How fictional horror becomes real-life horror, an overview of the Slenderman stabbing.
/What is Slenderman?
image courtesy of nbc
The character of Slenderman is widely known as a staple of internet horror. An unnaturally tall, faceless white figure wearing a suit who stalks and abducts children. To most, it sounds like some sort of boogeyman kids would have concocted in their nightmares. Although, what happens when a fictional horror becomes a horror of reality?
Originating as a fictional horror character on the Something Awful forum in 2009, Slenderman quickly rose to prominence in the horror genre thanks to a short survival horror game, Slender: The Eight Pages. It was released on June 26, 2012, and since then the character has grown into a pop culture icon. What no one expected was this icon to motivate such a disturbing crime.
What happened?
On May 31, 2014, 12-year-old Payton Leutner was playing a game of hide-and-seek in Davids Park with friends, Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier. That is when the perpetrators, Geyser and Weier, restrained Leutner and stabbed her 19 times with a kitchen knife, in multiple parts of her body.
Following the attack, Geyser and Weier left Leutner in the heavily wooded area of the park and travelled five miles on foot. Leutner, against all odds, had crawled to a nearby road, where passing cyclists miraculously found her and called 911. She was rushed to the hospital, where she was operated on.
Police had apprehended Weier and Geyser 5 miles away from where they left Leutner, in possession of the knife that was used in the stabbing. When asked where they were going, they told officers that they were going to live with Slenderman at his mansion in the Nicolet National Forest, 200 miles away from where they were found. They were apprehended soon after. During the interrogation with the two girls, they told officers that they wanted to appease the fictional horror character. They stated that they had to kill someone to be worthy of living with him, and if they failed their families would be killed. Weier and Geyser were deemed not guilty by reason of insanity. Weier was sentenced to 25 years and Geyser 40 years to life to separate psychiatric institutions.
The Aftermath
Image courtesy of bbc
Despite all that happened to her, Leutner was able to make a full recovery from her injuries, returning to school in September 2014. However, the events of that day continued to haunt her for years to come. In December 2017, Leutner held deep fears and insecurities, as well as scars from the attack and the surgeries that saved her life. Not helped by the fact that in September 2021, Judge Bohren granted Weier conditional release after finding no “clear and convincing evidence that the defendant poses a substantial risk of harm to others, herself, or serious property damage.”
On the flipside, Judge Bohren denied Geyser conditional release on April 2024, who remains under the care of the Winnebago Mental Health Institute.
The Impact of Slenderman
The character of Slenderman has always been a prevalent figure in the world of internet horror, along with many such figures such as Jeff the Killer and The Rake. However, it is one of the only figures that was able to cross the threshold between the internet and reality to influence such inhuman acts.
What’s worse is this isn’t the only attack that was linked to the fictional character. A week after the first attack, a 13-year-old had allegedly stabbed her mother. The mother, who survived the attack, said that her daughter was fascinated by the fictional boogeyman. Additionally, a husband and wife killed five people in a Las Vegas shooting, two of which were cops, before both committing suicide. The husband often dressed up as Slenderman, according to a neighbour. While these cases aren’t as notable as the original incident, it’s still something to keep in mind.
In some ways, these attacks call to mind other real-life crimes motivated by controversial fictional characters, such as the Joker. Mentally struggling individuals become driven to commit horrible acts because of icons of horror and chaos.
The Slenderman stabbing is a cautionary tale about the darkness that these icons, fictional or not, can bring out in even the most innocent people.
Roch Graham is a 19-year-old student at Algonquin College, currently studying in its Professional Writing Program. Hailing from the small town of Embrun, Ontario, Roch strives to become the best writer he can be. While he may not look like it, he is a secret fan of horror and the disturbing world of true crime, and he is excited to tell you all about it... or get a little silly about it. Roch enjoys writing, playing video games, and reading in his free time.
