User:WritingAboutCreepypastas/The Rake

The Rake is a fictional monster which originated on a 20052006 4chan thread that called on users to "create a new monster". It is said to be an ancient, humanoid creature that walks on all fours and stalks its victims at length. Stories about the Rake have spread to other websites. It was depicted on the web series EverymanHYBRID with Slender Man, another crowdsourced character, and a low-budget 2018 film. The pair's online beginnings and propagation place them in the genre of creepypasta.

Origins
The Rake originated on a 20052006 thread on /b/, an imageboard on the website 4chan, which called on users to help "make a new monster". Academic writer Vivian Asimos compares this to the creation of Slender Man, one of the best-known creepypastas, on a Something Awful thread three years later. The 4chan users made a list of characteristics they all found terrifying, initially dubbing the project "Operation Crawler". The original poster summarized their efforts as a humanoid creature which is 6 ft tall when standing but moves on all fours and, unless provoked, merely "watches the observer".

The comments sections of viral purported cryptid sightings have, sometimes satirically, attributed them to the Rake.

In media
The Rake has appeared in films such as Gearmark's 2015 short RAKE. The low-budget feature film The Rake (2018) was directed by Tony Wash for Red Band Films, a division of Los Angeles production company Unified Pictures, with Tommy Vlahopoulos serving as an executive producer. Wash co-wrote it with Jeremy Silva. Production began in 2015.

The film follows Ashley (Shenae Grimes-Beech) and Ben (Stephen Brodie), two siblings forced to confront the creature which killed their parents two decades earlier. It also stars Rachel Melvin, Izabella Miko, Joey Bicicchi and Joe Nuñez. The Rake was released direct-to-video on Tubi and Amazon Prime Video and received little attention. Game Rant freelancer Aya Tsintziras criticized the movie as trope-filled, with shallow characterization and an unsatisfyingly ambiguous ending.

Characteristics
The 4chan users who created the Rake