Slendy and some potential victims via Creepypasta Wiki

If you haven’t heard of the notorious Slenderman, where the hell have you been? Originating in 2009 as an entry for a paranormal photo competition on an online forum, Slenderman is an enigmatic being that presents himself as a long, skinny man, often pictured with tentacles and a blank white face—almost as if a piece of cloth were draped over his real visage. Inexplicably dressed in a sharp suit, he’s coming for you and isn’t stopping till you meet your demise.

What happens after he captures you remains a mystery to this day. All we know for sure is: Don’t look at his face.

The Rise of Slendy

Popularised by the 2012 horror game of the same name, Slenderman is one of the most (if not the most) famous creepypastas out there. The hype was further fuelled by the prevalence of ‘Let’s Play’ videos of the game on YouTube, leading to the boom of horror gaming channels. 

Legend has it that he stalks children, with some theorising that he never kills people himself, rather brainwashes others to do the dirty deed for him instead. Apparently, he follows his victims for years on end, until their descent into delirium either leads them to death or to homicide. 

The notorious Slenderman Game via Creepypasta Wiki

Alleged sightings of Slenderman are all over the Internet. While many of them are likely to be Photoshopped edits like the original, who’s to say that some of them aren’t real? Not us anyway.

Slendy’s Legacy

It’s common to see people obsessing over specific characters and creepypastas. But for some, well, they take it to the next level. 

In 2014, two 12-year-old girls stabbed their friend nineteen times in the hopes of summoning and ‘pleasing’ Slenderman. The victim survived, but suffered severe injuries and had to be hospitalised for seven days.

Moments before Disaster: Payton Leutner (victim), pictured with Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier (perpetrators)

Upon questioning by the authorities, the two girls explained matter-of-factly that they wished to get special protection from Slenderman  by offering him a blood sacrifice. They also believed that after the sacrifice, they would get to live with Slendy in a mansion in the forest, turning into little creatures of evil themselves.

Slenderman’s conception greatly contributed to the Creepypasta community and led to the gradual infamy of such internet fables in the mainstream media. In an interesting twist, World’s Fair director Jane Schoenbrun made an archival documentary, A Self-Induced Hallucination.

“It was more the premise inherent in the Slenderman’s creation that scared me. It was the way fiction refused to be quarantined from reality,” Jane elaborated.

Slenderman’s stories and lore haunt us to this day, with one man’s imaginative creation leaving a lasting mark on the history of creepypastas. Maybe all you have to do is look behind you. 

hiimmarymary

She doesn’t know where or who she is. She’s trapped in a house she doesn’t recognise. Worst of all, the doors to the outside don’t open. Everything…stuck shut. All she knows is her name: Mary.

“hello” by hiimmarymary on YouTube

A YouTube channel with over 100,000 subscribers, hiimmarymary is an Alternative Reality Game (ARG) channel following the life of Mary as she navigates the puzzling reality she has to relive everyday. The only problem is she can’t escape.

ARGs are highly-immersive worlds created with the purpose of storytelling, intent to scare. They encourage active participation from the audience in the form of comments, replies, theories, etc.

The first video on hiimmarymary, titled “hello”, initially appears to be a silent text-based video. Watch the video for long enough though, and a faint background noise starts to creep in towards the end. In her world, she is completely alone on the Internet, and cannot communicate with anyone. This is made even scarier with the completely disabled comments section—we have no form of contacting her at all. 

Hail Mary

As thousands of people watch Mary’s encounters with the creatures that inhabit her ‘home’, she quickly descends into despair. Theorised to be an artistic portrayal of living with mental illness, hiimmarymary takes a beautifully executed approach into exploring storytelling sans voiceover. 

“intruder” by hiimmarymary on YouTube

The amateur videography of Mary’s haunting vlogs further adds an unsettling feel to the already-terrifying visuals.

Mary’s story has only just ended, with her final video titled “Goodbye” released in 2020. Though her journey has come to an end, the horrifying monsters and the frightening realistic visual effects made me never want to sleep in the dark again. 

Oh wait, one more thing…

“check in” by hiimmarymary on YouTube

The Blue Whale Challenge

Unlike your typical creepypastas, The Blue Whale Challenge is a set of 50 tasks given to willing players. Participants receive one task per day, ranging from simple commands like “wake up at 4:20am and go to the roof” to “post a picture of a blue whale”. But as the challenge progresses, the tasks get stranger, requiring players to harm themselves, avoid all social contact, leading to its final, ominous ultimate task: 

“Take your life.”

Post possibly linked to the Blue Whale Challenge via Siberian Times

Beached Blue Whale Reports

The Blue Whale Challenge led to the sensationalised self-harm and eventual suicide of countless youths across the world.

The challenge requires the constant virtual presence of an unnamed person called the “curator” who dishes the tasks out to unsuspecting children. The full list of tasks is still highly contested, but some Redditors have attempted to translate and decipher them. However, any official instructions have practically been wiped off the face of the Internet—or so we think.

Selfie of alleged victim, 17-year old Russian girl via memepedia.ru

One of the first alleged to have played the challenge is a 17-year-old Russian girl who shared a selfie of her next to train tracks before throwing herself in front of a train that very day. The infamy of the challenge only came to light when a Russian news outlet linked it to the deaths of over 130 youths in the nation. 

Coming Up for Air

Though it still remains unknown whether there is a central figure behind the morbid challenge, what remains is the tangible power and influence of the Internet and social media on the naïve minds of impressionable and vulnerable young people. 

Challenges have plagued the Internet for decades, from the innocent Chubby Bunny Challenge, to the moderately dangerous Cinnamon Challenge, to the inexplicable Blue Whale Challenge; there’s something out there for everyone. 

A creepypasta borne out of harrowing real-life events, The Blue Whale Challenge is a challenge made to kill—and leave no physical trace behind.

TL;DR

The world of creepypastas has an endearing yet terrifyingly frightening aura to it, and perhaps evokes a nostalgic tinge for those of us who grew up in its heyday. However, it becomes increasingly clear that creepypastas—while they often imitate life—can also influence the lives of society’s most impressionable.

Existing mental health issues like anxiety are also possible factors that lead to many devoting time and faith in these stories and challenges. In a world where unfettered access to questionable media only becomes increasingly influential, it only becomes harder and harder to separate our digital lives from the way we portray ourselves IRL. 

Creepypastas, scary challenges, and the general uncertainty of growing up in a digital world all come together to form an unsettling and powerful ensemble of themes in World’s Fair. What the film thus constructs is an intimate and unnerving look into an atypical (but increasingly typical) coming-of-age, completely portrayed in digital view. 

Are you going to the World’s Fair? Yes / No