Red Mist

The Title Card.

**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. It's Skinner's fourth tape and a visually edited version of Squidward's Suicide. Andrew got help from Philip Stancheski and Joseph Miter to make this tape.

## The Tape

On the top center "Spongebob Squarepants". At the center-right "RED MIST" and at the bottom "Season 4 Episode 1". On the label below " Nick Studios" and below it "2005 Viacom Inc."

## The Plot

**Red Mist** begins with The opening credits read three names: Anthony Jacobs, Johnathan Mooney and Layton Hood, supposedly to hide the original creators. The episode begins with a view of Squidward's house zooming in. 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 the same scene is repeated once more. However, Squidward's eyes have been replaced with realistic eyes with red pupils. 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 community recreation center, where Squidward is playing his clarinet. After the performance, everyone starts booing Squidward in a cruel way. SpongeBob and Patrick are seen in the crowd booing Squidward too. The scene pans to reveal the same Scottish salesman sitting next to them, also booing, as Squidward walks back to his home with a depressed look on his face for three minutes and fifty seconds before cutting to red screen for another twenty seconds, as he arrives home.

Squidward is sitting in a chair in his room that night, with a blank look on his face for thirty seconds before starting to sob softly. The audio is completely missing until the sobbing begins, the sound of a slight breeze through a forest can also be heard in the background. The screen also begins to zoom in Squidward's face. The 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, The screen cuts back to Squidward sobbing, louder than before with what appears to be blood running from his eyes instead of tears and the sound of the salesman can still be heard. The sound of the wind in the forest is also played much louder, with the sound of branches snapping and the screams of a young boy. 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 girl, 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 "Genocide Organ" plays. 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.

Squidward is staring at the viewer, with the same realistic red 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' echos.

## Delivery Of The Tape

On November 7, 2004, after the initial animation of the storyboards were completed in Fife, Scotland, the tape was delivered to the lead animators and sound editors at Paramount Studios in Hollywood, California during the middle of the night. The tape was taken into the editing room where it was watched by said animators and editors, as well as two sixteen year-old interns. The tape, which was supposed to feature the rough cut of "Fear of a Krabby Patty", instead began with a title card using the name "Red Mist". While thrown off at first, the animators continued watching, discovering the tape had been heavily tampered with as some sort of cruel joke fishy wanker.

As a result, three animators (Barry O'Neill, Grant Kirkland, Jr. and Alyssa Simpson) were sent to the hospital, one editor retired (Fernando de la Peña) and one intern (Jackie McMullen) committed suicide. The tape was sent to the police, who determined that it had been made by Andrew Skinner, a disgruntled animator from Fife, Scotland, who has since been charged with nine counts of murder, including the murder of the two children seen in the tape. Oddly enough, after going through the data on the VHS, police discovered that the last edit to the tape had been made exactly twenty four seconds before it was watched by the Spongebob staff.

One copy of the tape was made (before police confiscated the original) by Chaz Agnew, writer of this article and the sole surviving intern from that night. Agnew has made various attempts to distribute copies of Skinner's tape and hopes to secure clearance rights to release it on several online auction websites soon.

## Aftermath

A Sony Betamax tape marked "**Red Mist**" was discovered in a warehouse in Mideastern Canada on August 12, 2016. It was found by Marcus Andrews, and he reported it to Nickelodeon. The tape was brought to Chaz Angew, the intern who wrote the account from Squidward's Suicide. They had to hunt for a Beta VCR in decent condition, but they were able to find one at a nearby thrift shop. When the tape was watched, it was in a poor condition. The tape was then cleaned for a few hours, and the quality vastly improved, although still quite low for a Betamax, which was supposed to be better than any other video tape at the time. The tape fit exactly to the reported contents, so this means it is the real fourth of Andrew's five infamous cartoons.

## Release

The full Red Mist tape has been released by Mike:https://youtu.be/6gx5yyhOR4k

However 3 clips were released By Chaz Agnew/SpongeBobRedMist. The intern who viewed this tape and Squidward's Suicide

## Gallery

Spongebob Squarepants Red Mist clip -1SpongeBob Squarepants Red Mist clip -2Spongebob Squarepants Red Mist clip -3