HBO Slenderman Documentary to air at Milwaukee Film Festival

The Milwaukee Film Festival announcement Tuesday it will show the documentary "Beware the Slenderman."

The movie profiles the stabbing of a young girl by two of her classmates in Waukesha who claimed to be inspired by the character.

"There was significant interest in showing it locally, publicly before it showed on HBO," said Jonathan Jackson, Artistic & Executive Director of MKE Film.

Jackson said the film's producers called him months ago. They said they wanted to hold the HBO premiere, and let it premiere locally first. MKE Film worked the arrangement out with the filmmakers of "Beware the Slenderman" and HBO.

The film will show on HBO later this year. Jackson says he was shaken after watching beware the documentary.
 
"To be next to family members of the defendants understanding the whole process of what the family has to grapple with in an incident like this," said Jackson.
 
For those who have been following the case since the beginning, Jackson says the documentary has what you haven't seen.

There are interviews with the families of Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier, interrogation video, commentary by psychologists and history of the slenderman character.
 
Jackson believes seeing the documentary locally and having a discussion is the best way to view those close to the story to see the documentary.
 
"I think it's actually helpful for the film to screen publicly prior to that in a community viewing experience so that you're not just watching it on your own and forming necessarily your own opinions about it and experience. Milwaukee Film, we pride ourselves on communal viewing experience, and when you see a film at the festival you get to see it with hundreds or thousands of your community members and have a discussion about the film afterward," said Jackson.

Demand for the documentary is expected to be high. To try to secure a seat, you can purchase ticket vouchers now. The vouchers will need to be exchanged for show tickets once individual films go on sale. To purchase tickets, visit: mkefilm.org/tickets/