An Average Movie-Goer’s Review
Spoilers! If you don’t want spoilers – check out the Spoiler-Free post
I love horror movies and if I’m going to watch them anyway, why not write an entertaining/funny review from the POV of an average movie-goer and not a professional critic.
Today we’re looking at Sylvian White’s 2018 film, Slender Man
Four friends summon the supernatural creature Slender Man believing it to be a made-up story but soon realize it’s more real than they thought.
Is it Scary?
There are multiple jump scares in this movie and some are pretty effective, others fall flat. Unfortunately the best moment of fear, that isn’t a jump scare, doesn’t happen until very late in the movie and only happens once.
So, overall not scary except for a VERY few key moments and in the end you’ll be more confused than scared.
Detailed Plot:
The film opens with two friends Hallie (played by Julia Goldani Telles) and Katie (played by Annalise Basso) talking while sitting on the bleachers at school. Right off the bat the dialogue is pretty bad and I have no idea what the point of this scene even is. The two talk about a video they watched on their phone involving cats and Katie jokingly claims she has no soul. Edgy.
We then transition to a new scene where the two girls are walking down the hall with their two other friends, Chloe (played by Jaz Sinclair) and Wren (played by Joey King). With dialogue that feels like it’s coming from an 80’s/90’s sitcom we learn they’re all best friends.
They then see some of their guy friends including Tom (played by Alex Fitzalan). The girls tease them and ask what their plans are, but they refuse to say, telling them it’s a secret. Hallie then excuses herself to go pick up her sister but not before her and Tom share some smiles, telling us they have a thing for each other.
That night after a quick dinner scene where we meet Hallie’s sister Lizzie (played by Taylor Richardson) Wren picks Hallie up and they walk to Katie’s house. There the four girls hang out in the basement doing what teen girls usually do, watch and make fun of porn. That sounds right.
We find out Katie hates her home life with her drunk father and the girls talk about leaving their town together. They then wonder what the boy’s secret plans are and Chloe reveals she knows their plan is to summon the Slender Man, a mythological figure that kidnaps children, sort of like bloody Mary.
The girls then do their own research, finding images, stories, and a forum where a convenient link lets you summon Slender Man by watching a video. Katie clicks the link and the four watch intently. The video tells them to close their eyes when they hear a bell toll and then to reopen on the third toll.
We see a forest at night then, after the bells toll, the video switches to random flashes of creepy images involving lights, triangles, and eyes before ending with what appears to be the Slender Man in the forest.
That night Hallie has a dream where she is now in that same forest and sees the same images flashing before her. She then appears watching a tree as her face melts. When she wakes up we see it’s now a week later implying she’s been having nightmares for a week.
Later that day the four are on a class trip to a cemetery that I guess is a historical site. Hallie shares she’s been having nightmares but only Wren admits she’s also been having them. Katie falls behind staring at something in the forest as we hear creaking similar to that from the Slender Man ritual video.
We then cut to a few hours later where we find out Katie has gone missing and the police have arrived to look for her. That night Lizzie asks Hallie what happened to Katie but Hallie refuses to talk about it.
The two then hear the front door but when calling out to see if it’s their parents, they get no response. A loud bang is heard and Hallie goes to investigate. She then sees a Slender Man like figure looming in her living room causing her to run upstairs and lock the door.
The figure bangs on her door attempting to enter her room as Hallie calls the police. But, just as the police answer, the figure calls out for Katie revealing the figure to be Katie’s dad.
Why didn’t he call out for her at any point before? Why did he try to break into a teenage girl’s room as she screamed without calling out for his daughter? The movie doesn’t care for your logic.
Katie’s dad accuses Hallie of keeping Katie hidden somewhere and then blames her for getting her into the occult. Hallie has no idea what he’s talking about but that doesn’t stop him from trying to attack her. She is able to push him off of her, allowing her and Lizzie to escape the house. We then cut to Katie’s father being arrested
The following day we find out the boys never summoned Slender Man as they chickened out. The girls then debate what actually happened to Katie, Hallie believes someone kidnapped her but Wren believes her disappearance is tied to the Slender Man video.
That night the three decide to sneak into Katie’s house to find out more information. As Wren distracts Katie’s dad, Chloe and Hallie sneak in through the back door. In Katie’s room we learn the police took her laptop and we see several drawings of Slender Man all over her desk.
Hallie opens a closet door and removes a floorboard where she says Katie used to keep cigarettes and other items hidden. She then pulls out Katie’s laptop which is weird since they just said the police took it but I guess Katie had a secret laptop for some reason?
Later the three are going through the secret laptop and find multiple videos Katie had watched and saved regarding Slender Man, each video corresponding to another taken child. Videos that probably should have been shown to the police at some point but I guess the people capturing the videos were like, “Nah.”
We then see that Katie had been messaging someone online with the handle ALEEYKAT93 and that Katie wanted to be taken by Slender Man so… mission accomplished? They then see a video that Katie recorded the night before she was taken where she is in the forest and there’s a brief glimpse of Slender Man.
Behind the girls a Slender Man like shadow appears.
Later that night Wren is home with Katie’s laptop and receives a message from ALEEYKAT93. Wren tells her Katie is missing and asks how to get her back. ALEEYKAT93 ominously says they have to be willing to give up something they love to him and informs her he already knows they’re interested. Is ALEEYKAT93 Slender Man’s secretary?
The following day Wren tells the rest of the girls that she continued talking to ALEEYKAT93 who told her Slender Man is like a virus except he’s like a computer virus that, instead of infecting your hard drive, it infects your brain. Some of you might be thinking, “isn’t that just a regular virus?” And yes, yes it is.
Wren continues to tell them that in order to get Katie back they have to give up something that they truly love to Slender Man. The group debate if that could actually work and Wren tells them they at least have to try.
That night the three head to the woods and place personal objects including a picture, a teddy bear, and ceramic mug, in the pile after breaking/ripping them. Wren then instructs them to wear a blindfold and to not remove them or else if they see Slender Man’s face, they’ll either go insane or die.
The three put on the blindfolds and wait for Slender Man’s arrival. They start to hear bells and creaking around them and Chloe immediately removes her blind fold because fuck them rules.
She then sees a tree in the distance and runs off screaming. The rest of the girls then remove their blindfolds and chase after her. Chloe runs further into forest eventually slamming into a tree and falling back. When she turns, she sees Slender Man standing above her apparently on his way to a business meeting.
Wren and Hallie get separated while looking for Chloe and then scare each other (in a jump scare) despite both of them having flashlights. They then find Chloe wandering around in the woods missing a shoe. Chloe tells them nothing happened and she just got scared.
Later that night while Chloe is at home she attempts to listen to music but it becomes distorted. She then receives a video call from an unknown number and answers it, making me ask “who the hell answers unscheduled video calls, especially from unknown numbers?”
We then see whoever made the call is outside Chloe’s home but when she looks outside there’s no one there. The caller then proceeds into her home being able to go through doors and walls. As it approaches her room, Chloe opens the door for some reason, but no one is there.
Her lights then flicker and we see Slender Man standing behind her in the corner. Hands then appear and grab Chloe from behind.
The arms pull Chloe to the corner and start to strangle her but when Chloe looks at the mirror she sees her own hands strangling herself. We cut to Wren and Hallie at school before we find out what happens.
Tom asks Hallie about Chloe and we find out it’s been a few days since she’s shown up for school. Later outside of school, Tom asks Hallie to come over the following night to his place for a date. Hallie agrees but is quickly distracted by the sounds of creaking coming from the nearby woods.
Looking over she sees Slender Man standing there watching her.
Meanwhile Wren is at the library looking up more information on Slender Man and finds information on all sorts of shadow people myths and legends from other cultures. One of the articles leads her to the title of a book called Bioelectric Systems and The Paranormal… sounds legit.
Luckily she’s in the library and goes to search for it, finding it pretty quickly. As she’s reading she hears creaking and is startled by a librarian in a jump scare. Back to reading she attempts to call Hallie but the call distorts and the power goes out in the entire library.
Using the flashlight from her phone Wren follows the sounds of creaking and then sees Slender Man at the end of a hall. She runs away with Slender man giving chase. Unfortunately reality starts to warp and the halls of books become endless and distorted. Panicking she falls back allowing Slender man to catch up to her.
Wren stumbles through the library with muffled screams until she falls and everything changes around her, turning back to the original library. The librarian from earlier asks if she’s okay and we see that Wren has her face back as she apologizes and rushes away.
At school Wren attempts to tell Hallie what happened and shows her the book which speaks to a type of paranormal entity that fits Slender man’s description. She then asks if she’s heard from Chloe, Hallie tells her she called her house and her mom told her to stay away.
Wren recommends they go there but Hallie says she has track practice which causes Wren to angrily walk away. Later the two arrive outside of Chloe’s house and look through a window. Chloe then appears at the window in a jump scare and is completely unresponsive.
The two girls then leave and while they’re walking back home they argue about whether Slender Man is real. For some reason, despite everything that’s going on, Hallie still thinks this is all just a coincidence. She literally saw him the day before!
After they argue, Hallie leaves to go see Tom for their date, before that happens we see a weird minute long slow-motion scene of her applying makeup on her face to cover up some dark circles. Was this scene necessary? Absolutely not and yet here we are.
Tom puts on some music and the two start making out until the music distorts but only Hallie can hear it. She then hears some creaking and turns to see nothing strange but when she turns back to Tom she sees his face distorted in a jump scare.
Hallie pushes Tom away and everything turns back to normal. Confused, Tom asks what the hell is going and Hallie tells him everything. Later in the kitchen Tom pulls up the Slender Man video, because it’s super easy to find, but Hallie begs him not to watch it and he agrees.
The following day in anatomy class Tom doesn’t respond to Hallie asking him if he’s okay and we see bruises on his arm that match the same claw-hands that grabbed Chloe earlier.
That night Hallie sends a message to ALEEYKAT93 asking for help on how to get rid of Slender Man but discovers the account was terminated. She then sends messages to Wren apologizing and wanting to help but Wren tells her it’s too late.
Hallie then hears Katie’s voice calling out to her from outside her house and she goes to investigate as if there isn’t some sort of supernatural creature after her. Following the voice she enters the woods but this only leads to Slender Man grabbing her.
Hallie wakes up nauseous and rushes to the bathroom where she gags, grabbing her stomach. She looks down to see her stomach grow and tree branches protrude out.
Hallie wakes up again and hears Lizzie crying out in pain and her parents trying to console her. Her father then calls an ambulance when she begins to seize. At the hospital the doctor believes she just had a panic attack and thinks nothing of it but will keep her overnight.
At the reception desk the doctors and nurse staff appear to be frozen as they all stand and watch Hallie walk by without saying a word. In an open room a man brushes the long black hair of a woman in a tub.
Returning to Lizzie’s room, Hallie finds her dead and covered in a blanket. She removes the blanket and shakes her attempting to wake her up. Lizzie’s face begins to twitch and distort as her arms grab Hallie’s.
This throws Hallie into some freaky vision territory where she sees herself chopped up into pieces, branches growing out of her face, and missing a face. Honestly some pretty creepy well-done visuals.
The entire thing is then shown to be a hallucination and Lizzie is still alive. Later while in the hallway, Hallie hears Lizzie screaming and sees doctors running to her room. Before she’s taken to another room Lizzie screams out “he had no face” over and over, telling us and Hallie, she’s seen Slender Man.
Hallie runs home, searches through Lizzie’s computer, and finds a video of her in the woods with Wren calling out to Slender Man. Why was it being recorded? Who knows.
At Wren’s house Hallie finds the door unlocked (does Wren not have parents?) and she goes to her room finding a bunch of Slender man stuff all over. On her computer Hallie finds an article about Allison Riley which another note confirms is ALEEYKAT93, a girl who went missing from her room at a psychiatric facility.
Hallie finds Wren standing on her window ledge about to jump but Hallie drags her back in. Wren apologizes for Lizzie but confusingly states she did it before she knew that the only way to make him stop is to give themselves up.
Not sure if that means she was willing to sacrifice Lizzie to save herself or if she brought Lizzie out there before the personal item sacrifice thing didn’t work which doesn’t make sense with the timeline. Her sacrificing Lizzie would imply she loves Lizzie despite them only having one brief interaction in the movie.
It doesn’t matter though because the girls hear Slender Man coming and Wren gets a video call from Slender Man entering her home. Tree branches then break through the windows and pull Wren through.
Realizing that the only way to save Lizzie is to sacrifice herself, Hallie runs out to the woods to find Slender Man. She eventually finds him, tells him to take her, and just when he’s about to do so… she runs away?
Slender Man turns into a large spider creature thing or maybe they’re tree branches? It’s hard to tell, either way he chases after Hallie. While running, Hallie arrives at a very suspicious looking tree that then grabs her and is revealed to be Slender Man. The branches cover Hallie all over and absorb her into the tree, which I’m sure kills her.
Back at the hospital Lizzie wakes up free of Slender Man’s influence. As the movie ends we get a voice over from Lizzie who talks about the spreading of Slender Man and the disappearance of her sister and friends.
Review:
This is one of those movies where you end up more confused at the end than when you started and not in the good way. Inception, good confusion, Slender Man, bad confusion because it honestly feels like a lot of plot lines were just dropped or hand waved to conclusion. Here are some:
We’re told Slender Man is a bioelectric type of being… there’s no electricity in the forest!
What the hell happened to Tom? He clearly watched the video and then disappears for the rest of the movie
What the hell happened to Chloe? She gets choked out by her own hands, appears unresponsive and then disappears for the rest of the movie, the remaining cast never even mention her again
Who the hell was ALEEYKAT93? We know her real name and by reading the article on Wren’s computer we can assume Slender Man killed all her friends but why did he leave her alive? Why did she know so much about him? Did she work for him?
Why does Hallie’s sacrifice save Lizzie? How did Wren know it would work? Katie wanted to be taken so why didn’t her being taken stop Slender Man?
After writing all of this I ended up doing some research, turns out the movie was changed at some point due to the real-life stabbing of 12 year old Payton Leutner by two other 12 year old girls who were trying to become proxies of Slender Man. The stabbing took place in 2014 and luckily Payton survived, with both attackers arrested and sentenced to decades in mental health institutions.
During the movie’s production the father of one of the attackers claimed the film was trying to capitalize on a tragedy which doesn’t really make sense since Slender Man has been around since 2009 and the film had nothing to do with the attack. But, this was enough to scare Sony Pictures who ended up cutting several scenes and requiring edits to several key scenes.
So that’s why the movie feels off and has a lot of dropped plot lines which sucks since based on the hospital scene, the movie could have been scary and effective.
Would it have been a good movie? Maybe not, the dialogue was still pretty bad and some of the acting was iffy except for Joey King (Wren) and the few scenes Annalise Basso (Katie) was in.
Overall, skip it. There’s no point in watching an incomplete movie that isn’t even that scary.
Cast IMBD