Dangerous Delusions and the Power of The Slenderman Exploring the horrifying story of two young girls driven to violence by an internet monster
Written by Krystal Grow
The line between fantasy and reality can be blurry, but when you add the power of the internet and the confusion of adolescence, it can become nearly impossible to determine the difference.
On May 31, 2014, two twelve-year-old girls lured their friend into the woods, where they stabbed her 19 times and left her for dead. Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier claimed they were beckoned by the Slenderman – an internet character who they believed would kill them and their families if they didn’t kill their best friend first. It’s a stunning and complicated case, and Irene Taylor Brodsky’s Beware the Slenderman, which played to a packed theater at DOC NYC on Saturday night, attempts to dig through the gory details.
“It was necessary. I was afraid of what would happen if I didn’t do it,” Geyser tells a detective after she and Weier were found wandering along a Wisconsin interstate while their friend Peyton “Bella” Leutner bled from her stab wounds in the woods a few miles away. The interview footage plays a powerful role in Brodsky’s film, as we watch them attempt to explain the seemingly unexplainable.
The film manages to build a convincing case that by no means excuses the girls for their horrific acts, but does uncover a series of factors that had Geyser and Weier utterly convinced that the Slenderman was real. From the pervasive presence of the internet in the lives of young people, to the massive and at times painful mental, physical, and emotional challenges of adolescence, the odds were not in their favor. But the Slenderman provided an outlet for their fears, for their hopes, and offered a safe haven for their troubles. Geyser and Weier fell deeper into the rabbit hole, and without a larger circle of friends or extracurricular activities to keep them occupied, it became impossible to find their way out.
“It was like she was living a whole other life in her head that we didn’t know about,” Geyser’s mother Angie says during one of the films many revelatory and heartbreaking interviews. Far from negligent parents, both Geyser’s and Weier’s parents were still caught completely off guard, shocked by the depths of their daughters’ delusions. But as the film progresses we learn more about these two girls and their inclinations toward fantasy, and how the internet provided them with endless stories, photos, and ‘real’ Slenderman evidence to absorb.
“Information is so much more accessible now, and it’s easier to fill a void artificially,” Dr. Abigail Baird during the Q&A session following the screening. “But I have a hard time demonizing the internet here. I think the real demon is the criminal justice system.” According to Wisconsin law, Geyser and Weier are to be tried as adults, a ruling that was recently upheld despite an appeal, and means that the girls now face up to 65 years in prison.
Bill and Christy Weier, who were also in attendance for the screening, agreed, but still struggle to understand the role the internet has played not only in the viscious act that they know their daughter committed, but the role it will play in the rest of her life. “We have two juveniles who, because of the internet have their faces all over the place for the whole world to see. How are they supposed to recover from that,” Mr.Weier asked aloud, and followed his question with a warning. “Technology is moving faster than we as parents can keep up. We were checking her browsing history constantly, and we saw no signs of this.”
Krystal Grow is a photo editor and freelance writer who has written for American Photo, TIME LightBox, the New York Times Lens blog, Stranger Than Fiction, WIRED, and The Magnum Foundation. She is the DOC NYC Blog Coordinator.
