In every generation, things change, from heroes to monsters! Since our childhood, we have seen far too many supernatural creatures than we can count now. These included witches, bloody marry, and so much more. However, this generation, being a digital one, gets its supernatural creature from the internet as well!
You might have heard a lot about Slenderman and his origin. You might have heard some stories about real-life events that occurred involving Slenderman. The truth is, Slenderman is only the internet’s product, and that is all. According to what describes him is that he appears at abandoned places or places with less to no movements such as woods, crumbling halls, abandoned jungle gyms, etc.. Also, it became the center of attention and a controversial being after a terrible incident involving two girls getting stabbed for the sake of pleasing the so-called Slenderman.
It explains how deeply the mind can get affected and how less we are familiar with the psychology of people it can influence. This mostly affected internet users. Because in the present age, you never know how a fake picture can be transformed into a real-life event. Of course, the news spreads quickly on social media than it does on TV channels, and this one was no exception.
Surprisingly, the origin of Slenderman is clear, and it is not like the other urban legends. Slenderman was created in June of 2008. It was a forum called ‘SomethingAwful’ filled with photoshop pranksters. A guy called Eric Knudsen from Florida created Slenderman, and it was under a thread named ‘create paranormal images.’ He also has a young daughter, and after his fictional demon got popular, he was indeed surprised that this creature is getting so much fame than any of the real-life villains.
Since then, Slenderman inspired videogames, web series, and movies that were based on fictional stories. One of the popular web series called MarbleHornets is based on a man’s story who is being haunted by this creature called Slenderman.
Here is a list of all movies, documentaries, and web series that are based on the stories involving Slenderman.
Slender Man – August 10, 2019
The movie Slenderman is based on a character from an internet meme, and all of the horrifying moments are the result of the character’s appearance. The story involves four high school girls as the main roles.
Slenderman was born in 2009 on a web forum and that too in a contest where photoshop pranksters had to post creepy and horrifying photoshopped images. One of the contributors was Victor Surge, whose real-life name is Eric Knudsen. He posted a couple of images of children that had a thin and faceless man standing in the background, along with creepy captions. The memes became too famous, and in no time, several stories about Slenderman’s existence circulated on social media.
The movie starts with four girls watching porn in a basement when somehow this discussion comes up. Apparently, some of the boys these girls are friends with are planning to summon this mysterious creature, Slenderman. The girls decide to make their own attempt and begin to explore. A few searches later, they found out some videos that are known to infect the souls of the viewers.
The following week, all of these four girls start to have horrifying nightmares. Soon after this, one of the girls named Katie (played by Annalise Basso) disappears in deep woods during a school trip. It did not take too long for the girls to realize they have become victims of something they were not prepared for. However, the remaining three girls still thought they could work it out and make it out of this trap safely. One of them came up with the idea that they all collect items that belong to each one of them and have some sort of sentimental values attached, and destroy these in the forest. Maybe this way, they will get their friend Katie back.
But this was not that easy as they thought. Moving at a confusingly fast speed (surprisingly, the movie is only about one hour and a half), Birke and White show how each of these girls gets more and more infected by the bioelectric energy of Slenderman as the time goes by. Wren (Joey King) and Hallie (Julia Goldani Telles) made all their efforts to break this trap.
However, the movie seemed to be very boring for the audience as the story did not do justice with the acting skills of these amazing actresses. Also, Slenderman’s appearance in the movie was like a third rate knockoff. The disappearance of these girls and them going insane one by one only added confusion and questions. Of course, viewers wanted to see something different, a fight, or a turning point, but sadly this was just it.
Marble Hornets June – 20, 2009
The series features a guy named Jay Merrick (Troy Wagner). Jay tried to understand what happened during the shooting of a student film by his friend, Alex Karlie. Jay attempts to watch all the tapes and realizes that his friend was being traumatized by some unknown figures called ‘The Operator.’ This figure is a version of Slenderman that is a mythical creature born on Something Awful forums. The content in this community-inspired some people and they created a web series known as Marble Hornets.
In the same year, on 19th June, Marble Hornets became known for an official Youtube account, and the very next day of its creation, the first video on this channel went live. This webs series is filmed as a documentary. The introductory videos show how difficult and irritable Alex grows with time and how he cannot concentrate on his work. It reaches the point when production shuts down completely. Jay, who id Alex’s friend, found the tapes and started to watch them. Unfortunately, Jay did not know that Slenderman comes for anyone who is involved in the production.
It initially started as a friend watching tapes of his friend’s project, but it grew so popular that it became a whole story about how the guy Jay got affected. The whole fear and paranoia made this series an amazing psychological thriller.
However, most people say that the web series has some resemblance to The Blair Witch Project, and indeed, these two share some similarities. In this web series, the faceless watcher provokes your mind to work overtime and makes you think about all terrible things that can happen to you if you ever encounter such a creature. Marble Hornets is a remarkable web series that people really liked, but it also scared most viewers more than they expected it to.
Always Watching: A Marble Hornets Story
People loved Marble Hornets, and it obtained thousands of views in no time. People loved every clip as if it captured their minds and thoughts. However, even after the online web series ended, an attempt at crowdfunding was made for the production of a feature-length film. Surprisingly, it worked, and people were able to raise more than just a few thousands of dollars.
This story features a bunch of news reporters who want to go to the national level and for that, they need some sort of big news. A guy named Milo, who is a cameraman (played by Chris Marquette), seems to be very much interested in his coworker Sara. The latter is a news reporter (played by Alexandra Breckenridge). Milo, in his spare time, spied on Sara, which is not in a weird way at all. But he is challenged when a new guy Charlie (played by Jake McDorman), enters the team.
Milo started to work on a project where he looks for a missing person’s case. He finds a stack of videotapes, and from here, things take a turn.
Milo eagerly wants to know who is that man in a suit with no face. He appears in nearly all of the videos and hence Milo becomes suspicious. But since he saw that faceless man, Milo noticed that something is not right and that weird things started to happen around him. Milo shared this with his coworkers. They did not believe him at first, but soon, they notice that the faceless entity is following them now. They are now running for their lives, trying to find the owner of these tapes.
However, the film did not meet the standard of web series. As it is a film, the scenes had to be shorter, and there was not much time to emphasize every detail. Limited to just ninety minutes, the film did not deliver that extraordinary experience that viewers were expecting. However, it did a fair job according to many.
Beware the Slenderman
In a 2014 spring season, three girls, all of the same age (twelve years), entered the woods in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Two of them came out of the woods safely but one of them did not. A call to 911 explained a terrible attack. The third girl was found by the roadside, body covered in blood, crying for help. Soon after the investigation, disturbing details surfaced. All three girls were best friends, but one of them that had gone missing became a victim of a vicious attack. She was stabbed nineteen times with a five-inch blade and barely made it through the attack.
Police found the two girls and interrogated them about this incident. What they told was unbelievable and scary. According to both of them, they took their friend into the woods so that they can kill her and please a man named Slenderman.
The documentary is directed by Irene Taylor Brodsky, who studies the case of Anissa Weier and Morgan Geyser who took their friend into the woods and tried to kill her by stabbing her 19 times. Thankfully the victim survived the attack. The motive of the attackers was to please an internet born monster. The girls thought it was real.
The documentary features the family of the victim and the families of Weier and Geyser. The story revolves around how their families are concerned about their normal life and behaviors. Geyser stabbed the victim Bella Leutner who was their best friend since they were in fourth grade. But Weier was the one who motivated her to do so. According to the details, she said, “Go ballistic, go crazy.”
Weier is isolated socially and spends most of her time on the internet. In the documentary, the director recreated the part where Weier’s browsing sessions are uncovered, and unfortunately, they had disturbing details. She has been reading topics like ‘Are you a psychopath?’ and also a clip of a woman who is feeding wild cats mouses.
Geyser appeared dominant at first, but later we discover that there is more to her. She has a strong attachment to fictional characters and worlds. She likes to dress up as Vulcan. Also, she tells us how she believed that Santa Claus was real until she was eleven.
Both girls indeed have mental health problems, but their family members came to know it very late. However, both of them loved to read horror stories and read a ton of them on a website called Creepypasta. They become very attached to the ones including Slenderman. A thin and tall faceless man who kidnaps children. So in order to protect themselves and their families from the wrath of Slenderman, Weier and Geyser tried to kill their twelve-year-old best friend, Bella.
The documentary covers this case too deeply; however, it also sheds light on the mental health issues of children and teens and how the justice system is dealing with such matters. A scary as it may sound, the case is just like many others. Even if it is supposed to be handled with rehabilitation into consideration, it is being dealt with using retribution.
‘Beware The Slenderman’ is a chilling documentary with horrifying details that are enough to put you in a state of shock, and the fact it is based on a real-life event makes it even worse.
Slenderman has received massive popularity which is just too much for a fictional, creepy villain. But it is what it is. Slenderman has taken the internet by storm ever since it came into being and we can clearly see this – why else would movie-makers spend money on making movies about him?