Slender Man (2018)
Written By: JASR
Edited By: Grave Reviews Staff
Film Information
Director: Sylvain White
Writers(s): David Birke, Victor Surge
Producer(s): Ryan H. Cunningham, Glenn S. Gainor, Adam Kolbrenner, Tracey Nyberg,
Date Released: 10 August 2018
Cast:
Joey King as Wren
Julia Goldani Telles as Hallie
Jaz Sinclair as Chloe
Annalise Basso as Katie
Alex Fitzalan as Tom
Taylor Richardson as Lizzie
Javier Botet as Slender Man
Rating = 1/5 graves
***May contain some spoilers***
Synopsis
One day in school, four best friends – Wren (Joey King), Hallie (Julia Goldani Telles), Chloe (Jaz Sinclair), and Katie (Annalise Basso) – approached a group of guys to ask what they were doing after school. While the guys said it was top secret, one of the girls knew that the guys were planning to summon Slender Man. Together at Katie’s house, the girls found an online video on how to summon the infamous creature and tried to do so. A week later, Katie disappeared without a trace and the other girls started experiencing unusual happenings.
Gore Factor
Aside from scenes where Slender Man would choke or pull someone with his tentacles, the film didn’t have many gory scenes. It did, however, have a bunch of jump scares that viewers should anticipate. Hallie’s supposed hookup with Tom is one scene to look out for because of the shocking and sudden change in Tom’s face. The sound effect truly helped in making it the jump scare that it is.
The Grave Review
Since the internet lore Slender Man was quite famous years before the movie was released, it seems that the goal of the movie is to manifest fear to those who have read about Slender Man in their recent internet adventures. However, the movie lacked depth and excitement. It was a typical story of characters trying something unusual that brings consequences – quite predictable and shallow.
The movie begins with a seemingly good setting for a horror movie, a group of friends, normal lives in a small town. Later, however, the supposed creepy scenes appear to be too forced and unnatural. The story line needed a lot of improvement. For starters, it could have given a sensible Slender Man origin. There could have been an explanation of why Slender Man steals children and why he makes people go insane.
The acting could have been improved as well. Unlike other horror movies, this one did not make me engrossed in what was happening. It felt like I was still aware that all of it was an act with a director and the rest of the crew in front of them.
It is quite questionable why and how Katie went missing. In one scene, we see Katie staring into the forest, and in the next scene, her friends are worried about her. That makes you question the buildup and transition of her disappearance. It felt like the scene, and even the whole movie, lacked complexity and focused too much on unnecessary scares.
Sadly, the movie lacked character development as well. The movie focused too much on trying to be a psychological horror film that it forgot to give attention to how the characters develop. More than this, the movie made the characters go through some psychological troubles but failed to make an impact on the audience’s minds.
The audience did not get the chance to know the characters that well either. Therefore, when someone is taken or goes missing, it doesn’t mean much to the audience because we only know them as girls who summoned the creature.
Because of the foregoing reasons, Grave Reviews gives Slender Man (2018) one grave out of five graves.
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