Slenderman is a tall, faceless creature clad in a black suit, with slimy tendrils stemming from his back. His origins are unknown, which is scarier. He is considered the boogey-man of the millennial generation. Naturally, a movie had to be made about the monster. However, the only horrifying thing about Sylvian White and David Birkes’s film was the plot – or rather – lack thereof.
The film begins with an introduction to our protagonists, four teen girls, named Wren, Chloe, Hallie and Katy. They overhear a group of boys talking about the mysterious ‘Slenderman’ and a ritual to summon him. The boys chickened out of the ritual, in fear of Slenderman and his abilities. One of the boys warns the heroes to stay away from the ritual, and from Slenderman.
But, as in every horror movie, the protagonists do the exact opposite of what they were advised of. They watched the video to begin the ritual, and seemingly nothing happens, other than a bit of sickness…or so it seemed. During a school trip, Katie disappears into the forest. Her friends soon discover that Katie had been hiding involvement in the occult, that she performed the complete ritual and volunteered to be taken by the Slenderman to escape her abusive home. The girls are forced to perform the complete ritual to try and get Katie back, which starts the downward spiral of the film. Chloe, who looked at Slenderman’s blank face despite being warned not to, is driven to insanity.
Slenderman begins stalking them, trying to take them as he took Katie. In an attempt to save herself, Wren gives Lizzie, Hallie’s younger sister, up to Slenderman. But the plan fails when Hallie gives herself to the monster to save her sister. Wren is taken and presumably killed.
The plot of the film is well-written, but, in all honesty, was dry and underdeveloped on screen. The action was anticlimactic, the scares were poor and over-used and the ending was unsatisfying in every sense of the word. The Slenderman myth calls for a bit of mystery and a lack of satisfaction in knowing, but this movie ran with that to the extreme. There’s no explanation for the ritual process, no explanation for Katie’s fate, no closure in Chloe’s fate and no telling of how this entire traumatic event affected Lizzie. Ultimately, viewers are left confused and disappointed.
Admittedly, making a movie that lives up to Slenderman’s reputation is difficult. But, it felt as though the writers and directors didn’t even try. The 2018 movie was a thrown-together, dry story that used old tropes rather than inventing something new.
By Anastasia Smith, Staff Writer
smithan18@bonaventure.edu
