HBO has revealed that their shocking true crime documentary Beware the Slenderman will debut Monday, January 23 (10:00 p.m.-midnight ET/PT). The documentary will also be available on HBO NOW, HBO GO, HBO On Demand and affiliate portals. Check out the trailer below!
The news horrified the world: Two 12-year-old American girls lured a friend into the Wisconsin woods and stabbed her 19 times in an effort to appease a faceless mythical entity known online as Slenderman. But there’s more to the story than the dark headlines it generated. Delving deep into this shocking crime, the sobering documentary Beware the Slenderman examines how an urban myth could take root in impressionable young minds, leading to an unspeakable act.
Directed by Irene Taylor Brodsky (HBO’s Oscar-nominated The Final Inch), Beware the Slenderman covers all sides of this unusual ongoing case, drawing on an eerie array of Slenderman-inspired art, games and self-produced video, all culled from the Internet, along with heart-wrenching, unprecedented access to the two girls’ families, courtroom testimony and interrogation-room footage.
Beware the Slenderman features interviews with experts who help put the girls’ mental state and the Slenderman myth in context, including: digital folklorist Trevor J. Blank, Ph.D.; Brad Kim, editor-in-chief, KnowYourMeme.com; evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, Ph.D.; literary critic Jack Zipes, Ph.D.; neurodevelopmental psychologist Abigail Baird, Ph.D.; and psychologist Jacqueline Woolley, Ph.D. Ultimately, the film reveals how adolescent isolation, mental health issues and the nebulous reality of the Internet created a chilling mandate for two young girls, with life-altering consequences.
Beware the Slenderman was directed and produced by Irene Taylor Brodsky; produced by Sophie Harris; director of photography, Nick Midwig; edited by Gladys Mae Murphy; original score, Benoit Charest. For HBO: senior producer, Sara Bernstein; executive producer, Sheila Nevins.
