Slender Man Release Date Pushed Back to August 2018

Screen Gems has moved Slender Man from its original May 2018 release date to August of this year. The studio recently debuted a first trailer for the horror movie inspired by the infamous Slender Man meme. Slender Man originator Victor Surge co-wrote the script with David Birke, and Sylvain White directed.


The character Slender Man first appeared as a series of creepypasta images shared on the net’s Something Awful Forum. The spooky pictures, showing an elongated, spectral figure menacing children, soon launched an entire meme. The movie Slender Man concerns a group of high school kids who attempt to shoot down the legend by performing a ritual. But wouldn’t you know it, one of the kids goes missing – and everyone suspects Slender Man.


Screen Gems originally set May 18, 2018 as the release date for Slender Man. But Bloody Disgusting reports the film will now drop on August 24, 2018 instead. Screen Gems made way for Slender Man by bumping their horror movie Cadaver from August 24.


Slender Man‘s original May release date would have pitted it against Deadpool 2, which itself was recently moved up to directly compete with the horror film. Perhaps Screen Gems believed the R-rated Deadpool 2 would take too large a chunk out of the potential audience for their R-rated horror film. The August date leaves a more open field for Slender Man to find an audience. Last year’s August horror release Annabelle: Creation certainly benefited from weak post-summer competition, grossing $102 million domestically.


The horror genre in general finds itself in a healthier state than it has in years. Much of the credit for the surge of horror goes to Blumhouse Productions, producers of this year’s Get Out. Big studios have noticed the high profit margins of Blumhouse films and are getting their own piece of the pie. Last year, Warner Bros. and New Line scored a massive smash with their Stephen King adaptation IT. With $700 million in worldwide grosses, IT now stands as the most successful horror film ever. In addition to breaking box office records, horror films now find themselves receiving more respect at Oscar time. Both Jordan Peele’s Get Out and Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water are nominated for Best Picture. Del Toro himself commented on this year’s breakthrough for horror, calling 2017 a landmark year for the genre.


Slender Man most likely won’t get any Oscar love, but Screen Gems will just be happy if it makes money like a run-of-the-mill Blumhouse film. Slender Man stars Annalise Basso, Javier Botet, Jaz Sinclair, Joey King, and Julia Goldani Telles.