Who is Slenderman and why is he dangerous? The Birth of Slenderman: The History and Cultural Imprint of the Creepiest Meme on the Internet

On May 7, a new horror film “Slender” will be released in Minsk cinemas. The film will tell the story of a film crew preparing a video about the mysterious disappearance of a family. On family archival recordings, members of the film crew unexpectedly discover the strange figure of a man in a black suit with incredibly long arms. Slenderman, the monster from the video, will now not leave the group of cameramen alone.

Let's face it, not the newest plot for a horror film. However, additional attention to the premiere is attracted by the fact that Slenderman (also called Slenderman, Thin Man, Skinny Man, Stick Man) is a popular Internet meme.

Where did Slenderman come from?

In June 2009, a specific event was held on the Something Awful forum, under the terms of which it was necessary to create a photo montage by adding some frightening detail to the most harmless images. One of the users of the Victor Surge forum posted two photographs with captions under them as part of the project.

“We didn’t want to go, we didn’t want to kill them, but his stubborn silence and outstretched arms both frightened and reassured us... / 1983, photographer unknown, presumed dead.”

"One of two photographs that survived the fire of the Stirling City Library. Notable for the date - the day of the disappearance of fourteen children - and the object, called "The Thin Man". Officials explain the distorted proportions as defects in the film. The fire in the library occurred a week later. The photographs themselves were confiscated as physical evidence / 1986, photographer: Mary Thomas, missing June 13, 1986."

Later, the author himself and other forum participants began to post pseudo-documentary photographs depicting Slenderman. As a rule, these are low-quality photographs in which a tall, thin figure of a faceless man in a black suit is visible either in the fog or in the forest among the trees. So gradually the Stickman began to acquire an “evidence base” and fan art.

Description and abilities of the Stick insect

First of all, it must be said that Slenderman is a product of the collective network mind, and there are no specific canons in the depiction of this urban legend. Most often, the monster is presented as an excessively tall, thin man with long arms and a complete absence of face. He is dressed in a strict black suit and white shirt with a tie, similar to how people usually dress for a funeral. His limbs have no joints and can bend in all directions; in some versions, Slenderman's arms can be lengthened or shortened. Sometimes he is depicted as multi-armed or with tentacles.

Due to the fact that he does not have a face and, accordingly, sensory organs, the Stickman has very developed telepathy. He feels his victim, can hypnotize, instill amnesia, and make him see nightmares. At night, he spies on his victims through the windows, no matter what floor they live on, and taps his fingers on the glass. It lives mainly in forests, where it easily camouflages itself as a tree; its appearance is often accompanied by fog. It often attacks lonely children lost in the forest. It is common for him to stand in the distance among the trees and fog, observing the victim, without showing outward signs of aggression. At the same time, it is unknown what exactly Slender does with his victims, but the abducted people, most often children, cannot be found.

Slenderman in popular culture

The image of a terrible monster, born on the Internet, quickly migrated to cinema and computer games. So already in June 2009, the first episode of the web series “Marble Hornets”, dedicated to the Stick Insect, was posted on YouTube.

In addition to the web series based on the Sleder myths, several computer games have been released. The most popular of them is “Slender: The Eight Pages”, it is distributed free of charge on the Internet. The participant of the game must find 8 notes from children kidnapped by the monster in the night forest without getting caught by Slenderman himself. In 2013, a sequel was released - "Slender: The Arrival" on a commercial basis.

What if he is real?

Despite the fact that Slenderman was invented on the Internet and his story was not initially even disguised as reality, there are zealous fans who believe in the existence of this monster. Fans point to earlier references to Slenderman in legends and fairy tales, citing the Tall Man (German: Der Großmann) from German folklore as an example. The Germans used the tall man to scare their children so that they would not go too far into the forest alone. The tall man is described almost like Slenderman, except that he has a semblance of a face - two large glowing orbs instead of eyes.

Some fans talk about their own encounters with Slenderman and even post video “evidence” online. Judging by the following videos, Slender visited residential areas of Moscow and Samara.

Because of the fanatical belief in Slenderman, terrible things sometimes happen. So last spring in the US state of Wisconsin, two 12-year-old girls tried to sacrifice their classmate to a fictitious monster. The poor girl miraculously survived after being stabbed 19 times.

Slender- the first urban legend born from the imagination of Internet users to become widespread. The image of a tall, long-armed man, dressed in a black suit and without a face, inspires the creators of computer games, musical compositions and films.

Slender also inspired Wardega, a famous prankster and video blogger from Warsaw, who decided to scare lonely passers-by in the evening.

So, on May 7, watch out for the incredibly tall man in the suit. After all, it will appear in thousands of cinemas around the globe.

Victoria Shchukevich, Bycard

Encyclopedic YouTube

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  The Thin Man was created as a result of a competition Create Paranormal Images held at the forum Something Awful in June 2009: participants were asked to use a graphic editor to add any supernatural and frightening details to ordinary photographs. June 10, 2009 forum user under a pseudonym Victor Surge(according to the game credits " Slender: The Arrival", his real name is Erik Knudsen. Eric Knudsen)) published two black-and-white photomontages depicting a fictional character chasing a group of children as part of the competition, and gave him the nickname “ Thin Man" and accompanied them with the following text:

  We didn’t want to go, we didn’t want to kill them, but his stubborn silence and outstretched arms both frightened and reassured us... / 1983, photographer unknown, presumed dead.

  Original text (English)

  we didn't want to go, we didn't want to kill them, but its persistent silence and outstretched arms horrified and comforted us at the same time... / 1983, photographer unknown, presumed dead.

  One of two photographs that survived the Stirling City Library fire. Notable for the date - the day of the disappearance of fourteen children - and the object, called the “Thin Man”. Officials explain the distorted proportions as defects in the film. A fire in the library occurred a week later. The photographs themselves were confiscated as evidence. / 1986, photographer: Mary Thomas, missing June 13, 1986.

  Original text (English)

  One of two recovered photographs from the Stirling City Library blaze. Notable for being taken the day which fourteen children vanished and for what is referred to as “The Slender Man”. Deformities cited as film defects by officials. Fire at library occurred one week later. Actual photograph confiscated as evidence. / 1986, photographer: Mary Thomas, missing since June 13th, 1986.

  On topic Create Paranormal Images The Thin Man's photographs created a sensation, and Victor Surge continued the theme by adding more photos, a police report, and even some children's drawings. Some users also decided to contribute by posting their own montages and fictional stories. This tradition gradually spread beyond Something Awful, and on the Internet the Thin Man quickly became very popular.

  Video diaries that appeared Marble Hornets had a significant influence on its mythology: for example, from there came the famous “Operator symbol” - a circle crossed out by a cross - and such concepts as Proxy (English Proxy, Slenderman’s “puppet”) and English. slender's sickness, symptoms that indicate his attention paid to a person. The idea of ​​​​video diaries with the participation of this character, using filming principles similar to Marble Hornets, and suggesting different theories of its origin, also gained great popularity on YouTube.

  Today, he has a large fan base, including stories, videos, amateur films, and even characters created in his image (for example, Offenderman, Splenderman and others, others). In the ideas of different people, his behavior and appearance may have almost no points of contact, since no one can describe a single image and model of behavior, and one can even say that each fan has his own image of the Thin Man, which is at least a little different from the others. This legend is also unique in that, despite its unconcealed fictitiousness, there are a relatively large number of people who, accepting this fact, believe in Slenderman and study him, and some also claim to have encountered him. This makes him the first full-fledged urban legend created on the Internet.

  Description

  Thin Man appears as a very tall, pale man with unnaturally long limbs that bend at random and sometimes black flexible tentacles or appendages growing from his back; one of his most striking features is his absolute facelessness (in some photographs by Erik Knudsen there are visible holes in the place of the eyes and nose, but later users picked up the idea of ​​a complete absence of sensory organs on this character’s head). He wears a black funeral suit with a white shirt, which could lead one to mistake him for a government agent or one of the Men in Black. Fan art often shows a modified image of him, different from the original one, and he can be depicted with a different build, body structure, skin color and clothing elements. Some researchers even tend to divide these images into the most realistic “classical” (which is usually described by people who allegedly encounter it; in English-language wikis this direction is called surgism) and “fan”, in which the character appears more as an Internet meme than an urban legend. First and foremost, the Thin Man is a kidnapper, in particular of children, whom he takes to a place where they are never found again.

  An integral part of the Slenderman image is the absolute uncertainty and ambiguity of his intentions. The canonical version of his origin, nature and goals remains, paradoxically, its complete absence, that is, perhaps even its author does not know where he came from, whether he was someone else before and why he would kidnap people. Some sources may present various hypotheses, from the tractable to the downright absurd, but it should be remembered that none of them are official theories, because there simply isn’t one. It is the uncertainty that scares people the most, since no one can say with certainty what the Thin Man does with the victim after the abduction. In addition, its inherent inevitability is also taken into account, which makes it similar to death, since it is impossible to resist it and in most cases the victim can only help himself by fleeing.

  It is believed that Slenderman is an excellent telepath, due to the absence of most senses and, accordingly, a hypertrophied sixth sense, and in Marble Hornets he was credited with the ability to erase, edit human memory and manipulate people, turning them into puppets. As a rule, the children he abducted began to have nightmares of him a few days before their disappearance. There is also an opinion that the Subtle Man “feels” when people are talking or thinking about him, and tries, if possible, to find and take these people. In games based on this legend, its influence on electronic photo and video devices was noted, which began to produce strong interference when approached. He is able to teleport, lengthen his body, arms, change their number and even turn them into tentacles. As a result, he basically does not use weapons or improvised means. It is unknown whether he has any other abilities, although his appearance was often accompanied by thick fogs.

  Apparently, the Thin Man is not very active in terms of movement: he usually stands modestly in the distance, sometimes with his head tilted to one side, and does not take outwardly aggressive actions, almost nowhere is he described as running and even walks quite rarely, preferring to move using teleportation behind the limit of the observer's vision. When trying to grab someone, he uses his hands, tentacles, or tries to put the victim into a stupor using hypnosis. Often the stories mention the severe headache that people experienced when making eye contact with him.

  Its habitats are mainly forests, in which it can very conveniently disguise itself as a tree, and abandoned buildings. He attacks lonely people, who then disappear, so that neither their bodies nor any traces of their presence are found, however, Victor Surge wrote that several missing people were found impaled on trees in the Steinmen Woods. A thin person is also characterized by the habit of knocking and peeking at windows at night (on any floor).

  Prototype and similarities to other characters

  Victor Surge emphasized that the image of the Thin Man was completely invented by him, and noted that he used the image of the Tall Man from the film “Phantasm” (), as well as photographs of men in formal suits taken from the network for photo montages. Despite this, some users Something Awful noted his resemblance to a mythical character called him. Der Großmann (Russian: The Tall Man), a fairy-like creature resembling the Boogeyman and according to legend lived in the Black Forest. The tall man was used to scare naughty children who ran into the forest at night, and in appearance he was very similar to Slenderman, except that he had a face with two white spheres instead of eyes. Der Großmann popular among fans and researchers of the Thin Man, but as an independent myth it is practically unknown.

  The thin man was also “found” in Romanian folklore: one of the users Something Awful a tale was posted about two girls, Stella and Sorina, who, together with their mother, encountered a tall man dressed all in black with many arms, “long and boneless like snakes, sharp like swords, and wriggling like worms.” The tale noted the demonic nature of the tall man, and presumably his ability to telepathy. This tale is probably nothing more than an invention of a forum participant (since, in addition to Something Awful, was not found anywhere else), but it had a significant influence on the formation of the final image, since, coupled with the legend of the Black Forest Tall Man, it made it clear that Slender Man may be several hundred years old and was known long before Eric Knudsen came up with it.

  There are many characters similar to the Thin Man: nopperapon, Kabadat (eng. Cabadath) from the game series Chzo Mythos, the devil in Stephen King's story "The Man in the Black Suit" or thin people in Brian Lumley's story "The Thin Ones", aliens from the episode "Silence" of the series "Doctor Who", etc. Despite sometimes considerable (as in the case of Kabadat) They have no similarities or connections with Slenderman and his mythology.

  It is also possible that this character is similar to a common vision during sleep paralysis.

  Spreading

  The Thin Man gained popularity as a character in scary stories - “ creepypasta?!", spreading between websites, forums and imageboards. Web series dedicated to Slenderman, Marble Hornets(Russian) Marble Hornets), was created by another user Something Awful under a pseudonym ce gars and was distributed through the YouTube service. The Marble Hornets webisodes, stylized as found footage, told the story of a fictional student filmmaker who, while trying to make a feature-length film, encounters paranormal phenomena, including the appearance of the Thin Man. Subsequently Marble Hornets was developed into a game in an alternate reality; As of 2013, the web series had 65 episodes, over 55 million views and 250 thousand subscribers on YouTube. In 2013, production began on a feature-length film based on the web series.

  In the TV program Digital Human The BBC's Thin Man has been called "the internet's first great myth". The success of his legend was attributed to the collective structure of the network: although almost everyone involved in creating the myth was well aware that Slender Man was a fiction, the online nature of this peculiar game allowed each participant to add their own details, thereby giving the image of the Thin Man a sense of authenticity. Victor Surge noted that a number of people, even knowing that the Thin Man was invented on the forum Something Awful a model of pseudo-folklore, but still allowed its existence in reality.

  Popular culture references

  • A reference to the Thin Man appeared in one of the episodes of the series Supernatural on March 4, 2014. The character shown there (he was called Thin Man) has many similarities, although it uses a knife as a weapon and looks somewhat different. According to the creators of the series, Thin Man was the fruit of a “team game” between two guys obsessed with paranormal phenomena.
  • On June 5, 2014, the Russian rock band LabiRinTuM released the song “Skinny Man”. It tells the story of a man who gets lost in the forest and is pursued by Slenderman. When creating the dark atmosphere of the song, the band was inspired by the works of Black Sabbath and King Crimson.
  • On July 20, 2014, Russian horror-punk band Voodoo Puppets released the song “Slender Man” on a split album with the band Botinki Ra. At the end of the track, repeated noise can be heard as Slenderman approaches.
  • In Game Runner 2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien A thin man can be seen in the background in the middle of the level, and at the end, if you do not let yourself be shot from a cannon, interference will appear, among which his white face will flash.
  • The Thin Man was also present on the map as a secret Zomboss Estate in Game Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare, where he stood in the forest out of the player's reach. After one of the updates, the Easter egg changed: now among the trees only the silhouette of Chomper is visible, from which someone’s legs are sticking out (this once again proves that the developers have a sense of humor).
  • IN Metro: Last Light As the story progresses, the player encounters a billboard depicting a faceless man in a black suit. Little Black, who we saved shortly before, will touch the shield, mentioning people carrying things. This moment is considered by many to be an Easter egg.
  • In a computer game Minecraft there is a mob called Enderman ( Enderman, russian The Endwalker) is a very tall black creature with long arms, reminiscent of Slender Man. Some players also noted the resemblance to another creature that was allegedly never in the game - the mythical mob Herobrine, according to legend, appearing in the fog and frightening the player by standing behind him. In addition, several mods have been created by users that add the Thin Man to the game.
  • In Game XCOM: Enemy Unknown There is an enemy called "Dead Man" Thin Man) - a reptilian masquerading as a very elongated, thin man in a suit.
  • In the episode "Dark Side of the Moon" (eng. Moon Madness) of the animated series "Drama Heroes: All Stars", the Thin Man is clearly visible in the middle of the episode on one of the monitors where the heroes are observed.
  • In the second episode of the third season of the series “Call of Blood,” the name Slenderman is mentioned at the very beginning, and is also one of the nicknames of the antagonist, better known as the Pied Piper of Galmen - a character (though not faceless) who can stretch out his arms and put people into a trance.
  • In the ninth episode of the fourth season of the animated series “Friendship is a Miracle,” when the heroes get to their aunt’s house in the forest, Pinkie Pie gives a monologue about the Apple family, after which, in a fit of enthusiasm, she jumps on Applejack. At the moment of the jump, when the camera pans to the right, a stylized Thin Man can be seen behind a Christmas tree in the background, disappearing so quickly that he can only be seen when the video is slowed down.
  • There is also an opinion that in the second episode of the first season of the animated series Gravity Falls, in one of the scenes in the forest, Slender Man can be seen in the background, which is usually confirmed by one frame showing him standing behind a tree. In fact, this shot is nothing more than a fake (in the original video there is no one behind the tree), and in fact it did not appear in this episode or in others. But in the mini-series “The Hine-Behind” Dipper is investigating a case about a certain Hiding- a tree-like thin creature (with similar features to Slenderman) that walks through the forest, but you can only see its traces. At the end of the episode, Dipper leaves, leaving the camera, and as can be seen, the Hiding Man avoids eye contact in every possible way.
  • IN Watch_Dogs On the streets of Chicago you can see several graffiti with a stylized image of a pale man in black without a nose, mouth, ears, hair and with shaded eyes. As in the case of a shield made of Metro: Last Light, many believe this is a reference to the Thin Man, but there is no reliable evidence of this.
  • In the web series "Annoying Orange" (episode Annoying Orange Vs. Slender) the main character Orange, together with his friends, wanders through the forest of Slenderman, where he meets him and, inexplicably, collects all 8 pages.
  • There are many references to Slenderman in other independent game projects, for example, in indie horror The Curse of Blackwater, where he can be seen in the distance on the way to the hospital. also in Five Nights at Freddy's 2 there is a character Marionette (eng. The Puppet), appearing as a skinny humanoid with long limbs and a mask, but her resemblance to the Thin Man is more of a coincidence than a reference.
  • In addition to this, in Goat Simulator in the main location there is a cemetery where you can find a creature that strongly resembles Slenderman.
  • Also one of the modes Yandere Simulator has a name Slender Mod: when you turn it on, the music changes, the atmosphere becomes very creepy, and the main character is tall, with long arms, legs and hair obscuring her face.
  • Many reviewers have compared the Thin Man to the “voids” from the film “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children,” which are grotesque creatures of enormous stature, on the head of which there is only a mouth with many tentacle-like tongues. Despite the similarities, it is unknown whether he was inspired by

  In childhood, every person was afraid of some terrible monster who lived in the wardrobe, closet, closet or under the bed, and was always waiting for the moment to grab the child and drag him somewhere into his abode. It was about this monster that many tales and scary stories were heard in childhood. Time passes, a person grows up, and all his fears remain in childhood.

  More recently, teenagers have been captivated by a new horror story - the story of Slender Man. Many people now know that this character can be found in most photographs taken in poor lighting or against trees.

  Who is Slender and what does he look like?

  Few people know how the story of Slenderman appeared, but everyone who has ever heard of him knows what he looks like. Everyone says that he is a tall and very thin man, he has incredibly long arms, which can also stretch out. Sometimes Slenderman appears with tentacles around his body. There is no hair on his head, and his face has no eyes, nose or mouth, it is just white and smooth. Dressed in a strict black funeral suit, a white shirt and a tie.

  Sometimes there may be a similar hero, but of a slightly different appearance, but what always remains the same is that Slenderman is very tall and skinny.

  Where does Slenderman live and how does he find his victims?

  

  Almost every Slenderman story tells that he lives in dark forests or abandoned buildings - there you can easily hide and hunt for your victims. As a rule, he attacks lonely people, and their bodies are never found. Although there are references to several victims being found impaled on trees in Steinman Forest.

  Despite the absence of eyes and other organs, he easily finds his victims. Most often these are children who go far into the forest. This suggests that he has well-developed telepathic abilities. Slender Man senses when people are thinking about him and comes after these people. A few days before the abduction, he begins to visit his victims in dreams. One of the web series, which described the story of Slender, endowed the hero with the ability to control a person’s memory, erasing and editing it, as well as turn people into puppets and control them.

  How did the Skinny Man appear?

  Thin Man was created in the summer of 2009 as part of one of the Something Awful forum competitions. According to the terms of the competition, something paranormal and frightening had to be applied to ordinary real photographs using a graphic editor. On June 10, 2009, one of the forum users posted 2 photographs in black and white, in which a fictional character is chasing children, and called his hero “The Thin Man.” The creator noted that his character was completely fictitious, and for photomontage materials were used in the form of photographs of men from the Internet and the image of the Tall Man from the film “Phantasm”, which appeared on screens in 1979.

  

  Some of the participants in the same competition noticed that the origin story of Slenderman has other roots, and they are connected with the mythical character Der Großmann. If you look deeper into history, you can find references to it back around 9000 BC. e., when drawings were left on the rocks in the Serra da Capivara cave (the cave is located in a national park located in the northeastern part of Brazil). These drawings depict a long creature leading a child by the hand.

  The story of the Thin Man's family and love

  The tall man was real. The following story of Slender tells about this. And his girlfriend was involved in his death. Want to know how it was?

  The guy was never popular at school, and over time he became an outcast. His mother raised him with the utmost severity, although she was engaged in prostitution. She separated from her husband (Slender's father) when the baby was not yet a year old. Mother did not want to reckon with modernity. She forced Slenderman to wear a formal suit with a tie and a white shirt everywhere except at home. Until some time, the boy did not care what he wore, but later he began to notice ridicule and bewilderment associated with his clothes from his peers, teachers and even ordinary passers-by on the street.

  

  Moreover, it was not only his clothes that made him unusual and strange. The guy heard some voices, and his body was covered with many moles, which sometimes came off with terrible pain. Over time, he got used to this pain and even learned to enjoy it.

  The guy’s unusual nature irritated many and caused disgust and a desire to kill him. One of the girls who really liked Slenderman told her friend about her desire not to see him anymore, and he decided to kill the guy so that he would never appear in front of people again.

  A guy in a formal suit was waylaid in the forest as he was walking home and severely beaten. Later, he was dragged into a closed, stuffy room, where the girl caressed him, and her friends mocked him, breaking his bones. At the end of the abuse, moles along with the skin were cut off from the body. The guy could not withstand such torment and died.

  After this, his ghost appeared.

  Slender - reality or fiction?

  It is very difficult to understand how and where this hero came from - there is no specific information about how the story of Slenderman appeared. But some people know for sure that it exists. Slenderman kidnaps children, and there are eyewitnesses who say they saw him shortly before the children disappeared. The parents notice that on the eve of the disappearance the child was talking about an incomprehensible tall, thin creature that appeared to him in nightmares. Children's stories were considered nonsense and fiction, but only until they disappeared.

  

  Summon Slenderman

  Despite the fact that the scary story about Slenderman causes fear in most people, some daredevils try to summon the spirit of the Tall Man. To call Slender you will need:

  • sheets of paper - 5 pcs.;
  • pen or pencil;
  • card deck;
  • tape and glue.

  The best time to call Slender is late at night, around 3 o'clock. With these simple items you can summon his spirit.

  A specific pattern is drawn on each sheet. To do this, it is not at all necessary to be an excellent artist; it is enough to draw so that Slender understands what is depicted on the paper.

  Whether it is worth summoning a spirit is up to each person to decide personally, but before doing this, it is still better to think again. What if Slender really exists?

  Going to see “Slenderman” I didn’t expect any special miracles. And don’t wait: the legend is still too young and abstract to captivate you for a long time especially if you are already an old man, and perfectly remember the corn fields, Elm Street and numerous knife wounds of the 80-90s. Since about 2011, the creature has been scaring you mainly through primitive fan short films and cheap indie video games. Fans should be grateful to Sony, thanks to which the mascot of the god-forgotten forum finally stepped into the BIG cinema.

  BIG cinema justified the investment, but on the whole it turned out to be unfavorable to the bald man. Instead of a semi-secret children's legend some kind of website instead of scraps of paper with drawings a video sequence that is a cross between a VHS tape from “The Ring” and the Wyoming Incident instead of the unintelligent viewers of Piggy and Stepashka high school students who already know how to drink and do it without contraceptives.

  The first failure is the heroes. The writers couldn't really decide on their age group. There are no “below the belt” jokes typical of teen horror, but the topics of conversation and types of leisure activities make it clear that we are talking about Alison DiLaurentis’ peers. However, for some reason, such high school students do not have the courage to neglect their homework, sneak away from a boring excursion, not to mention take their father’s car or revolver without asking. And when the characters’ rooms are filled with drawings that even a preschooler would be ashamed of, you begin to believe in the Benjamin Button effect.

  I have to devote a whole paragraph to the crap appearance of the main character. If you meet such a girl in the forest, you will most likely run away from there without looking back. At the very least, you will wonder why Slenderman doesn’t run away. This is exactly what the protagonist in “I Spit on Your Graves” should have been like; It’s not easy to imagine other possible incentives to grow up so quickly. Julia Goldani Telles is a living version of the difficult-to-explain “uncanny valley” phenomenon. Given the proportions of a child’s body, it is impossible to have such mature facial features! It's not just about height; dwarfs still have primary sexual characteristics, which somehow allow your visual analyzer to calculate age with minimal error. But Julia is a real Frankenstein, assembled from the body of an 8-year-old girl and the head of a 35-year-old divorcee! A faceless mannequin in a Versace suit risks drowning in bottomless circles under his eyes and black, black locks that would be the envy of Sadako, any member of the Addams family, and any witch of Salem. With such a main character, there is no need for any monsters.

  Well, and behavior: throughout the film, Hallie behaves not just like a mature person, but even like a person tired of life, who has seen absolutely everything in her lifetime. Partly, the main character is pushed towards the responsibility inherent in adults by having a younger sister (and the little sister, so you understand, is actually about as naive and carefree as Georgie, the younger brother of the protagonist of “It”). Usually in horror films, teenagers completely lose their minds, stop all internecine strife and begin to actively fight evil approximately halfway through the running time. Here the main character remains completely skeptic until the very end. The best friend has to tear out her hair, save lives, do at least something to find a way out of the horror, whose motivation is also not unlimited I don’t feel sorry for the girl who originally ran into the forest, nor the main character’s boyfriend, nor all the other characters.

  This is a rare film in which incorrectly constructed psychological portraits are not a bug, but a feature. The scriptwriters hoped to scare us with the scale of personal degradation; the characters really lose their minds so spectacularly that by the end the film teeters on the edge of arthouse. The problem is that in order to become imbued with sympathy for initially spoiled and stupid teenagers, a significant temporary fuse of a cheerful life is required, and in the case of my heart of stone, also a convincing firmness of their starting position in life. For example, coming with a canister and burning the whole damn forest is a promising act, from which one could dance further. But time passes, and the heroes still do not take decisive actions that would distinguish them from cattle going to slaughter. The film suffers from the drawback inherent in many of Lovecraft's stories: the characters go crazy in pictures, but you know very well that you can't go crazy just by looking at an overly branched tree or a mannequin in a tie!) Stories about a killer site you can't go to the golden cinema fund at the expense of psychology and then Hollywood techniques that have proven themselves well in the past are used.

  Thank you so much for working with sound! True, the ringing sound to which the kidnapper appears is also non-canonical, but this is no longer important.

  The accumulation of suspense technologies that have pumped up the power of suspense technologies for 2K! 8 successfully distracts from the cliches and flaws of the plot. The main villain, as it should be, is not shown again without anything to do, and even if they are shown, then immediately in all his glory and without hints of any vulnerabilities. But, again, Slenderman has lost his originality; acquired characteristics not inherent in the original legend, even if they were disguised pseudo-documentary facts. In addition to the ringing, this is a black aura rented from Japanese demons, and the replacement of a bald head shining in the dark with some rags on the head like nurses in the film adaptations of Silent Hill, and the fashionable ability to inhabit heroes in absolutely “peaceful” times. This is the perfect film about hopelessness: You don’t have to forbid your child/grandson to walk through the woods at night, if danger can, breaking all the rules of good manners, await him in broad daylight at school, and among a crowd of thousands on the stands of the stadium, and in in his own room under two thick blankets. However, this is how a good thriller should be: the right to relax and catch your breath, smiling in the confidence that they won’t attack you right now, should have long ago remained somewhere in a carefree childhood, flavored with the books of Robert Stein. The second decade of the 21st century obliges you to always be on alert. In general, such a film should have appeared either deep in the 80s of the last century, or at least 6 years ago. In the first case, the success of the film would be ensured by the freshness of such an approach, in the second the amazing wave of popularity of Slenderman thanks to “8 Pages”, “The Arrival” and other cool interactive adventure games.

  On my way out of the hall I wanted to praise the film for scaring me “without a single drop of blood,” but, alas, it turns out that I also watched the cut-down version.

  But the film still achieves its main goal: you, of course, will not leave the hall as a completely different person, but it will be very difficult for you to hide the fact of viewing. Something in you will definitely change. You will become more mature and will yearn less for those school years that are irretrievably gone. Your childhood, from a collection of the happiest moments of your life, risks turning into a police report with a detailed description of the stupid things you have committed, which you will immediately want to bury deeper in the palaces of your mind and never get out of it again.

  Slenderman is a monster who stands out for his tall stature and skinny figure. He has no nose, eyes or other parts of his face. He is dressed in a black funeral suit, white shirt and red tie. This monster is also called the Thin Man. According to the legend that explains whether Slenderman exists, the monster lives in forests and areas where thick fog is constantly present. Such landscapes serve as an excellent camouflage for him. The monster attacks, stretching out its already rather large arms and hugging the victim. He then takes her away to an unknown location. When people see the Thin Man, they fall into a stupor and cannot move and call for help. The monster's fingers can also turn into tentacles.

  Does Slender Really Exist?

  In 2009, a thread was created on the Something Awful forum where anyone could suggest new characters for scary stories. Victor Serge is the man who introduced the monster Slenderman. Since then, the terrible image has spread throughout the world and, most interestingly, people began to send evidence that Slenderman exists. In numerous photographs one could see a strange creature with a thin and tall body. Photographs captured the Thin Man in forests, dark rooms, etc. Most often the image appeared in Norway, Japan and America. By the way, on the same forum there is information that the skinny monster has an antagonist brother, Splendor. He has a similar one, but his suit is colored. His main task is to help lost people return home.

  During the creation of the Thin Man, many people argued and offered their own versions of where the image of the strange monster came from. Some drew an analogy with the character of a German fairy tale - the Tall Man, who is a faceless scarecrow. Others claimed that the roots of the story originate in a Romanian fairy tale about two girls who met a scary multi-armed monster dressed all in black. Thinking about whether Slenderman (Slender Man, Slender Man) exists and where he came from, people also remembered V. Dahl’s book, or rather his hero Longshanks. There were many more different versions that, to some extent, could be attributed to the Thin Man, but no one settled on one version.

  There is also another theory that points to whether Slender Man actually exists. The image of a tall man in a suit was first described in the early 90s. Photographs depicting the Thin Man were found in the Sterlin Library. Interestingly, they were made on the day when 14 children went missing. In this story there is mention that, in addition to children, adults involved in photography disappeared. It was while taking a photo of the monster that they disappeared forever.

  Every year the story of the Thin Man acquires more and more new facts. People talk about encounters with the monster. For example, someone saw him over their bed at night, others provided photo and video evidence involving Slenderman. In March 2014, he appeared in one of the episodes of the famous TV series Supernatural. which aroused even greater interest in his person. As a result, people simply stopped distinguishing between what is true and what is just a figment of fantasy. Psychologists have their own opinion about the persona of the Thin Man. They claim that this is only a reflection of the main human ones. This image was infused with all the worst things that can happen in life.

  Let's sum it up

  Despite numerous theories and photographs, there is still no 100% proof of whether Slenderman really exists. Therefore, each person has the right to independently decide whether to believe or not that a terrible monster may be hiding in the dark, which at any time can drag you into the unknown.