Red Mist

**Red Mist** is a controversial real-life bootleg tape featuring an unaired episode of the popular Nickelodeon series *SpongeBob Squarepants*. Like the long-lost yet recently discovered "Suicide Mouse" tape, Red Mist was purportedly created by a now-imprisoned Scottish animator (Andrew Skinner) for the series who intended to pass the tape off as the season four premiere episode instead of "Fear of a Krabby Patty" and feature the death of Squidward.

## Description and the tape

Red Mist begins with Squidward preparing to practice his clarinet in his room as SpongeBob and Patrick play merrily outside. Squidward wraps his mouth around the clarinet and is only able to play one note before being interrupted by someone knocking on the door. He walks down and opens the door and discovers that a traveling salesman is at his door. The salesman, a Scottish fish, asks if he could have a moment of Squidward's time. Squidward tells him that he isn't interested and slams the door in the man's face, walking back to his room. The salesman begins knocking again, and Squidward opens the door angrily. The salesman, looking very upset, tells Squidward "The red mist is coming" and procedes to walk off, confusing Squidward. Squidward walks back to his room and finally begins playing the clarinet. After performing several off-key notes, SpongeBob and Patrick begin laughing outside, interrupting Squidward yet again.

Squidward walks over to the window and shouts at the two, telling them he needs to practice for a concert he will be performing at. SpongeBob and Patrick both apologize tearfully. Squidward, unsure of himself, walks back and begins playing his clarinet again, this time uninterrupted.

The scene then fades to red over the course of twelve seconds and, perhaps by glitch, the same scene is repeated once more which is somewhat common in rough cuts of animation. However, this time, Squidward's eyes have been replaced with new and more realistic eyes with red pupils, clearly not real but more realistic than CGI, TV or animated. The audio is also completely absent from this scene, save for occasional clicks and whistles.

After the repeat of the previous scene, a new scene begins with the same red eyes, but at the theater where Squidward is playing his clarinet. The frames in the animation skip every four seconds, but the sound remains synced. After an unruly performance, everyone boos Squidward in a cruel sounding way. SpongeBob and Patrick are seen in the crowd booing Squidward too, very uncommon for them. The scene pans to reveal the same Scottish salesman sitting next to them, also booing, as Squidward walks back to his home with his head in his tentacles. What's odd is that the scene actually shows him walking to his house, with nothing happening in the background, for three minutes and fifty seconds before abruptly cutting to red for another twenty seconds, just as he arrives at his house.

A new scene appears, back to the original cartoon eyes, with Squidward sitting in a chair in his room that night, with a blank look on his face for roughly thirty seconds before starting to sob softly. Again, the audio is completely missing for most of the scene, until the sobbing begins. This is when the sound of a slight breeze through a forest can be heard in the background. It also begins very mildly zooming in on Squidward's face, only noticeable if you compare ten seconds of frames side by side. The sound of him sobbing can suddenly be heard, very loudly and severe as the screen twitches in on itself briefly. The salesman's laughing can also be heard echoing in the background.

After another thirty seconds, the screen blurs and twitches violently and a single frame flashes over the screen. Upon pausing it exactly on the frame, the viewer would see a real life mutilated dead child, eviscerated and with one of his eyes popped out and the photographer's shadow visible.

After this photograph is seen, it cuts back to Squidward sobbing, much louder than before with what appears to be blood running from his eyes instead of tears and the sound of the salesman still heard. The sound of the wind in the forest is also played at a much louder volume, but now with the sound of branches snapping and the screams of a young boy heard. The salesman can be heard saying 'Do it' twice, the second time sounding much angrier. After twenty more seconds, another single frame appears, this one of an eviscerated and killed eight year old gorl, lying on her stomach, again with the shadow of the photographer.

The scene reverts back to Squidward, now with the same realistic red eyes from before, completely silent and no longer sobbing. The sound of the forest can no longer be heard. Another three seconds later and it cuts back to the sobbing, this time piercing loud and with the sound of the forest heard. The screams of both a young boy and young girl can be heard mixed together as the song "Amazing Grace" plays on both the clarinet and the bagpipes. During this, seven frames are seen. If viewing, the scene here is different. It's a boy, who looks like the one in the first photo, laying in the woods. Over the course of the seven frames, the hand of the photographer reaches in and grabs the boy's entrails, as his remaining eye focuses on the man's hand and even blinks once.

Now Squidward is staring at the viewer, with the same realistic 'Red Mist' eyes. Children can be heard screaming and crying in the background. After around 30 seconds of this, the screen pans out to reveal Squidward holding a gun. He puts it to his mouth and pulls the trigger as blood splatters and covers the screen.

The screen shows Squidward dead, while 'The red mist is coming' once again echos.

Mr. Hillenburg is obviously angry at this. He demanded to know what the heck was going on. There was an investigation due to the nature of the photos, but nothing came of it. No child seen was identified and no clues were gathered from the data involved nor physical clues in the photos.