With a new movie hitting this weekend and the inevitable “is Slenderman real or fake” question popping up again, we figured it was time to look once more at some of the many other urban legends that came before the Tall Guy — and which helped inspire his creation.
A dapper besuited fellow with a blank face and elongated limbs, the “creepypasta” Internet horror creation known as Slenderman was at first the work of one person — Eric Knudsen (“Victor Surge”) — writing on a forum called “Something Awful” in 2009. The eerie figure, inspired by everything from the works of H.P. Lovecraft, Stephen King, and the Silent Hill games, soon found his way into YouTube series and video games of his own, and, tragically, even influenced an infamous 2014 stabbing incident in which two young girls attacked a third girl in order to prove their loyalty to Slenderman.
Source: IGN.com Before Slenderman: Urban Legends That Inspired the Tall Guy