Using black and white photographs of groups of children, Knudsen added the ominous figure of a faceless tall man donning a dark suit.
Under each picture, Knudsen described eerie disappearances and named his evil character as "The Slender Man":
"We didn't want to go, we didn't want to kill them, but its persistent silence and outstretched arms horrified and comforted us at the same time... - 1983, photographer unknown, presumed dead"
"One of two recovered photographs from the Stirling City Library blaze. Notable for being taken the day [in] which fourteen children vanished and for what is referred to as 'The Slender Man.' Deformities cited as film defects by officials. Fire at library occurred one week later. Actual photograph confiscated as evidence.
— 1986, photographer: Mary Thomas, missing since June 13th, 1986."
More posts about the character soon followed, and the "legend" went viral. When Knudsen decided not to expand on Slender Man's motives and back story, others started to create various works of fan art and online fiction, which was constantly uploaded to a Creepypasta.com, a website for "scary paranormal stories and short horror [fiction]."
On that website, several authors took a stab at the Slender Man mythos, sometimes changing his habits, motives, and abilities. However, all stories continue to depict him as a tall, thin, featureless man, whose limbs are unnaturally long (in some stories he also has tentacles), and who prefers to inhabit the woods or abandoned places. In addition to all these unchangeable characteristics, Slender Man continues to live up to his original creator's intention: he is meant to trigger unease and terror in the minds of the readers.
Furthermore, Slender has also inspired different YouTube series and videos, the most popular being Marble Hornets, which has more than 250,000 followers around the world and 55 million views, video games, apps, indie films, and even a not-so-great Hollywood movie with Jessica Biel.
Slender: The Arrival, console game for PS3 and Xbox 360, is set to arrive late September.
Everything seemed to be all in good fun, but on May 31, 2014, the Slender Man legend turned grim.
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| Geyser and Weier |
Geyser and Weier had discovered Slender Man months before on Creepypasta and believed he was actually real. They wanted to become what they called his "proxies," proving their devotion and showing to the world he really existed, so after months of planning, the girls decided to carry out their sacrifice during a game of hide and seek at the Nicolet National Forest in Wisconsin’s Northwoods, where they believed Slender Man lived.
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| Geyser's drawing of Slender Man |
She has been deemed incompetent to face trial, and her prosecution has been suspended until her condition improves.
After this case hit the news, an unidentified Ohio mother gave an interview to a WLWT TV reporter stating her 13-year-old daughter, inspired by Slender Man, had attacked her with a knife.
The woman came home to allegedly find her daughter holding a knife and wearing a white mask and a black hood.
Although the mother recognized her daughter suffered from mental issues, she insists she never expected the attack to happen. Interestingly enough, the interview did not address if the mother had previously sought help for her daughter, even after finding disturbing writing in her journal: "We found things that she had written and she made reference to Slender Man. She also made references to killing [...] She even created a world for Slender Man in the game mine craft."
Unfortunately, the Slender Man "inspired" crimes did not end there.
On September 4, 2014, Florida teen Lily Marie Hartwell, 14, admitted to setting her house on fire while her mother and younger brother slept inside.The sun was still hours away from rising on that Thursday morning when Hartwell allegedly soaked a bed sheet and a towel with rum and bleach and started some light of her own. Once the fire started, Hartwell fled to a nearby park and went to sleep in a public bathroom.
At 1:45 am, her mother and younger brother were awakened by the smoke alarm and were able to escape.
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| "Mom, I'm so sorry. I don't know why I did it. Did any of [you] get hurt?" |
She also said such stories reminded her of being bullied in school and disciplined by her mother. She added that the fire occurred after a fight with her mother. Once detained, she reportedly sent a text message to her family, apologizing.
In response to allegations that its stories generate violence, Creepypasta has released the following statement:
This wiki does not endorse or advocate for the killing, worship, and otherwise replication of rituals of fictional works. There is a line between fiction and reality, and it is up to you to realize where the line is. We are a literature site, not a crazy satanic cult [...]
I don't believe that it's [Slender Man's fault or of] horror writing in general that this happened [...] Scary stories and [...] slasher movies [do] not instill [...] a desire to murder [...]. Hopefully, the gruesome crime that happened in Wisconsin will not repeat itself again, and our hearts go out to the families affected by this crime.
It is really hard to understand how children can be guilty of violent crimes.It is easy, however, to find a boogeyman at whom to point the finger.
Pasco Sheriff Chris Nocco, responsible for the Hartwell investigation, noted during a press conference that it is not believed her taste in literature was the cause of her actions but said parents should know that there are "things on the Internet that are disturbing and causing kids to lose a sense of reality and caused a horrible incident to occur [Thursday] that could've been tragically worse."
Do you think Slender Man was the one to blame in all these cases? Do you agree with the Creepypasta statement?
What do you think? Let us hear it!
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