Slender Man

[Mini]

The Slender Man trailer is out and the father of a girl involved in one of the attacks inspired by the character has criticised the project - from The Guardian:

The father of a girl who violently attacked a classmate after being inspired by the fictional character Slender Man has criticized a new horror film of the same name as being "extremely distasteful".

Bill Weier, whose 12-year-old daughter, Anissa, stabbed another girl with the help of a friend, has spoken out about the forthcoming Sony Pictures release Slender Man, after a trailer was released online.

"It's absurd they want to make a movie like this," he told the Associated Press. "It's popularizing a tragedy, is what it's doing. I'm not surprised, but in my opinion it's extremely distasteful. All we're doing is extending the pain all three of these families have gone through."

Weier's daughter, now 16, was sentenced to 25 years in a mental institution last month. She claimed that the attack was to please Slender Man, a character created in 2009 by Eric Knudsen as part of a Photoshop contest. The victim, Payton Leutner, survived the attack.

It's unclear as to whether Sony's film, released in May, will include details from the case although the trailer features schoolgirls haunted by the figure and one stabbing herself in the eye. It is from the film-maker Sylvain White, whose credits also include the slasher sequel I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer.

I don't know much about Slender Man but I can tell you that the trailer looks shit (albeit better than The Bye Bye Man).

[Noodle Lizard]

I don't think it's "popularizing a tragedy" to make a fictional movie about a pre-existing fictional character that has basically become part of contemporary folklore.  It's especially odd to make that accusation when there already exists that dreadful HBO documentary about the associated murder, which I would argue came close to actively romanticizing the murderers and "the legend" that inspired them.  I believe Bill was heavily featured in that one.

[Mini]

Yeah it's an odd one. Unless it's actually about the real attack, which I don't think it is, I don't really see how it's distasteful.

[checkoutgirl]

I don't think it's "popularizing a tragedy"

No, it's definitely not. It's just one guy adversely affected by a character saying his piece.

[popcorn]

Off-topic, but I've just come back from a meeting with a TV producer who'd asked me to write a treatment for a TV series based on a real-life murder case. She had given me explicit instructions not to stray too far from the facts and specifically told me "no inventing stuff for crazy twists".

She had a lot of problems with my treatment, which is par for the course, but when it became clear we had dramatically different imaginings of the project, I asked her what she had in mind instead. Her pitch added a completely fictional private eye character, who - in a shock twist - turns out to have been the real killer. This for a series based on a real, actual, recent murder case. Like, using the names of real people and everything. The murderer, the actual guy who did it, is in jail right now.

When I pointed out that this seemed to go against her original instructions, she said, "No, if we said the white girl who was killed was black, for example, that would be too much, but this is different, it's story."

This woman has her own Wikipedia page and has made stuff you've heard of. Showbiz people are fucking mental.

[bgmnts]

When I pointed out that this seemed to go against her original instructions, she said, "No, if we said the white girl who was killed was black, for example, that would be too much, but this is different, it's story."

Well yeah, duh.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Does whatever a slender can.

[Replies From View]

Does whatever a slender can.

Isn't he a bit like you and me?

[Replies From View]

The father of a girl who violently attacked a classmate after being inspired by the fictional character Slender Man has criticized a new horror film of the same name as being "extremely distasteful".

Bill Weier, whose 12-year-old daughter, Anissa, stabbed another girl with the help of a friend, has spoken out about the forthcoming Sony Pictures release Slender Man, after a trailer was released online.

"It's absurd they want to make a movie like this," he told the Associated Press. "It's popularizing a tragedy, is what it's doing. I'm not surprised, but in my opinion it's extremely distasteful. All we're doing is extending the pain all three of these families have gone through."

Having a daughter who stabbed a classmate contributed slightly to the situation as well, though.

[Spoon of Ploff]

This did for make me laugh: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hYi350ap_M

[Twed]

If he really wants to shut the movie down he should just stay "the trailer gave me very stabby thoughts. Must be genetic."

[Mini]

The Slender Man diet. Stab your way to thinness.

[BritishHobo]

It does look from the trailer, to be fair, like the filmmakers have added something to the 'mythos' inspired by the actual case. It makes a big show of the people being compelled by yer slender man to do things, like stab themselves in the eye. I don't remember that ever being a part of the story, it seems somewhat inspired by the claim of the two girls that 'Slender Man made us do it'.

They might as well fuckin make it. The whole idea was beaten to infinity not long after the original pictures anyway, and every new game or webseries has taken it further and further from a creepy idea and into just being ubiquitous shite.

[SteveDave]

I can't believe horror films are still doing the Jacob's Ladder shaky head thing.

[Mr Brightside]

This another one of them Marvel films?

[Replies From View]

It does look from the trailer, to be fair, like the filmmakers have added something to the 'mythos' inspired by the actual case. It makes a big show of the people being compelled by yer slender man to do things, like stab themselves in the eye.

I once tried to inhale the plastic innards of a Kinder Egg due to a Slenderman.  So there is some truth to it.

[Replies From View]

This another one of them Marvel films?

Yes, part of the exslendered universe.

[Glebe]

Just saw this tonight (I was too late for Ant Man and the Wasp, and I fancied going to the pictures, so I plumped for this), a pretty frustrating watch, it threatens to break out of the generic commercial horror mould on occasion, and there are a few atmospheric, creepy bits, but it's all a bit clunky and the ending is guff.

[Phil_A]

In the Red Letter Media review of this they reckon the film was massively re-cut to remove anything that was too similar to the real-life Slender-stabbing incident, and then possibly further cut to remove any gore so it could pass for a lower rating. Which might explain why the final product is so toothless and full of plot-holes.

[St_Eddie]

...and then possibly further cut to remove any gore so it could pass for a lower rating...

That's not conjecture.  That's fact.

[Avril Lavigne]

That's not conjecture.  That's fact.

Put this on my tombstone.

[Mini]

Saw this last night, what a stultifyingly dull botch job. My review: https://screengoblin.com/2018/08/31/slender-man/

[St_Eddie]

Saw this last night, what a stultifyingly dull botch job. My review: https://screengoblin.com/2018/08/31/slender-man/

Another class review.

I may as well provide an obligatory link to Adam's YMS review whilst I'm here.

[Bhazor]

Mainstream horror has just turned to complete shit hasn't it?

[Mini]

Mainstream horror has just turned to complete shit hasn't it?

I think so. At least the trash from the 80s has some semblance of hokey charm. I can't imagine what anyone would get out of watching an Insidious movie 30 years from now.   

[St_Eddie]

Mainstream horror has just turned to complete shit hasn't it?

Yes.  Yes, it has.  Grossly overrated as well, generally speaking.  "Hereditary is this generation's The Exorcist or Psycho".  Is it bollocks.

[Avril Lavigne]

I think so. At least the trash from the 80s has some semblance of hokey charm. I can't imagine what anyone would get out of watching an Insidious movie 30 years from now.

This is why I now mostly keep my Halloween horror marathon restricted to pre-2010 movies, with the odd exception if I hear about a modern horror that's genuinely special.  I've seen a lot of mediocre '80s trash but it all usually has enough charm and character to not feel like a complete waste of time.  A few times when I've put too many modern horror movies in a row into my marathon list, I've ended up feeling so bored & disillusioned with the genre as to cancel the whole endeavour.

I think it was last year that I finally watched Insidious just to see why it was so popular but I can barely remember a thing about it aside from one or two jumpscares, which I gather are James Wan's directorial trademark.

[DukeDeMondo]

I think it was last year that I finally watched Insidious just to see why it was so popular but I can barely remember a thing about it aside from one or two jumpscares, which I gather are James Wan's directorial trademark.

The shitty-looking spooks aside, I think Insidious is perfectly good fun for the most part. As a kind of My First Horror Movie sort of a deal in the vein of your Poltergeists or whatever, it's got a lot going for it. Not least all the stuff that it nicks from Poltergeist. 

[Avril Lavigne]

The shitty-looking spooks aside, I think Insidious is perfectly good fun for the most part. As a kind of My First Horror Movie sort of a deal in the vein of your Poltergeists or whatever, it's got a lot going for it. Not least all the stuff that it nicks from Poltergeist.

Well it probably doesn't help matters that I'm not much for Poltergeist either. ;) I mean it's not terrible or anything but I feel like it might be one of those movies that benefits a lot from having seen it at the right age or, like you said, as an introduction to the genre.