads, went with it. Unlike most of the site's contents however, Cameraheads and all material accompanying it remained largely unaccounted for, with archives of the /x/enopedia page being few and far between. The same was true for the paranormal boards, of which no archives are known to exist prior to 2014, by which time people were beginning to take note of the unavailability of the story. For many years after its initial posting, the story and all material related to it seemed to be entirely lost.

On October 19th, 2020, Lost Media Wiki user Marnen005 discovered an archived link of the Recent Changes section of /x/enopedia via archive site archive.is. It was through this that they discovered a somewhat functioning link to the page for Cameraheads, which contained a full transcript of the initial post that began the story, but did not contain any details made beyond it. Interestingly, this archived page seems to contradict much of the available information related to the story, claiming that only one post and YouTube video were made related to the story before the initial poster went silent, as opposed to most people's claims of there being a large amount of posts and supplementary material created. It is currently unclear if this inaccuracy is on the part of /x/enopedia or those giving their recollections of the story.

Gallery

Video created to accompany the creepypasta.

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  Screenshot of a (currently non-functioning) archive of the "bullshit" category on /x/enopedia featuring Cameraheads.

External Link

• ObscUrban Legend Wikia page for the Cameraheads. Retrieved 20 Jun '20