Poster for ‘Slender Man’ Debuts . . . But is it Late to the Party?

Slender Man may be the greatest Urban Legend ever produced by the internet.  There are certainly numerous “creepypasta” stories that are unsettling and good for a chill, but none have had the lasting impact as Slender Man.

It’s no surprise that there have been a few attempts to adapt that story into a feature film, but what is surprising is all those attempts were low budget and we haven’t had any big Hollywood adaptations (unless you count the Jessica Biel film “The Tall Man”).  Unfortunately, enough time has past that any new attempts to adapt that story seem a bit late to the party.  Slender Man was birthed in 2009 on the Something Awful forums through a photoshop contest where user Eric Knudsen created two creepy black and white photographs with a strange gangly creature named the Slender Man.

In the same year a YouTube series called “Marble Hornets” started up and this was the first time Slender Man was brought to life on video.  Since then there have been several other YouTube series that have used the Slender Man mythos as the basis for their creepiness.  There was even a free video game released called “Slender: The Eight Pages” and it turned out to be quite the viral sensation.  Basically, what I’m getting at is that the Slender Man has circulated through pop culture via numerous free mediums and, as a result, reached a cultural climax rather early on.

I hate to be immediately dismissive of a movie, but as someone who closely followed the rise of Slender Man and the pop culture phenomenon that quickly swelled up around it, I have to say that a film about that creature coming out in 2018 seems extremely late to the party.  It’s certainly possible that this could be a good movie, but I’m curious how big of an impact it could have at this point.  The generation that helped make Slender Man the phenomenon that it was is now seven years older, would this appeal in a nostalgic way or would it come off as a cash grab?

With that out of the way, there’s a “Slender Man” movie set to debut on May 18, 2018 and today IGN revealed our first look at the poster.  It’s admittedly a well designed poster and captures the look of Slender Man. The film is aptly titled “Slender Man” and is being directed by Sylvain White who handled “The Losers” (pretty good) and “I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer” (not so good).  “Slender Man” centers on a group of girls who band together to investigate a string of disappearances. It stars Joey King, Annalise Basso, Jaz Sinclair, and Julia Goldani Telles. Check out the poster below.