Slender Man
Director: Sylvain White
Writer: David Birke
Based on: Eric Knudsen aka Victor Surge’s character
Cast: Julia Goldani Telles, Joey King, Jaz Sinclair, Annalise Basso, Alex Fitzalan, Taylor Richardson, Javier Botet
Seen on: 16.9.2025

Plot:
Hallie (Julia Goldanie Telles), Wren (Joey King), Chloe (Jaz Sinclair) and Katie (Annalise Basso) are best friends and do everything together. That includes watching a video online that is rumored to summon the Slender Man (Javier Botet) to everybody who watches. He will either take his victims or drive them insane, but there are rumors that the people he takes go someplace special. When Katie disappears not long after, the remaining three friends start to spiral.

Slender Man is not a particularly good movie although it has its moments. But it has a distinct lack of hope and that is a trait in horror that I just don’t like.

The Slender Man character came to notoriety online, so I guess it was only a question of time that they made a horror film about it. I didn’t really take that much interest in him, so I am late to the film and even later to learn that there was actually an attempted murder based on him which makes this entire movie a little questionable.

In any case, the story they spin from it – a kind of Ring/Bloody Mary hybrid – is not particularly revolutionary. The four girls at the center never really get much personality, which also hampers our investment in the story and its stakes. And it includes some very illogical plot points only there for the sake of narrative convenience. It all made me shrug at the film even more than at the original concept that spawned it.

The only thing that stood out to me was that the film just doesn’t give us any chance to be hopeful. I find this neither edgy nor good, I find it suffocating. It sucks the fun out of the movie, and this is a horror movie that needs entertainment value because it has very little else to offer.

The film does have its moments. Both Basso and King – in very different ways – manage to get more out of their characters than I would have thought possible. There are some nice jump scares as well as an impressive scene in the library. Every once in a while there is even interesting imagery. But it is not enough to really ground the film or make it worth the time it takes to watch it.

Summarizing: shrug.