Sony's upcoming horror flick, Slenderman is getting some flak, in the form of a petition with 6,500 signatures (and counting). Some don't remember, but there was a real-life attempted murder connected to Slender Man, when, in 2014, two 12 year old girls in Wisconsin lured a classmate to a park and stabbed her 19 times in an attempt to kill her.
The pair said they carried out the stabbing in an effort to placate the fictional supernatural character "Slender Man", which they had read about on the creepypasta wiki, a site that hosts creepy stories and fictional monsters. They claimed that they thought the murder would make Slender Man notice them, allowing them to become his proxies, and live with him, with is completely insane.
Slender Man is often depicted as a tall, faceless man in a black suit with tentacles growing out of his back. According to the Slender Man mythos, he can cause amnesia, bouts of coughing and paranoid behavior in individuals. He is often shown lurking in forests and stalking children. His background and lore was contributed by random internet folk, which basically amounts to contributed fan fiction.
I understand the problem the parents and families have with this; no one wants to dredge up horrific stuff like the attempted killing of a child. On the other hand, Slender Man was a thing before these disturbed young girls attempted to carry up their insane plan. Regardless, the trailer is here, it doesn't look that great, and it releases in May.
