Slender Man

Currently, "Slender Man" has the distinction of being on IMDB's infamous Bottom 100 List...the 100 worst rated major release films. While I certainly didn't enjoy the film, it seems odd that this one made the list when there are so many worse modern horror films which somehow avoided the list. I just can't see this as the 50th worst film....let alone 500th.

The idea of the film is taken from a pre-existing story of a 'Slender Man' who will kill or make folks crazy who are dumb enough to call upon him. In many ways, the film is a very derivative project--using the existing notions as well as infusing it with ample parts "The Ring" as well as the "Bloody Mary" story that's been floating around for decades. With "Bloody Mary", a person supposedly calls the name out repeatedly until some murderous other worldly thing appears.

The story begins with four very dumb high school girls having a sleepover. They find some info on the internet about a Slender Man and despite being warned, they summon the creature...and the rest of the film is about them each disappearing or going mad one after the other.

The movie has a scary style to it, with its pulsing music and bass....though after a while it does become annoying instead of scary. The story itself is nothing new...consisting of lots of ideas from other stories, urban legends and films. The acting and direction are fair. My only serious complaint is that I wish it HAD been awful...that would have made it a lot more interesting.

The acting was poor, the plot was poor, even the damn lighting was poor, I couldn't even see what was happening! This was the worst movie I'd ever watched and found it to be the most confusing, stupid plot ever! Slenderman was and still is well known and if this movie had done the job well and right, it would have been a bloody blockbuster. But it was terrible and disappointing :( Plus Joey king can't act for absolute crap....Don't waste your money or time with this one! I learnt the hard way <3

This latest version of the Slender Man mythology seems to be universally reviled though I don't entirely understand why. It's not great but it's simply not THAT bad.

Alike Lovecraft Slender Man seems to be one of those commonly used subject matters that always seeems to miss the mark. Filmmakers just don't seem to be able to make the most out of the fantastic material presented before them.

So yet again we see a tale of a group of young folks on the run from the Slender Man and spooky things happen. Yadayadayada.

With a decent young cast including Joey King and Annalise Basso we're presented with the glossiest and most high budget Slender Man movie yet. Sadly along with the budget comes all the usual Hollywood horror flaws, demonstrating once again how badly Hollywood have lost their way when it comes to the entire genre.

Sure it looks great, but the plot tail spins out of control by about the halfway mark and that's such a shame as up until then it was showing real potential. Hollywood need to go back to the drawing board, hire indie filmmakers to adapt material otherwise we'll just keep getting this Insidious/Conjuring tripe.

Slender Man has it's moments and the concept is pure gold, this however is more squandered potential.

The Good:

It's Slender Man!

Atmospheric

Great cast

The Bad:

Plot falls apart badly

Potential isn't met

Too many common tropes and cliches

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Slender Man mythology is fantastic but really inconsistent, no wonder they get it so wrong with adaptations

Joey King and Annalise Basso are going to be big stars

Slender Man is like Aliens (Xenomorphs), he needs keeping in the shadows or he looks a bit silly

This should have been called The Ring: Slender Man

This movie was horrible . Longest hr & half of my life. It kept dragging and relied on not so scary jump scares. I was impressed with how much the trailer made the movie look scary and good but of course it was the wonders of cutting room floor editing. Plus most scenes in the trailer aren't in the movie!!!!

There isn't much good I can say. The characters are very bland and forgettable. The approach they went with this movie was just horrible. Summoning slender man was the wrong way to go about it. I thought they would take a more subtle approach. They basically used slender man like the boogeyman in sinister 2. He appeared WAY TOO MUCH. Should of had him more of a shade background character. Not to mention slender man looked horrible. I can't believe they went with the cheesy internet depiction with the suit. The effects look high school grade at best. The only good thing I can say about the movie is that one of the scenes where a main character was making out with a boy from her class at his house turned out to be the most hilarious scene I've ever seen in my life. I literally died of laughter, cried real tears in the theater at how bad the scene was because she had a slender man hallucination during it and it was just so cringeworthy, silly looking and just flat out terrible. I've never laughed like that in my life. Ending was unsatisfactory and poorly executed. I was going to give it a 2 but the entertainment factor was there because it was so bad that it was good. So I give it a 3 for that. Wait until it hits streaming.