An argument could be made that Beware the Slenderman is an important documentary and absolutely falls under the category of required viewing, especially for parents. I agree with the first part.
For starters, the content is disturbing, and I’m not even
talking about the actual crime. The disturbing scenes are the interrogations of
the girls and some revelations that I will get into soon. There’s a sadness to
this film that hits you in waves.
Any true crime fanatics out there have surely already
watched this (I had it marked on my calendar). And while this is a pretty
fascinating true crime documentary, it’s also a pretty big comment on today’s
society in general. Now, for those normal people out there, you might still be
tempted to watch based on the fact that it’s HBO or maybe you saw the trailer
and thought it had an interesting premise: in 2014, two 12-year-old girls
brought another girl out to the middle of the woods and stabbed her 19 times
because a fictional boogeyman called The Slenderman wanted them to. More or
less. But as the documentary unfolds we quickly realize that Slenderman actually
plays a very minor role in this terrible incident (the victim survived by the
way, which helps a little…but not much).
Before I get deeper into the story, one thing I noticed
right off the bat is these two girls (Anissa and Morgan) are two loners who
found each other and had common interests (mainly surfing the internet and
believing in fictional monsters). This is something we’ve seen in countless
movies and television shows: a story where kids see something or believe in
something that adults just don’t, or won’t, understand -- look at E.T., Super
8, or even more recently, Stranger Things. The difference is, in the fictional
world, the kids are always right and end up doing something really brave that
saves lives. In the real world, however, people get hurt.
I am not, by the way, discrediting the filmmakers (for all 3
of my readers out there). The film is beautifully shot, well edited, and nicely
paced (if a little slow at certain parts). Unlike most films in this blog, I am
not at all saying Beware the Slenderman is unrequired viewing because it’s not
very good. It’s excellent. But it will also carve out your soul and throw it in
the ocean only to be swept away by the tide. THAT’S what I’m saving you from. I
will do my best to give you all the same details as portrayed in the film but I
truly believe by not having to actually watch the footage, you will be able to
sleep tonight (as opposed to me).
One of the more interesting aspects of the documentary is
the fact that we don’t actually hear from the victim or the victim’s family at
all. Instead we follow the parents of Anissa and Morgan. And right off the bat
we get the sense that these are GOOD PARENTS. They are normal people who
thought their children were a little shy and misunderstood. And even though I
don’t have kids, that is a terrifying thought. Because clearly there was more
going on.
Sadness wave #1: The victim in this case was Morgan’s BEST
FRIEND. All three girls actually spent the previous night together celebrating
Morgan’s birthday. They went bowling or something and then had a slumber party.
Meanwhile Anissa and Morgan were planning on murdering her the entire time.
That is sombering.
Sadness wave #2: These girls truly believe that Slenderman
will kill their entire family if they don’t offer up a sacrifice. This goes
back to the origin of The Slenderman (some website I already forgot the name
of). This myth leads to youtube videos being made claiming that, not only is
The Slenderman real, but in some cases he can be seen in the videos. And when
you then hear the parents talk about how Anissa spent ALL OF HER TIME watching
her iPad, well, you can imagine the damage that was inflicted.
Sadness wave #3: During the interrogations, the girls
(separately) tell their side of things and it is really eye-opening to listen
to a 12-year-old girl talk about stabbing another girl with such…levity. It’s
as though they’re talking about kissing a boy or finding a dirty magazine. And
what’s really fascinating is how, at this point in the documentary, Annisa comes
off as a psychopath while Morgan comes off as just a confused girl who did what
her friend told her to do.
Sadness wave #4: During the trial we see the results of the
psych evaluations done on the two girls. Surprisingly, when talking about
Annisa, the doctors concluded that there were no signs of psychopathy. None.
However, we quickly learn that Morgan is a schizophrenic. And has been since
the age of 3.
Sadness wave #5: This was a big one. Up until this point in
the documentary we had only heard from Morgan’s mother. In fact, the father
hadn’t even been mentioned. And now we know why. As we hear from him, in his
own words, he also suffers from schizophrenia and through his tears we can
empathize with him over the guilt he feels, knowing he passed that trait onto
his daughter. The mother goes on to say how the father had it under control and
while they knew schizophrenia can be genetic, they never saw any obvious signs
in Morgan.
Any way you look at it, this is a sad chain of events that
had to happen in just the right way for all of these lives to be destroyed. If
Annisa wasn’t such a loner she wouldn’t have become obsessed with the fictional
being known as Slenderman. If Annisa and Morgan had never met, Morgan would
have never had a reason to commit such a heinous crime. And perhaps, if the
parents had been able to diagnose Morgan sooner, she would have been under
special care for her condition and probably not be in prison. As of this
writing, the girls are awaiting a trial to be held later this year so they can
be tried as adults.
And finally, as a side note, there is a scene where Annisa’s
father talks about how he once found Annisa sketching in her note pad. When we
see the drawing it is a sketch of Jack Skellington (from Nightmare before
Christmas) next to The Slenderman. The father is racked with guilt over not
thinking anything sinister was going on and you can’t blame him. I used to draw
as a kid and my parents, to this day, probably never saw one of my sketches. I
was pretty much left to my own devices as long as I did my chores. I often
think back to my childhood and how lucky I was to live in a time before the
internet. Before cell phones. You had no choice but to interact with other
kids. Neighbors. Class mates. And just like the rest of the world, today’s kids
find themselves taking everything they read or watch as fact and then using
those facts to guide their actions. And that’s why this movie is so fucking
relevant and that is the saddest wave of all…my longing for a time when truth
was commonplace.
REQUIRED VIEWING: Heavenly Creatures, Paradise Lost, Through
a Glass Darkly.
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