Slender Man is a fictional horror character depicted as a tall, faceless figure in a black suit with tentacle-like appendages. He was created as an internet meme in 2009 and grew into one of the most well-known examples of digital folklore[1].

Where did Slender Man come from?

He was created on June 10, 2009, by Eric Knudsen (username Victor Surge) as part of a "Create Paranormal Images" Photoshop contest on the Something Awful forums[4].

What does Slender Man mean?

The character represents a modern digital bogeyman. He's associated with child abduction, paranoia, and the blurring of fiction and reality. His mythology includes inducing "Slender sickness" (paranoia, nightmares, nosebleeds) in those who encounter him[3].

How do you use Slender Man?

People typically create Slender Man content by Photoshopping a tall suited figure into photos, writing creepypasta fiction, making found-footage videos, or creating fan art. The convention is to keep depictions vague and unsettling rather than explicit[1].

Is Slender Man still popular?

The character peaked in mainstream popularity between 2012 and 2014 but maintains a dedicated following. The *Slender: The Arrival* remaster launched in 2023, and a sequel game is scheduled for 2026[5].

Who created Slender Man?

Eric Knudsen created the character under the pseudonym Victor Surge on the Something Awful forums. He was inspired by H.P. Lovecraft, Stephen King, reports of shadow people, and the 1979 film *Phantasm*[4].

What was the Slender Man stabbing?

On May 31, 2014, in Waukesha, Wisconsin, two 12-year-old girls, Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier, stabbed their classmate Payton Leutner 19 times in an attempt to prove their dedication to the fictional character. Leutner survived[2].

What is Marble Hornets?

Marble Hornets is a YouTube found-footage series created by Troy Wagner and Joseph Delage that began just 10 days after Slender Man's creation. It ran for 65 episodes and adapted the character as "The Operator," accumulating over 55 million views[11].

Did Slender Man inspire Minecraft's Enderman?

Yes. Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson confirmed that the Enderman, a tall, black, teleporting mob, was directly inspired by the Slender Man character[12].

Is Slender Man based on real folklore?

No. Despite widely circulated claims about "Der Großmann" from German folklore, these backstories were fabricated by fans after Knudsen's original posts. The character has no genuine historical or folkloric roots[3].

What is the Slender Man movie?

Sony Pictures released a *Slender Man* film in August 2018, directed by Sylvain White and starring Joey King. It grossed $51.7 million but received overwhelmingly negative reviews and drew criticism from the family of one of the Waukesha stabbing attackers[6].

What is "Slender sickness"?

In the mythology, Slender sickness refers to symptoms experienced by those near Slender Man, including paranoia, nightmares, coughing fits, nosebleeds, memory loss, and electronic device interference[3].

What games feature Slender Man?

The main games are *Slender: The Eight Pages* (2012), a free indie horror game, and its sequel *Slender: The Arrival* (2013), both based on the character. A third game, *S: The Lost Chapters*, is scheduled for 2026[5].

What was the community's response to the Waukesha stabbing?

Creator Eric Knudsen said he was "deeply saddened." The Creepypasta website issued condolences while arguing horror fiction was not responsible. Folklorist Jeff Tolbert called the blame placed on the character "a moral panic"[1].

Slender Man

1999creepypastadead

Published March 10, 2026 · Updated March 12, 2026

Also known as: Slenderman · Slender Guy · SM · Slender Man Meme

Slender Man is a fictional horror character created by Eric Knudsen on the Something Awful forums in June 2009, depicted as a tall, faceless figure in a black suit who stalks and abducts children. What started as two doctored photographs in a Photoshop contest became one of the internet's most significant pieces of collaborative fiction, spawning web series, video games, a feature film, and a real-world moral panic after two 12-year-old girls stabbed a classmate in 2014 to prove their devotion to the character.

creepypasta memes something awful memes collaborative fiction memes moral panic memes

Overview

Slender Man, typically shown as an unnaturally tall, thin humanoid wearing a black suit and tie, with a completely blank white face lacking any features. He has long, stretching arms and tentacle-like appendages that extend from his back1. According to the mythology built around him, he targets children and young adults, lurking in forests and abandoned locations4. Proximity to him supposedly causes "Slender sickness," a mix of paranoia, nightmares, nosebleeds, and electronic interference with cameras and screens3.

The character works because he's deliberately vague. His motives, origins, and the fate of his victims are left ambiguous, which made him the perfect canvas for thousands of contributors to build on1. As folklorist Jeff Tolbert put it, the character's development was "an open-sourcing of storytelling"1.

Origin & Background

Platform

4chan/CreepyPasta.com

Creator

Eric Knudsen

Date

June 2009

On June 8, 2009, a thread titled "Create Paranormal Images" launched on the Something Awful forums, challenging users to digitally manipulate ordinary photographs into convincing paranormal scenes3. Two days later, on June 10, forum user Victor Surge (real name Eric Knudsen) posted two black-and-white photographs showing groups of children with a tall, spectral figure lurking in the background4.

The first image carried the caption: "We didn't want to go, we didn't want to kill them, but its persistent silence and outstretched arms horrified and comforted us at the same time"4. The second described a recovered photograph from the "Stirling City Library blaze," noting that fourteen children had vanished the same day4.

Knudsen drew inspiration from H.P. Lovecraft, Stephen King's *The Mist*, reports of shadow people, the Mothman legend, and the Tall Man from the 1979 film *Phantasm*4. His goal was "to formulate something whose motivations can barely be comprehended, and [which caused] unease and terror in a general population"4.

By June 11, Knudsen had added more images and a fake doctor's account. Other Something Awful users quickly jumped in. SA user LeechCode5 posted a photograph of a burning building with Slender Man backstory on June 12, and user TrenchMaul reused the character for his own story on June 143. The original thread extended to 46 pages3.

The creation may have also been influenced by the "Chzo Mythos" adventure games published by Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw in 2003, which featured a villain called "Cabadath," sometimes referred to as the "Tall Man," a thin figure in a long black coat with a blank face3.

How It Spread

Slender Man jumped from Something Awful to 4chan's /x/ (paranormal) board almost immediately. The earliest known 4chan mention dates to June 24, 2009, just two weeks after the original post3. From there, it spread to the Unfiction Forums, DeviantArt, TVTropes, and dozens of other sites3.

The character's first major media adaptation came on June 20, 2009, when a YouTube channel called Marble Hornets released the first entry of a found-footage series about a film student stalked by a Slender Man-like figure called "The Operator"2. Created by Troy Wagner and Joseph Delage, the series ran until 2014 and pulled in over 250,000 subscribers with 55 million views across 65 episodes11. Marble Hornets introduced several key elements to the mythology, including "proxies" (humans under Slender Man's control) and the "⦻" circle-cross symbol4.

A wave of Slender Man web series followed, including TribeTwelve, EverymanHYBRID, and Dark Harvest, building what fans called "the Slenderverse"7. Creepypasta communities became the main hub for written fiction, where stories were shared as if they were true accounts, like digital campfire tales1.

The character hit mainstream gaming in 2012 with *Slender: The Eight Pages*, a free Unity-based horror game by Mark "AgentParsec" Hadley where players navigate a dark forest collecting notes while being stalked by Slender Man9. PC Gamer and Kotaku covered the game, which became a viral hit and spawned countless YouTube reaction videos12. Its sequel, *Slender: The Arrival*, developed by Blue Isle Studios with Knudsen as producer, launched in March 20135.

Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson acknowledged Slender Man as the direct inspiration for Minecraft's Enderman mob, a tall, black, teleporting creature that attacks when players look at it12.

On Tumblr, the character spawned its own parody ecosystem. In July 2012, user Conjured Charisma posted a photo of a faceless mannequin in trendy clothes, which user I Lack Tact dubbed "Trender Man," Slender Man's "sassy gay brother"13. The joke character got its own meme generator page and fan art3.

Platforms

4chanCreepyPastaYouTubeRedditMedia

View on Google Trends

Frequently Asked Questions

References (45)

1
The origins of Slender Man - BBC Newsarticle
2
The Slender Man Stabbing: When A Meme Led To Attempted Murderarticle
3
Slender Man is Coming for Youarticle
4
Slender Man - Know Your Memeencyclopedia
5
Slender Manencyclopedia
6
Slender Man - Urban Dictionarydictionary
7
The Impossible Astronautencyclopedia
8
Silent (Doctor Who) - Wikipediaencyclopedia
9
Yahtzee Croshaw - Wikipediaencyclopedia
10
Slender: The Arrival - Wikipediaencyclopedia
11
Slender Man (film) - Wikipediaencyclopedia
12
The Terrifying Tale of Slender Man: An Urban Legend – Horror Mysteryarticle
13
Slenderman Encyclopedia: History, Sightings & Tulpa Theoryarticle
14
The Origin of Slender Man: From 2009 Internet Meme to Legendary Modern Mytharticle
15
Create Paranormal Images - The Something Awful Forumsarticle
16
Create Paranormal Images - The Something Awful Forumsarticle
17
Create Paranormal Images - The Something Awful Forumsarticle
18
Create Paranormal Images - The Something Awful Forumsarticle
19
Dreams In Darkness: And life in general...article
20
Slenderverse Media, Suggested links, blogs, and vlogsarticle
21
Seeking Truth: Assignmentarticle
22
The Operator - Marble Hornetsarticle
23
Creepypasta - Slender Manarticle
24
64Digitsarticle
25
The Terrifying ‘Slenderman’ Goes from Meme to Free Horror Game - Kotakuarticle
26
Slender Delivers Scares From Internet's Darkest Depths | Rock Paper Shotgunarticle
27
Encyclopedia Slenderia: Der Schwarzwald und Der Ritterarticle
28
The new mob I've been working on is a bit creepy..article
29
The Slender Man | Der Großmann - Urban Legends Onlinearticle
30
'Marble Hornets' Flying to Bigscreenarticle
31
Slender: The Eight Pagesarticle
32
Slender Man game released, scare the hell out of yourself for free | PC Gamerarticle
33
rainingidealism: bowsiepinkiepie: ... • I Lack Tactarticle
34
Review: In ‘Slender Man,’ Horror Emerges From the Internet - The New York Timesarticle
35
Slender Man Review: A Terrible Movie About the Internet's Best Monsterarticle
36
Slender Man Reviews - Metacriticarticle
37
Pancakesarticle
38
View topic - List of Slender ARG's, Blogs, Vlogs, and Interactive Fictionarticle
39
Slender man - Deleted Wikipedia Article | Wikibinarticle
40
Search 'Slender Man' on DeviantArt - Discover The Largest Online Art Gallery and Communityarticle
41
The Slender Nation Forums - Homepagearticle
42
Something happened - The Something Awful Forumsarticle
43
View Forum - Marble Hornetsarticle
44
Marble Hornets- Real Or Hoax?article
45
View topic - List of Slender ARG's, Blogs, Vlogs, and Interactive Fictionarticle