Beware The Slenderman
  • Network: HBO
  • Series Premiere Date: Jan 23, 2017
Metascore
78

Generally favorable reviews - based on 8 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 8
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 8
  3. Negative: 0 out of 8

Critic Reviews

  1. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Clark Collis
    Jan 23, 2017
    83
    Compelling documentary.... Director Irene Taylor Brodsky utilizes police interrogation footage and interviews with the pair's families to craft not a tale about imaginary monsters, but about the far more terrifying subject of real-life mental-health issues. [27 Jan 2017, p.54]
  2. The Atlantic
    Reviewed by: Lenika Cruz
    Jan 23, 2017
    80
    While Beware the Slenderman isn’t an easy watch--and will undoubtedly inspire anxiety and panic in some viewers, particularly parents--it’s a worthy one that helps make sense of a senseless crime.
  3. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Meredith Blake
    Jan 23, 2017
    80
    Iit’s a deeply unsettling look at childhood mental illness, the blurred line between the virtual and real, and the potency of internet memes.
  5. The Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Kristi Turnquist
    Jan 23, 2017
    80
    Brodsky resists the temptation to judge, and instead sheds light on her subjects, and all their complexity.
  6. Reason.com
    Reviewed by: Glenn Garvin
    Jan 23, 2017
    80
    It's a serious--and seriously disturbing--piece of work about a pair of 12-year-old Wisconsin girls who, inspired by a creepy internet meme, lured a friend into the woods after a birthday party and stabbed her 19 times.
  7. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Alex McLevy
    Jan 23, 2017
    75
    A late-in-the-film reveal throws a new light over the entire situation, one that both goes a long way toward explaining things but also illuminating the danger of pat answers to thorny tragedies that belie such solutions. It’s clear why Brodsky held it back; it would have offered an Occam’s razor of rationalization to something the director feels shouldn’t be explicable.
  8. Yahoo TV
    Reviewed by: Ken Tucker
    Jan 23, 2017
    70
    The documentary does a good job of filling you in on the Slenderman mythos and how it has spread.
  9. Vox.com
    Reviewed by: Alex Abad-Santos
    Jan 23, 2017
    70
    That Slender Man also seems evil serves to enhance, rather than lessen, his power over the imagination. But that power also comes from the belief that Slender Man is real-- and it’s in grappling with this troubling issue that the documentary makes its darkest, most complicated point. ... At two hours, it contains a bit too much footage of the backs of people’s heads in a courtroom, when it could be delving deeper into other topics related to the girls’ case.

Awards & Rankings

52
#52 Best TV Season of 2017

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
5.5

Mixed or average reviews- based on 16 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 16
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 16
  3. Negative: 4 out of 16
  1. scentfed
    Feb 4, 2017
    4
    Honestly the only real strength of this documentary is the access they had to some of the family members from not long after the event over aHonestly the only real strength of this documentary is the access they had to some of the family members from not long after the event over a long period of time. Otherwise, this documentary is bland and un-insightful. It offers no analysis of meaningful commentary and shows very little understanding for internet culture. There are long montages throughout of b roll footage that is dull and repetitive.

    I think this documentary is best served for those who have little understanding of the internet and want a superficial glance that will be unlikely to give them greater understanding but at least it'll be mildly interesting to them.    … Full Review »
  2. JhonnyBryan
    May 5, 2017
    8
    This documentary has a real purpose to advert how dangerous can be Internet. The family and law fact is the center of this drama. How can 2This documentary has a real purpose to advert how dangerous can be Internet. The family and law fact is the center of this drama. How can 2 girls commit a terrible crime? The answer is the deeper than you can think at first. When you see this documentary you must pay atenttion to the clues, it is important to know how obscure the internet world is and this documentary focuses on the creepy-pasta. The virtual stories have been companions of the generation of adolescents during the last 10 years and that has had serious consequences. But it is not this part of the web that is to blame, there are many more things like education or mental health of people.

    To finish, this documentary is one of the best examples of how dark and evil can be the world and all consequences to the children.    … Full Review »
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