A group of high school friends, Wren (Joey King), Chloe (Jaz Sinclair), Hallie (Juila Goldani Telles) and Piper (Annalise Basso), are fascinated by the legend of a mysterious evil entity called Slender Man. They research him on the internet and watch videos of his many sightings. When Piper disappears, Wren, Chloe and Hallie desperately try to find her while Slender Man terrorizes them.

      Slender Man has a decent amount of scary and thrilling scenes, but it never quite reaches the emotional depths of The Babadook. The screenplay by David Birke does a good job of introducing each of the four friends and showing how they interact in their day-to-day lives before their Slender Man ordeal. Like the vast majority of modern teenagers, they communicate via text and rely very heavily---perhaps too much--on what they read and watch on the internet. Birke wisely keeps the film lean, incorporates exposition in a non-lazy or boring way, and doesn't rely on gore as a means of providing frights. There are indeed some jump scares to be found, but at least they're not excessive. Most of the real scares are psychological as your imagination begins to wonder where Slender Man might be lurking. Kudos to director Sylvain White for not using nauseating shaky cam to generate tension and for not making this a "found footage" film. The set designs, camerawork, musical score and lighting enhance the chilling, foreboding atmosphere. The editing, at times, feels a bit choppy, but that's a minor flaw that doesn't make the film any less entertaining. Slender Man has plenty of style and not much substance, but sometimes its style does becomes part of its substance.

      Moreover, Joey King, Jaz Sinclair, Juila Goldani Telles and Annalise Basso each give convincing performances, especially during the many intense scenes, so that somewhat compensates for the mostly shallow screenplay that doesn't really flesh out the characters enough. Roger Ebert once wisely observed that a horror film doesn't need a big star because the big star is the horror itself. Unfortunately, the character of Slender Man is the film's weakest element because he's not given a backstory. Perhaps that's a problem that originates with the source material, the creepypasta Internet meme, but giving him a backstory would've elevated Slender Man beyond mediocrity. A horror film, after all, is as good as it's villain. Slender Man looks scary and menacing, but there's nothing about him that stands out beyond that. Fortunately, Slender Man doesn't overstay its welcome and never becomes exhausting nor dull at a running time of just 93 minutes.