Why do we obsess over Slender Man so much?

[Wolf In A Bear Suit]

I am not too creeped out by him. The simple reason been Knife beat's freaky demon fella every time and I have two knives beside my bead, come at me brah. People are always obsessed with this kind of paranormal unexplainable stuff. Fear of the unknown and unbeatable is natural.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

Just a minor subversion of expectations along some fairly evocative storytelling, is all. Honestly, I'm more scared of the nonsense things my imagination comes up with.

 

[eevangoh]

Because he's a really good blend of several scary tropes.

He looks human, but not quite human, so there's your Uncanny Valley. He doesn't have a face, but he wears a human business suit. His shape is definitely human-like, but his proportions are all fucked up. He walks sometimes, but something isn't quite right with the way he moves. His favorite pose is standing still in an uncomfortable position, and this scares you. Also, in some early stories he lets out small quiet chuckles for no reason, AND HOLY SHIT IS THAT SCARY.

He is also the ultimate example of urban folklore: there's no definite canon, so you never know what's outright bullshit and what's God's honest truth. Even more importantly, you have no idea what he wants. He seldom kills people, he never speaks, he never... does much of anything, in fact. It's almost like he's only fucking with you if he decides to haunt you -- but then again, what could he possibly gain from scaring the shit out of you every other day? In short, he's completely unpredictable, he has blue and orange morality, we know absolutely nothing about him. Same reason the Joker in The Dark Knight was scary.

Lastly, people prefer to think of their houses as their fortresses. There's a reason little children duck under their blankets when scared: it offers no protection, but it's theirs. But Slender Man doesn't give a rat's ass about your strong locks and barred windows -- he can teleport sraight to your bedroom whenever he damn pleases. He can stand in a dark corner of it all day and you'll have no idea. In fact, he might be standing just outside of your field of vision right now.


EDIT: Forgot a major part. The consensus among some is that Slender Man is basically a meme come to life: our thinking about him gives him strength and justifies his existence in our realm. And he also targets the ones who dig too deep into him; you find out about him, you think "oh, this is a cool urban legend, I'll read some blogs and watch some youtube channels" -- and after a while you realize that you probably know more about him than any of the protagonists of those stories, so you can easily become the next target.

 

[TakeyB0y2]

About a year ago my friend was terrified of Slender Man, and I laughed at him for it.

A year later, the tables kinda turned X_X

I dunno... I guess it's just the fact that he easily blends in with whatever environment he's in and can be anywhere and is... PROBABLY WATCHING YOU RIGHT NOW!!!!!

Also there's his uncanny valley appearance, with his ability to stretch his arms and whatnot.



Also, people really ought to check out the little indie game called Slender: http://slendergame.com/

It's freaky as HELL man. And it's weird too; Slender Man's character model is actually really cheaply made and stupid looking, but this game could still make you shit your pants.

 

[Doneeee]

Slender man is close the closet scary but not stay up 24 hours scary, if that makes any sense. Damn this thread is making me want to search up creepy pastas at 3 morning.

 

[Extra-Ordinary]

I think it's that fear-of-the-unknown sort of thing. Who exactly is he? Where did he come from? What are his goals? What can he do to me? Because we're not given all that much information, our imaginations fill the gaps with whatever horrible things we can come up with. At least, that's why *I* found him scary, or used to at least.
I stoppedbeing scared of him when my friends and I came up with a joke, didn't think something like that would work but oddly enough it did. We said "Think of him as an escaped mannequin from Men's Wearhouse. I'm a big p*ssy so this humorous aspect gave me some relief.
If we don't laugh, we'll cry, huh?

 

[Crazycat690]

Pshht, I don't find any character scary that I know alot about. Whenever I have a nigthmare, that which I'm scared of is the unkown, sure can be some monster or whatnot, but it's never some "established" horror character. So yeah, while I think this whole phenomenon about Slender Man is cool, I personally don't fear him

 

[JochemHippie]

Not a clue who the guy is.
He doesn't look all that scary.

 

[Garrsus]

probably because of the fact that no matter what, in the stories he will find you, there is no avoiding him and he goes so far as to mess with the people he stalks.
not to mention he is based off of a HUGE amount of stories from local folklores: England's branch-man, Germany's der Großman, there's also a Scottish, welsh, american and dutch one, i just cant remember their names.
if it wasn't evident i love creepypasta.
Also the fact that, he works on belief, meaning if you want to know about him, he will be close, and use you as a method to spread his chaos.

I chalk up the popularity of him as "one of those Internet things." Sometimes, certain subjects on the Internet strike just the right chord with just the right people at just the right time. That's when things go viral.

For me, what makes it such a great story is that he (in most cases) doesn't have any clear goal. He just follows people for no apparant reason, until the stalkee either goes insane or mysteriously vanishes. And that unknown factor can be pretty scary when applied right in whatever story is using him.

yea, i agree, but i think its kinda more that he wishes to observe, to allow himself to be seen so as to drive your mind to the brink kind of thing in most stories.
though weirdly i enough, i think that after i found out all that i have now, im no longer scared because i know of any/all of his implausibilities and flaws, not to mention i have watched countless creepypasta, im probably immune to them now DX anyone got a good one?

 

[Garrsus]

Slenderman is homosexual. He was a real scare for me when I first learned about him. Then I thought that if he's watching me, he probably watches me fap. So I hit the assumption that slenderman is homosexual. Aaaaaannnnd that's how I got rid of my fear of him.

OT: Because nobody really knows who the slenderman really is. Knowing about him means you're the next target. But not knowing him will make you fear him even more...

im sorry but this will cure that fear but start a new one, and adds to your idea kind of
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atdhk44k0B4 (sorry i forgot how to embed.)

 

[SlaveNumber23]

Meh, I don't get Slender Man at all, I find him extremely boring and not scary at all. No idea why people obsess over him so much, seems extremely overrated. This is coming from a huge horror fan by the way.

 

[Sir Pootis]

He's a nice guy.

 

[Sir Pootis]

Double post, sorry.

 

[Vicarious Reality]

Spoiler: Fuuuuuuuuuuu

Can someone post that video of a playground slide and slendermans shadow coming out from behind a pole?
I can not seem to find it.

 

[quantumsoul]

I think it's the feeling of helpless he brings. It's when you're running away and not looking at his is when he gets you. No matter how far and fast you run, he will get you. Also his unsettling appearance of being somewhat human but not human enough.

I have to say that made up paranormal creature for some internet comedy site to generate this much horror and popularity is very impressive.

 

[DugMachine]

I absolutely hate when things don't have faces, it's one of the most disturbing things. Slender man is a manifestation of all our fears of the unknown and being watched balled up into one. So while his featureless face disturbs me personally, I would say overall it's not his physical appearance that scares people. It's that knowing if you just think of him he will be there. And even if you're not he's watching, waiting, ever silent and without a motive.

Fuck me, just typing this I can just imagine him standing right behind me.

 

[Anti Nudist Cupcake]

This one I can understand being scary. A very tall, faceless man with a dark suit and paranormal like features such as tall arms, standing in a dark room with the darkness obscuring some of him so as to give the impression that he is an entity of the shadows itself, standing in a well lit doorway so as to give the idea that he suddenly popped up into the room from outside and may have been lurking outside for some time, perfect horror stuff.

Reminds me of yathzee's own thought up "Tall man".

Spoiler

The reason he is so frightening is because he is so tall that he towers over you and he has a tint of paranormal features about him to make him "unknown" to us. This speaks to our instincts to fear that which is larger than us and that which is a mystery to us.

For some reason I can't be very afraid of just a normal pic of himself, he has to be in the shadows. He has to almost be hard to see. Not just the monster, but the area the monster finds itself in must induce fear to be effective.

 

[Techno Squidgy]

Also, if your not scared of the guy, tell us why.

I seem to have kind of missed this whole slender man thing, and I'm not really that interested in finding out, hence not scared of slender man.

As far as I'm aware, it's just some lanky bloke that shows up in pictures. Not that scary to be honest. I have a mate that could be slender man if my ignorant ramblings are correct!

 

[Kuroneko97]

He doesn't look scary, maybe he just wants a hug?

Actually he wants his twenty dollars.

He needs about tree fiddy.

OT:The thing that's scared me about him is how he's kind of a stalker. I'm not fond of being stared at or followed. Also his blank face, which makes him look emotionless. That adds to the creepy a little, IMO.

Plus some people know how to tell a good creepypasta, and how you tell the story can affect how scared someone gets.

 

[Mrsoupcup]

Googled him.

So, it's just some Creepypasta character some bloke thought up?

Meh, anything can be made into a horrifying figure if the story's told well.

He's some new mithos creature spawned on 4chan's /x/.

Shortly after the youtube channel marble hornets popped up and it went viral.

(Like most original content from 4chan, it is doomed for everyone to forget it's place of origin)