MovieChat Forums > Beware the Slenderman (2018) Discussion > steaming pile of *beep*

steaming pile of beep

posted 8 years ago by rufusmatheus
9 replies | jump to latest

for many years i have regarded hbo documentaries as the best... until tonight watching "beware the slenderman".

First of all, they spent less than a full minute of air time discussing the victim (her family is never mentioned, her survival and subsequent healing never explored). This documentary focuses more on the myth of slenderman: almost giving this myth an air of believability. YES, as a liberal i do not think that mentally ill people should be locked away forever. I am one who hopes that mentally ill people should receive the care they need in order to prepare them for a life in the world.

That aside: this doc spent more time with the perps of the crime and their family. Almost like trying to persuade the public that this crime had more to do with modern day access to the internet, and all its fake reverences to the world...and those innocent ones who fall prey to such lies.

I was totally angry throughout the entire documentary as it totally cut out the victim, and her family's perspective. Again, focusing on the slenderman myth.

There is a whole long list of HBO docs that educated me, and also brought me to tears. This is, so far, the only one that makes me think of liberalism reaching far beyond the facts for dramatic effect.

I do feel sorry for these girls, and i think they should pay a price... but not 65 years... so i am conflicted with their actual plight. However, I think HBO should stay away from *beep* like this... they have a far better track record with documentaries ... far more well balanced than this crap.

[–] vfx_girl 8 years ago

Very interesting, for the most part I agree with you. However, I think (this could be incorrect) that the victim's family was asked to participate and declined.

[–] BigBabyDirtFace 8 years ago

i think they should pay a price... but not 65 years

65 years is the maximum allowable sentence. Even without the slenderman and schizophrenia angles they wouldn't get more than 15-20 years. I honestly don't care that they were 12 or might be schizo, 15 years seems about right to me. No one should get a mulligan for what they did.

[–] MadRotaryOne_DDCgod 8 years ago

Look at the title idiot, the doc had nothing to do with the perps off the victims, and everything
to do with the internet. If you want a murder doc watch The Making of a Murderer.

[–] BigBabyDirtFace 8 years ago

Look at the title idiot

Seems like those that go around calling people idiots and morons are usually the most clueless. Go figure.

This documentary was intended to be about the stabbing of a 12 y/o girl by two other 12 y/o girls. The fact that it was filled out with so much fluff is due to there being very little to include case-wise as yet. If it were about the influence of the internet or slenderman specifically, there would be references to other cases like the 13 y/o girl who attacked her mother with a knife or the 14 y/o girl who burned her house down. No, this is about the slenderman stabbing and will more than likely be followed up with a post-trial documentary.

[–] MadRotaryOne_DDCgod 8 years ago

LMAO!??!?

So your argument that it must be about these girls and not about the internet and
the way it influences our culture, which is not only the title but 2/3s of the movie,
is based on the fact that they didn't find other cases and follow them around?

Everything about this documentary had to do with the internet, including using
Skype for every single interview, including showing how they had trouble talking
to the people in the beginning becuase they were relying on this technology instead
of actually going to all these places and conducting proper interviews.
It's people like you that completely missed the point of the movie and thought they
were watching a coc about a murder and got upset becuase they didn't understand why
most of the doc had nothing to do with said murder.

[–] BigBabyDirtFace 8 years ago

they didn't understand why
most of the doc had nothing to do with said murder

The internet stuff was filler. If you can't comprehend that, I can't help you.

For the sake of argument, if this was about the influence of internet, what was the intended message? You obviously "got it" so you should be able to fill us in, right? All I saw was random internet memes, discussion about the Pied Piper and some clown talking about the virality of memes actually infecting the brain. If this wasn't about the slenderman stabbing then it was even more of a garbled mess than I imagined.

[–] MadRotaryOne_DDCgod 8 years ago

You just summed it up yourself...

It was about society and how for ages we have used stories to better
understand what scares us. It was how the internet now plays the part
that Aesop's fables and The Grimm stories did over the years.

The story of the stabbing was the filler, and not the other
way around. Why do you think they spent so much time talking
about about everything BUT the stabbing. Out of every single person
they interviewed, not a single one was asked about the stabbing.
The problem isn't the documentary, the problem is that there has
been literally dozens and dozens of documentaries on crimes over
the years, and even more in recent history. Shows like Making
of a Murder, docs like The Thin Blue Line and multiple Memphis
3 docs. All of this is ingrained in our society and most people
just assumed that a doc that had parts of a real murder in it
must be about that murder. It was just assumed. This has happened
to countless regular movies that were advertized as one thing
but then turned out to be about something completely different,
which angered and confused viewers.

For me, someone who knew about slenderman your years and have read
countless pastas about him, this movie was so obviously about memes.
As I watched and found that so many news anchors and law enforcement
people openly said they had know idea what slenderman was completely
stunned me. That something that has had multiple feature length
movies it, as well as many Youtube series, websites, countless
stories, I just don't believe that so many people have never heard
of slenderman. Honestly I think some of those new people were just
lying so they wouldn't seem like freaks or something.

[–] BigBabyDirtFace 8 years ago

Ugh. Just google "beware the slenderman" and read any description, synopsis, summary or review about it. Or here, straight from HBO themselves:

Beware the Slenderman tells the true story of 12-year olds Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier, who lured their best friend into the woods, stabbed her 19 times, then confessed they did it to appease a tall and faceless man known online as Slenderman.
http://www.hbo.com/documentaries/beware-the-slenderman

[–] MadRotaryOne_DDCgod 8 years ago

Right, and reviewers always get it right.

Which sounds like something the the mass public would rather watch, a doc about
internet memes or a doc about 2 girls trying to stab another murder.

Just another in the long line of bullcrap marketing of a movie to try and
scam viewers.

The real injustice here is to the filmmakers from HBO who totally screwed
them over by not properly advertising their movie.