You start in a dark wooded area with no weapons, a sense that something horrible is about to happen, and a nagging feeling that you can’t do much to prevent it. Such is the beginning of Slender, a free horror game you can play right now

Loading

Based on the Slender Man mythology popularized through a Something Awful thread, and further spread through forum chatter, YouTube videos and even Minecraft , the game’s tall, unrelenting creature pursues you through the inky black of a fenced-in forest. Slender doesn’t bother telling you why you’re there or if it’s possible to escape. You’re given a standard video game goal – find eight pages – but the terror unlocked by discovering and collecting the pages obliterates the task’s comforting familiarity.Few horror games thrust you so directly into the heart of fear. All of Slender’s elements – the lack of a map, the threat of instant death, the slight element of unpredictability of the page locations – all contribute to a pervasive sense of hopeless vulnerability as you frantically flee an unknowable predator who may or may not be directly behind you.