In northern california a small community is
shocked by a devastating inferno that consumes its local library. As firefighters fight to contain the blaze,
distraught parents rush to try and locate their children. When the flames die down, fourteen children
are missing and presumed dead. Yet in the weeks that follow skeletons from
the rubble are discovered and identified, but not one belongs to any of the fourteen
missing children. Even stranger, months after the blaze a strange
photograph is delivered to the local police, showing a group of children- some identified
as the missing children- playing with a freakishly tall unidentified individual standing in their
midst. The individual appears to be wearing a black
suit but has disproportionately long and slender limbs- the police immediately begin referencing
the unknown figure as 'Slender Man'. Seized as police evidence, the photo disappears
until it finds its way online decades later, to be met by hosts of people claiming to have
seen the terrifying figure. Hello and welcome to another episode of The
Infographics Show- today we're taking a look at the horrifying story of slender man. Slenderman was originally created on June
10th, 2009 as part of a photoshop contest where users were challenged to create paranormal
images using pre-existing photos. Forum poster Eric Knudsen edited two black
and white images of children to which he added a tall, thin figure in a black suit. To supplement his entries, Knudsen also included
pieces of text along with the photos, alleging them to be eyewitness testimony of the monster
and its effects on people. Having planted the seeds of a great, and very
creepy story, the legend of Slenderman only grew, and more and more people began to add
to the character's backstory. Slenderman's design is purposefully simple,
taking the typical human body and distorting it just enough so it appears monstrous. The character has no face, and instead has
a head with no facial features, eyes, nose, or ears, and is always seen wearing what appears
to be a black suit and tie. His limbs are also extremely long, very disproportionate
when compared to a normal person. He is also extremely tall, standing as tall
as seven feet, but sometimes even eight feet, with a very gaunt body-hence the name slenderman. Knudsen commented that originally he was inspired
by Zack Parsons' story That Insidious Beast, and by Stephen King's The Mist, as well as
reports from ghost hunters and eyewitnesses of shadow people. Typically described as humanoid figures with
no features that often appear in the background or distance, shadow people have a startling
similarity to the slenderman character. Mothman and the Mad Gasser of Mattoon- a figure
blamed for several gas attacks in the US in the 1940s- and the massive paranoia they caused
in real life also influenced Knudsen's imagination when creating the character. As Slenderman's popularity grew, so did his
mythos, which was being added to daily by fans on various online forums. One of the earliest and best established piece
of slenderman mythos was a folklore story set in 16th century Germany were a character
called Der Grossman stalked a terrified village. This was supposed to be an original iteration
of slenderman, proving that the figure has been stalking humanity for centuries- possibly
longer. Slenderman also inspired various youtube video
series though, with the most famous being Marble Hornets which tells the story of a
film school student stumbling upon the character while shooting his first feature-length film
project. Hitting well over 250,000 subscribers and
55 million views by 2013, Marble Hornets inspired other series to include EverymanHYBRID and
Tribe Twelve. A video game developed by a computer design
student named Slender: The Eight Pages was released in 2012, and met with rave reviews. A very simplistic project, the game consisted
of nothing more than a character with a limited life flashlight collecting eight pages of
art scattered around a forest, while being pursued by Slenderman. The more pages the character collects, the
thicker the fog outside grows, and the faster Slenderman becomes. The game was such an unexpected indie smash
hit that it would go on to inspire the creation of a sequel, slender: The Arrival, one year
later which was released to mild, but mostly positive reviews. In 2018 Sony Pictures released Slender Man,
a feature length movie featuring the titular character. Yet part of the mythos about slenderman is
a constant reference, and real world fear, of the Tulpa Effect. Taken from Buddhist ideology, the Tulpa Effect
simply states that if enough people believe something is real, then it can manifest as
real in the world. Basically, our belief is what gives the world
its substance- because we believe water is wet, it is, and if enough of us stop believing
that then water will cease to be wet. As the popularity of Slender Man grew online,
many people feared that a real life tulpa effect may eventually reach critical mass,
giving birth to the very real and very terrifying entity that so far had only haunted internet
forums and youtube videos. Horrifyingly, these people may have been right. In 2014 three twelve year old girls had a
sleep over, during which they found stories of the slender man online. Becoming engrossed with the myth, two of the
girls, Anissa Weier and Morgan Geyser, began to believe that slender man really existed,
and that the only way to prevent him from harming their families were to become his
proxies. The concept of a proxy, or a mortal under
the influence of Slenderman, had been a part of the growing mythos, and the two teens believed
that only by becoming proxies themselves could they keep their loved ones safe. In order to do so they lured their friend,
Payton Leutner out into the forest for a game of hide and seek. Once far enough away from any prying eyes,
Weier and Geyser pinned Leutner down on the ground and began to viciously stab her nineteen
times. She was stabbed in the arms, legs, and torso
with a five inch kitchen knife, with two wounds directly to major organs, one missing her
heart by a millimeter, and another plunging through her diaphragm and cutting into her
liver and stomach. Weier and Geyser then told the dying Leutner
that they were going to go get help, but instead left her there to die. Incredibly, Leutner dragged herself to a nearby
road where a passing cyclist found her and called for an ambulance. Weier and Geyser were apprehended shortly
after, and displayed guilt over the attack but believed that it was necessary in order
to appease the slender man. The two girls were sentenced to 25 years to
life, and 40 years to life, with forced and involuntary admission to a state psychiatric
institute and mental health screening to last for decades. Both girls will have a chance to appeal their
sentences, but only after a thorough psychological screening. If you thought that this was an isolated incident
though, think again. In 2014 a fourteen year old girl in Florida
set her house on fire after becoming obsessed with slender man, leaving her sleeping mother
and nine year old brother inside. The girl had become obsessed with slender
man online, but had also allegedly been upset at feeling bullied at home and at school. Her ultimate motives remain unknown. In Hamilton County, Ohio, a 13 year old girl
attacked her mother with a knife in 2014. The Mother returned home from work and found
her daughter in the kitchen with a knife, wearing a white mask over her face. Without warning the girl viciously attacked
her, though without causing serious injuries. She would later tell police that she was trying
to please slenderman, and entries in her personal journal would reference both slender man,
killing, and demons. Thankfully since then slender man inspired
incidents have stopped, though curiously they seem to have declined in line with the popularity
of the character online. Even a major feature film just last year failed
to truly resuscitate the decade old mythological figure, though it remains worrying that at
the height of its popularity, slenderman was in fact inspiring real killing. Was the Tulpa Effect at play, did enough people
really begin to believe in slenderman so as to allow the fictitious being to achieve a
critical mass that let it step from the world of make believe into our reality? It's curious that the attacks were all carried
out by young teens, who all wanted to please slender man- frighteningly similar to the
powers so often ascribed to the creature, namely those to influence and manipulate children
to do his will.
