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Despite 'Slender Man' being one of the year's most poorly received films, more than once cited as one of the worst films of 2018, the premise was actually really intriguing and did have potential to work. So this is not coming from someone who wanted 'Slender Man' to fail, far from it. Also have an appreciation for horror and saw it with an open mind, just want to make all of that clear before somebody else tries to invalidate and criticise the opinions of those who disliked it.
Seeing it, 'Slender Man' turned out to be that bad, for me it is one of the year's worst along with 'The First Purge' (have seen a lot of 2018 films so this is hardly coming someone hopefully with a sheltered life) and deserving of the panning it's gotten. Not quite worst of SyFy or The Asylum bad, it's not as amateurish, intelligence-insulting or non-trying-ish. It is however difficult to believe that it got a cinema release when it could easily pass for direct to video.
The only halfway decent things with 'Slender Man' are the spooky setting and the atmospheric and moody lighting.
Both not shining as much as they should have done, thanks to camera work that's at times chaotic and at other times self-indulgent, sloppy editing that made me physically ill and nausea-inducing use of flashing images. The sound is over-bearing and too obvious that it affects the horror.
It is also very cheesy and awkward-sounding in the dialogue. The direction is pedestrian and while the cast try gamely their performances are thin and ill-served by having little to work with, clunky script-writing and poorly developed and bland characters doing them in.
Worst of all is the story and the atmosphere. On top of not being "fun", 'Slender Man' fails badly at its two main objectives, being scary and being interesting. There is no tension, suspense or sense of dread for the horror to work, the reactions are too indifferent, the pacing is deadly dull and there is far too much of an over-reliance on jump scares, all without build up and incredibly predictable.
From start to finish, 'Slender Man' feels like a short film over-stretched to lifeless breaking point. As said there are real issues with pacing and that there is far too little in the storytelling to sustain the length. The content is not substantial enough and too much of it is nothing new and sometimes pointless, with the horror elements failing badly the paper thin story and the predictable, disinterested way it's told makes for a real slog of a film.
Overall, lifeless, very bland and poorly made. 2/10 Bethany Cox
