User blog comment:EtherBot/Slenderman./@comment-4715955-20170926064055/@comment-4715955-20170928080213

People are capable of being scared by pretty much anything. I grant that. I can't tell people what not to find spooky 'cos everyone thinks their personal fear is the worst, and everyone else's is ridiculous.

I'm talking from a writing standpoint. There's a certain skill behind the works of, say, Stoker or Lovecraft or King. You can make sensible theories or explanations about their horror elements, and why they work, and why they have lasting power. The big creepypasta legends like Slenderman and Jeff the Killer have lasting power purely because the people who first read them were fucking twelve at the time, and the nostalgia factor is as strong as a twelve-year-old's lack of quality standards. Put them under an adult's microscope and they fall apart: they fail the writing standards check and the logic check.