Published on 12, July, 2020
Many of you will probably be aware of the 'Slenderman' phenomenon. 'Slenderman' was created as part of a PhotoShop competition in 2009, whose remit was to create convincing and frightening paranormal figures. He's a very simple figure: an extremely tall man, dressed in a dark suit with shirt and tie. He's faceless, too - perhaps his most striking and sinister feature. Sometimes, he's depicted with tentacles spiraling out of his back. He lives in a mansion deep in a dark forest. He stalks children and takes them back to his mansion - either to kill them, or to keep them as 'proxies': personal servants who are dedicated to him.
Since his creation as an image, 'Slenderman' has developed into a powerful urban myth. The mythology has spread around the world via the internet - especially through sites like Creepypasta Wiki, where stories and images were first posted. He's very much an archetype, found throughout mythology and folk tales, and across cultures. Think of figures like Dracula, Frankenstein's monster, the Boogey-man, The Thing, Melmoth, the Wandering Jew, the Yeti, the Sasquatch, etc. Perhaps the closest model would be the Grimm's brothers' fairy tale The Pied Piper of Hamelin. The Pied Piper was a strange figure who turned up out of nowhere to help the citizens of Hamelin with their rat problem. He lured the rats away to their deaths with a pipe tune. The town councillors had promised to reward him for this. But they cheated him. So... he got his own back by playing another tune and luring all of the town's children away with him to a secret mountain, where he kept them. 'Slenderman' is similar to the Pied Piper in that his intentions are enigmatic and uncertain. Is he acting for good or evil? Or both? Perhaps the most important and powerful thing about him is that he can be whatever anyone wants him to be. He can be different things to different people. Creepypasta Wiki reflects this, with the users posting their own interpretations in images, home videos, and fan fiction. He taps into all sorts of human fears and insecurities... and also our need, perhaps, for some kind of superhero figure or monster to believe in. He's usually seen in images and videos as a furtive figure, lurking in the background. Is he merely observing at a distance? Or is he coming to get you? With no facial expression to go on... who knows?
The power of this myth, and the way it can lead people to blur the lines between reality and fiction, can be compared to something like the character of Sherlock Holmes. Holmes was created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in the late 19th century. We know this. If he had existed as a real person, he'd be dead now, anyway. Either that or he'd be a highly improbable 160 or so years of age. But again, he didn't exist. And yet... people still write to him from around the world at his fictional address of 221b Baker Street!
As we know, the people most susceptible to believing in such myths are normally children. Santa Claus. The Tooth Fairy. Superman. It's powerful stuff to them. You may also, therefore, be aware of the recent case in the US, where two young girls - Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier - have been tried for the attempted murder of a friend of theirs, Payton Leutner. All three girls were twelve at the time of the incident, in 2014. Geyser and Weier (who were complicit in the plan) lured Leutner into some woods, where Geyser stabbed her 19 times. They then ran off and left her. Leutner miraculously survived the attack and was found. The other two were later arrested walking along a highway. During the investigation, it came out that both girls had been obsessed with the 'Slenderman' stories and firmly believed in his existence. They maintained they committed the act to protect their families, because they had come to believe that 'Slenderman' was going to kill them. When they left Leutner after the attack, they were supposed to be making their way to the forest that they believed 'Slenderman' lived in. They wanted to find his mansion, tell him what they had done to appease him, and live with him as 'proxies'.
It's a very sad, disturbing and distressing case. Geyser, it transpires, is schizophrenic. She inherited it from her father - though hers is a far more severe condition. She had delusions and hallucinations, and was incapable of separating fact from fiction. Weier was a loner. An introverted child without friends, who found escape in her iPad, where she discovered 'Slenderman'. When she met Geyser, they became inseparable, and shared the obsession. Both girls are still only 15, but were tried under the adult jurisdiction. Geyser has been committed to 40 years in a mental institution, Weier to 25 years. The outcome, too, has thrown computer use for young children into a harsh spotlight. I won't comment on that. It all gets covered in this remarkable documentary about the case. If you can steel yourselves to watch it, it's a fascinating insight into the power of myth - and perhaps a wake-up call about where technology might be taking our children if it shuts them off from the world, or if they escape into it if the world shuns them.
Beware The Slenderman
That's the Soderbergh one. It's a very good movie. Jeremy Davis acts his *** off as usual too. Very underrated actor!
The Tarkovsky version from the 70's is far more trippy. A far bit more!
The Solaris I watched was in about 2001/2002.
The original Solaris was Tarkovsky, the Clooney one was Soderbergh I think. The Mirror is a very strange Tarkovsky movie I enjoy.
Dweezil Zappa was in the Running Man he's one of the resistance fighters at the end. Moon Unit Zappa's music career wasn't as good as her fathers........... https://youtu.be/Qb21lsCQ3EM . Very, very 80's retro styling though! BTW if I have a girl I'm calling her Yoghurtpot Suplex
I now see Solaris is one of Tarkovsky's. That and the book are both excellent.
Some parents! If only they gave a little more thought to the names they're lumbering their kids with. Moon Unit Zappa and Dweezil Zappa spring to mind...
I don't think he was pleased at The Thin White Duke's choice of name! He changed it to Duncan the minute he hit 16!
Clint Mansell was in Pop Will Eat Itself, it amazes me the direction his career has taken since then! Mansell and Aronfsky pretty much collaborate everytime Aronofsky makes a movie. Right from Pi in 1998. Requiem For A Dream is a great book too. Definitely "shades of Krokodil"! I've seen a dope abcess IRL, it stank as bad as it looked. Sorry too many details!
Moon was good. I'll give anything with Sam Rockwell a try and Moon didn't dissappoint. I like films with a small cast. It's far more interesting sometimes. The claustrophobic nature of the setting and the way it made the emphasis more on acting and plot was very refreshing in Moon.
I liked Blue Velvet too. It was a more tame movie compared to some of Lynch's other work. Lost Highway is one that I like. The party scene was creepy af!
Born Zowie Bowie! Moon was a treat. Fairly referential on places but that is no bad thing. He is onto his third now I think.
I liked Moon, and love that score. Yes... Duncan Brown. Or Zowie Bowie!
I watched Requiem for a Dream, not sure if You Tube have taken it down now. I liked the music by Mansell on it, as it kept coming up on different things uploaded. It certainly makes its point on what addiction can do. Shades of krokodil at the end.
Talking of Mansell, he did the score of a nice little SF flick, called Moon. David Bowie's son directed it.
Someone I know has a Lynch collection, not Erazorhead though. That's classic but it is certainly pretty sick. I liked Blue Velvet too.
Lynch has a thing about static, machinery noice, and tones that fall in a certain range within the sound design of his films. It's always meant to be unnerving, it always makes me think he's ASD. They are the sorts of things that could make him feel nervous. Gaspar Noe made Irreversible and the sound design on that is terrifying. BTW Irreversible isn't a movie I'd reccommend it's very violent, not gore violence. Sexually violent, to a pretty far extreme. Darren Aronofsky also seems to fall into the directors that I suspect are ASD. Pi and Requeim For a Dream have scene and segments that are very close to sensory discomfort. The end of Requiem is like an overload.
It does make you wonder though, if someone can nail the senses in such a way that relates to our experience if they are on the spectrum themselves. IMO Lynch certainly is.
Everything coming at you at once! I do see what you mean.
No problem! I hope you enjoy any of the movies you watch! Oh and on the subject of Lynch, listen to a Lynch movie through headphones. The sound design is really like being close to overload at times. Watch this scene from Fire Walk With Me. It just smacks of ASD https://youtu.be/Ogqah6gc9ww . I'm just going to watch the Babadook!
Thank you Cloudy Mountain, there are a few things to be getting on with. David Lynch is brilliant. I never heard that Kubrick was ASD. I did like Clockeork Orange. t
"The internet is totally trustworthy, I'd bet my life on it" Kurt Cobain
I think the media are using the whole "trolls" thing to further the surveillance agenda. There are genuine trolls, hackers and bad guys on the internet but I feel they are using public outrage to push things such as the Snooper's charter.
The whole surveillance thing is deeper than people think. Cortana on Windows 10 is a bot. Even if it's switched off it still uses around 50mb of RAM at all times. Why would a program that is supposedly off take up such a large amount of RAM.
Snowden is the tip of the iceberg. In years to come he will be recognised as the hero he is.
Mama is a Guillermo del Toro movie. It's like a throwback to his Pan's Labyrinth and El Orfanato days. Fantasy horror done well. I like the ending. Very bittersweet.
I'll the give The Babadook a try. I've got it recorded so I'll watch it soon.
I've never watched the Blair Witch project! I'll watch it next time it's on. One found footage film I found very unsettling was The Poughkeepsie Tapes, very nasty themes. Grave Encounters was another found footage one a little hokey but still a bit of scary fun.
Event Horizon was a good sci-fi/horror cross. Very clever idea. Won't give too much away but give it a try.
I always find David Lynch and Tarkovsky creepy. The surrealist thing is terrifying at times. Tarkovsky used light and texture in an unsettling way. I always wonder if they are ASD. I know Kubrick was. All three seem to be able to put a shot together that is very unsettling but in a deeply sensory way, for instance the corridors in The Shining or the Radiator Lady in Eraserhead. Tarkovsky even makes mud "feel" nasty in a few shots.
The Cell is a pretty strange creepy movie. Visually it's different to anything else. A good watch if you can put up with Jennifer Lopez's bad acting. Tarsem Singh the guy who directed it made a film called The Fall. It's one of the best films I've seen. It's about a story a guy tells a little girl but you see it from her imagination. It looks beautiful and the story is different to anything else I've seen.