Crooked white letters slowly revealed themselves on the black screen. “Slender,” created by Victor Surge began as a computer game in 2009 and different versions have been developed, giving gamers multiple versions to choose from. Each variation has a similar plot and theme and gamers always play as a lost child. The “Slender Man”, a tall, slender and faceless man follows the character through dark forests, mental hospitals, ghost towns and many other locations throughout the course of the game. His arms are almost the length of his body and tentacles sprout from his back in some versions of the game. He wears a black suit that gives him style and the ability to blend in with the darkness. His ability to teleport also keeps unsuspecting gamers at bay. To escape Slender, the player must collect eight pages, randomly placed around the setting of choice. The more notes that are collected, the closer Slender gets to the character and the more the player has to avoid his stare.

There are two theories left from the original as to what exactly the “Slender Man” is. One, the “Quantum Theory”, explains Slender Man with a scientific edge. Slender Man is simply a substratum that relies mainly on physics and understood science for his abilities. The second theory is the “Tulpa Effect.” A “Tulpa”, or more simply put as imagination also describes the faceless creature of the night. Created solely from the collective beliefs and imaginations of children, both in the game and in reality. Perhaps that’s why so many variations have been supposedly sighted and created for the games.

One of the more popular iPad apps looks almost identical to the original PC game. Slender’s Forest adds a bit of a twist however. Every time the character has a run in with the Slender Man, their sanity level drops. Once the sanity runs out, Slender’s white face takes over the screen and the game ends. The character collects coins with each page that they found and these coins can be redeemed in a store where upgrades can be purchased. These include night vision goggles, sanity bars and page finders. There are also options to upgrade the running speed of the character and a higher tolerance of Slender’s stare.

Over the years, Slender Man has gained quite a bit of popularity. Movies have been released that are supposedly about the Slender Man, different variations of the game have been released with more soon to come. YouTube celebrities such as PewDiePie and Smosh play Slender based games with such fear that their subscribers expect the thrill of the adventure. Felix Kjellberg, or PewDiePie, has played numerous versions and always expresses his terror in manly screams and Swedish phrases. Smosh members Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox have only played the original game, but denied their fear, explaining the shaking hands as an effect of the cool temperature of the room.

The original game, The Eight Pages, is available for free download on PC at www.slender-man-game.com/ and on the Mac at slender-mac.en.softonic.com/mac. A different version of the game, The Arrival, is also free on both the PC and the Mac at slenderarrival.com. In addition to these versions, many variations of the game can be purchased from the App Store, most of them for free or one dollar.