Why do we obsess over Slender Man so much?

[saintdane05]

We all saw Nightmare Before Christmas. It traumatized us.

That, or it's the effects of the Silence's mind control. You never know?

Wait, what's that picture? When did that get posted?

 

[Loop Stricken]

Slenderman was created on SomethingAwful forums in a Photoshop contest he isn't real,and he isn't scary. Way to many people have claimed to the the original creator of slenderman. I was there on SA the day he was created

On June 8th, 2009, a ??paranormal pictures? photoshop contest was launched on the Something Awful (SA) Forums. The contest required participants to turn ordinary photographs into creepy-looking images through digital manipulation and then pass them on as authentic photographs on a number of paranormal forums. Something Awful users soon began sharing their faux-paranormal creations with layered images of ghosts and other anomalies, usually accompanied by a fabricated witness account to make them more convincing. On June 10th, SA user Victor Surge posted two black and white photographs of unnamed children with a short description of ?Slender Man? as a mysterious creature who stalked children.

Yeah, thanks for ruining the fun. Good Lord...

 

[Andre Rapp]

he was made by a bunch of crazies on /x/, the paranormal board of 4chan. he was engineered to be disturbing on the most fundamental levels.
humans have several universal fears that seem to stem from early hunter-gather stages of pre-civilaization humans, one of them is a dark forest. it is believed that early humans lived in trees for safety, but largely inhabited plains, so a think forest where line of sight is abnormally restricted would make sense to be unsettling, while most dangerous things emerge at night, and our eyes are built to see in the light, not darkness so we inherently fear the dark. as such Slender Man is mostly seen at night where his glowing head can be seen and is typically attributed to the forest. as for his face, its rather simple. humans look at the face for recognition, and fellow humanity. if we recognize something that seems human but isn't, we are immediately appalled by it, this is normally called the un-canny vally. Slender Man is purposefully directly in the center of this vally with his blank face and dis-proportioned limbs, but we still recognize his overall shape and even his clothing as human. finally we have his targets, which are, in most of the creepy pastas, young children. humans protect our young, so again having a creature deliberately hunting human children will be more appalling than just a predator. our young are one of the few things we are programed to protect more then ourselves.

so there you have it, /x/ once again devised a way to keep us up at night.

 

[loc978]

I've looked up documentaries on the thing, read for hours about it, and... I don't get it. Not scary at all. I'm fully convinced I could easily kill the Slender Man with my bare hands... and I'm never down to just my bare hands. Not even in the bath.

 

[BNguyen]

Personally, I don't find him scary but the way the MarbleHornets guys have been working with his character, it gets tense when you wait for him to appear, just a faceless giant that inches ever closer to killing you the more insane you become

but when given an image, I take these quotes from APhilips on Twitter who just made these for fun and they paint a more frightening image than slenderman

".. sleep face-down for when the long-fingered pointy lady comes to steal your eyes" from 'Bedtime Stories for Naughty Children'
"so each creak in the house is a footstep of the long-toed lady coming to get you." from 'Bedtime Stories for Naughty Children'

 

[Penguinis Weirdus]

The thing that makes this sorta Urban-Legend Creature thing scary, or jumpy is the familiarity but (as other people in the thread have stated) but with a certain twist, no facial features means no harder to understand what he's gonna do, the tentacles because, well tentacles, the exaggerated thinness and height, and most terrifying (at least for the hind-brain the older part responsible for fight or flight) you can't fight him and win, nor can you ever escape this hunter, you will never be safe again and he will get you.
Things like the fact he was created on the internet, and has multiple backstories, multiple modus operandi means that you don't know where he's from, what he's going to do you, and again most importantly to the hindbrain what he is. Its the same reason why children are scared of the dark. You don't know what's there, light means life, means safety means herd, means weapon, means protection, means identification of threat.
Added to the fact that he's also urban - he's found in cities. Which are safe, we band together for safety for thousands of years towns and cities are safety nets from the outside world we create our own artificial world separate from the natural world, and yeah there's the dangers of fire, disasters and disease (and to an extent war), but chances are your not going to turn into something's lunch and even places with primitive law or corrupt law means you have more chances the in the wilds and suddenly bam! No you're no longer safe cos this bastard's going to hunt you down no matter where you go. Suddenly for all the protection society is meant to offer it's become worthless.
Tbh I've always found this sort antagonist more terrifying than the more common bogeymen the ones that exist in the periphery of our psyche are all the more terrifying for lack of knowledge, and therefore lack of control and certainty. The Buffy episode Hush I found all the more terrifying (apart from the fact I was about 6 when it aired) was because of this sod:

Spoiler

To the point where I still scared when I watched the episode much later when I was about 14 (I am though to be fair in these matters a massive, massive wuss)

And the Eyeless man scene whilst it didn't scare me a horror film does the first time I saw it my hind brain screamed "I know this f***ing legend, its too damn familiar to just be coincidence", and then I googled it and nope, the Director made him up.

Spoiler

 

[ToastiestZombie]

Who?

*clicks wikilink*

Oh, some guy on the net told you he was scarey so it was cool to think he was?

It's hardly an obsession for most people, just those weak minded and easily influenced by the meme of the day (I mean really, its a bloody 4chan meme)

It comes from somethingawful actually, the recognized pretentious hellhole of the Internet. And looking at the wiki won't scare you, same way just watching a trailer for a game won't give you a good opinion.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

Yeah, first I saw of him was some photos of woodland at night, and the combination of his overlong limbs and the way he blended into the branches, there is something that works on a base level to bring the fear.

The pictures I saw he kinda had branch like arms too, not tentacles however, to make him even more able to roam the forests unseen until he wanted to be.

Most of the greatest fear generators are almost human but still a step or two away from human, however.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

*double post*

 

[ToastiestZombie]

I've looked up documentaries on the thing, read for hours about it, and... I don't get it. Not scary at all. I'm fully convinced I could easily kill the Slender Man with my bare hands... and I'm never down to just my bare hands. Not even in the bath.

He's impossible to kill, he may look frail and weak but if you were to get anywhere close to him you would start to get excruciating pain all throughout your body. And I'm pretty sure guns won't kill him. He's immortal, you can not kill him.

 

[TheScientificIssole]

To the point where I still scared when I watched the episode much later when I was about 14 (I am though to be fair in these matters a massive, massive wuss)

And the Eyeless man scene whilst it didn't scare me a horror film does the first time I saw it my hind brain screamed "I know this f***ing legend, its too damn familiar to just be coincidence", and then I googled it and nope, the Director made him up.

JESUS! Don't post that shit all willy-nilly! That Buffy villain spooks me because he floats. FLOATS! And he attacks people in their sleep. THEIR SLEEP! And don't want to see that jerk from Pan's Labyrinth ever again!

 

[TheAmazingHobo]

First off, here´s a fun idea.
Could all the people who post the obligatory one-paragraph "He isn´t like even scary, man"-shit please get together and decide on ONE representative, who then gets to voice their exceedingly repetetive, uninteresting opinion, and then just leave it at that ?
Also, if you "don´t get why people find him scary", might I suggest reading the thread ? You know, the one you JUST posted in, which contains SEVERAL posts by SEVERAL people explaining in some detail why the find him scary.
I know you had to get out your dull "Well, I don´t think he´s scary and can conceive of no way how he could be" as fast as possible so we can marvel at your emotional fortitude, but please, honey, at least have at glance at what other people posted.

And yes, I realize I´m overreacting, but people, seriously, if your entire post consist of you telling us that the subject matter holds no interest to you whatsoever, that it just leaves you with a vaguely beige feeling and you have no strong feelings on the matter either way, why don´t just keep it to your fucking self.
M´kay ?

[trimmed for brevity]
Second of all, what does he do? No one really knows. All he usually does in these series is stand and stare, stand and stare, stand and stare. Then suddenly he's either closer or gone. But children disappear, people lose months worth of memories, your camera footage becomes f'ed beyond recognition, strange figures send you cryptic packages and videos, then you follow your friend Alex into the woods where he tries to shoot you. You never see Slender Man do any of this, but it all happens because of him.
[trimmed for brevity]

I actually really like this idea, especially because I never thought about it like this.
His actions are, if they even exist, always implied aren´t they ? He certainly is present, but not overtly active.
That is even more frightening to me than not knowing his precise shape or face. His "methods" are just so unknown. A knife-wielding maniac will stab you, a deranged torturer will make you suffer, a predatory alien eat you. But he´s just at thing that makes weird stuff happen.

And that´s probably why so many people find him so scary in so many ways. He is just a thing that you can project onto whatever shape, threat or action you would personally find most threatening.

And I would even contest that it all necessarily "happens because of him".
Maybe he isn´t even the cause of what´s happening, but just another symptom.
Which is the interpretation that, for example, scares me the most.

 

[floppylobster]

Why am I not scared? Because I'm old. I used be able to scare myself with this stuff. But sadly I can't anymore.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

I've stopped reading King books since he finished the Dark Tower series, feeling that was the real culmination of his works (yes I'm aware there's a new Dark Tower book but I feel its not right, it ended as it should have depending on where you stopped reading).

It's fine. It's Roland telling a story from his youth. A bit like Wizard and Glass.
I'd recommend it. I read it when it came out and I'm no reading the series yet again.

OT - Who's this 'we'?

I'll give it a whirl then, thanks for the recommend. I just felt that after being run over King lost a lot of his edge, not many of his books have lived up to the previous material (aside from Talisman and Black House) I really haven't read much I was super impressed with like his other greats (Salem's Lot, Needful Things, The Stand, Eyes of the Dragon to name a few of my fave's...). But I'll admit I haven't read much since Dark Tower was published either so I may just give him another shot since he did inspire a lot of my earlier writings in High School.

 

[shockywatt]

I've looked up documentaries on the thing, read for hours about it, and... I don't get it. Not scary at all. I'm fully convinced I could easily kill the Slender Man with my bare hands... and I'm never down to just my bare hands. Not even in the bath.

In one documentary Slender Man takes a shotgun to the face, and is not harmed. You can not kill him you can not stop him. Before dismissing him, watch Tribe Twelve it's scarier then Marble Hornets by far.

 

[Blunderboy]

I've stopped reading King books since he finished the Dark Tower series, feeling that was the real culmination of his works (yes I'm aware there's a new Dark Tower book but I feel its not right, it ended as it should have depending on where you stopped reading).

It's fine. It's Roland telling a story from his youth. A bit like Wizard and Glass.
I'd recommend it. I read it when it came out and I'm no reading the series yet again.

OT - Who's this 'we'?

I'll give it a whirl then, thanks for the recommend. I just felt that after being run over King lost a lot of his edge, not many of his books have lived up to the previous material (aside from Talisman and Black House) I really haven't read much I was super impressed with like his other greats (Salem's Lot, Needful Things, The Stand, Eyes of the Dragon to name a few of my fave's...). But I'll admit I haven't read much since Dark Tower was published either so I may just give him another shot since he did inspire a lot of my earlier writings in High School.

My pleasure. I have to admit that his later books haven't really appealed to me. The DT were the first ones I read. I've since read and loved The Stand, Needful Things, The Long Walk, Cell, Pet Semetary and The Dead Zone.

 

[Stilkon]

I think it's because he's right on the border of the uncanny valley. With human dimensions that are exaggerated, he's kinda weird-looking. Also, notice how he never moves or speaks, and that any shot of him is blurry and fleeting. The less you know about something, the scarier it is.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

you know how the Grim Reaper is the anthropomorphic personification of Death? I think Slendy is the anthropomorphic personification of The Game. When you are aware of him (just as when you are aware of The Game) you lose. It is unclear what happens when you lose which ads to the horror since as Lovecraft said, the oldest and most powerful emotion known to man is fear and the oldest and most powerful form of fear is that of the unknown. The fact that we know what Slendy looks like but...well, very little else gives him a bit more power than other iconic monsters and villains. Also he seems to target children (or...hang out around them) which ups the creepy factor. One final note, he's really easy to cos-play. That has to add some popularity points.

 

[Penguinis Weirdus]

snip

Sorry I'll spoiler that. Just click the below spoiler, you know you want to Muhahaha-cough theres nothing evil there related to the gentlemen nooo not at all >_>

Spoiler

I think I got away with that.
captcha eat out: YOUR HEART!!!!! O_O