Had the studio and filmmakers simply been paying attention to their subject’s origins, they might have spared themselves the humiliation. After nearly a decade and a smattering of very public ups and downs — including a widely publicized stabbing case in 2014 that left a teenage girl seriously injured, plus some other allegations — both Slender Man and the online community that grew up around him are all but dead, barreled over by other Creepypasta fandoms and the mainstreaming of what was once a popular, albeit niche, piece of horror.
