My director was Paul Berry, and his stop motion animated piece, The Sandman. while watching the film, I had a sudden flood of memories about my own childhood fears. That is what makes the film successful; everyone has had the feeling of anxiety about the dark. The things that go bump in the night. Paul does an amazing job framing it as a child would see it. An impossibly long winding staircase and a door that is just so out of reach. it frames the story perfectly
The story here is of an old European folk tale. this particularly is derived from the Sandman in E.T.A Hoffmanns story. what the book and the film share is a childhood fear of the dark, the presence of something you can’t see or that is always out of view.
“Eh, Natty,” said she, “don’t you know that yet? He is a wicked man, who comes to children when they won’t go to bed, and throws a handful of sand into their eyes, so that they start out bleeding from their heads. He puts their eyes in a bag and carries them to the crescent moon to feed his own children, who sit in the nest up there. They have crooked beaks like owls so that they can pick up the eyes of naughty human children.
-E.T.A Hoffmann
another example of Paul Berry’s work can be found in other classic creepy stop-motion films such as James and the Giant Peach and the Nightmare Before Christmas. His beautiful animation on the sandman brought him to work as an animator for those two films as well as others.
My favorite horror-tinged animation is a popular web series called lamas with Hats. In which two lamas grapple with one’s extreme homicidal tendencies.
Richard McGuire contributed on the film “peur du noir” that we watched in class.
peur de noir is actually a smaller segment included in a film called Fear(s) of the Dark, which explores the overarching fear of darkness- I’m not sure if both titles are interchangeable or not, as peur de noir literally means “afraid of the dark” even though this segment that McGuire included isn’t the entire film.
McGuire’s segment is very interesting because it’s quite simple but still very effective in the ways it implements fear. It relies heavily on lighting and where these light sources come from in connection to the sound design, and I feel like the setting being this abandoned house (at least that’s how I interpreted it) works well with it because of how easy it is to simplify furniture and appliances and such and have them still be recognizable. This puts more emphasis on the events that are happening and the suspense that is created instead of the environment around the character.
Moving on to some of his other work-
Mcguire is a very simplistic and futuristic artist. He does a lot of work in unconventional graphic novels and also becomes more modern in recent times. An impressive example of his graphic novel is called Here, and it is about the present constantly being conversation with both the past and future at the same time. I interpreted it as his own view on what the future could look like and how the past plays into that.
I am actually not a big fan of some of his work, but that’s just my personal preference because very simple modern styles don’t interest me as much. I think they’re still very impressive.
Another example of his work is called The Elimination of Reality Through Difference. It explores concepts of empty space and where it can go in a piece that causes different perspectives. The colors are very limited but contrasting to put more emphasis on the filled and unfilled spaces.
I think that McGuire focuses more on still modern art and less on animation, but any animation makes a lasting impact if it is seen by an audience regardless, so yes, I think that his animation in Fear(s) of the Dark contributed greatly to the animation scene. It is a great example of how simplification in a film can still be a great and effective storytelling device, contrast to how many people think that more details is better.
One of my favorite animated series is definitely Cyberpunk Edgerunners. SO COOL.
I am such a huge fan of cyberpunk in general as I’m sure a lot of people already know but Cyberpunk Edgerunners is such a great example of it. It was adapted from the game Cyberpunk 2077 (which everyone should go play NOW it’s so good)
It’s basically about a kid named David whose mom got killed in a hit and run in Night City (located in California) and he turns to a life of crime and cybernetics because of it. The people that do this are called “cyberpunks”. The city is completely crime-riddled and corrupt, and David is also struggling a lot with internal issues. The fear in this show is scattered throughout in different aspects rather than with events or characters. Cyberpunk as a genre does that a lot, because it’s commentary on real world events and systems and it implements its fear through things like corrupt organizations with no regard for its citizens, in the case of Cyberpunk Edgerunners. I find this type of fear incredibly immersing because it creates a sense of constant tension and expectation for the watcher. Even when things seem calm, you’re always thinking of all the things that could go wrong because of the unique setting they live in at any time. It really immerses you in the story and is part of why I think that environment design in storytelling is one of the most important parts of creating a convincing story.
The music specifically in this teaser is SO GOOD. Like the standard city ambience ramping up in time with the music to reveal what ACTUALLY happens in the city (fighting, crime, etc) really sets the mood for the entire show in only a minute and even before you see these shots of brutal fighting and weapons and fast-paced chases you can tell something is sinister under that dazzling futuristic city facade.
Again just go watch it or play the original game if you haven’t the fear and storytelling in it is AWESOME
Also here’s the official wiki for the entire cyberpunk universe:
For my artist, I got Don Hertzfeldt. He made “Billy’s Balloon.” The type of fear shown is the fear of bodily harm, especially to children. I think it could also include fear of objects gaining consciousness. Their other works, like EVERYTHING WILL BE OK, is showing fear in an existential and violent sort of way. It shows a man losing his mind through the monotony of his everyday life, becoming obsessed with death and violence.
I think Hertzfeldt’s animation style is very unique. He uses primarily simple shapes, stick figures or simple bodies, to illustrate characters. The backgrounds differ in levels of completion. Some are live action videos and videos, and some are simple sketches of grass. I think the main defining traits of his animation are his sense of humor that he portrays, and his simple characters. (lasting impact)
My personal favorite horror-tinged animation is Perfect Blue. Its a movie about a woman leaving her J-pop group to pursue acting, but then she gets stalked and starts losing her mind. It’s often coined “the most terrifying animated film.” The fear it would fall under is fear of self, or fear of insanity.
Robert Morgan first discovered his passion for film when he watched Fiend Without a Face (1958) with his uncle as a three-year-old. This started a lifetime infatuation with monsters, sharks, and insects. As his artistic expression progressed, some of his biggest creative influences became Francis Bacon, Edgar Allan Poe, Jan Svankmajer, the Quay Brothers, David Lynch, David Cronenberg, Joel Peter Witkin, Hans Bellmer, Jan Švankmajer, Walerian Borowczyk, Charley Bowers, Ladislas Starevich, and Roland Topor.
His first entry into film animation was in 1997 via the student short The Man in the Lower Left-Hand Corner of the Photograph (https://vimeo.com/21523923) a short film that follows an old man surrounded by death and decay as he tries to recreate the happiness of his youth. There is a distinct sense of abstraction, and explorations of the existential, with a visceral, grotesque art style.
One of my personal favorite horror-tinged animated films is the live-action/stop-motion combination, Tetsuo the Iron Man (1989). Made by Shinya Tsukamoto, Tetsuo the Iron Man is a bizarre and surreal Japanese science fiction horror film that uses delightfully disgusting stop-motion animation to give the illusion of our protagonist turning into a literal Iron Man.
Living from March 24, 1901 to July 7, 197 Ub Iwerks was a very dedicated animator. He designed characters such as Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Peg Leg Pete, and was insistent on doing the most animation for the early Disney shorts. One of his animation signatures would be the iconic rhythmic bouncing motion.
(seen at 3:48)
Iwerk’s animation is a mix of scary combined with goofiness. The main shock factor in Skeleton dance would most likely be the quick close up motions. (4:05 1:43)
He works in the ruberhose style, and ocasisonaly breaks it with E X T R E M L E Y choppy and quick motions that can be off putting. Who needs in-betweens?
Examples: 1:51 2:30
(4:15) What is t h i s ?
I’d say my favorite horror themed animation would be the ‘Spider Within’
Do I need to describe Spiderverse Animation to a group of animators? No I won’t. The short itself lets us into the mind of Miles as everything seems off-putting. The atmosphere remains dark throughout the film, with some quick scares and mildly surreal moments.
