Beware the Slenderman is a deeply sad and ultimately tragic story that will make you consider how our legal, medical and mental health systems are actually working. You won't sleep well, but not for supernatural reasons.

| Sep 10, 2021

The film focuses in details of the case, and tries to associate its two aspects without achieving a conclusive correlation or a solid theory to hold on to.[Full Review in Spanish]

| Aug 16, 2019

A truly terrifying look at the influence the internet can have on today's youth.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 31, 2018

Their sincerity chilled me to the core, maybe because they are so invested in something that is not real.

| Feb 5, 2018

If you are a true-crime freak like me, you'll devour HBO's Beware the Slenderman.

| Aug 22, 2017

The end result couldn't be more different than the horror film that the trailer promises. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | May 24, 2017

The film's blend of true-crime drama and cryptozoological horror provides an easy, early hook, but its more complicated conclusions about scary stories, mental health and childhood violence are what don't let go.

| Mar 29, 2017

Despite the terrifying and gruesome subject matter, Beware the Slenderman is a documentary that fails to spook or even chill.

| Mar 1, 2017

One of the latest great true-crime works out of the HBO Documentary lab...

| Feb 16, 2017

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.

| Feb 4, 2017

Emotionally unstable kids can do some terrible things, especially when provoked by terrifying ideas, but hopefully frank, honest films like Beware the Slenderman will help make us all a little more attentive to these things in the future.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 1, 2017

Harnessing the simplicity and reach of the Internet is an appropriate technique for this doc, because it's about just that. But using Skype is also a genius tip for any doc maker on a budget. Which is every doc maker.

| Jan 31, 2017

What emerges is a portrait of the internet as the birthplace of contemporary folklore -- a virtual campfire in which disparate users come together to channel, and distill, their fears, anxieties, and dreams into fanciful tales, la the Brothers Grimm.

| Jan 27, 2017

Beware the Slenderman... goes deeper than a typical true crime doc in fascinating ways.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jan 27, 2017

Director Irene Taylor Brodsky dives into the origins of the internet myth, and gives a nuanced look into Geyser and Weier's ongoing case with her documentary.

| Jan 26, 2017

What's notable about Beware the Slenderman is that it doesn't turn into exploitative, sensational fare, instead presenting the facts in such a calm, simplistic way that the end result mirrors a chilling horror film.

| Jan 25, 2017

A stark, depressing, and compelling look at the horrendous nature of mental illness and the influence pop culture has over the masses.

| Jan 24, 2017

With no artist in play, it becomes clear how fallacious it is to pin the blame on artists for the actions of disturbed individuals who consumed their art at all.

| Jan 24, 2017

...this zeitgeisty doc is often too cramped, losing sight of both its central story as well as the moving parts that circle it. Edited at times with little rhyme or reason, fascinating strands are abandoned or introduced seemingly at random.

| Original Score: C | Jan 3, 2017

What may be the spookiest insight of Beware the Slenderman isn't the storybook monster, or the disturbed children, but the potential for hellish internet phenomena to climb out of the monitor and into the world.

| Original Score: B+ | Nov 10, 2016