Slenderman

Thin Man (Slender Man, Slender, Skinny (Tall) man), or in the English version The Slender Man, Slenderman, Slender is a mythical character that appeared in popular culture less than ten years ago. It is notable for the fact that its artificial origin is precisely known, unlike other phenomena (such as the Chupacabra and UFOs) that originated at least 60-70 years ago. However, this did not prevent the thin man from firmly embedding himself in popular culture and even getting confirmation of his existence in the testimonies of eyewitnesses. To understand how the latter became possible, you need to turn to the history of the character's origin.

The modern Slender was created by a participant of the Internet forum Something Awful under the pseudonym Victor Surge in 2009 in imitation of the characters of urban legends. Victor processed two black-and-white pictures with children in a graphic editor, finishing the photos with a new character in the form of a tall faceless man. Since then, the image of this "creature" has hardly changed: a strict black suit, a head without a face (sometimes only a mouth), long arms and legs, very tall, as well as the ability to stretch already long limbs to almost any size and even turn them into tentacles.

Victor Surzh emphasized that the image of a Thin man was completely invented by him, and noted that he used for photomontages the image of a Tall man from the film "Phantasm" (1979), as well as photos taken from the web of men in strict suits. However, now some articles and encyclopedias already indicate that Slenderman is a collective image from German, Japanese, Russian and Romanian folklore and is only a "restart" of the legend.

Indeed, a number of similar characters can be found in these mythologies. For example, a Longshanks is a character of Slavic mythology, an evil spirit, a very long and thin spirit wandering the streets at night, looking into windows, warming his hands in a pipe and scaring people. Noperapon (the English version of the pronunciation of Nopper-bie) is already a character in Japanese mythology - a humanoid creature that does not have its own face. On forums, image boards and other Internet sites, they also recall the Romanian fairy tale about Stella and Sorina - two girls who once saw a multi-armed man dressed in all black, whose limbs were long and boneless, writhing like snakes (at the same time, it was not possible to find the fairy tale itself or mention it separately from the legend of Slenderman). There is also a reference to the German myth of Der Großmann ("Tall Man") about a tall, thin creature with two white spheres on his face instead of eyes. Various sources mention that he is depicted in an engraving of the 16th century ("Depicted here is “Der Ritter” (The Knight) to the left fighting “Der Grossman” (The Tall Man))". The source of this myth also could not be found. It is believed that he was invented to reinforce the legend of Slenderman.

In order for the legend to come to life, not only Der Grossman and the Romanian fairy tale were invented. It is believed that Surzh and other forum members continued to surround their hero with legends, having fabricated several police reports and children's drawings with images of a Thin Man. So Slenderman quickly left the limits of the Something Awful forum.

After that, the character began not only to meet in cryptipasts, but also received central roles in films, games and songs of varying degrees of popularity. It seems that Slenderman has already found his life and in fifty years, he will probably be perceived as a real being (along with a snowman and a chupacabra), living not only on the screen and in terrible dreams.