Back in 2009, the World Wide Web was introduced to the Slender Man, an unnaturally tall, faceless, demonic entity that terrorized the realm of of internet horror fiction (AKA:”creepypasta”) and has since appeared in just about every single form of digital media. From video games to web-series, to an episode of the TV series Lost Girl, and a few dozen other offerings of varying quality, the character has been about as overused as one can possibly be. So, of course, it should come as no surprise that the internet icon with such an organic and independent rise to popularity should be made into a watered-down big-budget feature film. This brings us to 2018’s eponymous film: Slender Man from Screen Gems and Sony Pictures.
Slender Man tells the story of four young friends in small town Massachusetts, who summon the evil entity in an occult ritual. When one of them goes missing, the remaining three girls embark on a quest to find out what happened to their friend, only to discover that there is much more going on than any of them could have ever expected. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the audience, as the paint-by-numbers plot unfolds just about exactly as you think it does, complete with an ending as stale and overused as the character the film is based on.
There’s just no other way to say it, this film is just outright bad. The acting is wooden, the characters are one-dimensional, the cliches are abundant, and worst of all, the writing is just flat-out lazy. Often times there are some positive things to take away from any film, and I suppose there is at least the fact that it looks like a movie, and the equipment used to make it was clearly top-notch. But just because one can afford the best equipment money can buy, doesn’t mean anything else about it is any good. Because it’s most certainly not.
The Bottom Line:
Overall, Slender Man is one of the worst horror films we’ve seen so far in 2018. This is mostly due to a lot of very lazy writing and a plot that’s thinner than the character it’s based on. It’s a stale, predictable, overused gimmick of a film, with phoned-in performances, that just really comes off as little more than a quick cash-grab. Some films are absolutely so bad they’re good – or hell, even at least kind of funny or amusing – but make no mistake, this is NOT one of those. It’s just plain bad. Do yourself a favor and skip this one. You can thank me later. – 2.5/10
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- NERD NATION MAGAZINE - 