SLENDER MAN
US, 2018, 93 minutes, Colour.
Joey King, Julia Goldani Telles, Jaz Sinclair, Annalise Basso, Alex Fitzalan, Taylor Richardson, Javier Botet, Jessica Blank, Michael Reilly Burke.
Directed by Sylvain White.
Every other week there is a new horror film. Many are of the blood and gore variety, probably with a raucous male audience in mind. Not so many geared to a female audience – as is this one.
It is not as if we have not seen this story before. In fact, according to the bloggers, they have seen it before and generally better. Although there are a few who defend the film.
The central characters are four older teenage girls, still at school, with an eye on the boys but happy in one another’s company. The boys go off by themselves to be with their computers, to look up the mythological Slender Man online, the girls decide to do the same thing. There is an eerie video, a mysterious gangly male presence in the forest, face concealed, white-masked. There are all kinds of weird touches of information, threats – and, on googling, all kinds of stories, especially about abducted young women.
What else is the screenplay to do but look at the characters of the four girls, put them in difficult situations, put them at the mercy of Slender Man. One disappears in the forest. One has a frightening experience at home. One is more resourceful, goes to the library to research the phenomenon, has a very weird experience, thinks she has the solution from a book discussing vibrations and force fields, and tries to persuade her friend. Which leaves the main drama to the friend, friendly with one of the boys but then experiencing hallucinations, having a number of nightmares (which often is a bit of a cheat on the part of the writer to have their scares and then back to reality), concerned about her younger sister who seems to become involved in the Slender Man experience and is hospitalised.
The film is literally very dark a lot of the time, especially with excursions into the deep forest. The other camera technique is focusing on the close-ups of the four central characters, the audience being fixed on them and their experiences. Actually, the film does get a bit scarier as it goes on – and does not really let up at the end.
1. The title? A variation on the bogeyman? The mythology, the descriptions, on the Internet, the visuals, his behaviour?
2. The Massachusetts setting, homes, school, the forests? The feel for the horror atmosphere? The musical score?
3. The visual style of the film, light and darkness, especially darkness? The continual focus on the close-ups of the characters?
4. The introduction to the friends? The film’s focus on young women? The second place of the men?
5. The introduction to the characters, their friendships, being together, the boyfriends and their lesser presence? The story of the boys at the meeting to find out about Slender Man?
6. The girls, deciding to go online, finding the video, the impact?
7. The repercussions for the girls? Into the forest? Katie, her character, her disappearance? Chloe, at home, confident, her experience, appearance of the window, possessed? Wren, lively, researching, going to the library, a nightmare experience in the library, discovery about the book, the physical and scientific explanations of Slender Man? Trying to persuade Hallie? Hallie going to the house, on the roof, falling and caught? Her ultimate disappearance?
8. Hallie, her parents, Lizzie? Her involvement with the group? Her fears? The encounter with Wren at her house, catching Wren?
9. Lizzie, the effect of Slender Man, the parents concerned, going to the hospital?
10. Hallie, the range of nightmares, going to the forest, seeing Slender Man, wandering the hospital ward, prepared to give her life for Lizzie? Slender Man and his overpowering her? And Lizzie’s survival?
11. The effect of a horror film, the popularity of these films with young audiences, this film with the female audience?
