Bring the popcorn, my friends! It’s a film review!

And of course, I had to tackle this one with a very special thanks to my professor for encouraging me to finally start this up (here’s looking to you Roland!)

Alrighty, so here we go!

I’ll be the first to admit that for many of us Creepypasta enthusiasts out there, it’s safe to say that the very idea of a Slender Man film being set into production, brought forward an incredible amount of anticipation to the table. Director Sylvain White, however, chose the wrong fan base to seek the approval of.

Fathered by Eric Knudsen, Slender Man’s birth in 2009 was conceived for the Something Aweful forum thread, where a Photoshop “paranormal image creation” challenge was issued. Knudsen under the pseudonym, “Victor Surge” contributed with his thinly built, humanoid entity; to which had been generously rewarded with a vast amount of viral attention.

The Slender Man mytho spread remarkably fast to assume multiple variants of narratives. Child abduction, parasitic mental invasion and electronic malfunctions are just a few of the more popular phenomena that embody this penguin suited, tentacle wiggle’n supernatural.

It’s clear to see that the character quickly became the most dominant icon of ‘creepypasta fiction’. Having lead years worth of inspired fan art and web stories, the entity received his ultimate crown on May 31st, 2014 when two 12 year old girls reportedly stabbed their classmate 19 times in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Before the court, the girls openly admitted to their attempt at murder for the utter purpose of appeasing the infamous Slender Man.

Thankfully, the young victim was able to survive these sinical attacks and the girls were scentenced to decades of mental hospitalization.

With this in mind, Mr. White was treading on some dangerously thin ice despite the film being released during a wane of the Slender Man mytho.

Certain choices had to be made so as not to provide any offensive material to the victim and their family. In the director’s defense however, his sensitivities towards the event were made clear by having a lack of weaponry being included in the film, chiefly that of knives. Additionally, the characters of the story line aren’t the same ages as the victim and 12 year old assulters. In fact, the protagonists were much older students in highschool, living in the setting of a small town in Massachusetts. Unfortunately however, as far as a “horror movie” goes, this film came to be such a beautifully tragic let down.

The premise follows four teen girls who summon the Slender Man through an online ritual at an overnight sleepover. ( Umm, The Ring much? ) One of the girls, Katie, goes missing during a class field trip to the cemetery (…they put way too much kitsch on this quiche…) where the rest of the film shows the girls attempts at bringing her back home. ‘Shockingly’ each of the girls ultimately sealed their fates to the inevitable and were taken by the nefarious Slender Man themselves.

Realized by phenomenal creature-actor, Javier Botet, the Slender Man is depicted with heavy amounts of digital enhancement. With this, it became near impossible to place the creature accurately into space; even more so during the moments where he’s actually meant to distort the perceptions of reality on purpose. In fact, so much over-editing was done during those experiences that it just became goofy and unrelatable to the viewer.

What makes Javier Botet such an incredible asset to the horror genre in general, is his exceptionally unique body type and musculature. The young actor suffers from Marfan Syndrome, a disorder characterized by extreme height and slenderness, yet he has used it to his full advantage to protray various types of creatures, appearing in films such as It, and Alien: Covenant.

With such an interesting capability of bodily motion, it was extremely disappointing to see Botet’s performance underscored by untasteful utilizations of crudely done, Photoshopped overlays.

That’s to say for only the very few times we actually get to see the creature. Perhaps this film was meant to flourish as just a simple Halloween edition of ‘Where’s Waldo’. To put it blatantly, the film missed several opportunities with Botet at their disposal to create a genuine work of horrific art.

In case the game of ‘I-Spy Slendy’ wasn’t frustrating enough as is, we have moments in the film where it’s just too dark to even see much of anything. For the moments where we actually do get to encounter him, Mr. Slendy seems to be just a bit too far from reach, and the moment is very short lived.

Look there he is!… Oh no wait…it’s just a tree… Or is it?

With over the top additions of distorted visionaries, such as a faceless woman bathing, quite literally, in the Japanese inspired horror motif of long, matted dark hair…(again, The Ring?) …It’s exceptionally difficult to take anything seriously in this.

For many, Slender Man drifts between the forrest as a manifestation of one’s deeply rooted fears associated with predatorial abduction, molestation and many other horrible tragities coinciding with the dangers of a strange, unknown figure luring a small child away from home. Part of that fear factor, however, ultimately resides in the unknown as to what occurs to the victim once abducted.

I can’t stress enough how much material this film had the chance to work with that was painfully left untouched. Like many other horror films out there, this one harpped on the classic high score “jump scare” tactic, with moody undertones. And here’s a quick note: just because your film is dark, doesn’t mean it’s going to be scary… It just means I can’t see well enough to find the cheesey poofs.

Well, the next time I order a horror quiche, I expect them to hold the kitsch… Seriously…

I couldn’t take how overwhelmingly kitschy everything was …

And that wraps up my thoughts on Slender Man 2018.

I don’t particularly recommend this film, unless you really have nothing else better to do for your evening.

So what are your thoughts? Did you agree or find something I may have missed? Have any recommendations for the next horror review? Let me know in the comments!

Thanks for looking!

( I do not own any of the images / stills that were used for this post. )

-R