He started as a figure lurking in the background of grainy black-and-white photos. Now Slender Man is a playable character in Fortnite.
Epic Games added the internet's most infamous faceless monster to the Fortnite Item Shop last night as part of Fortnitemares, the game's annual Halloween event. Players can grab the Slender Man outfit for 1,500 V-Bucks, or pick up a full bundle with two extra cosmetics, Tentacles of the Slender Man and Slender Tendrils, for 2,000 V-Bucks.
The outfit's in-game description is short and appropriately ominous: "Be careful in the forest."
The Birth Of A Modern Monster
Few horror icons have an origin story quite like Slender Man. In 2009, a user named Victor Surge, whose real name is Eric Knudsen, posted a pair of edited photos to the Something Awful forums as part of a contest to create paranormal images. The pictures showed groups of children with an unnaturally tall, thin figure in a black suit looming nearby, his face completely blank.
The images spread rapidly, and the internet did the rest. Fans wrote stories, filmed found-footage web series and added new pieces to his mythology, turning him into one of the earliest and most famous examples of creepypasta. The YouTube series Marble Hornets, which launched the same year, became one of the most influential takes on the character and helped define the found-footage style of online horror for years afterward. His slender, tentacle-like limbs, his habit of appearing in forests and his connection to missing children became defining parts of the legend.
Slender Man In Games And Movies
Gaming played a major role in making Slender Man a household name. The free indie game Slender: The Eight Pages released in 2012 and became a viral sensation, with players wandering a dark forest at night trying to collect eight pages while the creature drew closer. It was simple, terrifying and perfect for reaction videos, which helped it explode on YouTube.
That game inspired a wave of similar first-person horror experiences and a follow-up called Slender: The Arrival. The character later made the jump to the big screen with the 2018 film Slender Man, cementing his place as a modern horror icon.
Fortnitemares Turns Up The Horror
Slender Man is joining a growing list of horror characters in Fortnite this Halloween season. Earlier this week, Nikki from the horror film Obsession also arrived, giving horror fans plenty of new options for their lockers.
Epic is also leaning into scares with its Thrills & Chills spotlight on player-made islands, where players can hunt werewolves, escape zombies and survive a variety of spooky experiences. For horror fans who want to set the right mood, dropping into one of those islands as Slender Man seems like the obvious move.
Is It Still Scary?
Part of what made Slender Man so frightening was that you rarely saw him clearly. He was always just out of focus, standing among the trees and never explaining himself. Seeing him running around a colorful battle royale, emoting and building walls, is a very different vibe.
Still, Epic has done a solid job capturing his iconic look, from the crisp black suit to the blank white face and the tendrils that make him instantly recognizable. In the right setting, like a dark forest map late at night, there is a good chance he will still give a few players a jolt when they spot him standing perfectly still in the distance.
Does seeing Slender Man in Fortnite make him less scary, or is it a fun tribute to one of the internet's greatest horror legends?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.