HBO's 'Beware the Slenderman' trailer, release date, news and updates: Documentary premieres Jan. 2017

Real-life sometimes inspire fiction, but other times, it is the other way around. Like in the case of the Slenderman — a popular Internet horror figure and meme, who later inspired two Wisconsin girls to stab a classmate, is such a case that brought a fantasy tale into real-life crime.

The true crime story is now the subject of an HBO documentary film titled "Beware the Slenderman," and is slated for a Jan. 23, 2017 release date.

The crime happened on May 31, 2014, in which two 12-year-old girls from Waukesha, Wisconsin lured another female classmate into the woods where the two then stabbed her over 19 times. The victim survived the ordeal, but when the two girls were questioned about the killing, they blamed the legendary Slenderman, who apparently made them do the crime.

Slenderman is a fictional creepy creature created by Eric Knudsen in 2009. Slenderman is known to be a very tall faceless male with white, pale skin, and who is always seen wearing a suit. He is also known to stalk, terrorize and abduct several people, most especially children.

In HBO's first-look trailer, the clip opens with a short poem about the Slenderman, saying "The palest man, the blackest suit. Quicker than the tallest brute. Fear the man, the Slenderman. For he can do what no one can."

Since Knudsen introduced the Slenderman, there were many horror stories, legends, memes and even art pieces that are inspired by the character — even video games such as "Slender: The Arrival" and "Slender: The Eight Pages."

Similar to Netflix's "Making a Murderer," a documentary about the case of Steven Avery, "Beware the Slenderman" also makes use of news coverage, police records and video footages, taped interviews of suspects and comments from people of the community and crime field experts to bring new light into the case.