The Slender Man

As the old saying goes, there's nothing new under the sun, but every so often you run into something that's, if not new, then at least fresh.

On today's menu is the Slender Man.

What's particularly interesting about the Slender Man mythos, it's that it's completely made up. In fact, it was created for a contest on the website Something Awful, back in 2009, by user name Victor Surge. I find the fact that we know this intriguing, since most scary things tend to be attributed to some ancient evil, or at the very least they're claimed to be true. Not so with Slender Man, but that doesn't mean he's any less creepy.

Slender Mans popularity spread fairly quickly, particularly thanks to the web series Marble Hornets, which is a brilliant documentary style show about a young man trying to unravel the mystery surrounding him, with the Slender Man taking center stage in the story. What I find really brilliant about the Marble Hornets story is how the main character Alex uploads everything he films and finds to Youtube, thereby making you, the viewer, a part of the story. All in all, an awesome story, well worth watching by all fans of Horror. In fact, I'd go so far as to say there are a few professionals who could learn a thing or two from Marble Hornets.

If passive viewing isn't you thing, there is also a game called simply Slender, in which you have to find a certain amount of pages before Slender Man finds you. I believe it's freely available online. No doubt Google can help you find it.

So what's the deal? Why is a tall, skinny faceless weirdo so creepy? I would say it's a clever (or accidental) combination of the following factors:

• Relatability. It's a humanoid and intelligent figure, as opposed by say the Blob.
• Vulnerability. Yours to be specific. Simply approaching him is very dangerous.
• Mystery. Nothing is explained. No background, no motive.

These well used elements are put to good use, and again shows that's it's less about what you do and more how you do it.