#Slender man full movie how to
#Slender man full movie movie

So yes, there’s good stuff here, mostly in the earlier acts. The best effect is the wind blowing pieces of paper across the parking lot as husband-dad Marty fiddles with the light in his glassed-in booth, totally unaware that the paper is wrapping itself around the hidden monster in the dimly-lit space behind him. Gallagher (TV’s “Westworld”) at least manages a proper freak out or two. Even taking that into account, there’s little “mothering” or “fathering” about the relationships. One of the stresses on the marriage is their child’s disconnect from each parent, not even making eye contact with his own mother. The film’s theme is hammered and hammered hard - digital devices make even the non-autistic lonely and cut-off from the world (And autistic kids are really into screens, we’ve heard.), so Larry has fertile hunting grounds for “friends.”Ĭhase wimps out on his whole “bullying” subtext (Winslow Fegley is effectively childish and cruel) and losing the conceit of the kid having to fight this threat on his own is a major blunder.Īs impressive as Jacobs’ (“I Used to Go Here,” TV’s “Love”) “fear face” can be, she’s maddeningly inconsistent in her reactions to the menace she and her little boy face together.

#Slender man full movie how to

Some of Oliver’s clever reasoning his way out of tight spots or how to “explain” what’s going on is beyond-his-years (about 8), but for the most part, there’s not much here a non-expert would quibble with. I was impressed, for a while, with how closely he adheres to the limitations of autism, and the ways it doesn’t signify low intelligence. Writer-director Chase, expanding his short film “Larry,” cleverly gives us Larry’s-eye-view shots of the monster looking through (sometimes busted) cell phone and iPad screens. This cadaverous, skinny thing is coming for Oliver. He’s distracted.Įventually, after the kids who bully Oliver have a sleepover that turns horrific, even his parents catch on. Dad’s keeping a roof over their heads with multiple jobs, including one as a night watchman/clerk at a pay parking lot. Robertson, the kid from “Marriage Story,” whimpers and quakes at what he’s seeing. A clever boy, he turns the phone camera-and-light on, and that’s where he sees “Larry.” The book says Larry just wants a friend. He starts hearing noises, thumps and footsteps. He switches off “Sponge Bob” long enough to swipe a few pages. That’s the perfect time for the eBook “Misunderstood Monsters” to viral its way onto his phone. He’s sensitive to noise, and damned if his condition isn’t driving his parents ( Gillian Jacobs, John Gallagher Jr.) apart. Lonely little Oliver ( Azhy Robertson) communicates via a type-to-speech phone app, and is teased at school over it. The most promising idea, a rigid adherence to experiencing something through the eyes and ears of a speechless autistic boy, is fudged here and there - the “scare him out of it” cinematic cure. Writer-director Jacob Chase times out the jolts well.īut the adults involved can’t decide if they’re stunned by their (presumably) first encounter with the supernatural, or if they’ve seen so many horror movies that they just accept this digital (electrical) threat to their child at face value.

#Slender man full movie movie

I’ve spent the year reviewing horror movies without those crowd-sourced scares, and it’s left me at a loss as to whether say, “The Dark and the Wicked” really worked.Ĭonversely, the theatrical release “Come Play” is a Slender Man horror movie with a few genuinely hair-raising moments and some good effects. Seeing a thriller in a theater, even a nearly empty one, is more overwhelming. No matter how big your TV, that just doesn’t achieve the same effect at home.

A big screen sucks you in, overwhelms you. They demand to be seen in a theater with an audience of the like-minded, ready to revel in our communal fright - or derision if the frights aren’t there. Horror movies just aren’t the same on a small screen once you’ve cleared your tweens. One of the many things broken by the COVID pandemic was the covenant between horror movie makers and their audience.