Slender Man is a horror film based on the notorious, internet creepypasta. Slender Man for those of you who don’t know is a being who torments, targets and in some cases kills people, mainly children. The plot of the film focuses on a group of friends who summon Slender Man, swiftly things begin to go wrong. The screenplay suffers from incredibly poor writing, with baffling, nonsensical decision making; such as the reasoning behind why the girls summon Slender Man: being another group of people are doing it, so they think why not. That’s it.
On a positive note, the film did make some welcome additions to the Slender Man lore; this is only thing the film gets right. However, even this is a double-edged sword as the mythology they set up also serves to demystify Slender Man to a dulling effect.
What’s more, the film fails to make Slender Man creepy, which is laughable as they had so much to work with, instead, he is forgettable; even when he is in his full form he doesn’t inspire thoughts of fear, rather disappointment.
The dialogue in the film is not even laughably bad, that would be too warm a term, it is a collection of the most out of touch, cringey, maddening lines you will ever hear– with the writer trying and failing to capture the essence of Teenage lingo. Said, Teenagers are so bland and forgettable it is hard, even during the film, to remember their names; let alone care about them.
Overall this film reeks of meddling, with absent sequences and has character’s storylines going unresolved; despite a resolution being central to the narrative. To me, this a cynical attempt to cash in on a brand with very little thought given to anything else; Slender Man deserves better than this.
1.5/5
Reviewed by Luke
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