HBO's Beware the Slenderman review round-up: Critics find the documentary heart wrenching; here's where to stream online

Based on true events that shocked people on the internet, HBO presents a new show, Beware the Slenderman. The documentary shows the story of two girls who tried to kill their best friend.

When asked why they did it, the girls revealed that a tall faceless man by the name of Slenderman told them to do so. The incident that took place in Wisconsin in 2014, when Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier, both aged 12 years, stabbed their best friend, Payton "Bella" Leutner, 19 times after luring her into the woods.

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Documenting the whole incident and the aftermath of it, producer-director Irene Taylor Brodsky brought in experts who helped the girls go through the whole phase. She also used real footage from court proceedings to help viewers understand what the families went through.

But did the show create the impact it intended to create? Here's what TV reviewers have to say:

Lenika Cruz from The Atlantic says that the show indeed creates a huge impact. "While Beware the Slenderman isn't an easy watch—and will undoubtedly inspire anxiety and panic in some viewers, particularly parents—it's a worthy one that helps make sense of a senseless crime. It presses the importance of monitoring children's internet use—while acknowledges that such monitoring can only go so far. And the film does all this without fear-mongering or prioritising sensationalism over its subjects' humanity," she writes.

After watching the documentary, Entertainment Weekly's Clark Collis feels that the show successfully highlighted who the actual villain is. "Is Slenderman the real villain here? Doubtless, some would say so, but Brodsky offers a more nuanced explanation. While Beware the Slenderman makes clear the potentially overwhelming impact of the internet on impressionable young minds, this is ultimately a story not about imaginary monsters, but the far more terrifying subject of real-life mental health issues," he shares.

According to Vox's Aja Romano, Beware the Slenderman puts together the unique crime in a larger cultural framework. "Beware the Slenderman is primarily a true crime documentary, but it has more ground to cover than most of its ilk, simply by virtue of its crime being so unique. The documentary's most surprising and interesting narrative turn is one it doesn't spend much time on, but that is crucial to understanding how a crime like this might occur. Beware the Slenderman only briefly discusses the connection between internet-fuelled obsessions and mental illness,," Romona writes.

If you were aware about the internet bogyman or are interested in real life-based crime documentaries, then Beware the Slenderman is a must watch. You can stream the show online by clicking here.