Now now, I know some of you may be puzzled when you look at the picture above. You must be thinking to yourself, “what on earth is that thing?” Well, sit back, have some patience (it will be a long one) and keep your guard extra up because you’ll never know if you’re his next victim…(evil laugh).
What I am about to share might be eerie (or perhaps not).
Known as “The Slender Man”, he is a supernatural fictional creature who resembles a man with extremely long, slender arms and legs. He is usually described as a tall (between about 6 to 15 feet tall) humanoid creature in a black suit. Slender Man’s face is often white, completely devoid of facial features, and wrapped in some type of gauze or cloth. Usually, his victims are terrorized at the sight of his elongate limbs and torso which looks like tendrils to inhuman lengths to induce fear and capture them. They are also put in a trance state whereby his victims helplessly walk into his trap. It is also known that he enjoys torturing his victims psychologically and preys on children.
The creation of Slender Man by Eric Knudsen started as a Photoshop contest in a thread in the Something Awful internet forum whereby users edit everyday photographs to make it look eerie. Under the pseudonym “Victor Surge”, Knudsen contributed two black and white images of groups of children, to which he added a tall, thin spectral figure wearing a black suit as well as naming him, “The Slender Man”.
Soon after that, the character became viral on the Internet, creating multiple fan arts, cosplay, and online fiction known as “Creepypasta” (short scary stories). It became the subject of weird stories by multiple authors within a comprehensive mythos. This urban legend took a frightening turn into real life when two young girls, Weier and Morgan Geyser lured classmate Payton Leutner in 2014 to a wooded park where Weier stabbed her 19 times while Geyser urged her on as an offering to the monster. Leutner survived the attack, narrowly missing her heart when she managed to crawl out of the woods to a path leading her to a passing bicyclist.
Last Wednesday, Sony Pictures released its first movie trailer titled after the character himself. The film, directed by Sylvain White and Javier Botet as Slender Man, tells the story of high school girls who are trying to prove that the urban legend does not exist. The first trailer received an outrage backlash from one of the attacker’s father as he deemed the movie to be “extremely distasteful” for trying to capitalize on a tragedy causing prolong pain of all the families involved in the stabbing incident. Also, a petition to stop the movie from screening has gained over 6,500 signatures to date.
WARNING: DO NOT WATCH THE TRAILER IF YOU ARE FAINT-HEARTED AS THERE IS FACE STABBING INVOLVED!
Get ready to be spooked when it hit theatres on May 18th.
Header image source is from here