Thread: Slender Man Suit

So I'm planning on making a slender man costume (more specifically the marble hornets version of slender man, "the operator") and I'm running into some problems that I figure outside opinions would help with.

First off, I should point out that if you don't already know what slender man and marble hornets are, you shouldn't look them up. Not at night, at least. Marble hornets does such an incredible job of being horrifying that almost everyone reports some kind of sleep-loss after the first time they watch it. I personally lost about half a night's sleep, and the rest of that night was full of slendy dreams, though luckily they weren't really nightmares.

So probably my main problem is involving the size of the clothing. I have easy access to a suit that would be bigger than I would normally wear, but only just enough to hide any extra things I have to add in (like stilts under the pant legs for example). However, this extra size only applies to width, and I can't figure out a way to extend the sleeves and pants length-wise in a non-damaging way. My first thought was to just use more black fabric and have it attach to the already existing sleeves and legs, but I can't use stitches or anything that would hurt the suit. It might just be easier to buy some sort of pre-made long suit but I don't have the faintest idea where those might be sold. Yet all the good costumes I've seen online are just huge unaltered suits, so there must be some place that makes them.

My next problem is considerably easier. I already have a plan in place, based on other forum threads, to work the arms by holding some kind of rod stuck through the middle of a pool noodle cut to the proper size, my arms being the costume's forearm and my hand functioning as an elbow for the full arm. It's just two points that I can't really decide on.

Arm choice one (hands): I have a pair of snow gloves thick enough to stay rigid even without a hand inside them, making them perfect for the illusion that the arm does in fact extend all the way down. However, another possibility would look less realistic but also less human and closer to the original story of slender man. In this case I would make short, thin, black, tentacle-like extensions come out of each sleeve. Depending on what material I finally decide on, I could do one large tentacle for each arm or possibly three smaller ones coming out of each sleeve. Either way, this would fit more with the appearance of slender man, but also be more complicated to make and, if they don't turn out well, could actually kill the illusion they are trying to make. So in conclusion, should I use snow gloves or take a risk with tentacles?

Arm choice two (length): My original plan for the breakdown of the arm was described above, where my entire arm makes up only the costume's forearm, and my hand is the elbow, holding and pivoting the dummy half of the arm. The positive of this is that it would give completely out-of-the-ordinary length to the arms, being essentially twice the size of a normal arm. However, there is a risk that if I bend my real elbow it could ruin the effect and just look fake. The other possibility is some creative freedom I thought about taking with the creature, in which it would have a three segmented arm. Firstly the two natural segments of a human arm, then an extra segment (again, me holding the dummy arm-extension and using my hand as a kind of elbow) which in this case would be the same length as my forearm. So essentially this would just be an arm split by joins into three even segments. This would help with the "WTF" factor that is already strong from slender man, and allow for disturbing "flexibility" given that what appears to be an elbow has the range of motion of a wrist. The drawback is that the arm extension would be half the size of the two-segment arm (in total 3/4 the size from shoulder the end). Also, before deciding which possible arm structure should be used, consider how each type of hand (tentacle/glove) would work with each kind of arm.

I could honestly go on, but this is far more than enough already for anyone to have to consider from one post. Much appreciated if anyone can give their opinion, and even if not, I think just writing all this helped me a lot planning wise.

BTW, if I do eventually wind up with a good slender man costume, you can expect a funny video, as I have every intention of freaking the shit out of my friends with it once complete, among other things.