Slender Man Stalks His Way into Theaters Amidst Controversy

Slender Man, which comes after the short horror film Curse of the Slender Man coming to audiences roughly a year after HBO debuted its acclaimed documentary Beware the Slenderman. The documentary covered and discussed the chilling attempted murder of young Payton Leutner by two of her friends, Anissa Weier and Morgan Geyser. The crime was apparently an attempt to appease the frightening (but ultimately fictional) Slender Man. (Both Morgan and Weier were sentenced to lengthy psychiatric prison terms earlier in 2018.)

The new Slender Man film focuses further on the actual legend of the Slender Man himself – a faceless supernatural entity resembling an unnaturally tall, human-like figure. However, because of the legend’s connection to the crimes of Weier and Geyser, not everyone is excited about the new film’s existence. Anissa Weier’s father has publicly spoken out, calling the movie “tasteless” for the way it attempts to sensationalize such a horrible tragedy.

“It’s absurd they want to make a movie like this,” said Bill Weier in an interview with the Associated Press. “It’s popularizing a tragedy, is what it’s doing. I’m not surprised, but in my opinion it’s extremely distasteful. All we’re doing is extending the pain all three of these families have gone through.” Movie goers can decide for themselves how they feel when Slender Man hits theaters August 10^th.