Slender Man teases a spooky return after a decade in the shadows

Slender Man—one of the few creepypastas that's gone mainstream and whose videogame adaptations The Eight Pages and sequel-slash-expansion Slender: The Arrival captivated horror gamers at the time—appears to be making a comeback next month.

As spotted by PCGamesN, developer Blue Isle Studios has dropped a 14-second teaser trailer on its YouTube page, as well as throwing up a countdown on the Slender: The Arrival website. The teaser "He's waiting…" doesn't give much away, mind. It's nothing more than a shrivelled-up Gollumesque lad hunched over in a dim, derelict basement while a ceiling lamp swings back and forth. The screen glitches a couple of times before fading to black.

He's waiting...#slenderman #slenderTA pic.twitter.com/eiXNEEU7q7June 22, 2023

As of writing, the countdown on the website is for a whopping 34 days from now. What is it actually counting down to? Nobody's really sure yet. October marks a decade since Slender: The Arrival launched, with some fans in the comments of the teaser trailer theorising that we'll be getting some kind of remake or remaster.

That seems to be backed up by the game's SteamDB history, which shows numerous changes to its build numbers and download packages over the last month. Considering the game hasn't been patched since 2014, having Blue Isle tinkering with the backend now makes the idea of a remaster increasingly likely. Chances of a sequel are considerably slimmer, considering the studio only has access to Slender Man's rights within The Arrival.

I've seen surprisingly little fanfare for the teaser myself, but fans in the YouTube comments and on the game's subreddit seem pretty jazzed about the news. One YouTube commenter wrote "I'm actually really excited to see this. Whether it would be a sequel or a remake, I'm all up for it!" Another commented "I'm happy with a remaster! Nobody ever expected anything else from Slender ever again so this is a massive win for all of us." While I've only ever played The Eight Pages myself, it seems to be a welcome return for the lanky pale lad and his questionable stalking tendencies.

Mollie spent her early childhood deeply invested in games like Killer Instinct, Toontown and Audition Online, which continue to form the pillars of her personality today. She joined PC Gamer in 2020 as a news writer and now lends her expertise to write a wealth of features, guides and reviews with a dash of chaos. She can often be found causing mischief in Final Fantasy 14, using those experiences to write neat things about her favourite MMO. When she's not staring at her bunny girl she can be found sweating out rhythm games, pretending to be good at fighting games or spending far too much money at her local arcade.