Of all the creepypastas that have developed over the years, which I'm more versed in than I'd like to admit, there are a few that deviate from the tropes. Creepypastas often follow tropes that have been invented by the current generation, such as sensationalized and extremely violent imagery with the intention of increased element of fear or sense of depravity, the attempt to fulfill nostalgic desires leading to a terrifying outcome, and, colorful antagonists, enemies, or otherwise characters with memorable lines (whether they are terrifying or cheesy).
A few of these stories, however, might incorporate some of these elements, but still tend to harken back to horror stories of the old days. Stories that are only classified as creepypastas simply because they came from the internet and could have easily originated from a campfire. There’s Jeff the Killer, who is admittedly cheesy, yet, borrows elements from other villains and monsters to become somewhat intimidating. Robert the doll, which is actually based on a supposedly true story from which a doll was actually recovered. Lastly, arguably the most original and well-known creepypasta of all, the Slender Man.
The Slender Man’s origins are concretely traceable, and, there’s really overwhelming evidence that the entity only exists within fiction. Eric Knudsen, known by his pen name, Victor Surge, posted images of a tall, faceless, pale entity with an inhumanly skinny build and usually wearing a suit. He shared a few abstract stories about young people who performed as proxies for the Slender Man, and, eventually, the images and character spread like wildfire.
Most notably in the form of Marble Hornets, an internet series that adapted the character as the supernatural entity known as “the Operator,” the Slender video game series, which began as a minimalist short game in which the Slender Man stalked the main character and turned into a series of games that have actual narratives, and numerous stories including different origin stories, incidents of stalking, and, basic encounters with the entity. That brings us to 2018, in which fans and audiences are wrought with intensive and jittery anticipation of a theatrical release of a film that adapts the character into a full-length feature film with a script penned by Victor Surge that will be released in August!
About four years, too late.
It pains me to admit that, because, I was a bit of a Slender Man fanatic for a while, and, it was exciting to see a new, iconic, unique monster rise to popularity during my generation, but, the prevalence of the character in video games, literature, internet culture, art, and, Youtube series’ such as Marble Hornets, which concluded in 2014, has seriously decreased in abundance. There isn’t much buzz about the movie, because, most the Slender Man has been fully realized as a character. Anything introduced in the movie will most likely come across as an afterthought.
That being said, the movie has potential as a concept. Horror films have significantly improved since 2013, in which horror cinema found a new and unique identity for the 2010’s. I would love nothing more than the new movie to be incredible, because, the film would create an insane amount of buzz around the character, revitalizing the creepypasta online and extending the awareness of the character to casual audiences less likely to have stumbled across the character before the film.
Except, there’s one problem.
It’s being produced by Screen Gems, which hasn’t produced anything necessarily incredible, but, has produced some relatively bad horror movies and some relatively good horror movie.
The director, however, Sylvain White, who hasn’t produced any movies praised by critics or audiences, and, his only horror film credit is I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer, the egregious conclusion to that series. In my opinion, the trailer doesn’t necessarily look good or bad, and, it admittedly catches my interest, but, truthfully, the film will most likely be a forgettable horror film at best, and, come across as a wrongly-timed cash grab.
That being said, it’s still a horror film, and, plenty fans of the Slender Man and many casual viewers will flock to the theaters, and, if it’s financially successful enough, a sequel will be produced. Undoubtedly, there will be some revitalization of the character online, if only in the form of nostalgic contemplation on what the character was. 2014’s Ouija was a disaster, but, it still increased buzz and stories about the board online.
Then, along came a sequel, which was a vast improvement on the first film, and, created more buzz. The Slender Man’s reputation isn’t necessarily doomed. So, that brings me to my final elaboration on the Slender Man, what made him so scary, and, why did we love him?
Well, we’ll begin with the origin stories. My personal favorites are the one provided by Marble Hornets, whether it was written by that series’ writers or originated from the internet, and the abstract origin story that I’ve developed inside my head based on themes from more mysterious horror stories.
Marble Hornets explained a former civilization that would sacrifice it’s worst criminals to the forest as sacrifice to summon better harvesting, however, once, a civilian who was unpopular with the public was accused of being a recurrent child murder, and, sacrificed to the forest. How was he sacrificed? Ropes were tied to his legs and arms and then tied to the trees, which slowly stretched him over the course of fairly long time until he was stretched to death, explaining his slender and stretched appearance and, he returned as an entity that preyed upon children in the town as revenge, and, eventually extended his reign of terror to the world around.
My love of this origin story is the story’s theme of guilt being imposed on innocence, both in the wrongful accusation of an innocent man, who sought revenge by preying upon the town’s most innocent people. This is terrifying. Although, my more cherished origin story is the one I formulated inside of my head based on recurrent themes, which is the positioning of the Slender Man has a cosmic entity that originated from a time long before the existence of the human race. As a cosmic entity, this prohibits us from sympathizing with the entity, further vilifying and mystifying the character.
Also, as a cosmic entity, this introduces Lovecraftian themes infused with themes of Stephen King, with the concept of a cosmic, eternal entity that preys upon humans coming from King, primarily the IT character, and, the concept of coming face-to-face with a dangerous entity that is most likely more important than us, and, the mere witness of the character can initiate insanity in the victim. Also, this entity doesn’t solely prey on children, therefore, adults who can more accurately contemplate existence can suffer from the discomfort of existences bigger than them.
These origin stories and themes establish the Slender Man as an iconic, original character due to infusing the right classical themes with the right modernistic themes, thus creating a character that isn’t gimmicky or derivative. So, without further ado, I announce that I’ll be sharing an old fan fiction story that I wrote of the Slender Man for my next Article after careful editing. Keep on Slendering.
