Description[]
Slender Man, also called Slenderman, or simply Slender, or Slendy, is a mythical creature often depicted as a tall, thin figure wearing a black suit and a blank face. According to the legend, he can stretch or shorten his arms at will and has tentacle-like appendages protruding from his back. Depending on the interpretations of the myth, the creature may cause memory loss, insomnia, paranoia, coughing fits (nicknamed “slender sickness”), photograph/video distortions and can teleport at will. The urban legend has inspired fan arts, fictional creepypastas and a mockumentary series in the style of the 1999 indie horror film Blair Witch Project. As the character has grown in popularity, he’s gained a number of other nicknames including The Operator, Der Großmann, Mr. Slim, The Administrator, Daddy LongLegs, Mr. Thin, The Tall Man, and The Thin Man. Slenderman was the inspiration for the Minecraft mob called the Enderman.
History[]
On June 8, 2009, a “paranormal pictures” photoshop contest was launched on the Something Awful (SA) Forums. The contest required participants to turn ordinary photographs into creepy-looking images through digital manipulation and then pass them on as authentic photographs on a number of paranormal forums. Something Awful users soon began sharing their faux-paranormal creations with layered images of ghosts and other anomalies, usually accompanied by a fabricated witness account to make them more convincing. On June 10, SA user Victor Surge (real name Eric Knudsen) posted two black and white photographs of unnamed children with a short description of “Slender Man” as a mysterious creature who stalked children. N
Precursors[]
The creation of "Slender NMan" may have been also inspired by an ongoing series of amateur adventure games titled "Chzo Mythos", published by Ben 'Yahtzee' Croshaw in 2003. Making his first in-game appearance in Trilby's Notes, the character was portrayed in the third installment as a tall, thin man dressed in a long, black, high-collared coat with tails that reach to the floor and having a blank face.
Marble Hornets[]
On June 20, 2009, YouTuber Marble Hornets started hosting videos called "entries" which claimed to be taped segments retrieved by someone named "Jay" (or also "J"), and contained footage of a friend that had since disappeared. It would later become clear that the series was created by two film students, SomethingAwful users KicksYouInHalf (Joseph DeLage) and Ce gars (Troy Wagner), as part of an alternate reality game centered around the Slender Man myth called the Marble Hornets Project.
Web usage[]
Slender Man became a well-known mythical creature on the /x/ (paranormal) 4chan board. The earliest known mention of "Slender Man" on 4chan can be found in an archived thread dating back to June 24th, 2009, though the conversation suggests that it had been mentioned prior.
Trender Man[]
Trender Man is described as the sassy brother, sometimes referred to as a cousin, of Slender Man with a passion for fashion and clothing, wearing brown fashionable attire with a white shirt underneath.
Offenderman[]
Sexual Offenderman is the youngest of the Slender family. Unlike most of his species, however, he prefers to go after young women, almost similar to that of an Incubus.
Becoming A Tumblr Sexyman[]
Indie Games[]
In October 2011, the indie game developer group Green Meteor Team submitted a 3D puzzle adventure game featuring Slender Man as the primary antagonist to a horror game competition hosted by the gaming site 64Digits.
Derivative characters[]
Minecraft's Enderman[]
Endermen in the infinite sandbox game known as Minecraft, are slender and tall creatures, which, much like Slenderman, will start screaming at and attacking you once you make eye contact with them, but Endermen are black and much less humanoid.
Endermen are named so due to the fact they canonically come from the alternate dimension in Minecraft known as "The End"; a strange sequence of islands in a void with a beige and purple color motif.
The places in which Endermen spawn the most is The End, followed by The Nether; a hell-like dimension full of lava and zombified animals, and The Overworld; a grassy generally safe area in which the player spawns in when they first make the world. Endermen spawning in the Overworld, despite being fairly rare, can easily end a player who is foolish and without much decent gear's run.
FNaF's Puppet[]
Undertale's W.D. Gaster[]
Criminal Incidents[]
2014 Wisconsin Teenagers Stabbing[]
On May 31, 2014, TMJ4 News in Waukesha, Wisconsin reported that two 12-year-old girls, Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier, were arrested on charges of attempted first-degree intentional homicide after allegedly trying to kill their mutual friend by stabbing her 19 times. The victim survived the attack and remains hospitalized.
2014 Ohio Teenagers Stabbing[]
On June 6, 2014, WLWT News in Hamilton, Ohio reported that the myth of Slender Man may have been implicated in another stabbing incident of a mother by her 13-year-old daughter. According to the victim, who asked not to be identified, she was attacked by her daughter, whom she says was waiting in the kitchen for her with a mask over her face and her hands covered with her sleeves, upon returning home from work.
Gallery[]
