Beware the Slenderman is HBO’s next true-crime documentary, and this trailer is pretty terrifying. Mostly because, behind all the supernatural elements, is a sad and disturbing true story about two 12-year old girls who lured another girl of the same age into the woods and stabbed her 19 times, allegedly in order to impress the fictional character the Slender Man.
Watch this trailer, then go outside in the sunshine or something:
Beware The Slenderman tells the story of the internet’s elusive Boogeyman and two 12-year-old girls who would kill for him. Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier lured their best friend into the woods, stabbed her 19 times, then set out on an odyssey to meet the tall and faceless man known online as Slenderman. Shot over 18 months with heartbreaking access to the families of the would-be murderers, the film plunges deep down the rabbit hole of their crime, a Boogeyman and our society’s most impressionable consumers of media. The entrance to the internet can quickly lead us to its dark basement, within just a matter of clicks. How much do we hold children responsible for what they find there?
It’s the sort of thing nightmares are made of, a combination of horror films we all like to use as an escape, but with a stark shot of cold reality behind everything. I feel like I’ll be watching most of this with my mouth hanging open in horror.
Beware the Slenderman hits HBO January 23.
