Slenderman - why is he so popular?

Started by Beorning, July 02, 2015, 11:24:47 AM

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Beorning

I mean, I don't get it.

For a few years now, I've kept hearing how Slenderman is the scariest and the most fascinating horror creature ever. The concept inspired crowds of people to expand the mythos. There are blogs, vlogs, stories, images, alternate reality games (whatever these are...) and so on. Heck, there's a professional movie based on it soon to be released.

Meanwhile, I have never found the creature too interesting. He's not creepy to me in the slightest and I'm not finding him terribly original, either. I'm not even impressed by the original photomanips that started it all.

But I'm in the minority, as thousands of people seem to love Slenderman. So, what am I missing here..?

Lustful Bride

Hes so popular simply because he was among the very first internet horror stories. The details about him were kept so vague that it kept people wanting more.

RedPhoenix

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Beorning

I've heard about Marble Hornets, but is this series long? I'm not sure I have time for it...

Rogue

There's an indie game based on it that was horrifying. The concept itself is fairly lame. The game was scary.


Melusine

Maybe he's not the scariest and most fascinating, (personally I like him because he's vaguely lovecraftian but it's a purely subjective matter) but just by being a meme he's naturally going to spread and become popular. He has the honour of being the first purely internet created, postmodern urban legend/folklore.

I think people are drawn to his mystery. The unknown is always scary, especially when it's so sinister, directly or indirectly. Also he's shown signs of affecting the bodies and minds of his victims, and being a part of a larger conspiracy. All elements that make for effective horror. Another big draw, at least if one wants to try their hand at creating a narrative around him, is that he is so vague the creator can make up their own stuff and personalise it a little. That's why no two stories of the Slenderman are the same.

Marble Hornets is a web series comprised of about 90 (at this point) videos. They're all relatively short, none of them are over 15 minutes long I don't think. I don't wanna spoil anything, but at its most basic it's about a group of people stalked and affected by Slendy. It's amateurish but a good effort in my opinion, and has some decent scares. It's also pretty mindfucky and will leave you going "BZUH?" at some moments. No mystery will ever be resolved. You can also try Tribe Twelve and EverymanHYBRID, the other two webseries about Slendy. All together these three complete the trifecta of major Slenderman-related efforts.

You can also play the games Slender (which is free I believe) and Slender: The Arrival, but they're more basic and they don't try to delve into a specific mythology of the monster. He's just a weird faceless guy that stalks you. They are effective and atmospheric though.

Rogue

Slender was the game. *points above*

Lustful Bride

Quote from: Melusine on July 02, 2015, 03:22:37 PM
Maybe he's not the scariest and most fascinating, (personally I like him because he's vaguely lovecraftian but it's a purely subjective matter) but just by being a meme he's naturally going to spread and become popular. He has the honour of being the first purely internet created, postmodern urban legend/folklore.

I think people are drawn to his mystery. The unknown is always scary, especially when it's so sinister, directly or indirectly. Also he's shown signs of affecting the bodies and minds of his victims, and being a part of a larger conspiracy. All elements that make for effective horror. Another big draw, at least if one wants to try their hand at creating a narrative around him, is that he is so vague the creator can make up their own stuff and personalise it a little. That's why no two stories of the Slenderman are the same.

Marble Hornets is a web series comprised of about 90 (at this point) videos. They're all relatively short, none of them are over 15 minutes long I don't think. I don't wanna spoil anything, but at its most basic it's about a group of people stalked and affected by Slendy. It's amateurish but a good effort in my opinion, and has some decent scares. It's also pretty mindfucky and will leave you going "BZUH?" at some moments. No mystery will ever be resolved. You can also try Tribe Twelve and EverymanHYBRID, the other two webseries about Slendy. All together these three complete the trifecta of major Slenderman-related efforts.

You can also play the games Slender (which is free I believe) and Slender: The Arrival, but they're more basic and they don't try to delve into a specific mythology of the monster. He's just a weird faceless guy that stalks you. They are effective and atmospheric though.

Ehh Slender man's fear factor kind of gets ruined when you have a video about one of the mian character's of the video yelling obsceneties at the monster.

Warning: lots of cursing.




Also I think I would totally do this when faced with a monster instead of going into a corner and crying :P Why get scared when you can get mad?

la dame en noir

The first time I ever heard and read about Slenderman, it scared me to death. I had to stay up until 6am in order to sleep because I was that scared. Then again, I get scared very easily. But - the game based off of him is frightening as hell.
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#10
Quote from: la dame en noir on July 02, 2015, 06:43:12 PM
The first time I ever heard and read about Slenderman, it scared me to death. I had to stay up until 6am in order to sleep because I was that scared. Then again, I get scared very easily. But - the game based off of him is frightening as hell.

Just imagine hes asking you for 20 dollars. ;)

(The lazy bum, cant get a job in the Hentai industry so he uses his tentacles to mug people instead X3)

I love ruining horror things, its fun to me :)

Idk where the $20 thing came from, but since then it ruined slendy's horror factor for me X3


And then there is Markiplier punching Slendy in the balls X3



Drake Valentine

Just gonna leave this here

QuoteOn May 31, 2014, two 12-year-old girls in Waukesha, Wisconsin allegedly held down and stabbed a 12-year-old classmate 19 times; when questioned later by authorities, they reportedly claimed that they wished to commit a murder as a first step to becoming proxies of the Slender Man, having read about it online.[25] The victim was able to crawl out of the woods, where she had been left, to get to a roadside. Due to the intervention of a passing cyclist, the victim survived the attack. The attackers were charged as adults and are each facing up to 65 years in prison.[26] One of the girls said Slender Man watches her, can read minds and teleport.[25] Experts testified in court that she also said she conversed with Lord Voldemort and one of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. On August 1, 2014, she was found incompetent to stand trial and her prosecution was suspended until her condition improved.[27] On November 12, 2014, a doctor judged that her condition had improved enough for her to stand trial.[28] On December 19, 2014, the judge ruled that both girls were competent to stand trial.[29]

In a statement to the media, Eric Knudsen said, "I am deeply saddened by the tragedy in Wisconsin and my heart goes out to the families of those affected by this terrible act." He stated he would not be giving interviews on the matter.[30]

After hearing the story, an unidentified woman from Hamilton, Ohio told a WLWT TV reporter her 13-year-old daughter had attacked her with a knife, and had written macabre fiction, some involving the Slender Man, who the mother said motivated the attack.[31]

On September 4, 2014, a 14-year-old girl in Port Richey, Florida set her family's house on fire while her mother and nine-year-old brother were inside; police reported that the teenager had been reading online stories about Slender Man as well as Atsushi Ōkubo's manga Soul Eater.[32] Eddie Daniels of the Pasco Sheriff's Office said of the girl, "She had visited the website that contains a lot of the Slender Man information and stories [...] It would be safe to say there is a connection to that."[33]

During an early 2015 epidemic of suicide attempts by young people ages 12 to 24 on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Slender Man was cited as an influence; the Oglala Sioux tribe president noted that many Native Americans traditionally believe in a "suicide spirit" similar to the Slender Man.[34]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slender_Man

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AndyZ

I would imagine that, like zombies, Slenderman is open for the public to use without any real copyright, so people are free to use it as much as they want for various stuff.
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Lustful Bride

Quote from: Drake Valentine on July 02, 2015, 07:23:47 PM
Just gonna leave this here

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slender_Man

Yeah the little girls were crazy? and? I don't see the point of dropping the article there.  :-\

RedPhoenix

Quote from: AndyZ on July 02, 2015, 07:39:42 PM
I would imagine that, like zombies, Slenderman is open for the public to use without any real copyright, so people are free to use it as much as they want for various stuff.

Nope. He was created by one guy who has been acknowledged as having creative control over him. He's pretty chill about letting people do what they want with it, but it's not the same as being public domain.
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Drake Valentine

Quote from: Lustful Bride on July 02, 2015, 07:48:47 PM
Yeah the little girls were crazy? and? I don't see the point of dropping the article there.  :-\

Even its irrelevance is relevant.  News of craze events only fuel fire to an icon for better or worse in terms of popularity. Especially when tragic events happen not once but multiple times across the states.

Makes you wonder if similar is happening in other parts of world that were not recorded.

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Beorning

So, I downloaded and tried playing Slender. It overheated my computer, so I had to stop playing before anything happened, though... Hm.

I also watched the first ten parts of Marble Hornets. So far, there's nothing too surprising about the story, just a guy apparently stalked by something mysterious (which I already know to be Slenderman). We'll see how the story develops...

EnchantedDream218

I heard about Slenderman cause I watch a bunch of CreepyPasta's. I would stay up till 1 am listening to a bunch of stories. I believe he's a pretty creepy creature but I had no idea that there was a game based off of him. I'll check out the movie when it comes out and see how well the story is.

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CuriousEyes

In all honesty I think a bit of the "fear" about/of Slenderman is tongue-in-cheek and many people who hype it up are just trying to play along with the crowd.

Kind of like playing with a Ouija Board with your friends - every time the piece moves everyone argues that they didn't push it, and it builds up to this group narrative that something is actually happening.

That's not to say there aren't people who are legitimately scared by the concept or that there isn't some quality content out there using it. Just that there are definitely some people who are basically just trying to be "seen being scene" for lack of a better way to put it.

Oniya

Quote from: Beorning on July 02, 2015, 11:24:47 AM
Meanwhile, I have never found the creature too interesting. He's not creepy to me in the slightest and I'm not finding him terribly original, either. I'm not even impressed by the original photomanips that started it all.

But I'm in the minority, as thousands of people seem to love Slenderman. So, what am I missing here..?

Quite honestly, I find some of the stuff in the Elliquiy Nightmares thread to be scarier than Slenderman.
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Drake Valentine

Quote from: Oniya on July 06, 2015, 08:40:43 AM
Quite honestly, I find some of the stuff in the Elliquiy Nightmares thread to be scarier than Slenderman.

I'm scarier than Slenderman. >:)

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Samael

I like how the Slenderman spawned a few similar concepts that do a good job being creepy, like the "Smiling Man."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u6Tt3PqIfQ
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#22
Quote from: Samael on July 06, 2015, 05:21:00 PM
I like how the Slenderman spawned a few similar concepts that do a good job being creepy, like the "Smiling Man."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u6Tt3PqIfQ

This looked very well done but I had to stop at 1m cuz I could tell it was gonna terrify me. :3

e: okay I watched the whole thing it was more goofy than scary thank goodness. :)
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Asphodel Terrarium

I also do not understand as to how Slenderman can be popular. Isn't he only a man with a white mask as opposed to rumoirs about him being faceless? Or perhaps the Spirit Koh, the Face Stealer,  from Avatar the Last Airbender stole his face?

;D Anyway, I found that $20 quite funny. I get easily scared so laughing at it really helps.

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