I'm a freelance writer living in Perth, Western Australia.
Published August 18th 2018
Beware the Slender Man
Slender Man, directed by Sylvian White (Stomp The Yard and 2010's The Losers) and written by David Birke (13 Sins and 2016's Elle), who based the script on the fictional character created by Victor Surge, is a film set in Massachusetts, about four young friends, who have a fascination with the cyberspace lore of the Slender Man.
Can you see him?
While at a sleepover, Hallie, played by Julia Goldani Telles (Bunheads and Most Likely To Murder), Wren, played by Joey King (The Conjuring and 2017's Wish Upon), Chloe, played by Jaz Sinclair (The Vampire Diaries and Paper Towns) and Katie, played by Annalise Basso (Ouija: Origin Of Evil and 2008's Bedtime Stories), do what most girls their age do at a sleepover - they gossip, watch movies and in place of what used to be telling spooky stories, they decide to watch a video on the internet, which is supposed to bring forth the evil entity that is Slender Man. It is supposed to be a bit of fun, but it all goes horribly wrong. This is a film of friendship, betrayal, sacrifice and jump scares.
For those of you who don't know, Slender Man is a fictional supernatural character which originated on the internet as a "creepy pasta" meme, created by Victor Surge in 2009. The character has appeared in many fictional stories, artworks, videos and video games over the years and despite what you might have heard, he is not real in the slightest.
When Katie goes missing, while on a school excursion, only her friends know the truth as to what happened to her and after much research, they decide to try to contact the Slender Man, played by Javier Botet (2017's IT and [Rec]) who preys on children and either takes them away forever, or leaves them completely insane if you look at his face and unfortunately for the girls, he doesn't play fair.
As the film goes on, the virus that is Slender Man continues to infect the girls and effect everyone around them, including Hallie's boyfriend Tom, played by Alex Fitzalan (2017's The Get and Yesterday Is History) and her younger sister Lizzie, played by Taylor Richardson (Jack Of The Red Hearts and A Most Violent Year). This leads to a series of violent and horrifying nightmares and hallucinations, which might not be as unreal as they seem.
While this is a very well acted film, the CGI seemed almost unfinished in places. The cinematography was all over the place, with some scenes being beautifully crafted and others not so much. However, the soundtrack is well suited to the film. There was also a lot of viral videos and images used, which could give it more of a creepy sense of realism for those into the fandom this character has created.
Personally, I found this movie to be severely underwhelming, predictable, rather dull and like a poorly made ripoff of The Ring franchise. It is clearly made for tweens and teens to watch at sleepovers. I did not find it to be scary but if you have an intense fear of men wearing a business suit, over a morph suit, this film could scare the daylights out of you!
The original trailer for this film is also very misleading, as it was cut to pass for a US PG 13 rating. Most of the scenes depicted in it did not make it into the film! I certainly hope they will release an uncut version on Blu-ray!
Slender Man is rated M and is not recommended for those under the age of 15, as it contains horror themes and coarse language.
