Slender Man Really Lovecraft?

[Nightmare Happenings]

Has anyone ever heard of the web-based horror Slender Man? Supposedly, he is an extremely tall man in a suit that sometimes appears in the background of photographs taken just before people disappear or have encounters with him, which, of course, yield dreadful results. Sadly though, it's fake and was created on The Something Awful forums along with other fake entities placed in ordinary photos to inspire fear (found in a thread called Paranormal Pictures). Strangely Enough, when I first saw the photograph below though, the one that sparked the horror, it reminded me of Lovecraft immediately, especially with his Cthulhu-like tentacle arms. Shortly after, I read the Wikipedia entry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slender_Man) on him and found it was indeed inspired by Lovecraft.

[catamount]

I had never heard of this phenomenon until I read this entry. I read the wiki page on the Slender Man and love how, just like the Mythos, people have latched on to it and have started spinning their own urban folklore and stories to spread. It reminds me a lot of what Joseph Campbell would discuss in his works on the importance of myths in creating human culture.     

[Nightmare Happenings]

Too bad our mutual friend Lovecraft was still not around. We know he'd out write everyone with something like Slender Man. I mean, just reading the Wikipedia entry on him was terrifying enough. In keeping with the ideology behind Lovecraft's horror though, it makes sense I guess that merely reading about his mysteriousness is the reason why it's so scary. That's why it's so hard to transfer good horror, and any good literature for that matter (thinking of Ulysses, The Catcher in the Rye, anything from Kafka, etc.) to the big screen or illustration because, like Plato said, ideals are the only perfections and attempts to copy them are only approximations of the ideal. The closer one comes to the ideal the better the art. I am somewhat impressed though with how people are going about portraying Slender Man though. I have to admit, this documentary on him freaked me out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xm6PGh2fvTg. They did a good job, in the Lovecraftian sense, of connecting factual things with things completely fabricated. This other series I have been watching about Slendy (as some refer to him) called Marble Hornets (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wmhfn3mgWUI), I have to also admit, scared the hell out of me. Although, as the series went on, it lost this most important effect due to revealing too much information and incorporating stupid clichés. It's definitely worth a watch though. You might have trouble sleeping for a few nights. I know I woke up a few times thinking he was standing in the corner of my room.

[catamount]

I checked out Marble Hornets at your suggestion and you were right, it started out with the perfect amount of atmosphere and story and then they really screwed the pooch when they started giving up too much information on Slendy and felt the need to resort to tired cliches.

[Nightmare Happenings]

Yea, I thought it was really cheesy when the guy being stalked started drawing out pictures of slender man that said "Run Away! He Sees Me! Kills!" When Lovecraft had a character scribble insanely out on paper, like Erich Zann for lack of a better example, at least you knew it was about some cosmic force the reader could little comprehend if revealed to anyways. We know the guy in the video is being stalked by slender man and wants him to stop, or it will end badly. There's no need to act as a first grader and draw the monster, complete with stick-figure limbs (although slendy does look pretty malnourished). Even if they are implying he is possessed by dark forces and this is causing him to sketch these child-like things, it seems the lurkers beyond the wall of silence would have something more interesting to say. You know, something like: "Magna Mater! Magna Mater!... Atys... Dia ad aghaidh's ad aodaun... agus bas dunarch ort! Dhonas 's dholas ort, agus leat-sa!... Ungl unl... rrlh ... chchch..."

[TransconaSlim]

who knows, maybe Slender Man is an avatar of Nyarlathotep?

[Genus Unknown]

I'm not gonna pick on the makers of Marble Hornets. For no-budget-at-all, just-for-fun amateur project, they did an incredible job. Quit hatin' yo.

[catamount]

I'm not going to pick on the filmmakers for their lack of budget, in fact I think they did a great job for the materials they had access too. For instance, the scene where Alex is shooting Brian going through a scene in the car (I can't remember which episode it was off the top of my head) and as the scene ends, Brian leans back slightly and from the window of the car, you see in the distance, Slender Man just standing on a stairwell watching them and only Alex notices this and starts to panic. I thought this was an excellent episode and it felt, for me anyway, genuinely creepy. However, I have to agree with Nightmare about the drawings. I just felt it was insulting my intelligence...I know Slender Man is dangerous and probably not some lonely guy looking for a hug. Although if the filmmaker had been using the drawings as a way to communicate to the audience that Alex was slowly descending into paranoid madness, I would understand but the Slender Man turns out to be your stereotypical bogeyman. 

[Lambda]

Personally, I think there are different possible interpretations of MH. I like how there is this myth about Slendy but you actually know nothing about him/her/it. We have to try to come up with our own explanations and theories for what happens. As an avid reader of Weird Fiction and Horror in general I tend to come up with really creepy stuff, and the clips support that. For example, at the beginning, I thought "Hey, that thing seems to like the dark..." - and promptly it shows up during the day. How ingenious is that? It really shows you that this thing just can't be stopped.

[Nightmare Happenings]

In my opinion, their fault was they stepped beyond that outward appearance of no budget at all (the thing that originally kept it interesting, you've seen The Blair witch Project) and began trying to show more detailed perspectives of slendy then, bowing down to the God of special effects, began using the clichés of mainstream horror, like all the SAW-like bright flashes, screeches, film cuts, and creepy old video footage seen in user totheark's video responses. It's true, I am criticizing them an awful lot and really have no right to since I have created nothing of the sort myself, like how Orwell called Ezra Pound "a ferocious pedant." You have to understand though, because they have created something in a time of universal lethargy they already had my approval and interest long before they even started. Of course, I'm going to continue to watch the series for as long as it does continue. It's like how Chris and Chad may criticize a Lovecraft story, stating the reasons why they dislike it, but rather it would exist then there be nothing at all and appreciate the story for that matter, feeling glad to have read it. Don't get me wrong, I know you're saying "Why not celebrate the fact they made it then instead of attacking it!?," which would seem to imply I really wish it never did exist at all. This is not so. I just want people to constantly question what could have been done better, concerning everything, so that when they finally commence to create something themselves, if they ever do which is half the battle, they will have a standard to uphold.

[catamount]

Also, since the series is ongoing, things may change for the better. I can think of several television series that I was only mildly interested in at the beginning but became more interested after a season or two. So I guess the moral of the story is...keeping watching Slendy!!!

[Nightmare Happenings]

Good conclusion! I know what you mean about liking something as it goes on. I liked the second season of LOST more than the first one.

[Nightmare Happenings]

Lambda, I remember reading Moby Dick eons ago and the part I remember most is when mad captain Ahab finally encounters the white whale (the showdown you have been waiting for since the first page Ahab was introduced) and instead of at night during a thunderstorm complete with rumbling overture, lightning in the distance and choppy waters to make matters worse, they come upon him rising out of the placid sea on a fair morning with the sun even shining, nothing but silence. It was so damn creepy though! It was horrifying yet inviting at the same time, a meshing of contradictions that defy thought and can only invoke strange feelings within us (hence the Joycean epiphany), much like they describe Slender Man and his encounters with children (pushing away but pulling at the same time). Your post just reminded me of that part of the story, sorry to go off on another tangent.

 

[tyciol]

who knows, maybe Slender Man is an avatar of Nyarlathotep?

When I first read about Nyarlathotep today researching the Cthulu mythos it immediately made me think of Slenderman.

One thing we know for certain is that Slenderman is definitely not Cthulu (NSFW, and may have a  virus - proceed at your own risk).

[Nightmare Happenings]

Haha, so that's what goes on in Unknown Kadath