Slenderman shows virtual terrors made real
The Show: Beware the Slenderman The Moment: The Skype interviews
In May 2014, two 12-year-old girls lured a friend into the woods of Waukesha, Wis., and stabbed her 19 times. They freely confessed to police that they did it to please Slenderman, an Internet creation. This documentary, directed by Irene Taylor Brodsky, delves into the myth and the Internet’s ability to influence developing minds.
Digital folklorist Trevor Blank explains Slenderman is compelling because he’s a blank slate, representing whatever viewers want him to. Hope, who runs a Facebook support page for the attempted murderers, says she fell for Slenderman because her whole social life was online and it was there 24/7.
Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins posits the possibility of “a virus of the mind, spread by being listened to.”
“When one brain picks it up, it will have a tendency to pass it onto another brain, and another brain, until it spreads exponentially. The Slenderman case is a powerful example of peer to peer horizontal transmission.”
This is what I call interesting: Though there are conventional, in-person interviews with the subjects’ families in this doc, the talking-head interviews, including those above, are conducted via Skype.
The subjects wear headphones and speak into their computer screens, and Brodsky films hers.
Harnessing the simplicity and reach of the Internet is an appropriate technique for this doc, because it’s about that. But using Skype is also a genius tip for any doc maker on a budget. Which is every doc maker. Beware the Slenderman aired on HBO and is available on demand. Johanna Schneller is a media connoisseur who zeroes in on pop culture moments. She usually appears Monday through Thursday.