MADISON, Wis. — Sony Pictures is trying to capitalize on a tragedy by releasing a movie starring horror character Slender Man, according to the father of one of two Wisconsin girls who attacked their classmate to please the fictional boogeyman.

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Bill Weier, father of Anissa Weier, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview late Wednesday that he hopes local theaters won’t show the movie when it’s released in May.

“It’s absurd they want to make a movie like this,” Bill Weier said. “”It’s popularizing a tragedy is what it’s doing. I’m not surprised but in my opinion it’s extremely distasteful. All we’re doing is extending the pain all three of these families have gone through.”

Sony Pictures media relations officials didn’t reply to two emails left in the company’s general inbox for reporter’s inquiries.

Anissa Weier and Morgan Geyser lured classmate Payton Leutner in 2014 to a wooded park in Waukesha, a Milwaukee suburb. There, Geyser stabbed Leutner 19 times, narrowly missing her heart, while Weier urged her on. Leutner managed to crawl out of the woods to a path where a passing bicyclist found her. She survived the attack.

Weier and Geyser told detectives they had to kill Leutner to prove to Slender Man that they were worthy of being his servants as well as protect their families from him. All three girls were 12 years old at the time of the attack.