Trailer- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySy8mcceTno
Rating- PG-13
Genre- Horror
Warnings- disturbing imagery/inappropriate language
NOTE: The beginning summarizes the origins of Slenderman. If you want to skip this part, scroll down until you see this message: READ HERE.
Slenderman is arguably the most popular Creepypasta character of all time. He was originated by Something Awful forms user, Eric Knudsen (known on the website as, Victor Surge) as an internet meme back in 2009. Since then, people have been fascinated by the character to the point where a video game was made in his honor in 2012, called Slender: The Eight Pages. Your mission in the game is to collect eight pages in a dark forest before Slenderman catches you. From video games to cosplays to fan art, Slenderman has entered into many avenues of entertainment, and finally in 2018, he has also taken over the big screen.
I first learned about Slenderman back in high school shortly after the first game was released and I was also interested with the creature right away. I like how his simplicity makes him spooky, how he didn't need to be over the top to scare the pants off of you. His appearance has changed over time, but he is commonly depicted as an abnormally tall human with long arms and a blank face. I also appreciated how his killing style was more subtle, or as it says on theslenderman.wikia.com, more "passive-aggressive" often stalking targets for years at a time before ever attacking.
I heard somewhere that if someone is deathly afraid of a certain character, then that character represents what they fear in real life. When it comes to Slenderman, whoever is afraid of him may have a deep seeded fear of being watched and never really knowing the future and where they stand it in. This boils down to the fear of the unexpected. It could also be the fear of being possessed, since Slenderman's lore involves him being some sort of evil Pied Piper- toying with people's minds and convincing them to venture through the woods where they are killed.
READ HERE
It is no surprise to me that a movie about Slenderman has been released, though it does seem way too late to bring him up now since it's been about 9 years since he was created and 6 years since he really spiked in mainstream popularity with his first video game. I'm also always concerned about these type of movies where they adapt from original materials. You know, video game adaptions, book adaptions, and so on. I feared the writers would make it this a cheesy teenage film with jump scares all the time and it has nothing to do with the original content at all.
Nevertheless, it didn't matter how this movie ended up being. I knew that I was going to watch it and bear the consequences of my actions. On that note, did I feel inclined to learn even more about the mystical monster after seeing his debut film or did I grow insane with each passing minute watching it?
Slenderman the movie follows a group of high school friends who decide to watch a video about the horror character, only to be faced with spine-chilling repercussions. One by one, the friends succumb deeply into the virus that is Slenderman and they try to stop the monster from finishing them off through death.
This story is nothing that I haven't seen before, and it was no surprise to see how the heart of the film stayed relatively the same from how I imagined it before watching it. The characters even felt recycled from other movies I've seen like this- The main lead who is the perfect honor student, the troublemaker, the token minority, and the forgettable one who gets axed early. There isn't necessarily anything bad about have a similar storyline and character, but this has been overdone to death. Although, it's not like I had any other ideas that wouldn't also be overdone, so I don't judge the plot too harshly.
What I will judge it harshly on is how the series of events took place, because that got on my nerves. There are rules that are addressed in the beginning of the film that have absolutely no value in the end. I remember waiting for someone to mention why the rules no longer applied, but it never came. The characters also acted incredibly foolish for what I found to be no discernible reason other than to create tension and suspense for the audience. It was to the point where I couldn't find myself feeling sorry for any of the characters; I felt embarrassed just watching them act idiotic.
There were a few scenes that felt like there was more to it than it should've been, and I'm probably right cause scenes from the trailers never appear in the final product and so the foreshadowing for those missing scenes don't make an impact by itself. The ending to this movie kind of relates to this statement, as I felt that the ending came out of left field.
Remember when I said that there were rules set that didn't matter? Well, the ending seems to create this entirely new rule that was never mentioned before and leads the characters to do things that they may have otherwise not done. It still boggles my mind about why that rule was created, and why did it only apply a certain person.
The only times I ever got scared while watching this film was when there were jump scares, because the music was so loud that you couldn't help but jump out of your seat. I did know that they were coming though, so that doesn't make the jump scares well done. A lot of the time, the scares would fake you out by building up to this surprise when the surprise doesn't actually occur, but obviously it will happen once the character turns around ever...so...slowly.
Same formula, different format.
I almost forgot to mention the greatest character of all, Slenderman. I think he was fine as far as character design and how he appeared in the film. His presence without him physically being there is a great way to instill fear in the audience, by the film making Slenderman manipulate phones, music, and of course people's minds. You're not sure of what's real and what's not, and those are the types of things I like to see in a scary movie because that's the scariest thing that could happen to you in my opinion. You can escape from a killer, but you can't escape your mind.
There are death scenes included in this PG-13 movie, after all, how could you not have one? But, until I got to this point in the review, I nearly forgot there was any death scenes at all. All of them were just mediocre to me, and that was either because they weren't even shown or they were no real care for the character being killed.
A death scene is only scary if you care about the person this act is being done to, and if someone is found to be unlikable- not as if they're an antagonist- but just couldn't care less about, then that death can be easily forgotten about too. There's little to no blood from what I remember but there is certainly a lot of ominous scenes that could unsettle some people.
Slenderman was an entertaining movie, and I would recommend watching it with people who are at least 13 years old (I agree with the rating on this one) since there is a little talk involving sexual acts and younger people may be inclined to look up what they mean. Aside from that, there is only one use of the F word in the film but could still be enough to worry parents.
It is a little painful to watch if you hate seeing character doing silly things just because, but maybe with some friends you could drown that pain with cracking jokes. If I were alone, I probably wouldn't watch this again because I think there were several plot holes, flat character development, and not very frightening for a Creepypasta adaptation.
I give Slenderman a 1 out of 5 stars.
Subscribe to Garnet Jen on Youtube. This is a link to my Slenderman video. Always trying to learn more about editing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvQzBKxoOWU
SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
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Why would Hallie be cool with Wren getting her sister Lizzie detention? Side note, Wren's actress looks very familiar...
It's probably just me, it's definitely just me because I didn't do this, but these high schoolers who I assume are freshman or sophomores are talking about sex way too much for their age. Circle jerk, POV pornos? Do friends really discuss that with each other casually? I'd expect that from college students, but not high school.
Katie, who has an alcoholic father and wants to run away from home is going to be the first person to die. Can they make this stuff less obvious once in a while? Can't it be someone who has a fairly normal life and still feels inclined to be with Slenderman?
It's pretty easy to be cursed by Slenderman, isn't it? Just go online and click on "Summon Him" and there you go. Cursed for life. Must be the equivalent of kids being able to buy Ouija boards at Target.
Why didn't they show Katie walking into the woods? Couldn't they have just had a quick scene where she walks away from the crowd during the field trip? Jumping from her looking at the forest to the police searching for her makes me think she just vanished out of thin air.
How is Hallie just ignoring the fact that Katie's dad broke into her house? I wouldn't be like, "I'm sorry Katie is missing," I'd be like, "What the hell are you doing in my house? Get out!"
I have several issues with the scene where the girls sneak into Katie's house. First off, why after being arrested by the police for breaking into Hallie's house and assaulting her is Katie's dad back at home? Why is he not in jail? Second, why would the girls think that it would be better to sneak in by purposely waking the dad up and having one girl talk to him while the other two go to Katie's room? He's more likely to hear something up there if he is fully awake. Third, why did Hallie allow Wren to be alone with him saying that she'll do anything to cheer him up when just the day before Hallie was assaulted and yelled at by that same dad who broke into her house drunk? Hallie is a terrible friend, because Wren could've been yelled at by the dad too or worse in the middle of the night when he's been drinking and missing his daughter.
That scene where Slenderman's shadow is crawling along the wall behind the girls was good. I liked that part a lot.
"Why would she run away? Maybe because she has an alcoholic father...," who you met in the middle of the night to comfort in any way you can. How dumb are you? Also, that's all we really know about Katie, that she has an alcoholic father. That says nothing about her as it does about her family. How was Katie like as a person?
Let's say the way to beat Slenderman was to give up valuable possessions, then why would these girls think Slenderman would want their possessions broken and torn up? "Here is my precious cup I made in 5th grade, Slenderman. Now it is broken so you can use it, because I know you'd love to drink from broken shards of glass!"
Chloe, I know you've been complaining that you don't believe in Slenderman, but if you already went so far as to walk in the woods at night, tear up your last photo of your late father, and put on a blindfold, then you should have some common sense to not take off your blindfold as soon as Wren says, "Don't take off your blindfold." I don't even feel sorry that you went insane; that is absolutely your fault.
Why open the door if you think Slenderman is behind it? Why is your first instinct to go towards the danger, and not try to escape through your window? Also, I heard from my brother that what would've been cool is if Chloe imagined that it was her father behind the door. I agree that that would've been interesting and make her arc stronger other than admitting she lost her dad and never doing anything with that information.
Why is Wren having a hallucination of Slenderman in the library even though she never saw him?
Why is Hallie not having hallucinations if she saw Slenderman? Was seeing him in the woods while her crush was talking to her a hallucination or real? Both answers would not make sense and I'll tell you why. If you think it was a hallucination, then she should only be having a hallucination if she saw him back in the woods, which never happened. Only Chloe saw him. If it was real, then that would start the hallucinations afterwards, therefore Hallie should agree with Wren at this point because she should have have hallucinations like she did, but she's not, which doesn't make sense. This adds onto why is Wren getting hallucinations at all, because let's say that Hallie saw Slenderman for real in the woods, then she should have hallucinations way before Wren who has yet to really see Slenderman.
You know what would've been amazing? The scene where Hallie is getting ready for her date with her crush shows her brushing makeup under her eye. Imagine if the writers made her do that to cover up dark bags under her eyes to imply that she lied to Wren and she was having hallucinations, but she's covering it up so she doesn't look any less than perfect. I would've loved that!
That scene with the crush on top of Hallie bugging out was so funny; I can see that becoming a meme. Just Hallie screaming as different faces pop up, like Shrek.
I know that when someone tells you not to do something, 99 percent of people would feel inclined to do it anyway. But, if Hallie's crush knows about Slenderman and knows about Katie's disappearance and Chloe not going to school and Wren going crazy and his girl stressing to him not to watch the video, then why would he think it'd be okay to watch the video right away?
This is the scene that Chloe finally returns to school and stabs herself with the scalpel...wait no, that's not happening? Well, why still talk about cutting the animal eye then? You know that's not going to lead anywhere!
Did I suddenly walk into Inception? What's with the constant waking up from nightmares?
So because Hallie didn't believe in Wren, Wren decided to bring her little sister into all of this mess and guarantee her a lifetime of insanity or death...that makes sense.
"The only way to save Lizzie" What? How did Lizzie suddenly become the only victim to save? Matter of fact, why is Hallie even able to save Lizzie from Slenderman? This wasn't mentioned when Chloe went insane, so what makes Lizzie any different? How does AlleyKat know that Hallie needs to sacrifice her soul for Lizzie? It's not like AlleyKat did that for someone else or else she'd already be dead, and it's not like anyone did that for her because she's still crazy (as far as the audience knows).
Wren's death was very lackluster. Just YOINK!
Hallie saying, "take me" to Slenderman but immediately running away screaming after he shows his full form could be a meme for when someone says they're ready to sleep with you, but after you show how big you are they are scared and run away.
Why is Lizzie narrating the ending like this movie was about the power of sisterhood? Why is she making this sound like the Slenderman curse started with Hallie and her friends? It was clearly stated that this has gone on years before them. Have there been other cases like Lizzie's where someone was saved by a friend's sacrifice? If so, then why isn't that reported more? Why haven't people taken Slenderman more seriously if there are so many cases that suspect it was because of Slenderman that the kids were taken? This whole movie just leaves me with so many questions!
So the only time a black person is not killed in a horror movie is when she is not wanted. Chole was left to be crazy forever, which is a fate worse than death.
Last comment: I forgot when this happened in the movie, but at some point Hallie is looking at her test in class and her last name is Knudsen. The same last name as the creator of Slenderman.
Very cute! If I was him, I would've squealed.
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