10 Horror Movie Nightmares WITHIN Nightmares

The Slender Man urban legend began life as an online photoshop competition hosted by the site Something Awful, which posted two cleverly doctored photos depicting a strange, tall, thin, faceless man wearing a black suit lurking in the background of some seemingly innocuous shots. The result was nothing short of a viral sensation with a fully fledged narrative - it wasn't long before a movie was developed and tragically, an attempted murder case in the US was 'blamed' on The Slender Man. Despite the controversy, the movie went ahead, with mixed results.

Four pals hear of the legend of Slender Man and decide to invoke the myth himself, so when Katie goes missing, Wren, Hallie and Chloe must find a way to stop him before they all end up as a statistic of alleged Slender Man victims.

In this nightmare sequence, Hallie wanders into the woods behind her house at night, hearing the voice of her missing friend Katie calling her name from the darkness. When he finally appears, reaching out with his breadstick fingers, she wakes suddenly, back in her bedroom. Making her way to the bathroom mirror, she suddenly appears to be full-term pregnant and tendrils burst from her stomach, prompting the second, screaming true awakening - she is still dreaming.

The film is a pretty worn out retread of teen horror scream-fests, but it's the appeal of Slender Man as a villain that makes this fun-but-formulaic horror worth a glance up from your phone.