Why do we obsess over Slender Man so much?

[GenericAmerican]

If a faceless man in a business suit is scary, then any drone working for a big corporation is scary.

I honestly don't know who the fuck this is, or what it is about. And like most things to crawl out of the internet, it doesn't interest me in the slightest.

 

[DrBonBon]

Reminds me a lot of the Tall Man. Just look at that picture and put this in the background.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-c9vhOiI6JM

 

[webkilla]

My personal theory:

In modern gaming and internet culture there's usually always a way to 'win' so to say

Slenderman represents the concept of something you cannot beat. It. Will. Get. You.

A lot of horrorflicks rely on the same idea. Compare this to an action movie where there might be similarly impossible odds, but the good guy always wins.

Its the finality. It reminds us subconsciously of our own mortality - and whether you admit it or not - then death scares everyone.


Thus the idea of a faceless reaper-like figure that just slowly but inevitably creeps closer - especially when presented in the Slenderman game as a very current issue, as opposed to a lingering dread, you end with a 2spooky2deal situation... and a need for a new set of pants

Amnesia the dark descent did something similar - especially with the added 'meter' of your own sanity slowly wearing away

 

[aattss]

Honestly, I'm not sure how the character itself is scary, so I suspect that it's the application (i.e. The videos and games are scary because they're good.)

 

[Z of the Na'vi]

Seriously, that's all I ever see the guy doing. I think the entire basis of the fear is that our imaginations get the better of us. We envision Slender Man doing terrible, terrible things and yet all he does is stand there.

Especially when it comes to Slender, the amount of extreme camera zoom or flickery camera effects only adds to the paranoia our minds create. I'm speaking from an outside standpoint, as I have not read into the "mythos" at all.

Just my opinion, though.

 

[The White Hunter]

Pffft, slender man is about as scary as candleja

Oh god no you can't say candleja...

 

[hatseflats]

Because he confronts Americans with their morbid obesity.

Honestly though I've heard about him but never seen him featured in a movie, so I'm not really scared and I have no idea what's scary about the little fellow.

 

[MEEBO17]

Im not sure i like all this new popularity Slendy's getting with that game Slender. Its not even very scary. But when I pulled a MarblesHornet marathon last year with my friends, Slenderman was probably the base of all my nightmares.

 

[Trull]

The sheer amount of people who don't know who Slenderman is makes my head hurt. I thought Escapist was cultured for goodness sakes.

 

[JasonKaotic]

Hmmm...

Cabadath, anyone?

I wonder if Yahtzee knows about Slender Man...

Edit: Oh, even the Know Your Meme page says so. Slender Man creator, you sly dog.

 

[MasterOfHisOwnDomain]

I don't find it scary, and I don't know why people do. I suppose a fervent imagination? But seriously, I've thought of things twenty times that frightening and disturbing whilst doing day-to-day stuff.

 

[AgentLampshade]

I'm just going to quote an Unfiction user for it. Here's to you Geneaux486 for getting it spot-on!

What I always found frightening about the [Slender Man] was the fact that it was an anomaly that couldn't be explained, and that it harmed people in ways that we could not percieve. A faceless man with long, lanky arms, a perversion of humanity, that clearly shouldn't be able to exist, but does. You don't know why it's there, or what it's capable of, you just know that it's wrong, that it shouldn't be there, and that it's turning people against each other.

http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=33586

 

[D-Class 198482]

Its just what you said; there isn't much about it. You know how many people say "We are afraid of things we know nothing about"? A whole fuckin' lot. And it kind of helps when that thing doesn't have a face.

 

[xdiesp]

You should read some books, if amateurish stuff like this is a big deal for you.

 

[dalek sec]

Silence will fall when the question is asked.
Although, he may not be a man or alien. He could be a giant cockroach that has evolved to look like a man so he can lure children to feed to his queen. If you happen upon him, be sure and have 2 spoons to click together. The clicking easily confuses him into thinking you're a drone.

Oh, what's the name of that movie again? I know I've seen it but it's been so long that I honestly forget it's name. D:

OT: I just don't see what's so scary about him? I mean granted if I ever bump into him yeah I'll try not to crap myself but I just don't see the point in him. For me, I guess I like my horrors to be Lovecraftian or at the very least crawling up out of their graves to seek the flesh of the living.

 

[TKretts3]

He's just a guy in a suit with long arms/legs... He's a tall dude. He'd make a good basketball player.

 

[Hollock]

its not remotely scary. its just some dumb meme

 

[Olas]

at risk of warning or ban I have to say if his arms are that big imagine the size of his.....

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand banned.

lol

I personally remember seeing some of the [a href="http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/033/183/slenderman-2-784777.jpg"]original Slender man pics[/a] and being legitimately scared to look out the window at night, and I was 18. It's not that he's inherently scary, it's just with the right aesthetics anything can become creepy and/or disturbing.

Fun fact, slender man is a strong inspiration for the endermen from minecraft.

 

[xbox hero]

we find him scary because we do not know what he can do to us..The fact that you are by your self,and that someone is stalking you is scary.No one REALLY knows what he does to you when he caches you...He is still a horror character that not many people know how he kills...