Kali The Little Vampire is an animated short by Regina Pessoa. In classic vampire fashion, Kali can’t be in the sunlight, yet they yearn to be. The fear portion of this short is a classic monster, the vampire. Pessoa has also worked on another film, Tragic Story With a Happy Ending. Her animation style contains a lot of sharp lines, that make up smooth objects, almost like a hand-drawn animation in pen.
My two favorite horror-tinged animated movies/shows would have to be Coraline and Crashbox. Coraline has been a childhood movie of mine, although it scared me back then, I still love it.
On the other hand, Crashbox wasn’t intended to be a horror-tinged show, in reality, it was supposed to be for pre-schoolers, pretty crazy if you ask me. It was all harmless but when it came to Mr. Revolting Slob, I was terrified.
Phil Tippet has a certain grittiness to his puppets and stop motion work that I believe is what creates a sense of fear. The creatures don’t look exactly “surreal” they are overly detailed, a good example being some of his mad god puppets as well as the Rancor he design for Star Wars. You can note all of the gritty detailing on it below which makes the threat feel more real and tangible, as well as truly capturing the idea of a “monstrous” creature. His designs place the viewer in the moment, causing suspense and fear. The movement of the creatures is also very realistic, the original movements of the Rancor actually being modeled with a man in a gorilla suit to give the motion a more fluid effect, continuing to place the audience in the scene and increase the horror’s realism.
Rancor gorilla suit animatic
0:23 good example of an overly detailed monster design
Another example of his work causing fear is a very famous scene from the first Jurassic Park, raptors in the kitchen. The velociraptors bear his distinct mark of realism in their designs, but where they really shine is in the movement. It’s somehow both humanlike and completely alien, making the audience terrified for the children being hunted by these predators. Even in his original test animation before the polish and input from the directors you can see how the movements and models of the raptors create tension within the scene.
Official scene in the movie
Phil test animatic
Impact
Phil Tippett has had a lasting impact on stop motion, many of his works old and new are still being praised today. He has created cultural icons in the rancor and raptors. He is considered a pioneer of the stop motion industry and is still commended for his lifelike work. I myself was one of the children terrified and fascinated by raptors in the kitchen and his work has had a lasting impact on my interests and love of horror.
Favorite
One of my favorite pieces of animated horror media is Coraline by LAIKA studios!
In Koji Morimoto’s films, fear is often portrayed as a surreal, unsettling force that invades both he physical and psychological worlds of his characters. He uses vivid, distorted visuals and smooth animation to make the fear feel overly intense. For example, in Magnetic Rose from memories (1995), fear emerges from isolation and haunting memories with dark, claustrophobic settings and flickering lights making characters feel trapped, both in space and in their minds. Morimoto often showcase fear as a confrontation with the unknown or a loss of control, creating the surreal atmosphere where reality just blurs and merges with imagination. His characters experiences fear to the degree where to them it’s not just as an emotion but as an existential force, one that alters their perceptions, forcing them to make decisions or to confront deep, often hidden parts of themselves.
Magnetic Rose in memories is often considered one of Morimoto’s most impactful contributions to animation. This film is noted for its meticulous detail, bold animation, and ability to create suspense through a haunting depth of atmosphere and emotional intensity that set a new standard for quality and inspired animators around the world. Exploring themes like, memory, loss, and obsession in a beautiful way, and rather relying on jump scares or monsters, it creates fear through atmosphere, decaying environments, and eerie lighting to convey a sense of abandonment and decay. Like how Morimoto like to do in his phycological horror films, Magnetic Rose blurs the line between memory and reality. As the characters explore the abandoned ship, they are drawn into the memories of the opera singer Eva, which materialize around them as if they’re relieving her past. This surreal approach where memories physically contributes to the real world adds more layers to the narrative which pulls the viewer deeper into the psychological horror.
I chose Perfect Blue as my favorite horror film because it masters psychological depth. Just like Magnetic Rose, instead of relying on typical horror tropes, the film dives into Mima’s mind, portraying her paranoia and confusion as she questions her reality. This type of horror feels personal and relatable, making it even more chilling as viewers can empathize with her feelings of being watched, trapped, and manipulated. Other horror films would have their protagonists be this star or have crazy narratives, where viewers can’t seem to find themselves, so the film would have different tactics for viewers to be drawn by. However, many films that use these tropes end up feeling extremely repetitive, while Perfect Blue stands out by connecting with the viewers. It taps into a basic human instinct, the need to find ourselves in everything. Perfect Blue portrays identity and reality in ways that make the audience question their own perceptions, allowing them to find pieces of themselves in Mima’s journey. This personal connection is what makes the horror in Perfect Blue so memorable.
Chris Lavis is a Montreal academy award nominated director and animator who closely collaborates with longtime work partner Maciek Szczerbowski. His films are off-putting, unsettling, and eerie. His first film is the one we watched in class…
Madame Tutli-Putli (2007)
Madame Tutli-Putli was made primarily with stop-motion, however, the eyes were motion captured using a video camera, and added to the stop-motion puppet. It follows the story of an anxious woman (Madame Tutli-Putli) Boarding the night train. She takes all her possessions with her, and leaves her past behind. Or rather, it seems, she is running from it. It uses both visible horror elements with disturbing imagery, as well as suspense and building an unsettling feeling in the viewer. The eyes give a very uncanny look to the whole short. Down to the message it conveys, it it littered with symbolisms for death. (The night train, leaving your things behind, being killed, intense fear before euphoric feeling, going into the light, etc.)
Higgelty-Piggelty Pop!
He adapted a story by Maurice Sendak, Higgelty-Piggelty Pop!, about a dog who is searching for more in life. ‘This animated short tackles the subjects of personal space, conflict, and conflict resolution in the workplace. At the office, tempers flare as two coworkers who are sitting dangerously close find themselves bumping elbows and spilling ink. The film demonstrates four common approaches to interpersonal tensions: retreat, aggression, denial and – finally – negotiation.’ – Synopsis provided on YouTube. Much like Madame Tutli-Putli, it combines Stop Motion and live action. It is so smooth, it looks more like puppetry. It reminds me a lot of Fraggle Rock, specifically the segments with the man and his dog, Sprocket. It has a familiar feeling to it’s aesthetics, but it also has elements of horror and mystery- as well as fear and suspense.
HIS/THEIR WORK
Chris Lavis mostly works with a fusion of Stop Motion and Live Action elements. They do not use them separately, but rather in with each other. Stop Motion mingles with Live action, and vice versa. Which reminds me a lot of early animation in movies, like scenes/sequences the original ‘King Kong’ and ‘Godzilla’ movies. Or like ‘The Lost World’, which animated dinosaurs via Stop-Motion animation, still had live action in it! This feels like a hyper-advanced version of it, which can use modern technology and better equipment to pull off the effect better! His lasting impact? That I cannot exactly answer. He seems to be a notable name, and has an impressive record behind him of films and projects. However, I wasn’t able to find much about him specifically. It could be that I wasn’t looking hard enough- however, overall, I do not think that he has a huge ‘This Is A Face of Animation.’ sort of reputation. So for his lasting impact, I have to conclude with; he’s still alive and making things, his lasting impact is yet to be set in stone.
My favorite horror-tinged animated films
I quite like Watership Down, when it comes to just sheer darkness and grit, as well as pure fear and disturbing feeling, Watership Down takes the cake for me. It is brutal- like- horrifyingly brutal. I think part of the reason why I think it’s scary is because it was for kids- but boy howdy. It had scenes likes this.
But I also like The Great Mouse Detective. Is it horror? I wouldn’t say so. But it has scary elements? I just love it a lot.
The animation I chose is “Street of Crocodiles” by Brother Quay. The Brothers Quay are identical twins Stephen Quay and Timothy Quay. They are independent filmmakers from England. In the animations, the fears that are being portrayed are the fear of the unknown, death, and unnatural transformation. They create an uncomfortable atmosphere with a sense of mystery which can create anxiety. The main character goes through a physical transformation with uncomfortable imagery where he has his body replaced with doll parts. Something unique about Brothers Quay’s work is their use of stop-motion animation with their puppets made out of doll parts and organic and inorganic materials. This adds to the sense of how uncomfortable it is. The lack of dialect and use of sound and haunting music also add to the atrophy that they have created. They have left a lasting impact on the animation industry with their unique styles of animation and thematic exploration.
Paprika is probably my favorite “horror” animation that I have seen. It does a great job of having uncomfortable scenes that make the viewers uneasy. I don’t tend to watch a lot of “scary” animations because I feel as though a lot of the more popular ones that I have seen are for younger audiences, so when I saw this I was impressed with how it made me uneasy.
Works Cited
“The Brothers Quay: Top 5 Most Influential Works.” Tongal, 27 April 2022, https://tongal.com/blog/community-guest-post/the-brothers-quay. Accessed 28 October 2024.
Magliozzi, Ron, and Brothers Quay. “Brothers Quay.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brothers_Quay. Accessed 28 October 2024.
Śliwiński, Rafał, and Shingo Tamagawa. “Paprika lover.” YouTube, 6 October 2010, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsPILwHFHs0. Accessed 28 October 2024.
“Street of Crocodiles (1986) clip | On BFI Blu-ray on 10 October | BFI.” YouTube, 4 October 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nW3dW4yMLfE. Accessed 28 October 2024.
Totaro, Donato. “Stephen and Timothy Quay.” The European Graduate School, https://egs.edu/biography/stephen-and-timothy-quay/. Accessed 28 October 2024.
