Beware the Slenderman - An Exploitative Documentary

Please note that this article contains sensitive topics which some viewers may be disturbed by.

I have never reviewed a documentary before, and this was quite the one to choose. Beware the Slenderman is a 2017 documentary, directed by Irene Taylor Brodsky. For those of you unaware, in 2014, two twelve-year old girls stabbed one of their friends in Waukesha, Wisconsin. When apprehended and interviewed, it became aware that the two girls plotted to murder the victim to “appease” the fictional character, the Slender Man, convinced he was real, and would murder their own loved ones if the victim did not die (which she didn’t).

Now, I am not really here to judge those involved in the crime, the victim, the culprits, or their families. I am instead here to discuss the nature of this documentary and its quality. Upon watching this documentary, it felt strangely like two separate films had been slapped into one form, and the end result is an often uncomfortable watch, with a confusing narrative and focus.

On one hand, it focuses on the psychology and lifestyles of the two culprits, discussing what drove them to commit the act, speaking to family, police officers, and experts in psychology, whilst covering the trials. But, on the other hand, the documentary feels rather exploitative, using the tragedy as an excuse to cry fowl over the internet, and pushing for legislation to its content, and the free reign children have to technology.

The character of the Slender Man is a fictional internet bogeyman created in 2009 by Eric Knudsen. The character first appeared as part of a Photoshop competition on the website “Something Awful”, depicted as a haunting, faceless spectre with a vague history of spiriting children away to an unknown fate. The popularity of the character took off like wildfire, leading to many YouTube “found footage” series where people encounter the Slender Man, exploring his lore. What makes the character so unique is that his very lore and presence is open to interpretation. YouTube video series like Marble Hornets made the character even more popular, pretending the character was a real life entity “recently discovered” by Knudsen.

Basic lore comes with the character. He appears as a tall, faceless creature in a suit, has tendrils, is often associated with the woods, stalks and abducts children, and has appeared throughout fictional history. Marble Hornets also established the ideas that being near the character can cause people to fall ill, he distorts electrical equipment, and he has “proxies”, minions of sorts that appear to be either influenced or controlled by the Slender Man to do his bidding.

The character gained further notability via the video game called Slender: The Eight Pages. The open fictional interpretation of the character allowed many creators to create a vast, often interconnected network of fanfics, fan art, and videos collectively called the “Slenderverse”. Some interpreted the character as an ancient creature of Lovecraftian origins, or as fairy-like, taking children away to another realm. One imaginative community conceptualised the Slender Man as being part of a larger group of eldritch creatures representing various phobias called the “Fear Mythos”.

But, the memetic nature of the Slender Man was bound to draw some attention, with younger internet users asking on YouTube videos or forums if the character was legitimately real or not. It appears that the two girls, both possessing signs of mental illness, were drawn to the character, coming to the belief he may be real, and sought to impress the Slender Man by attacking and murdering their friend in the woods. They comment in police interviews used in the documentary, that when they accomplished the act, they would be taken to a “Slender Mansion” – a part of the lore that I’ve never heard of before – and would be indoctrinated as his proxies. They both fear and revere him at the same time.

The subject matter is obviously a sensitive topic. My problem with Beware the Slenderman is that it was made to push an agenda that “the internet and technology are scary things”. There are plenty of red flags indicating that the two girls were mentally unwell – a lack of emotional response to normally upsetting films (i.e. Bambi), disturbing drawings, photos showing they have tortured their dolls in disturbing detail. The fact that they were drawn to the often grim and scary stories of the Slender Man further establishes this. The father of one of the girls is a diagnosed schizophrenic, and provides the most moving interview in the film. There were obvious signs of these issues. Issues that the parents either didn’t honestly notice, or perhaps dismissed them as childhood quirks. There is blame to go around.

The documentary does quite well to not depict the girls and their families in a vilifying light, but in a sympathetic, humane way. It is designed to explore what psychologically drove these two girls to attempted murder, and for the most part, when it focuses on that subject. But, about forty-five minutes in, the film goes from a sombre piece to an obnoxious montage showing rather disturbing footage from YouTube, like a video of a cat eating a live mouse, etc. It is clearly meant to shock the audience with the subtlety of a forest fire – “Hey, look how shocking the internet is!” It is implied these shock videos are potentially what the girls viewed prior to the stabbing. The documentary freely uses footage from various Slender Man-related YouTube series, and without even crediting the creators in the dismal credits.

The change in tone is shockingly crude. The first half an hour is professional shot, as are the interviews. Then, when it comes to going all Helen Lovejoy on the internet, interviews are now conducted via poorly rendered Skype chats. Richard Dawkins shows up to provide some intellectual discussion, the first clip depicting him trying to figure out how to use Skype with no sign of help from the interviewer. Was that kept in deliberately to show that adults don’t understand the internet, and that children are apparently brainwashed by it?

The internet can be a scary place, that cannot be denied. But there are ways that parents and adults can monitor and control what their children can see and do on it. This documentary pretends such options don’t exist, whilst taking extensive pleasure in using police interview footage of the two girls as they describe the events leading up to and during the attempted murder. It also uses this to further vilify the Slender Man, a certain type of memetic fanfiction called “creepypasta” and the community behind it, and the internet itself.

The documentary works better when focusing on the urban legend aspects of the Slender Man, rather than trying to build him up as this Charles Manson-esque figure that influences thousands of alienated children. The discussion of schizophrenia and mental illness towards the end of the film is better handled. I did notice that the victim and her family are absent from the documentary, which is understandable.

Frankly speaking, it comes across as incredibly distasteful to use the tragedy of these families, and two mentally ill girls (who have subsequently been sent to mental hospitals for treatment), to push a transparent and exploitative anti-internet, anti-technology agenda. Using this story for shock value, or to hook an audience, is extremely questionable. Brodsky herself has been interviewed and confirmed this documentary was in the works before the stabbing happened, and adapted it to involve the murders as a focus. The message this film is trying to enforce is a technophobic warning that the internet is untrustworthy and exploitive without any redeeming qualities. Strangely, it places the likes of the charitable Ice Bucket Challenge, the “planking” trend, and harmless reaction videos (as memes) in the same sinister category as the Slender Man is slotted into.

This age old social panic and point-the-finger-at-youth-culture rears its ugly head again. The documentary argues that the internet is solely to blame for the stabbing. Not that these girls had signs of mental illness, or their parents failed to notice or act, but it pulls the unsurprising Jack Thompson-esque bemoaning about how the internet is bad for children. The same way that rock ‘n’ roll, rap music, punk music, television, and video games have in the past been accused of “corrupting the youth”. It is a shameful, sleazy way to whip up moral panic, and using the tragedy of these girls and their families to push it was a terrible decision.

This brings me to the concern of the Slender Man movie released in cinemas this month. It appears to be taking inspiration more from the stabbing then the actual, internet-wide mythos crafted over many years. The opening shot of the trailer involves a girl covered in blood wandering out of a forest just as a police car pulls up – a near exact replica of the victim’s movements during the stabbing.

The film focuses on four teenage girls who are drawn to the Slender Man by friends and terrorised by him. Critics of the film even suggested that the Slender Man isn’t actually real in the movie, and the girls are instead having various degrees of psychosis and murdering each other. This is just speculation, but the similarities between the film’s plot to the events of the stabbing are uncanny.

The documentary exploits tragedy for a political agenda of social panic, whilst the film appears to just plain out exploit and adapt the actual events of the stabbing into a generic horror story. I am a fan of the Slenderverse, and it upsets me that both it and its creators are being made the fall guys for this tragedy. Eric Knudsen posted a message on the Creepypasta Wiki expressing condolences and support, while members of said wiki raised money for the victim’s family.

Not that the documentary acknowledges this, deciding to end its subject with the vulgar decision to present a slideshow of “fan art” depicting the stabbings and the girls worshipping Slender Man. That is disturbing, both that such pictures exist, and the director chose to include them. If the documentary had any decency it wouldn’t have done so, and it certainly wouldn’t have exposed and used the tragedy of the stabbing and the suffering of those involved to make a point.