In a small town, four teens attempt watch a video linked to the mysterious legend of the Slender Man.
A few days later one of them goes missing...
When I came out of the cinema after seeing Slender Man, I had a rant on Twitter about it. I felt that annoyed upon seeing it. I'd hoped that would put the film to bed.
But it hasn't. If anything since the few days that have passed since seeing it, my anger about it has gotten worse. It's not just that it's a bad film, it's worse. It's a lazy one.
But before I tear this film a new one and that will give me no pleasure, I'm going to give it a bit of praise. The four actresses at its heart, Joey King, Julia Goldani Telles, Jaz Sinclair, Annalise Basso along with Taylor Richardson who plays the younger sister of one of them, they are all much better than the material they have to work with. Their characters have to do really dumb things at times in the film and they do their best.
But that's all the praise this film is going to get.
The Slender Man was a meme created by Eric Knudsen (using the name Victor Surge) for a competition. Since then the meme and image has appeared everywhere. But to make a film based around it? You have to wonder who thought that was a good idea.
Turns out, David Birke did. Now, I'm going to be slightly generous at this point, to him along with the film's director, Sylvain White. I'm not too sure how much blame can be fully given to them. Apparently the studio wanted a lower classification for the film than was intended, which resulted in a number of scenes being removed from the film. In part this was due to a backlash from actual real-life events and those involved or affected by them. Even some cinemas were not going to show the film for those reasons. The is lead to the issues with the studio and producers on what to do with the film.
So after all of that, what is left? What we get is a film that combines elements from Ringu, Nightmare On Elm Street and just about any other horror film you can mention. There is nothing original here at all.
It's never scary in the slightest. Because of the editing of the film and the removal of scenes, you never know which characters have done what. Case in point, Tom whom one of the girls has a date with is told not to watch the film. When we next see him, from his reaction it is clear he did. But nothing is ever made of this point. Did he become a victim of Slender Man? Do I care if he did? Actually no. Characters exchange messages online with someone who knows things about Slender Man, but that plot is just dropped totally. The editing of the film is so bad, that you have to wonder what they were thinking.
But there's a lot more. The Slender Man as a character, even if originally a meme, would work if there was a sense we knew what his abilities actually were. He seems to get inside peoples heads, torment and terrify people and at one point drag someone out a window. His abilities are whatever the scene needs them to be. If the film can't decide what the abilities of it's monster are, you cannot possibly defeat it, unless through a contrivance of some sorts.
However, maybe that is the point, you ask? That you can't defeat it, it will get you in the end? I concede, it's a valid idea...but then you need to make more of it. By the time one of the girls, Hallie, realises this, caused by a scene that makes no sense at all involving her sister, you may think that okay, it's going for the downbeat sombre ending. But it needed to be developed better and even then it makes no sense to the story as there is no suggestion Slender Man would stop as long as he has been summoned.
The score, which includes work from the great Ramin Djawadi is so generic you could put it on pretty much any modern horror film. Most of the film is shot in the dark, presumably to make it scarier, but we have people entering houses and not turning lights on for no reason I can see, but the director of photography, Luca Del Puppo does create a few images that aren't bad.
I saw a trailer for Slender Man way back in January. I thought it looked like it might be a generic looking but okay horror film. Boy was I wrong. Certainly the behind the scenes issues of the backlash and apparent subsequent re-editing of the film have not helped, but I'm not sure that would have saved the film. When you have characters having to wear blindfolds at one point, only for one to remove it almost immediately your films has more than editing problems!
The day before seeing Slender Man, at FrightFest, I saw a film called The Field Guide To Evil. I really didn't like it and thought it might be the worst horror film I'd see this year. Turns out it wasn't the worst horror film of the week. Before the film I saw a trailer for The Nun, which is more unsettling and scary in its trailer than Slender Man is for its running time. Even the trailer for The Predator was scarier...and it didn't have any scares!
I've seen Slender Man. You don't have to.
Just avoid.
Rating: 1/5
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