The Slender Man is the undisputed horror icon of the internet age.
Created in a pair of captioned images by forum user Victor Surge, real name Erik Knudsen,
the character took off like wildfire within the thread and soon inspired legions of fan
art, stories, and blog posts.
The release of the 2018 theatrical Slender Man movie suddenly put the internet's most
notorious monster in front of a whole new audience.
But do you know everything there is to know about the creepy guy in a snappy tie?
"It's a nice tux."
"I know it belonged to my grandfather.
He was buried in it, so… family heirloom."
No, not that creepy guy.
Here are all the secrets the Slender Man has to offer.
The Big Five
One of the interesting aspects of the Slender Man is that his mythos grew across several
different fan works, all inspired by the original images from the Something Awful post by Victor
Surge.
The first and arguably most influential of these was Marble Hornets, a long-running YouTube
series about a film student who finds himself haunted by visions of a long, faceless man
in a black suit.
Marble Hornets ran for many installments across multiple YouTube channels and a Twitter account.
The second most popular Slendy series is TribeTwelve, and rounding out the "big three" video series
is EverymanHYBRID, which also introduces some other spooky details into the mix.
These three series, plus others such as the DarkHarvest and MLAndersen channels, have
been the primary driving forces behind what people "know" about the Slender Man and how
he acts and operates.
Slender skills
Despite being developed by a whole host of separate creative sources, a sort of consensus
has gradually emerged about the Slender Man and what his powers are.
Most of the time, he uses his mystical power of lurking.
The major source of scares in early installments of Marble Hornets and EverymanHYBRID is slowly
realizing a faceless head is staring at you from the background.
As such, Slendy is thought to have a form of teleportation called "slender walking"
as well as camouflage, which lets him stay blurry until it's time for the jump scare
noises.
More impressively, he has the ability to control minds, to instill victims with a kind of "slender
sickness" that can cause coughing and blackouts, and the ability to control fire.
Because why not?
"Now picture that, but everywhere."
Finally, one of the more striking elements is the big old mess of tentacles the Slender
Man is frequently given in artwork, but rarely in any of the video series, probably because
nobody had the budget to give him squid arms.
Raked aside
While the Slender Man is far and away the king of internet creepiness, there are a number
of other crowdsourced horror characters and stories - called creepypasta - that have crossed
over into Slendy's world.
One such character is the Rake.
In the original story, the Rake is a frightening but vaguely humanoid figure who's usually
encountered by people who wake up in the middle of the night and find him sitting on their
beds.
Sleep tight with that thought in your head.
The Rake got dragged into the Slender Man mythos via EverymanHYBRID.
There, it makes a number of appearances.
However, despite its popularity among creepypasta fans, the Rake has a long, steep hill to climb
if it wants to topple the Slender Man.
Japan did it first
While the Slender Man has certainly inspired no shortage of imitators, in the case of the
Japanese creature known as the kunekune, Slendy was beaten to the punch in almost every conceivable
way: in his look, in his MO, and in his internet-based origin.
The kunekune stories began appearing in 2003, and was described as a scarecrow-like being
who appears out in rice fields as a long, slender figure with a white head and wispy
tendrils in the wind.
According to stories, those who look at the kunekune too long go insane, and those who
try to touch it will die on the spot.
So, you know, if you happen to pass by a Japanese rice field and see a scarecrow coming toward
you, just ignore it!
Slender slaves
One of the most pervasive elements of the contemporary Slender Man mythos is that of
proxies, who are basically mentally controlled slaves of the Slender Man.
Proxies are especially prominent in the series TribeTwelve, which features a sizeable group
of proxies known as the Collective.
Of these, the most notable is the Observer, who frequently communicates with the main
character of that series.
Across the wide expanse of Slender Man blogs, there was a period in which proxies were a
very common trope, to such an extent that some stories featured entire hordes of mindless
slaves chasing after an intended victim.
Basically, they were just turned into zombies, for better or worse.
Creepy cameos
Anything that turns into an online sensation is inevitably going to make its way into pop
culture, and Slender Man is no different.
A notable example is the Enderman, a dangerous creature in the world of Minecraft.
They are long and lanky and become dangerous when you look at them.
A pony version of the Slender Man appeared in the background of a Season 4 episode of
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic called "Pinkie Apple Pie."
Which … okay.
Also in 2014, an episode of Law and Order: SVU told the story of the "Glasgowman's Wrath,"
in which the Slender Man was reimagined as the Glasgowman for some reason.
You'd think an appearance on Law and Order would be enough to kill a youth culture trend,
but you can't keep a good Slender Man down.