New Casting Details Emerge For Upcoming ‘Slender Man’ Film

Coming from Sony Screen Gems is Slender Man, a film based on the now-iconic internet phenomenon whose legend has spread far and wide. The upcoming horror film has recently added cast member Joey King (The Conjuring, Wish Upon) to the already announced Annalise Basso (Captain Fantastic), Jaz Sinclair (When The Bough Breaks), Talitha Bateman (Annabelle: Creation).

Sylvain White will direct Slender Man, having previously directed films like The Losers and Stomp the Yard.

The first appearance of the Slender Man character was back in 2009 when Something Awful forum user Eric Knudsen created the monster for a Photoshop contest. The goal was to take unaltered photos and add in a creepy, supernatural element into it, with Knudsen inserting the image of a tall figure wearing a suit with extended extremities.

In addition to the creepy edits, Knudsen also added bits of text and dates to give hints of backstory for the demonic presence, which proved so effective that other users joined in to begin crafting the concept of the Slender Man.

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The mythology surrounding the Slender Man is one of the first documented cases of being able to track an urban legend or folklore to a specific time and date, with other “campfire tales” having been passed along for generations without any evidence of where these stories originated.

Depending on the stories you read about the entity, the Slender Man is either a supernatural or extraterrestrial threat whose long arms can turn into tentacles to capture victims. He is often described as being found in wooded areas or abandoned locations, waiting for children to stumble across him, either to be captured or enslaved as one of his proxies.

The legend of the Slender Man became so believable, two young girls led one of their friends to a wooded location in an attempt to kill her as a sacrifice to the being. Luckily, the victim survived, and their story was the inspiration for the HBO documentary Beware the Slenderman.

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The upcoming Slender Man film might be the first film adaptation with a direct connection to this legend, but the Syfy TV series Channel Zero debuted last fall with a story inspired by these internet scary stories, often referred to as “creepypasta.”

The first season of Channel Zero was so successful that it was renewed for three more seasons, with each season being based on a different creepypasta.

[H/T Bloody Disgusting]