The Slender Man Mythos
Disclaimer: the following post details a fictional horror story/universe. While all of the details within are fabricated, some images are unsettling nonetheless. You’ve been warned.
In keeping with cool things on the Internet I discover far too late, I’ve plunged head-first into the Slender Man mythos.
Back in June, a Photoshop thread appeared in the SomethingAwful forums on the subject of creating paranormal images. That is, fabricating ghost pictures from ordinary photos. It got off to a slow start in its first couple of pages, and wasn’t enough to hold my interest for long. But when the reputable Paul Blinov explained to me the wonderful things that had occurred since, I felt compelled to give it a second glance.
A few pages in, a poster by the name of Victor Surge submitted a pair of images with apparently fictional captions detailing their origins:
"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 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.
This is the stuff that great threads are made of. The images came with the perfect mix of ambiguity, false plausibility, and sheer creepiness. Naturally, they were an instant hit.
From that point forward, the thread transformed into a collaborative tome collecting the fictional archive photos, news stories, witness reports, and interviews with those who had experienced the Slender Man in some way. Based on those two original images, an entire history and culture of uncertainty developed around this make-believe boogieman. Although even the posted scripts sometimes conflicted with one another (to the benefit of Slender Man’s fearsome reputation, some may say), a few common factors emerged:
- He is humanoid in form, though much taller and thinner than an average male, possibly with the ability to alter the length and/or shape of his limbs.
- He is a dark figure, almost always seen in a black-and-white business suit.
- There are no clear images, though it appears he has no eyes, and may have no face at all.
- He generally lurks in the woods, though has been known to appear in urban landscapes, typically from a distance, and sometimes in a fog.
A rare early CCTV image of the Slender Man. Origin unknown.
For the next few months, several posters added their own contributions of pictures and words, making the legend grow stronger. Transcripts of interviews with mental patients appeared who claimed that the Slender Man haunted them both in and outside of their dreams. Numerous reports sprung up of bodies found impaled in trees dozens of feet off the ground, their organs removed and placed nearby in individual plastic bags. Some argued that the Slender Man preys primarily on children, while other contend that he’ll seek out any who might wander astray, making themselves an easy target.
Steinmen Woods Both subjects were hunting in the Steinmen woods four hours before sundown. Surviving subject states that while hunting both men grew uneasy as fog levels rapidly increased. A constant murmuring sound accompanied by a low hum eventually became apparent to the two men an hour after the fog increased. An object falling out of tree stuck one of the men in the left shoulder causing him to discharge his weapon. Object said to be the body of a man of unknown age. It was very precisely dissected, with major internal organs still contained within the rib cage in what looked to be clear bags. Surviving subject placed organ bag within backpack. Attack followed several minutes later after a "low children's laugh, like a giggle". Surviving subject ran until he reached his vehicle. Subject then drove to assumed safety. Backpack destroyed. Surviving subject is classified as a B7 witness. B7 witness to be placed in quarantine "Blind Box" until resolution.
This continued for several weeks. Then, something amazing happened. Videos started appearing on YouTube from the user MarbleHornets. According to the introductory video and subsequent posts made in the SA thread, the poster’s friend Alex was creating an independent film titled “Marble Hornets.” However, he and his actors began to notice mood swings, acting erratically around one another. With little explanation, Alex canned the project and apparently moved away. He left all of his footage with the poster, requesting that it all be burned. Instead, the poster decided to go through the footage and compile what he found. Shit got weird from there.
Last chance to bail out — the following video, the first of the series, may be frightening or disturbing to some viewers.
A Twitter account tied to Marble Hornets also appeared, tracking the “in-character” progress of the poster. Subsequent videos lacked little cohesion — some followed the same erratic, panicked, Blair Witch-esque camcorder cinematography, while others are more innocuous shots from the filming of the movie itself. Looking closely, however, Slender Man appears in almost all of the clips, often causing severe audio and video distortion as he draws nearer.
A shift in narrative occurs when the poster begins to submit videos of his own investigations to compliment what he’s compiled from Alex’s tapes. At this point, another YouTube poster begins to respond: someone named totheark is watching them, and posting surreal, almost non-sequitur films with cryptic coded messages.
The plot takes several gut-wrenching turns from there, and picks up an almost House of Leaves vibe, but I’ll spoil no more — to fully appreciate it, you have to watch it yourself. At this point, it seems as though the video posts may be on hiatus, but there are still many more unanswered questions, so I’ll be eagerly awaiting future updates.
After spending the last few hours soaking up as much of the Slender Man mythos as I can, however, there’s no way I’m sleeping soundly tonight.
When shit like this starts getting this complex, I start thinking ARG.
Damn you for hooking me.
How am I ever going to sleep again?
here’s a composition about TSM
You know. How do you Pasfically know that Slenderman is NOT real. FOr all we know. He could be.
Pasfically?
:D That is the most amazing spelling of ‘Specifically’ I have ever seen in my life. I salute you.
Real or not, the power of knowledge, fear, and words has the power to bring anything dark and horrib from the depths of the abyss to reality’s light. Watching you. Bleed more.
Maybe because his origin is on a website. :| He was made for a contest.
he absolutly could be real…. there might be a few phony picks but i still believe
You can’t prove something do sent exist and we only go off logic
You have also forgotten a blog called Just Another Fool.
There is no way in high hell I’m sleeping tonight. I’m now horrified he might come for me and my friends. we do stupid shit like wandering into the woods for the hell of it. I don’t know if I want to do this ever again…HOW’M I GONNA SLEEP?!
O.O
…WHAT THE FUCK?
??????????
How do you know he isn’t real? How do you know that tonight, as you sleep, or tomorrow, when you go walking in the woods, that Slender Man won’t come and impale your body like several others? Mabye, just maybe, he won’t come. Maybe he’ll wait.
Maybe he willL dissEect you, And then he’ll take your organs and hang them in plastic bags from trees. Victor, pleasE, don’t YOUR leave your HOUSE house tonight. AND RUN AWAY!
anyway, it has similarity with our ghost folklore, the tall ghost (hantu galah) here ‘s the link of it…
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ms&u=http://ms.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hantu_galah&ei=FU4NTrDqJ4HQrQflkMTWCw&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCcQ7gEwAA&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhantu%2Bgalah%26hl%3Den%26prmd%3Divns
the slender man… what an interesting nickname for him. so obvious, so, fake. i of course, do not speak of the slender man but… of course… the videos. so many mistakes in them i stopped counting after the fifth entry. perhaps the truth will find its way to the surface eventually…
his actual name is DeGrossman. And he is not something created on the internet, he was a myth in germany.
I thought his real name was pale master
I think the Silence were modeled off of the Slender Man.
THIS IS SO SCARY!!!!!!!
omg! i don’t know how to sleep now
don’t believe it :o
WHAT IS THIS!!!
I am the slender man
Hello, children. I would like you to know that im watching all of you. That is right, all of you, because there is more than just me. There are more out there. Sleep in pain. Walk in the agonizing fear that i may be one foot behind you. But don’t be afraid, my children, for i shall take you to a better place. Good Night, i can see you.
like i said before you idiot, his actual name is DeGrossman. And he is not something created on the internet, he was a myth in germany. Why are ppl on the internet so stupid?
To glow of the moons, at the stroke of night’s noon the creeping fear began. In the blink of an eye came the keening cry, the call of The Slender Man.
He comes in the night, with a visage bone white and drags you away to his tomb, at your window he stares with no face to wear as he lifts you away to your doom.
- Anon. translation of an 1816 poem from Germany
BUTTHOLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just know that i will watch you in your sleep SLENDER MAN!!! you should watch your back