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- TV-14
- HBO
- TV-14
- HBO
Summary Irene Taylor Brodsky's documentary examines the case of two 12-year-old girls who stabbed a friend 19 times in the woods because of an internet urban myth called the "slenderman."
- TV-14
- HBO
- TV-14
- HBO
Beware The Slenderman
Season 1 Premiere: Aug 26, 2018
78
6.0
Summary Irene Taylor Brodsky's documentary examines the case of two 12-year-old girls who stabbed a friend 19 times in the woods because of an internet urban myth called the "slenderman."
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 8 Critic Reviews
78
100% Positive
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 8 Critic Reviews
78
100% Positive
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Compelling documentary.... Director Irene Taylor Brodsky utilizes police interrogation footage and interviews with the pair's families to craft not a tale about imaginary monsters, but about the far more terrifying subject of real-life mental-health issues. [27 Jan 2017, p.54]
While Beware the Slenderman isn’t an easy watch--and will undoubtedly inspire anxiety and panic in some viewers, particularly parents--it’s a worthy one that helps make sense of a senseless crime.
Brodsky resists the temptation to judge, and instead sheds light on her subjects, and all their complexity.
It's a serious--and seriously disturbing--piece of work about a pair of 12-year-old Wisconsin girls who, inspired by a creepy internet meme, lured a friend into the woods after a birthday party and stabbed her 19 times.
A late-in-the-film reveal throws a new light over the entire situation, one that both goes a long way toward explaining things but also illuminating the danger of pat answers to thorny tragedies that belie such solutions. It’s clear why Brodsky held it back; it would have offered an Occam’s razor of rationalization to something the director feels shouldn’t be explicable.
The documentary does a good job of filling you in on the Slenderman mythos and how it has spread.
That Slender Man also seems evil serves to enhance, rather than lessen, his power over the imagination. But that power also comes from the belief that Slender Man is real-- and it’s in grappling with this troubling issue that the documentary makes its darkest, most complicated point. ... At two hours, it contains a bit too much footage of the backs of people’s heads in a courtroom, when it could be delving deeper into other topics related to the girls’ case.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 6 User Ratings
6.0
33% Positive
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
50% Mixed
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
17% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 6 User Ratings
6.0
33% Positive
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
50% Mixed
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
17% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
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Production Company:
- HBO Documentary Films
- Vermilion Films
Initial Release Date: Aug 26, 2018
Number of seasons: 0 Seasons
Rating: TV-14
Genres:
Awards
Critics' Choice Documentary Awards
• 2 Nominations
Nantucket Film Festival
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
SXSW Film Festival
• 1 Nomination