Officially released August 10, the movie “Slender Man” has hit theaters, including here in Warrensburg. Now a feature film, it is fitting to know some information about the history and background of Slender Man, who has become an internet icon.
Eric Newsom, associate professor of communication and digital media, co-authored the book “Folklore, Horror Stories and Slender Man: The Development of an Internet Mythology” with Shira Chess and is considered an expert on the character.
“The Slender Man stories started on a (online) forum,” Newsom said. “The first was written by a guy named Eric Knudsen actually, kind of funny, who went by the name Victor Spurge on that forum, and there was sort of an open invitation for other people to also participate.”
Slender Man is a mythical figure that dresses in a black suit and has no face. He is said to abduct people, especially children, and what he does with them, no one knows. In a way, the Slender Man stories are similar to classic folklore.
“Most of the Slender Man Stories that have been written are like those folktales, where you hear a fairy tale or a folk tale and you come up with your own version of it,” Newsom said.
These interpretations can range from horror stories, detailed mythos or even parodies. A feature film is only the latest medium for Slender Man, who has appeared in online writings, web series, video games and fan fiction books.
In 2014, Slender Man became the center of a media frenzy after two 12-year-old girls stabbed a classmate in Waukesha, Wisconsin. They claimed they did it to impress Slender Man. In December 2017, one of the girls was committed to a mental hospital for 25 years. In February, the other was committed to a mental hospital for 40 years. The victim survived after being found by a bicyclist.
Due to his previous research on the character, Newsom was interviewed by the television news magazine 20/20 in 2014.
“I think it’s interesting that you had these parents, as a result of the media panic, who were really afraid of him,” Newsom said. “We saw hints of the Satanic Panics of the 1980s, for instance, and then you had these kids that just view him as this scary video game character that they have grown up with…”
Newsom said he does feel odd about being viewed as a Slender Man expert. He said his writing on Slender Man was only a small part of his broader research on how digital storytelling is similar to folklore storytelling.
“It’s kind of a weird thing, because it’s not something I sought out to do,” he said. “I feel like the people who are the real experts are the people who’ve had to delve into the character and who have written their own stories.”
He said he has mixed feelings about his moment of fame because a violent crime had to happen first.
Newsom did express some concern about the recent Slender Man movie. He explained that sometimes a movie can become the definitive version, such as Disney films based off of classic folk stories.
“I don’t want that to become a standard to which all the rest are compared. I really want it to remain this sort of malleable folktale that it is,” he said.
But he didn’t want to pass judgment on the film either.
“Any version of the Slender Man story is a valid version to tell, just like any version of a folktale would be,” he said.
“Folklore, Horror Stories and Slender Man: The Development of an Internet Mythology” is currently available in the James C. Kirkpatrick Library.