Word has come in that Screen Gems has tapped Sylvain White, helmer of such films as STOMP THE YARD and the criminally underrated film adaptation for Vertigo Comic’s THE LOSERS to direct SLENDER MAN – a movie based on the once-popular Horror video game sensation. With production expected to begin in the Spring, SLENDER MAN will be scripted by David Birke with Bradley Fischer, James Vanderbilt and William Sherak overseeing production for Mythology Entertainment, along with Madhouse Entertainments’s Robyn Meisinger and No Dream’s Sarah Snow.
It’s been awhile since SLENDER MAN has been a topic of internet discussion, though back in 2009, this long-limbed, featureless figure was all the rage with Youtubers, Streamers, and meme generators. As a fictional character created by the comedy website Something Awful, the Slender Man is said to haunt the forests and dark corners of the night in search of individuals to stalk or terrorize. This black-suited specter tends to favor children as his victims, and it’s said that once the Slender Man has you in his sights, there is no escaping his spindly grasp.
Personally, I think there’s enough nightmare fuel attached to the SLENDER MAN to make a decent horror film based on his creeptastic antics. Visually, I find the his character to be like if you mixed the Gentlemen of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER with that of a spine-chilling SILENT HILL antagonists. Films based on video games have a history of not performing well at the box office, but if White uses the SLENDER MAN property wisely, he can certainly build one hell of a fright fest around the perverted and faceless stalker’s sordid pop culture history.
Pre-production on SLENDER MAN has begun with the film expeted to creep into theaters sometime in 2018.