Beware the Slenderman Page #2

just walking around,

nosing around,

looking for Anissa.

You know, nobody uses...

the bed while she's gone.

I don't know,

maybe the cat does, but...

I guess it just made more sense

to take everything apart

and wash it

and when she comes home,

it's all clean and ready to go.

It's just a matter of when.

She would come

in here to practice choir.

She did projects

that she would have to FaceTime

with two or three different kids

from this flight academy class

she was in.

'Cause I'd pop in

on a regular basis.

I'd just you know,

"What are you doing?"

I see a face on the iPad.

"Okay, who are you talking to?"

You know, "What are

you guys working on?"

And then you know, most days...

you know, 7:
30, "Anissa,

you're done with your iPad."

Shut it down, come downstairs,

be with your family."

And she never argued.

People have asked me if I saw any signs

in my daughter and this and that.

And I'm just like, "No. I knew

what she was doing in here."

Because when she wasn't doing her

choir practice, that door was open."

You know, all of the kids...

not just Anissa, all

of them... they know...

there's no closed doors

in this house unless you're...

fresh out of the shower

or getting ready for bed.

So...

for people to say...

I wasn't involved...

Apart from sitting in the corner

and watching every move she makes,

I don't know how much

more involved I could've been.

My focus is Anissa...

not Slenderman.

And what is your name?

Anissa Weier.

Anissa, okay.

Okay, Just kind of...

give me a look.

Give me a look.

Morgan.

- How you doing?

- Fine.

Come on up.

Morgan, all right.

Hmm.

Okay.

All rise, please.

I thank you. Please be seated.

Court will call the matter, State of

Wisconsin versus Morgan E. Geyser

and also State versus

Anissa E. Weier.

Good morning. The case is here

today on a number of matters.

The first matter I'll address

is the issue of... competency.

They're glad...

they're...

Uhh...

So...

There was a sleepover

the prior night

for Morgan's 12th birthday.

We knew that

there was Anissa, Morgan,

and a third girl

that we've never met...

and that they were all

at Morgan's house.

Morgan and Anissa have

only known each other

since they started sixth grade.

They met because they...

they rode the same bus.

We were so happy that Morgan

had made a good friend

so... so close, someone else

in the neighborhood.

We were...

we were so happy for her...

to have someone to play with.

Uh-huh.

Okay.

My name is Bella,

and I was nominated

to do the Ice Bucket Challenge

for ALS by...

Morgan and Bella have known

each other since kindergarten,

and they've been best friends

since fourth grade.

- Are you guys ready?

- I guess.

Let's go.

One, two, three.

One, two, three.

Oh my god!

Umm...

Okay.

Umm...

Hello, Dr. Zipes!

I... I don't have...

I... uh, wait.

Hello?

Actually, the quality

seems fine on my end.

And yeah, my Skype is

just not having it today.

You... have we started now?

- Yes, yes.

When... when did we start?

Hello.

Hello.

- How are you?

- Good.

Who are you Skyping with?

Someone... I'm getting

interviewed for a documentary.

Okay, then... what... so let's start...

start with the question then.

Slenderman is

the modern-day boogeyman.

Because it's faceless,

because it's quiet,

because it doesn't speak words,

it's open to a lot

of interpretation

and open to a lot of possibilities

and to a lot of projection.

It varies from person to person

as to what

Slenderman actually is.

He's the creature

that lives in my closet.

He's the guy

in the windowless white van.

The faceless stranger

who kidnaps kids.

It encapsulates, symbolically,

a lot of these other

kind of societal fears

that we've had for ages and ages

and kind of conveniently

wraps them up

and makes it really malleable.

Because, really, Slenderman can

be whomever you want him to be.

We can empirically look back

and find out where

Slenderman was created.

It was created

in 2009 by Eric Knudsen

under the screen name

"Victor Surge"

as part of a Photoshop contest

to try to create something

that looked real

that really wasn't.

Urban legends on the Internet

has been a thing for decades.

There was already

a base audience

that was ready

for a globalized project

to kind of build a myth.

It actually began with the games

that spun off from Slenderman.

It's so heavily

visually oriented

that it's replicable

without really having

to understand

too much cultural context.

And from there,

it spread

to every available platform

and medium on the web.

Tumblr...

DeviantArt...

YouTube...

and also the 4chan's

Paranormal Board.

All of these websites have

a really strong affinity

with fan art in general.

"Slender is coming"?

YouTube was

the international hub

for non-English speakers

to kind of break their way

into the myth.

Creepypasta is this generic term

for horror stories

that gets copied

then pasted because it's good.

As it spreads,

people start tweaking

some parts of the story or

pick up where they left off.

These are stories

that branched out

of the main canon of Slenderman.

"Oh, should I travel

through the woods,"

"Or should I not

wishing I would?"

"For above me

lurks within the trees"

"No one could hear

my deathly screams"

"The palest man,

the blackest suit"

"Bigger than the tallest brute"

"Six black arms will grab you up"

"Or stalk you

till you just give up"

"He'll leave your body

not to eat

But to staple

your corpse upon a tree."

"Fear the man, the Slenderman

For he can do

what no one can."

Slenderman kind

of represents an opportunity

to see where people are nervous

about certain things

and what excites them

and what brings them together,

because it changes.

It changes based

on who's telling the story.

Often in the adult world

we forget how much

it sucks to be a kid.

Slenderman can also be seen

as a guardian angel.

Slenderman is the Grim Reaper

but with a heart.

These pictures are not

so much him showing up

on the playground to snatch

kids away, but to rescue them.

Stories like this can be

a powerful aphrodisiac for...

for somebody who is lonely

or is troubled,

or is trying to find

their way in the world.

Slenderman has this entire

community of people online

who are feeding

into the narrative

and creating

their own versions of it.

It's constantly...

it's exponentially growing.

That's the definition

of a good meme.

In human culture,

if it's copied

from one brain to another,

that's a meme.

Hi, my name is Valerie,

and I've decided to do

the Ice Bucket Challenge.

I'm doing the ALS

Ice Bucket Challenge.

I'm here to join the people bringing

attention to Lou Gehrig's disease.

It can be an idea.

It can be a tune.

It can be a style of dancing.

Tired?

What do you think he's doing?

- Planking.

- Oh, you know?

- Yeah, I do.

- Yes!

I am from the Internet.

The Internet provides

a very, very fast,

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