Wednesday, September 21, 2011

One, Two Eddie's Coming For You

The cRAy cRAy Video Challenge this week took a decidedly creepy turn with bccmee's The Woman In Black trailer.  If you haven't checked it out you totally should even if you're not an Armitage fan.  Girlfriend has some mad skillz.  To recap, she's releasing a new Armitage fan video each Monday in September and she's using non-typical music.  Week 1 is here and Week 2 is here.  If you're at all a fan of medieval music Week 2 is wicked cool...it's wicked cool even if you're not, actually.

Anyway, so I commented on her blog that I had to peel myself from the ceiling after watching Week 3 because, dude, seriously, a little kid voice reading that rhyme?  It's supposed to be chilling and yes yes yes I totally buy it.  Just call this place FunkyBlueCowardlylion.  The Lizzie Borden jump rope rhyme has the same effect on me.


Lizzie Borden took an axe
And gave her mother forty whacks.
When she saw what she had done
She gave her father forty-one.

Actually that one's even worse since it's more or less true.  That juxtaposition of innocence and malevolence is, well, creepy as hell which is why Damien: The Omen and The Exorcist raised the hair on the backs of everyone's necks at the same time it raised hackles about using children in roles like that (at least in my household).  Film makers are aware of how it creeps people out which is why they do it. 

Someone else who knew how to use children in creepy situations was the Eddie up there in the title.  If you've watched PBS's Mystery! at all you should be familiar with his style.

  
Gorey wasn't the animator there (though that work is frequently attributed to him) but it is based on his work.  It's not the only cultural shout out to him.  My favorite is this one.  And, yeah, I know, it's Nine Inch Nails.  What can I say, Trent Reznor is hot.



Anyway, kids in creepy malevolent vignettes.  Gorey has that covered.   Uh, I'm gonna go turn another light on. 


6 comments:

  1. I loved spooky creepy stuff as a kid. I'd read books in a dark house with only one light on and scary myself to death. LOL!! The scarier the better. For some reason, the creepiest horror movie was The Mummy with Boris Karlof. Just looking at that guy was scary.

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  2. I was reading "Red Dragon" one afternoon in the full sun and my sister surprised me. I screamed so loud I scared the neighbors. Let's just say I have a REEEEAAAAALLLLY vivid imagination and leave it there.

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  3. In that Nine Inch Nails video, is it Lucas North's hand? ;)

    By the way, thanks for mentioning my video challenge, jazzbaby1!

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  4. You're welcome. :)

    Oh, and Lucas North is intact in Angie's den, thankyouverymuch...;)

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  5. I totally missed Lucas hand! I think he's on holiday iin Majorca ;-) Wonder what parental rating the last vid story would get LOL Wauw awesome post LOVED NIN music vid! It doesn't take any reading to surprise me, I'm often caught up in my thoughts must be genetic as it wasn't too hard to get our mom to scream out in surprise. Loved Roald Dahl's stories growing up!

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  6. I was a fan of "James and the Giant Peach." It's still one of my favorites.

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