He’s here – Slender Man just got its first trailer.
And it’s suitable creepy.
Based on a creepypasta internet meme, Slender Man brings the well-dressed supernatural horror to the big screen… and it looks just as terrifying as the stories which have sprung up across the internet.
Seriously, it looks as though the upcoming horror won’t be pulling any punches.
Back in 2009, Something Awful forum user Eric Knudson posted a couple of photoshopped images which depicted a tall, well-dressed supernatural creature tormenting some children. It wasn’t long before other users began to elaborate on his creation, and thus Slender Man was born.
He quickly became a modern-day boogeyman, and is one of the most widely-known internet urban legends of the modern age.
Now, the creepy pasta is appearing on the big screen for the first time.
And I’m not sure we’re ready.
This rather chilling first trailer gives us a brief glimpse of what to expect from Slender Man while also keeping the creature himself mostly out of sight. Here, we see him tormenting a group of children with various supernatural goings on… and it looks as though he has the ability to coerce kids into doing terrible things – a rather grisly nod to the real-life attempted murder in 2014 which saw two 12-year-old girls stab a classmate in an attempt to perform a ‘sacrifice’ to Slender Man.
But is the supernatural horror still scary enough?
I can’t help wondering whether the days of this urban legend have come and gone.
After all, he’s entered the public consciousness in such a way for such a long time, that we kinda know what to expect.
Not to mention, we’ve already encountered his influence throughout popular culture.
Will the creepy internet meme prove scary enough to warrant a horror flick?
For now, we’ll have to wait and see.
But while the first trailer looks promising, I still have some doubts.
Slender Man stars Joey King, Javier Botet, Julia Goldani Telles, Jaz Sinclair, Kevin Chapman, Alex Fitzalan, and Michael Reilly Burke.
Silvain White directed the movie, based on a script by David Birke and Victor Surge.
Slender Man heads to cinemas on 18 May 2018.
