@ken_draws2002's post on Artfol
You ever stumble upon something that really scares you? Something that gets under your skin to the point where you can’t turn off the lights nor sleep? I’ve had many of those moments since I was and even now. One of those instances involved the slender man.
I first heard of the slender man when I was in middle school in the mid 2010s, around the time the slender man was popular. I remember watching the achievement Hunter rage quit vid of the game that was the rage back then and because of that vid, I thought the slender man was just another video game character and nothing more. But boy was I wrong.
One evening I was scrolling through YouTube on my iPad and I typed in slender man (maybe to watch Michael and Gavin argue over the term flashlight and torch again idk) and I found a a video by a channel called top5s. It was called “Slender Man The Documentary”. The video focused on the general mythos of the slender man and some of the stories surrounding him. One of those stories scared me so much that I actually had to sleep with my mom, god bless her soul, for several nights. The story in question was the henderson horsefarm incident.
It happened in the early morning on June 15th, 1953 in the area surrounding Tyron, North Carolina. Neighbors had called the police after hearing screams and gunshots from the Henderson farm, owned by the family of the same name who’s lineage dated back to the 1800s. When the police arrived, they found the horses torn apart and shredded. Once inside, they found 41 year old Ted Henderson barricaded in his room by furniture, up against the wall and completely petrified. He was holding a shot gun and next to him was his wife, killed by a single shot gun blast. His daughter was no where to be found. He was charged with the murder of his wife and sent to a mental hospital. Ted stayed as a mute until 3 years to the day after the murder. In an audio interview, he explained that a “tall skinny fella in a suit” (slender man) had taken his wife and child. His wife begged him to shoot her, which he did but not before the slender man took his daughter. A few hours after the interview, Ted took his own life.
This story freaked me out when I first say it as a kid, mostly because of how real it felt. There was a picture of the farm, there was an audio recording of the interview, the real location, etc. At that moment, slender man no longer felt fake. For a while, I believed slender man was actually real and could be out there waiting and watching.
Of course, I know now the slender man isn’t real. He was created for a something awful competition and the Internet expanded on the mythos. This also means that the Henderson horse farm incident never actually happened. And that audio recording?! It’s pretty well made but it doesn’t sound like something recorded with technology from the time it was made. That’s not to say because something isn’t real it isn’t scary.
But nowadays slender man doesn’t really scare me anymore. I feel like this is due to fangirls cutesifying and sexualizing him, paring him up with Jeff the killer (the worst creepypasta period) and so on. Fangirls really loved slender man, to the point where two girls stabbed one of their friends 19 times to appease their skinny no face having ass God. This is why you don’t trust middle schoolers.
Another reason I don’t particularly find slender man scary anymore is because of how overexposed he is. I mean, characters like Jason Vorhees from Friday the 13th, Freddy Kruger from Nightmare on Elm Street, and the aliens from the Alien Franchise are overexposed as hell but I still find them scary unlike slenderman. Maybe it’s due to the infamy surrounding it nowadays which sucks because from the stories I’ve listened to involving the character, slender man is a good creepypasta monster. I just wish it never attained the infamy the character has gotten over the years :(
This isn’t technically art related but I did want to share this because I felt it was interesting. I am thinking about writing my own scary stories and posting them on here (or r/nosleep if I’m brave enough)Apr 25, 2021
I first heard of the slender man when I was in middle school in the mid 2010s, around the time the slender man was popular. I remember watching the achievement Hunter rage quit vid of the game that was the rage back then and because of that vid, I thought the slender man was just another video game character and nothing more. But boy was I wrong.
One evening I was scrolling through YouTube on my iPad and I typed in slender man (maybe to watch Michael and Gavin argue over the term flashlight and torch again idk) and I found a a video by a channel called top5s. It was called “Slender Man The Documentary”. The video focused on the general mythos of the slender man and some of the stories surrounding him. One of those stories scared me so much that I actually had to sleep with my mom, god bless her soul, for several nights. The story in question was the henderson horsefarm incident.
It happened in the early morning on June 15th, 1953 in the area surrounding Tyron, North Carolina. Neighbors had called the police after hearing screams and gunshots from the Henderson farm, owned by the family of the same name who’s lineage dated back to the 1800s. When the police arrived, they found the horses torn apart and shredded. Once inside, they found 41 year old Ted Henderson barricaded in his room by furniture, up against the wall and completely petrified. He was holding a shot gun and next to him was his wife, killed by a single shot gun blast. His daughter was no where to be found. He was charged with the murder of his wife and sent to a mental hospital. Ted stayed as a mute until 3 years to the day after the murder. In an audio interview, he explained that a “tall skinny fella in a suit” (slender man) had taken his wife and child. His wife begged him to shoot her, which he did but not before the slender man took his daughter. A few hours after the interview, Ted took his own life.
This story freaked me out when I first say it as a kid, mostly because of how real it felt. There was a picture of the farm, there was an audio recording of the interview, the real location, etc. At that moment, slender man no longer felt fake. For a while, I believed slender man was actually real and could be out there waiting and watching.
Of course, I know now the slender man isn’t real. He was created for a something awful competition and the Internet expanded on the mythos. This also means that the Henderson horse farm incident never actually happened. And that audio recording?! It’s pretty well made but it doesn’t sound like something recorded with technology from the time it was made. That’s not to say because something isn’t real it isn’t scary.
But nowadays slender man doesn’t really scare me anymore. I feel like this is due to fangirls cutesifying and sexualizing him, paring him up with Jeff the killer (the worst creepypasta period) and so on. Fangirls really loved slender man, to the point where two girls stabbed one of their friends 19 times to appease their skinny no face having ass God. This is why you don’t trust middle schoolers.
Another reason I don’t particularly find slender man scary anymore is because of how overexposed he is. I mean, characters like Jason Vorhees from Friday the 13th, Freddy Kruger from Nightmare on Elm Street, and the aliens from the Alien Franchise are overexposed as hell but I still find them scary unlike slenderman. Maybe it’s due to the infamy surrounding it nowadays which sucks because from the stories I’ve listened to involving the character, slender man is a good creepypasta monster. I just wish it never attained the infamy the character has gotten over the years :(
This isn’t technically art related but I did want to share this because I felt it was interesting. I am thinking about writing my own scary stories and posting them on here (or r/nosleep if I’m brave enough)Apr 25, 2021
#creepypasta
#horror
#slenderman
Comments
Back when I was like 9~10 I met a whole my cousins that loved horror movies (all older than me) and since I was bored I decided to watch one with them—- worst choice of my life. It was silk mouth women and she haunted me every time I closed my eyes for 2 years straight after that. 
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Seeing a human skull under the school library's floor. I mean, the whole building is almost 120y.o and was used as HQ by the Japanese during WW2. So yeah, there's a ghost or two in every classroom and building.
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Jeff the Killer creeped me out back then, especially with like the whole go to sleep thing cause at that point I didn’t want to sleep because I was afraid.
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