Who remembers playing the 2013 game, Slender: The Arrival? Or indeed remembers the urban myth of the Slenderman. The suited faceless horror who stalked people from the woods and abandoned areas. His tentacle-like limbs used to abduct unsuspecting victims and, in some instances, able to drive victims to the point of insanity.
Slender: The Arrival – What you need to know
For those who aren’t aware of Slenderman, the fictional supernatural character was created back in 2009 as an internet meme by Eric Knudsen on the Something Awful forum. If you’ve not heard of Something Awful, it’s an American comedy website which consists of forums, blogs articles and comedic media reviews. And it’s from here, since it’s inception, the Slenderman has become something of pop culture icon scaring teens and young adults alike.
We’ve not seen anything of Slenderman in a gaming sense since the 2012 release of single player survival horror game Slender: The Eight Pages, which saw an astonishing 2 million downloads in the first month of its release. And this was subsequently followed up in 2013 by Slender: The Arrival which was also very well received and scores 9/10 on Steam. But since this, the mythos of Slenderman has fallen by the wayside. Although the urban myth was converted into a 2018 feature film, which with an IMDb rating on 3.2 should tell you everything you need to know about this title. Having watched it recently, I can only add that it does not get better with age!
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Slender: The Arrival – Blue Isle Studios sow the seeds with new Trailer
But fast forward to 2023 and Blue Isle Studio have just dropped a very short teaser on their YouTube page, which If we’re honest, gives very little away. The video itself is titled “He’s waiting…” and all we can discern from it is that it’s displaying a darkened basement with a twisted figure at the bottom of the staircase, staring at the screen from underneath a light swinging on the ceiling. Could this be the Slenderman? We can’t make out if it is or not but we’ll let others make up their own mind.
Now looking on the Blue Isle Studio website, it states that Slender: The Arrival is the official reimaging and expansion of the original game created by Mark Hadley and when clicking on the link for the official title slenderarrival.com, this takes you to a title screen, which at the time of writing was counting down from 29 days but counting down to what exactly, we do not know. If we count 30 days from now, this will bring us to Tuesday 27th July but what’s the significance of this date, if anything? There may only be rumours to go on at this stage but it’s exciting news that a new iteration of the Slenderman mythos is in development. And judging by the feedback on the Steam Community Forum pages, fans are buzzing for this.
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Slender: The Arrival – A quick recap on what happened previously
If you haven’t experienced the 2013 jump-scare title Slender: The Arrival, the premise of the game is that you take on the role of Lauren in helping Kate (protagonist of Slender: The Eight Pages), when she decides to sell her house. By the time Lauren has arrived, Kate has disappeared, and the game follows her journey of searching for her, collecting clues and pieces of paper. As expected, the player must avoid the Slenderman, armed only with a flashlight and their wits.
So as the timer counts down the next 30 days until the 27th of July, we are left to speculate on what may be coming from this latest instalment and what horrors may lie in store for us. One thing is for sure, Slenderman has returned!
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