WATCH: HBO’s Beware the Slenderman will give you nightmares

Credit: HBO

If you’ve used the internet the chances are you’ve heard of Slenderman. Just saying the name transports me to a quiet, gravely path or secluded woods, where I hear a rustling of bushes or snap of a twig and OH GOD THERE HE IS.

But you’re probably not as much of a scared, pathetic bag of nerves as I am. Yet that could easily chagce once you check out HBO’s latest doc that focuses on the somewhat mythical, totally enigmatic and unquestionably chilling meanie that supposedly haunts areas of America. It’s straight out of The Blair Witch Project, I know, and THAT was a distressing experience.

Credit: HBO

But I digress.

Beware the Slenderman is essentially built on a meme. But a goddamn terrifying one at that. People have long claimed to have spotted the unusually tall, slender (hence the name) figure.

The focal point of the doc, aired early next year, is around the notion of Slenderman being a supernatural being that convinces people, including children, to commit crimes which can be as severe as murder… which is where the doc picks up the trail.

Check it out below.

In 2014 two schoolgirls became obsessed with Slenderman and, as a result, ended up luring one of their classmates into the woods and stabbed her 19 times. Yeah, the thought of it it making the hair stand on my arms as I type this.

But the injured girl survived and we follow the court case that, interestingly so, tries to prove Slenderman exists on behalf of the defence because the girls are convinced he’s real.

Credit: HBO

Yeah, that trailer’s pretty goddamn freaky if you watch it alone at night when there’s no one else in…

Beware the Slenderman airs on HBO on 23 January, 2017.

Are you eager to see Beware the Slenderman or are you happy to sit this one out and throw on something that won’t require a pants change?

Mike P Williams is a freelance TV, film, music and entertainment writer, with an unhealthy obsession for Game of Thrones. Over the years he’s written for MTV, Total Film, BuzzFeed, GoThinkBig, HexJam, Loaded, and regularly scribbles for Yahoo Movies and BBC Radio 1.