Originally, Slender Man was supposed to be released in May of 2018. Unfortunately for movie promoters, the film has seen some issues making its original release date. Today, however, Rolling Stone is reporting that Slender Man has a terrifying new trailer.
Back in January, a trailer was shown to horror fans along with general movie-going audiences. The trailer received mixed reviews. Today’s second trailer for the upcoming horror film now comes alongside an official release date of August 10, 2018 and is being distributed through Screen Gems.
The trailer promises that once audience members see the titular Slender Man, they “can’t unsee him.”
Slender Man is being directed by Sylvain White, who previously directed I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer , as well as The Losers .
Slender Man, before becoming a major movie production, was originally a “creepy pasta” story, which originated on the forums of a website called Something Awful , back in 2009 and was conceived by a writer named Eric Knudson, going under the pen name of Victor Surge.
The character of Slender Man first sparked national media attention when its fictional content became the inspiration for a real-life horror, in the attempted murder of 12-year-old Payton Leutner in 2014.
Leutner was lured to a wooded area by two of her classmates, where she was stabbed 19 times. Leutner barely survived the vicious attack, after crawling to a nearby trail and being discovered by a bicyclist, as reported by the Hollywood Reporter .
The two suspects implicated in the attempted murder, Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier, were also 12-years-old at the time and were ultimately given sentences which involved the two children remaining under the care of mental-health facilities well into adulthood.
Geyser is set to be under mental health supervision for 40 years, though she can petition to be released before that entire sentence is served.
Anissa Weier, who was sentenced to 25 years in a mental institution, was apologetic about her crimes, at her sentencing. Her father has spoken out against the release of Slender Man as a feature film and feels all it does is further perpetuate a tragedy.
“It’s absurd they want to make a movie like this. It’s popularizing a tragedy is what it’s doing. I’m not surprised, but in my opinion it’s extremely distasteful. All we’re doing is extending the pain all three of these families have gone through.”
Screen Gems has not issued any statements in response to the accusations, but has also never expressed any plans to halt production based on the attempted murder.
In 1974, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was a theatrical hit and was inspired by events of real-life serial killer Ed Gein. Horror films based on true historical “horrors” are often the subject of controversy, particularly by the victims involved in the events acting as a film’s source material.
