By Georgia Penny
He’s tall, he’s slim, he’s never seen
without a suit and tie, and he is back. Making his reappearance across the
digital world after years of inactivity is none other than The Slender Man.
After centuries of haunting children’s dreams and striking fear into the hearts
of their parents, this urban legend has made his way from folklore and fables
and into games, websites and fancy dress shops worldwide, with Slender Man morphsuits
proving very popular this Halloween.
The Slender Man is an alleged supernatural
figure that has supposedly existed for centuries; he has appeared in a variety
of different locations worldwide and as a result, accrued a number of aliases:
Fear Dubh (The Dark Man) in Scotland, the Takkenmann (The Branch Man) in
Holland and Der Grosse Mann (The Tall Man) in Germany. The earliest known
historical reference to this creature is a cave painting found in the Northeast
of Brazil, depicting an odd elongated character leading a child away from a crowd
of people. Other representations of the Slender Man come from Ancient Egyptian
hieroglyphics, sixteenth century German woodcuts and paintings and the Romanian
fairy-tale telling the legend of ‘The Tall Man’. According to the legend, he has tentacle –like
extensions protruding out of his back, no face, and arms that can stretch or
shorten at his will; his victims are children, to whom he causes memory loss,
insomnia, paranoia and coughing fits before kidnapping or killing them. For centuries he has hidden his existence
from the world.
Until now.
Stretching his tentacle-like extensions
into the digital world, the Slender Man has caught the attention of online
commentators, gamers, bloggers and vloggers worldwide. His initial return took
place in The Something Awful Forum’s “Create Paranormal Images”, wherein his
reappearance was noted, alongside pictures provided as evidence. Following his
unexpected arrival into the online community, The Slender Man went viral;
vloggers and bloggers began spreading the word, informing the world of the
urban legend’s existence; videographers and film makers began creating short
films and documentaries providing footage and commentary; and game developers
created Slender. Slender is a free indie-developed psychological horror video game
for both Microsoft Windows and OS X based on The Slender Man, and it has driven
the online gaming community wild. In the game, the player must seek out eight letters
and avoid the figure in the Slender Man suit at
all costs, or face death. Since its release in June 2012, the game has received
fantastic reviews; Explosion scored
the game 4/5 and gaming website IGN
calling Slender ‘pure horror’.
The Slender Man’s eruption into the digital
realm has led to the development of a solid fan base; he now has over half a
million likes on Facebook, a number of followers on Twitter and – thanks to
www.MorphSuits.co.uk – millions of people planning to dress up as The Slender
Man this Halloween. I’m not sure how The Slender Man will respond when he sees
this army of people dressed in Slender Man costumes,
but this paranormal pariah looks set to haunt the land for years to come.
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