Slender Man (2018)

"Thin On Plot"

Actually, SLENDER MAN is a bit thin on everything, which is a shame because there are actually the bare bones of a good movie here, one that could have led to a franchise if it had been handled properly. As it is, anyone interested in what's here now has the chance to decide for themselves as Sony brings out SLENDER MAN on Digital, DVD & Blu-ray.

Four girls enjoying a sleepover date decide to try and conjure up the legendary Slender Man, whose raising ritual seems to be terribly easy to access via the internet. That bit of the plot dispensed with, one by one they start to see images of the titular creature and one by one some extremely low budget and unimaginative things happen to them.

That really is about it and that's a great shame, because there are some sequences in SLENDER MAN that suggest great promise on the part of director Sylvain White. Even so, probably the nicest thing I can say about the film is that it feels a bit like A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET directed by Jacques Tourneur from a non-existent script and with a lot of studio interference.

In fact, I did wonder on a couple of occasions if Mr White was trying for a NIGHT OF THE DEMON approach. There's an atmospheric scene set in a library, some interesting disorientating perspective shots, and the film is at its best when it's depicting scenes of the quietest horror - dimly lit streets at night, a forest with an ominous gate, a hospital corridor where everything and everyone starts moving slightly more slowly than it should are all actually very atmospheric. There's even the line "There's something in the trees."

The problem (and it's a big one) is that none of this adds up to much. Worst of all is the poor old Slender Man himself, who barely gets featured in his own film. When he does pop up it's painfully obvious that nobody knows what to do with him, and instead of remaining an enigmatic spectral presence he ends up being turned into a bit of a daft CGI-fest.

So SLENDER MAN is really only for the most devoted of horror prospectors, those willing to sift through a whole lot of not much to get to a few good bits. Sony's Blu-ray comes with a brief featurette on the cast but that's it. 

SLENDER MAN is out from Sony on Digital on 17th December 2018 and on DVD & Blu-ray from 

Boxing Day 2018.