Deeply disturbing

This is an extremely disturbing documentary about the so-called Slender Man stabbing, a bizarre crime case in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. In 2014, two 12-year old girls attempted to murder their best friend as a kind of sacrifice to “the Slender Man”, a fictitious demon popular on the Internet. Apparently, the girls believed that the Slender Man was real, and wanted to run away to his “mansion” in the woods!

The documentary features real video recordings of police interrogations with the girls, plus interviews with their parents. Both suspects are clearly delusional, and have been for a long time. We also get a few glimpses of the Creepypasta subculture and even a short interview with Richard Dawkins talking about memes and mind viruses. The victim and her family decided not to participate in this project, and I understand them.

One thing that struck me was the ambivalent nature of the Slender Man. On the one hand, he is a scary demon and one of the girls was clearly afraid of him. On the other hand, he is also pictured as a protector (sic) of children – the other girl may seriously have wanted to reach his “mansion” to escape a hard life with few friends and a lot of bullying. Unfortunately, it seems Slender wants something in return for his aid…

Once again: this is disturbing material, so don't watch it if you are a very sensitive person.