Slender Man movie review - Aussieboyreviews

WILL THE FREAKY FICTIONAL MONSTER SLENDER MAN LEAVE KIDS WITH NIGHTMARES?

This teen horror tale is definitely freaky at times, but it’s more poor than scary or effective. Slender Man is a horror film based on the memorable fictional monster, with lots of twists and jump-scares.

Storyline

Interested by the story of the Internet monster, Slender Man, a group of teenage friends try to summon him to prove to each other that he doesn’t exist. But they begin to uncover the dark truth when one of them goes missing.

Movie Images

Movie details

Director: Sylvain White
Cast: Joey King, Julia Goldani Telles, Jaz Sinclair, Annalise Basso, Alex Fitzalan, Taylor Richardson, Javier Botet
Writer: David Birke
Release Date (Australia): 23 August 2018
Runtime: 93 minutes/1h 33m
Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Language: English

CONTENT GUIDE (WARNING: MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS)

Themes (M)

There are horror themes in the form of several disturbing scenes throughout the film and scenes of supernatural threat as teenagers are chased by a monster.

Violence (PG)

There are scenes depicting violence in the form of strangling.

Coarse Language (M)

The film contains coarse language, including uses of “s**t” and a use of “f**king”.

Sex (PG)

The film features a scene in which it is verbally implied that teenagers watch pornography and a scene in which teenagers kiss passionately.

mpaa rating

PG-13 (for disturbing images, sequences of terror, thematic elements and language including some crude sexual references)

Aussie boy's thoughts

Although Sylvain White’s take on the well-known internet monster is freakily-toned and has its unsettling imagery, he forces it through really predictable storytelling and poor horror jump-scares. In the end, the 2018 Slender Man movie feels like something we’ve already seen too many other times. The only thing that makes it just barely likeable is the fact that it’s at least watchable.

From the start, and heading all the way through to the climatic point and the finishing, Slender Man is a horror movie that feels more like a teen coming-of-age movie. It should’ve stuck to at least trying to be scary or haunting in any way, but the focus on the stereotypical teenage life is still quite appealing. The trailer certainly seems like a lie in telling us this was a horror movie, not a teen tale with a freaky mystery.

The storytelling is really dragging and utterly predictable, meaning that yes, you can sense the “jump”-scares from minutes away and the actual theme itself could’ve successfully been more mysterious and ominous, which makes already makes it a missed opportunity. To top it up, the teenage performances are dreadful and the direction and camera-style are well-thought but fail miserably.

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