Slender Man is a 2018 American supernatural horror film directed by Sylvain White from a screenplay by David Birke, based on the Internet meme character created by Eric Knudsen.
The movie stars Javier Botet as the titular monster alongside Jaz Sinclair, Joey King, Julia Goldani Telles, Annalise Basso, and Alex Fitzalan.
Plot:
In a small town in Massachusetts, four high school girls perform a ritual in an attempt to debunk the lore of Slender Man.
When one of the girls goes mysteriously missing, they begin to suspect that she is, in fact, Slender Man’s latest victim…
Reviews:
“The biggest problem with Slender Man, aside from its lack of scares and lassitudinous tempo, is that the title character is simply an unworthily conjured, weakly developed character that does not merit its own movie. Not only does it crib its mythic lore from various boogeymen we’ve come to know and even love over the decades, but it does nothing to set itself apart or to give it a uniquely sinister signature along the way.” Arrow in the Head
“The actresses do their best to imbue these teens with endearing friendships and plausibility, but the script is riddled with plot holes. Horror favorite Javier Botet is credited as portraying the Slender Man, but he’s so heavily CG’ed over it’s impossible to notice his contribution to the character. Slender Man took a blank slate of possibilities and turned it into a tired retread.” Bloody Disgusting
“In terms of creating a creepy and unsettling movie for those who have been enthralled by the Slender Man character over the last few years, White delivers in that department. It’s not really an experience for the more cynical horror fans out there, but teens looking for some big screen scares this weekend should have some fun with what Slender Man has to offer.” Daily Dead
“Creepypasta devotees shouldn’t expect storytelling on par with even the internet’s most poorly typed short stories, nor should casual moviegoers expect anything more than a base idea that “Oh, hey, Slender Man sure is a weird-looking dude!” Too drab, too underdeveloped, too simple in construct, too downright insulting by way of genre convention. All that for some shadows and mean-as-hell trees?” Dread Central
” …none of this adds up to much. Worst of all is the poor old Slender Man himself, who barely gets featured in his own film. When he does pop up it’s painfully obvious that nobody knows what to do with him, and instead of remaining an enigmatic spectral presence he ends up being turned into a bit of a daft CGI-fest.” House of Mortal Cinema
“The movie is certainly at its most interesting when it is unafraid to take some true risks, but those happen far too rarely. The best bits—a supernatural video call, a library sequence that plays with perspective—don’t resonate because they’re often expressed with flat filmmaking and acting.This is one of those horror films that succumbs to so much bad movie logic…” RogerEbert.com
Main cast and characters:
- Javier Botet … Slender Man – Freehold; Devil’s Gate; The Crucifixion; Hostile; Insidious: The Last Key; The Mummy; The Boy; Crimson Peak; et al
- Jaz Sinclair … Chloe
- Joey King … Wren
- Julia Goldani Telles … Hallie
- Annalise Basso … Piper
- Alex Fitzalan … Tom
- Kevin Chapman … Mr Jensen
Filming locations:
Principal photography began on June 19, 2017, in Boston and concluded on July 28, 2017.
Release:
Slender Man was released on August 10, 2018, by Screen Gems (Patient Zero; Keep Watching; Flatliners), rated PG-13.
Box office:
As of August 14, 2018, Slender Man had taken $14,185,637 on its domestic US release, against a reported budget of $10 million.
