Saturday, August 25, 2012
There has been a recent surge in popularity for the entity known as the “Slenderman”, a tall faceless figure dressed in a black suit with a propensity for abducting children and causing disappearances.
Most of this newfound interest was generated by the release of Slender, a first-person survival horror game, and its subsequent recognition in the 9gag community.
What some people don’t know is that the Slenderman myth had been making rounds on the internet a long time before the release of the half-eponymous game.
The myth originated from the SomethingAwful forums in June 10, 2009. A user going by the screen name of Victor Surge created an image with a corresponding story during a board discussion which encouraged users to create paranormal images. It quickly became popular among the SomethingAwful community and users started creating their own photoshopped images. And just like that it became viral.
People from all corners of the internet began creating their own stories and photos of the Slenderman. While searching for short stories on the web, I recall reading several creepypasta* about the myth. These stories had various interpretations of the Slenderman’s appearance, capabilities and motives.
After a while, people even began creating Alternate Reality Games (ARG’s) and found-footage video series on YouTube based on the mythos, the most popular of which is called Marble Hornets.
Despite going viral, the myth did not gain sufficient traction to be known by the mainstream. The Slenderman mythos achieved cult status with a small but dedicated following.
That is, until the release of the game “Slender” in 2012. Slender puts you in the role of a person lost in the woods who is being pursued by the Slenderman. The only (assumed) way out is to collect 8 pages scattered around different landmarks within the woods. Your only weapon is a flashlight with a limited battery supply; you have no way of harming your stalker. You can only run. And you run real slow.
Slender game posts rapidly made it to the trending section of 9gag and soon people were even posting footage of themselves playing the game and reacting to it (most of which are hilarious).
Now comes the point of this article, just what is it that makes “Slender” so scary? Below I’ve made a small list of what I think make the game so psychologically unnerving.
5 Reasons Why Slender Induces Psychological Fear
1. We cannot understand the Slenderman.
Have you ever tried watching a horror movie over and over again? If you have, chances are it gets less scary each time.
Oh, she’s in the bathroom? Cue: “Here’s Johnny!”
Scenes become predictable, there is no tension anymore, and by the 932th screening you probably memorize the dialog as well. Everything becomes familiar and what is familiar automatically becomes less frightening. As human beings, we naturally fear things we don't understand.
One reason the Slenderman induces fear is because we cannot become familiar with his appearance. He has no face and according to the mythos, his figure is malleable. What was that you saw in the corner of your eye? A tree– or the Slenderman?
Another reason is that we cannot understand his motives. Who does he serve? Is he some sort of nebulous Lovecraftian entity* whose purpose we cannot even begin to comprehend? Thanks to the exclusion of plot in the game and the many branching stories on the internet, we’ll never know. Why is he even chasing you? To kill you? To harvest your organs? You are literally left in the dark since the game ends when he’s caught you. There’s no blood or gore. The only traces you leave are your screams.
Not knowing is one of the scariest tools in a storyteller or game creator’s arsenal. To paraphrase Stephen King, “there’s nothing more terrifying than a closed door.”
*(Victor Surge actually states during an interview that H.P. Lovecraft was a big influence when he created the Slenderman)
2. Inability to pause the game.
Most games have a pause function to allow players rest, a bathroom break, or ample time to make a sorry attempt at studying. Slender does not. Once you press the ESC button on your keyboard, the game goes back to the menu and you must start again. The game does not want you to rest or go to the bathroom or study. It wants you to scream. All jokes aside, the main point of disabling game pausing is so that players do not have time to regain their composure.
Imagine collecting 7 of 8 pages. The game suddenly becomes more intense. The chances that the Slenderman is around the next corner are astronomically higher than before. Your heart races and your palms sweat.
Suddenly, your mother calls you down for dinner. It’s your favorite, she says, roast chicken. You pause the game, hurriedly finish your meal and pop back to your room and resume playing. The result is you’re not as scared as before since now the atmosphere is broken. You’ve “switched contexts” from the scary game world to the real world. The cost of this switch significantly subtracts from the experience.
3. Relying on psychological horror rather than visual horror.
Slender is a game which gets scarier the better your imagination is. Remember what we discussed in point number one? Your mind will subconsciously try to fill in all the missing details with made-up information. For example, if you have a particular fear of your grandmother your mind might suggest that the Slenderman is granny’s evil servant.
Told you she was evil.
Slender’s use of psychological horror rather than visual horror is quite refreshing since many movies and games in the genre rely on gratuitous amounts of gore to provide a scare. Slender is put at par, at least thematically, with the Silent Hill series and Amnesia. I understand that some of you might say Slender relies on cheap tricks such as surprise but what I appreciate in this game is not the part when the Slenderman is there; it’s the part when he’s not.
4. Nightmare fuel.
Ever had one of those nightmares where you’re running for your life from something or someone? What are common elements in these kinds of dreams?
You usually run slowly. No matter how hard you try to make you legs move they just won’t respond. It’s like you’re waist-deep in some sort of goo. You’re too scared to look back to get a glimpse of what’s chasing you. If you look back it just seems to be getting closer. You don’t know what your pursuer is going to do to you once it catches you but you assume the worst. And finally, when you wake up you can’t remember what your pursuer even looks like.
Sound familiar? Thought so. Slender seems to derive its gameplay directly from the universal concept of a chase dream.
5. Variation.
The Slenderman could be anywhere. He could be hiding behind that tree over there, behind those rocks or around that next corner. You’ll never know until you hear the hum of static or he appears right in front of you. In addition to that, there are ten places where pages can appear but there are only a total of eight pages you must collect. Where could the last one be? The tower, the big tree or heaven forbid– the house?
Slender keeps you guessing and prevents you from becoming familiar with the game and the Slenderman’s movements, unless of course, you’ve played it hundreds of times and meticulously analyzed Slendy’s behavior and movements (as a few have done on YouTube).
---
My contribution to society.
And that concludes this post. Let me leave you with some links and my little contribution to the Slenderman community– a photoshopped picture of myself as everyone's favorite faceless horror.
If you haven’t played the game yet, I recommend you try it. It’s free, has a small filesize and delivers quite the scare.
You might also want to watch the Marble Hornets series on YouTube.
Link: http://www.youtube.com/user/MarbleHornets
A little bit of trivia before you go: they say that the Slenderman only becomes aware of you when you come to know of his existence.
He knows you– now.
A little bit of trivia before you go: they say that the Slenderman only becomes aware of you when you come to know of his existence.
He knows you– now.
