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 Forum index » Chaotic Fiction » Slender Man Mythos
New Creature
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Slendylvr
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Joined: 10 Jun 2010
Posts: 26

 New Creature
A different Slenderman?

As we all know Slenderman is a great tool Marble Hornets has used, along with other factors, to scare the shit out of most of us at times. I myself enjoy seeing other takes on Slendy in blogs,videos series, ect, but it just seems like everyone is being stalked by him/her/it these days. Now don't get me wrong...some are well made(CUT!,Tribe Twelve,EMHB,JAF) but 95% of all of them are almost identical in plot. I can't speak for everyone, but can't anyone take a bit of thought and make up a new creature or take on slendy cause the newest blogs and such flat out suck.
Example= Mr.Smalls Vlog

PostPosted: Sun Aug 08, 2010 11:45 pm
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Watson
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I don't think that's really fair to say, honestly. Some of the newer ones are bad, yes. Some of them seem very trite but I think what most of them are trying to do is establish a 'universe' within which Slenderman exists. A lot of the newer ones co-exist with each other quite well, IMO.

PostPosted: Sun Aug 08, 2010 11:55 pm
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Docjowles
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Yeah I don't really see where you are going with this. It's like asking for a new take on Freddy Krueger. Slenderman is a (fairly) well defined character at this point; his MO is that he stalks you until you go insane and eventually disappear.

People still are doing different things with him. EverymanHYBRID is distinctly different in tone and style than Marble Hornets was, and the blogs are all over the place. I would agree that--so far--Tribe Twelve is borderline ripoff but that's about it, really.

People are writing new horror fiction and ARG's all the time. If you don't like Slenderman, read something else. Or better yet, write/film something else and put your money where your mouth is Cool

Edit: Also I just realized your username is "Slendylvr" Rolling Eyes

PostPosted: Mon Aug 09, 2010 12:17 am
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Mr.Beyond
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I agree here; Slenderman has developed his own sort of canon, and to be honest it's pretty well defined. That being said, there ARE differences blog to blog, aside from the ones like The Tutorial that try to encompass ALL of the different portrayals.
For example, I recently read through what's been written in A Lack of Lexicon, and (if it's about Slendy at all) it
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
seems to be tying him in to the British Fair Folk, making him something of a fey nightwalker.


In the end, he's an established character- and even then, even MH isn't exactly using all the pre-established rules for SM. They went so far as to give him his own individual name- the Operator- which in a way separates him from the Slenderman of a lot of other works. As well, a lot of things that appear from blog to blog- the distortion, (x), the scribbling- all seemed to originate in MH and just caught on. From the original canon, he's more of a child-stealing arsonist.

But there's lots of good horror fiction out there. If you want to broaden your horizons and like to read, i recommend House of Leaves by Mark Z Danielewski. If you like the disjointed tone of MH, you might be interested in the writing style of the book- I recently read it because I kept hearing it referenced in conjunction to Slenderman, and I have to say it's the creepiest book I've read in years.

And horror is like music- if none of the local bands in your area are playing the type of music you want to hear, start your own. The same applies to Slenderblogs.

PostPosted: Mon Aug 09, 2010 1:32 am
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Dray
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I can understand being frustrated with blogs that have very similar plots; we all at least get the feeling that the protagonists are either going to wind up going crazy, disappear, or at least experience the ubiquitous coughing fits and headaches and so on. Usually a friend has disappeared or will very soon. If not that, then the protagonist themselves is on the run.

The problem with trying to subvert tropes revolving around the Slender Man canon is that going too far with them is going to piss the fanbase off. Kicking his ass would be seen as cheesy. Being friends with him doesn't really make sense. 'It was all a prank' seems to slide into the same, serious content like all the rest (Cut! and EMH, for example.) In the end, despite a push for variety, there's a very static set of requirements thus far to make a Slendy blog (or vlog, or any tale) what it is.

I'd challenge you, as a disgruntled fan, to dig deeper into just what it is that you would like to see in a blog. What underlying themes? We have loss, we have isolation. We have a very distinct loss of control, paranoia, and a fear of the unknown being right on our doorstep. Are there other themes (or a single, strong theme) that you would like to see in a Slender blog that hasn't yet been done? Loss of faith? Impact of violence (or witnessing violence) on a person? Struggling to regain what's already been lost? (Man, it's hard to think up new themes. Pretty sure those've been used somewhere, so don't quote me on them!)

Once you have a theme or three that you would really like to see, try to find content elsewhere that employs them. Videos and books, for example. I dunno if you watched that last part of the MH interview but when Joseph was talking about, "once we started this, I started looking at movies just to see how they did the lighting, what they used on their sets, how they employed various directional cues," but this is sort of the same thing. How did the movie or book play with that theme and what was cool about it? What was cheesy or trite?

If you want to go the whole way, sketch out an itinerary for a blog or a vlog of your own and try to stay true to that theme if you can. If you're doing it for yourself, it should be fun and challenging. If you're doing it for credit, or popularity, I'd say to stop at the brainstorming stage because most of the blogs that are in that 'unfinished/hiatus/wtf happened to them?' section of the list were also going for fame, and it didn't seem to work out well for them!

(Long rant is long!)

In any case, what I'm trying to get at is not that, oh, Slender Man was so last year and we need a new creepy monster to take his place. People have scratched the surface with what can be done with him as a villain. There are more ways to combine story-telling elements than what's already out there, and I think that going to the base of those stories with themes and then finding a way to include Slender Man tropes is going to be more successful than slapping a new monster into the same storyline.

PostPosted: Mon Aug 09, 2010 11:43 am
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Unia
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Joined: 03 Sep 2011
Posts: 16
Location: In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country

They're similar because they all involve a Slender Man-like creature, and Slender Man has it's perticular characteristics.
For example, it's bound to be related to forests, it's going to have the coughing/slendersickness, etcetera.
I disagree that the plots themselves are all the same, and at the points that they are, I feel like it's not because of Slender Man.
Yes, a lot of series seem to include a TTA-like character, but don't blame our poor slendy for that! Surprised
It has become an easy way to make the plot seem more 'interesting' aparently, while the authors don't seem to realize that all they're doing is creating a "lol look it's a totheark rip-off again" feeling.

While I do agree the whole Slender Man ARG could need some innovation, I don't think it's because of the lack of possibilities regarding Slender Man himself.
Of course a series with their own made up creature is going to get props for that alone already,
but I don't mind older creatures, and especially not good old Slender Man, because he is the best thing since chocolate chip cookies and snowy mornings.

But you have a point, although not explicitly in your post: where are the ARGs with other creatures?
Where's The Rake? Where's the aliens? Where's the mighty Cthulhu?!
I may be wrong, maybe there are ARGs about those (new to this thing Razz ), and if I am; guide me to this wonderful place where they can be found!

All in all, I think Slender Man didn't get old, but there is a severe lack of ARGs with different creatures (as far as I know of).

Edit: holy crap, I should really stop posting so late. Didn't even notice this thread was years old. Sorry guys. Embarassed

PostPosted: Sun Sep 11, 2011 6:16 pm
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zbeeblebrox
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Joined: 10 Nov 2010
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But while this is here, I have a question similar to yours: aside from fredsolo's killer robot short film, has anyone out there managed to find a non-Slenderman horror vlog on Youtube filmed in this style? I think there's a lot of potential here beyond the common subject matter. Every time I see it used only for Slenderman stories exclusively, I'm a little disappointed

PostPosted: Sun Sep 11, 2011 8:59 pm
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Lumine
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Asking to replace Slenderman is almost as bad as removing video distortion
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 11, 2011 11:19 pm
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redwulf25_ci
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zbeeblebrox wrote:
But while this is here, I have a question similar to yours: aside from fredsolo's killer robot short film, has anyone out there managed to find a non-Slenderman horror vlog on Youtube filmed in this style? I think there's a lot of potential here beyond the common subject matter. Every time I see it used only for Slenderman stories exclusively, I'm a little disappointed


Haven't seen any vlogs that do Fear Mythos rather than Slendy, but some of them that I think might make the transition well if someone were inspired to include them in a project:

The Rake, we've seen him already in EMH so why not a solo act?

The Wooden Girl, they make marionette costumes so she should be easy to portray.

Archangel, are we sure that wasn't him in Angels Game? He does like to go around in a gas mask.

The Cold Boy, you'd need a decent child actor but it could be done.

The Plague Doctor, we've seen someone dressed like him in TJAProjects, but I don't think it was the Fear Mythos version.

The Dying Man, you'd need a large number of people able to do walk on rolls and only be around for a few episodes if you want him to hop bodies as much as I think he should. Other than that you just need someone good enough with makeup to portray necrosis.

Others I'm either not sure what you'd do with them at all (The Blind Man especially) or how you would portray them on a limited budget (I can't imagine portraying a Nest for the Convocation well without a studio level special effects budget).

PostPosted: Sun Sep 11, 2011 11:59 pm
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cochinosanchez
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Joined: 12 Aug 2010
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redwulf25_ci wrote:

Haven't seen any vlogs that do Fear Mythos rather than Slendy, but some of them that I think might make the transition well if someone were inspired to include them in a project:

The Rake, we've seen him already in EMH so why not a solo act?

The Wooden Girl, they make marionette costumes so she should be easy to portray.

Archangel, are we sure that wasn't him in Angels Game? He does like to go around in a gas mask.

The Cold Boy, you'd need a decent child actor but it could be done.

The Plague Doctor, we've seen someone dressed like him in TJAProjects, but I don't think it was the Fear Mythos version.

The Dying Man, you'd need a large number of people able to do walk on rolls and only be around for a few episodes if you want him to hop bodies as much as I think he should. Other than that you just need someone good enough with makeup to portray necrosis.

Others I'm either not sure what you'd do with them at all (The Blind Man especially) or how you would portray them on a limited budget (I can't imagine portraying a Nest for the Convocation well without a studio level special effects budget).


Is there any way you can provide links to all these different fear mythos? +11 internet points for you if you do, and I would GREATLY appreciate it! Very Happy
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 12:49 am
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JiingJiing
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Even though I don't necessarily agree with what you are saying about every blog being the same, I do agree that'll be nice to have a new creature be introduced. We saw EMH use The Rake, which in my opinion, has very good potential and if used right can be far scarier than Slendy, however EMH is only using it as a proxy of sorts. It'll be nice to see him, and possibly a new creature, get it's own vlog series. Just because Slendy is the more popular creepypasta doesn't mean it's the only one.

There was the blog based off the Seedeater which was very good and just as creepy as Marble Hornets, and is a very good example of basing a vlog/blog off of something other than Slenderman. I don't think Slendy is going to die or wear out anytime soon, but I do think something new and different is needed at this point.


PostPosted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 12:53 am
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Faceless
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Joined: 02 Sep 2011
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Re: New Creature
A different Slenderman?

Slendylvr wrote:
...can't anyone take a bit of thought and make up a new creature or take on slendy cause the newest blogs and such flat out suck.
Example= Mr.Smalls Vlog


I think that several newer series have done a pretty good job with Slender Man.

The Girl in the Green Room has presented it in a almost Alice In Wonderland like style.

The Dead Are Watching has presented it as a deity like figure founded from the mythos based around the Necronomicon.

Caught Not Sleeping has approached it from a typical stand point, but has many interesting innovations that make it more then worth a look see.

I do agree that for every good one that sprouts up there are many bad ones to clutter the stage, but if you don't like it then just don't support it. The problem with making something to new with Slender Man is that the community would probably say that it is all wrong and reject it. The problem with making a new monster is that everyone wants to see the Slender Man. For me this is a very difficult subject to tread in.

PostPosted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 1:18 am
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redwulf25_ci
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cochinosanchez wrote:
redwulf25_ci wrote:

Haven't seen any vlogs that do Fear Mythos rather than Slendy, but some of them that I think might make the transition well if someone were inspired to include them in a project:

The Rake, we've seen him already in EMH so why not a solo act?

The Wooden Girl, they make marionette costumes so she should be easy to portray.

Archangel, are we sure that wasn't him in Angels Game? He does like to go around in a gas mask.

The Cold Boy, you'd need a decent child actor but it could be done.

The Plague Doctor, we've seen someone dressed like him in TJAProjects, but I don't think it was the Fear Mythos version.

The Dying Man, you'd need a large number of people able to do walk on rolls and only be around for a few episodes if you want him to hop bodies as much as I think he should. Other than that you just need someone good enough with makeup to portray necrosis.

Others I'm either not sure what you'd do with them at all (The Blind Man especially) or how you would portray them on a limited budget (I can't imagine portraying a Nest for the Convocation well without a studio level special effects budget).


Is there any way you can provide links to all these different fear mythos? +11 internet points for you if you do, and I would GREATLY appreciate it! Very Happy


General fear mythos information here and here. This text only blog presents a cult devoted to one of the Fears (the Blind Man specifically) who research these beings and conduct weird experiments involving them. It also links to other blogs as references when it posts about specific Fears. I've even encountered two that created brand new Fears here and here, although while the general mythos seems as much public domain as Slenderman is I wouldn't use the Intrusion or Smiley without permission from their creators anymore than I would use HABIT without permission from the EMH crew.

Edit: Another good resource.

Edit 2: A good resource for various blogs. I haven't checked out all (or probably most) of these and some could be vlogs and I just don't know it (I do know of a couple that included audio).

Edit 3 the son of edit: Found a nice post about non-fear characters that appeared in some blogs that are considered open source by their creators! I just suggest this forum as a whole at this point. I'm just tagging this on to edit #3 because dear gods I need to stop making new edits to this poor post, but it turns out Smiley from jeanetteisalive IS open for use.

The individual beings and the mythos as a whole are, in my opinion, waiting for a talented group to make the next Marble Hornets.

PostPosted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 1:52 am
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TheBioGuy
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It's kinda funny, because I almost did make a new ARG this summer with a non-slenderman antagonist/monster.

But it fell through, though who's to say that something else might not happen?

...maybe...


...soon....

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PostPosted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 1:59 am
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DaLadybugMan
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Holy Thread Necromancy, Batman! Seriously, check the post dates. This thread is over a year old by this point!

Anyway, by this point a lot has been done with the Slender Man. I'd say that every blog and every vlog portrays him differently (the problem now is that most blogs seem to forget that he's supposed to be featured in the first place Rolling Eyes ). I like how, after over two years of development, people can still easily argue over the same canon points that they used to...and there are a whole heap of new canon elements to argue over now, too.

Of course, a lot of vlogs and blogs are still terrible and samey, but that's because of Sturgeon's Law, not because Slendy's gotten stale.

PostPosted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 3:42 am
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