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‘Slender Man’: Creepypasta comes to life on the silver screen

Beware, Slender Man may be right behind you.

Ni Nyoman Wira (The Jakarta Post)
-
Mon, August 13, 2018

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‘Slender Man’: Creepypasta comes to life on the silver screen The Slender Man is seen in a playground on Katie (Annalise Basso)'s laptop in Sony's 'Slender Man'. (Sony Pictures Entertainment on YouTube/File)

B

ack in the 2000s, a tall, thin and spectral creature wearing a black suit made an internet sensation. Named the Slender Man, the extremely skinny creature is said to show up in abandoned places, playgrounds and the woods to stalk and kidnap people, according to Techcrunch.

Categorized as creepypasta, horror-related images that have been copied and pasted around the internet, the Slender Man was then adapted into video games and parodied in TV series, but this year, Sony Pictures took the sensation to a new level in a full-length film directed by Sylvain White titled – what else? – Slender Man.

Wren (Joey King, left) and Hallie (Julia Goldani Telles, right) try to save their friends and family from the Slender Man before it is too late.
Wren (Joey King, left) and Hallie (Julia Goldani Telles, right) try to save their friends and family from the Slender Man before it is too late. (Sony Pictures - © 2018 CTMG, Inc. /Dana Starbard)

The story is set in a small town in the American state of Massachusetts, where four girls watch an online video and become haunted by Slender Man. At first, Wren (Joey King), Hallie (Julia Goldani Telles), Chloe (Jaz Sinclair) and Katie (Annalise Basso) cannot believe that the video is causing their nightmares and strange sightings, but the situation gets worse when Katie goes missing and Chloe turns into a different person.

Wren and Hallie have to hurry to save their friends and family from the Slender Man. They think they can get Katie back by sacrificing their most treasured objects, but it turns out that the creature wants more than that.

Read also: 'The Meg': A shark movie that needs more thrills

Watching Slender Man may remind you of some horror films of the past, especially when the hauntings begin and the scenes of their nightmares and hallucinations. Slender Man establishes an eerie atmosphere from the outset, thanks to its musical score, but sometimes it doesn't work because of too-short scenes that don't give the audience enough time to absorb.

The film also doesn't explain what the Slender Man actually is, but then again, perhaps it leaves room open for viewers to find out the answer for themselves.

The Slender Man is a character that was created in 2009 by Victor Surge, whose real name is Eric Knudsen. The creature initially appeared on the Something Awful internet forum, and then resurfaced in 2014 after Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier stabbed a friend in Wisconsin, the United States. According to People Magazine, Geyser and Weier were influenced by the Slender Man, which they saw on a website featuring horror stories and urban legends. (mut)

 

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