There is one vote of descent among the board on this matter. Her research led her to find that the legend of Slenderman didn't start on the internet. It was likely a changed version of a legend that existed hundreds of years before the internet. A figure like him is part of almost every culture. While the stories of his origin vary with each culture, there are parts that are consistent: appearance and location. The appearance matches the current version a tall man with long arms and a blank face. The clothing varies from culture to culture. He is typically seen in or near areas with lots of trees.
It is suspected by the one board member that the picture may actually be a warning handed down generations from ancestors who suspected the presence of "Slenderman", but likely knew of him from an older legend. The area on which the granary stands was once covered with plum and quaking aspen trees.
Slender Man (in the film at least) is a walking humanoid tree . He also has power over tree branches and the sounds of tree branches snapping and contorting accompanies him whenever he moves.
The choice to make Slenderman a tree-like being with skin that simply resemples a suit instead of actually wearing one, making him and entity trying to mimic a human.
Here are the designs by Sean Andrew Murray: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/gJJEa8
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And of course the tree at the end of the movie, shows us again the importance of trees in the mythos. Using his enormous appendages to traverse the forest like a spider, he grabs and ensnares the girl, both of them fusing together as a tree.
and https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/SlenderMan
*The suicides (new information i had to include)
In the summer of 2015, The New York Times published an article detailing the suicides of multiple young people between the ages of 12 and 24 who had committed suicide on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota in the previous six months alone. What is particularly interesting about this wave of suicides is that the article also claimed that "several officials with knowledge of the cases said that at least one of the youths who committed suicide was influenced by Slender Man."
What is further interesting about the alleged connections to the Slender Man legends and these tragic deaths are legends of the reservation itself. The creature is called Tall Man spirit by some of the youths, and leaders say the kids blame him for encouraging the suicides
A dryad (/ˈdraɪ.æd/; Greek: Δρυάδες, sing.: Δρυάς) is a tree nymph or tree spirit in Greek mythology. Drys (δρῦς) signifies "oak" in Greek. Dryads were originally considered the nymphs of oak trees specifically, but the term has evolved towards tree nymphs in general.Often their life force was connected to the tree in which they resided and they were usually found in sacred groves of the gods. They were considered to be very shy creatures except around the goddess Artemis, who was known to be a friend to most nymphs.
-There are few male dryads.
-Dryads love children, and in fact many times they will find themselves happier with a child.
-It's a common old tale that if a child is naughty and won't listen to their parent or runs away into the forest without permission, they will take the child away to their realm and is never to be seen again.
-They do not harm without cause, and generally prefer to lure their foes away with their mystic, fey magic.
ᓚᘏᗢ-I've fallen upon this theory only once or twice, but it was too interesting not to include. The theory says that, as we all know Slenderman is usually seen near forested areas or at least near a tree of some kind. May that be because he is a spirit inhabiting wood? Perhaps there is a connection with the bleeding tree (what if he inhabits it, and he is still alive because noone knows where it is).
