A Self-Induced Hallucination

MOVIE #1,920 • 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿 • 08.22.24 It’s a testament to Schoenbrun’s editing skills that what is essentially just a compilation of Slender Man YouTube videos is so compelling. This works as both a primer on the phenomenon itself and commentary on what that says about contemporary culture. It's fascinating to see this creation go through these various phases: from its incredibly stupid origin, to inspiring real world violence and then getting co-opted by corporations and mainstream entertainment for profit (from the long-running tabloid news coverage of the infamous attempted murder to an HBO doc and two feature films, one of them a fucking Lifetime movie). The sickest twist of all, frankly. It’s an enthralling piece. It loses just a small amount of steam in the final fifteen minutes but otherwise: an excellent and important document.

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CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ MOVIE #1,919 - (YOU ARE HERE) - MOVIE #1,922 ⫸

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Made up entirely of YouTube videos about the spooky internet entity known as Slenderman, A Self-Induced Hallucination turns a rumination on a modern monster into an investigation concerning the blurry line between fiction and reality. It was released on June 19, 2018.