Beware the Slenderman

This documentary is an interesting look into how a supernatural internet meme can influence young minds. In this case, 2 young girls were convinced that an an internet creation, Slenderman, made them stab fellow classmate in the woods.

The documentary delves into the mental illness and how dangerous unsupervised internet can be for susceptible minds. I also took away how unprepared the court / prison systems can be when dealing with mental issues and how there is no real rehabilitation process in place - these young girls can only have 2 contact visits with their family each month.

There are some genuinely creepy parts - especially the part where one of the girls tells her family that the "others" decide what she watches on TV in her cell at night even though she is kept in solitary confinement.

However a bit too long and one sided - the 2 girls are not really the victim

It seems to me most of the people who don't like this movie feel that way simply because they think these girls are "evil".

I DO have sympathy for these girls because I am very familiar with schizophrenia and schizo-typo mental disorders, and can see beyond the black/white dichotomy of good and evil that people like to cling to. I thought the interviews with the parents were crucial in establishing the mind-frame of the kids at the time, as well as showing the guilt and anguish that a parent feels in the aftermath of your child committing a brutal crime. Never did I feel like the film was excusing the horrific nature of the crime, but trying to draw out how it ended up happening in the first place.

I know that people have voiced criticism that there was little on the victim - that is because the victim's family declined to participate (totally within their rights, and totally understandable). But the fact of the matter is, with cases like these, the important part is to study the perpetrators -- how do you prevent horrors like this from happening if you don't understand HOW they came to happen?

Personally, I thought the section about urban folklore, and how it can multiply rapidly on the internet to be really interesting.

I'm a true crime doc, and I thought this was well done.

This started off as a fascinating insight in to a horrific crime and it's young instigators but it is far too insular in its focus. By the 60 minute mark I was satisfied that the assailants motivations had been biasely justified, the whole "slenderman" and mythology in general had been thoroughly covered and I was craving for the story to expand in to the physiology of the young impressionable mind, into psychopathy (a blatantly obvious trait of at least one of the girls) and for the focus to switch to the victim and her family (in a respectful way, considering they didn't want to be involved), their complete ommission from the documentary plays out as an indifference to their horrific experience instead. I was also surprised with the multiple mentions of "believers" needing a group to belong to and the brainwashing involved in that dynamic, that the documentary makers weren't brave enough to bring up religion in that discussion (especially as a world leading expert on the subject Richard Dawkins was on a Skype call at one point)... But no they only used santa clause and the tooth fairy as examples.

I found this to be a well done documentary that effectively portrayed our society the way it is today. The film glossed over the plight of the victim just as these girls did, and we expect them to show empathy? Did the filmmakers?

It's true kids are overexposed to a lot of things on the internet, but when HAVEN'T kids been exposed to awful things? Just look at the history of the world!! It is RIFE with horrific wars, oppression, persecution, poverty, death...children have always been exposed to these things.

The justice system is ridiculous. Trying 6th graders as adults, questioning their beliefs and labeling them mentally ill at age 12 when the brain isn't even developed? There's a reason we don't diagnose psychopathy until age 18.

I'm not excusing what these girls did. Its horrific. But why are we so baffled? Wars have been raging for millennia, and even in the 21st century society ADULTS are killing each other in the name of "beliefs," which are quite honestly no less rational than internet demons.

Seriously.

Beware of the Slenderman was well-received at its world premiere at Austin's SXSW Film Festival. It is a true crime story about two 12-year-old girls who attempt to kill another young girl. The film, which will be broadcast in the near future on HBO. They are telling an intriguing story, but they try to tell too many stories. It seems obvious from the beginning that the girls are suffering from severe mental illness and that's the primary explanation for their violent behavior. Their behavior appears to be linked to mythic internet creature called Slenderman. Some of the most intellectual parts are their explorations of myth and folklore and how people come to rely on them. But then they seem to want to blame mental illness on misuse of the Internet. They don't seem to realize that there are mentally ill people who acted out violently long before there was the Internet. Long before "Slenderman" there were young people with psychological issues. And then spend a lot of time talking to the kids' troubled parents who feel responsible. And they explore the court procedures around their story. And they keep going on and on. They can't really figure out what story they are telling. At two hours the film simply goes on too long and goes off on too many tangents. They repeat their themes over and over without really getting that far. In the end, they could have told this troubling story a lot better and lot more simply. It is still an entertaining story, but it could have been a lot better.