Slender Man

Starring: Joey King, Julia Goldani Telles, Jaz Sinclair, Annalise Basso, Alex Fitzalan, Taylor Richardson, Javier Botet, Jessica Blank
Directed by: Sylvain White
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
2018
Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A group of friends in Massachusetts playfully summon the Slender Man via an online video. When strange happenings start to occur and one of them goes missing, they start to wonder if the summoning actually worked.

Review:

Tim: I know that Slender Man received absolutely terrible reviews from critics. I admit it's not a good movie, but I was surprised by how much people hated it. I thought it was a perfectly fine horror movie. It felt like all those lackluster, unmemorable horror movies that we've gotten over the years. It might not be overly entertaining, but it was a decent movie. I don't understand why this one should receive more hatred than others. I had a decent time watching it.

I do believe that Slender Man has an interesting origin story. I never knew anything about creepypasta, but I found the creation of Slender Man and how he went viral to be interesting. There was the story of the stabbing in Wisconsin, which the two girls attributed to Slender Man, which puts a dark twist on the character. I understand that in light of that event (and some other similar ones) that this might not have been the most ethical decision to make this movie. If people hated this movie for that, I suppose I understand that viewpoint. I've seen too much to be fazed by that. Hollywood will do anything for a buck (the Boston marathon bombing movies still stick in my mind) so I'm not sure why anyone is surprised they would capitalize on this. Although Slender Man is fake and a creation, there was enough buzz in the online community to give it a sense of being rooted in reality. It added an interesting take on this film- it's obviously fiction, but Slender Man was cloaked in some amount of mystery.

The story itself is about as bland and generic as it gets in this genre. A group of girls summon a supernatural entity and then it begins terrorizing them. We've seen this done numerous times before. This movie offers very little that's new or different. We see a girl mysteriously disappear. We see other characters see and experience things that break down their mental state where they no longer have a firm grasp on reality. We see characters wandering around the woods, illogically searching for a scary supernatural force that will probably kill them if they find it. It all feels simple and recycled. None of it is terrible, but it just feels like we're traveling down a path we've been down many times before.

I thought Slender Man was decently portrayed. There's a few nerve-racking moments in the film. I've always found the idea of shadowpeople frightening and this movie touches on that a bit. The faceless of Slender Man is something we've seen before, but I thought the long limbs were especially creepy. I wasn't buying the whole tree aspect to the ghoul. That just felt odd. As a whole, though, the movie does create a few creepy moments and a few intense ones. Other movies are far scarier, but I admit feeling an occasional bout of dread.

The cast was fine, but a bit disappointing. Joey King was solid. I've seen her in a bunch of things before, but it was fun to see her more in the spotlight. She's a decent actress for someone so young and I thought did a solid job. Julia Goldani Telles was really the lead actress. She was fine, but a bit too forgettable in the role. This is the first time I've seen her act and I have to admit I wasn't impressed. The rest of the cast felt lackluster, kind of your typical low budget horror movie cast. There really weren't any standouts.

Slender Man is a fairly generic horror movie. Besides the titular character, it doesn't offer us anything else that we haven't seen before. The execution of the idea wasn't very good. Again, I have to stress how surprised I am that so many people hated this movie so much. It's not good, but I thought it was more forgettable than anything else. I feel no animosity towards this movie, I only wish it was better. Maybe I totally missed what everyone else saw, but I didn't hate this film.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Truth or Dare, The Ring, Rings