Posts tagged 'Horror'

Fight For Everyone

“Is it easy to relax when you’re told you’ll never fail?”

A whimsical-yet-dark and bizarre music video – created by Persistent Peril for The Leisure Society – where an all-powerful hand lovingly creates a planet teeming with life before having second thoughts…

Garth Jones, Ginny Jones, Mark Billington and Emma Wakely – who handled the animation in the attached – deserve a special mention. Their ability to consistently pull off such descriptive motion in few-seconds-long vignettes using a cast of minimally constructed figures shows their proficiency for the medium.

ENJOY!

P.S. When you’re done here I recommend giving Noise Trade, another fantastic Persistent Peril-created music video, a watch next.

[ 'Fight For Everyone' Music Promo ]

Everything I Can See From Here

File under: LOLWAT

The attached morsel of bizarre animation was created by The Line over a two year period of unpaid night-and-weekends work. It was directed by Sam Taylor and Bjørn-Erik Aschim but, like most passion projects of this calibur, couldn’t have come together without a supporting cast of creatives who generously donated their time and skills.

You can see a full list of who contributed here but I wanted to call out one in particular, Box of Toys Audio, who supplied the excellent sound design. It’s easy to underestimate how much credible foley work can add to a film but, from my point of view, having audio that ‘sells it’ is one of the key contributors to its immersive potential. The first two minutes and fifty seconds are awash in pedestrian, familiar noises – the bark of a dog, the rattle of a chain link fence or the ‘bop’ of a fully inflated ball – that, when the soundscape shifts as the cube descends, you have no doubt that something alien has just entered the scene.

Enjoy!

P.S. The Line also created Easy, a color-drenched gorgeously animated music video we posted last month that’s absolutely worth your time.

[ Everything I Can See From Here ]

Meow

It’s nice to see Anamanaguchi finally make a music video and they went all out for their maiden voyage, tapping long-time Tim & Eric collaborators Daniel Gray Longino and Eric Notarnicola to direct and a whole host of talented animators/artists to pitch-in on the visuals.

The ‘Guch aesthetic isn’t easily pidgeonholed and the surface comparisons that often get drawn between them and ‘video game music’ and/or 90s-kid culture are, from my point-of-view at least, missing the point of what they’re up to. A few months back Tycho wrote about why naked nostalgia grabs are typically unfulfilling and it definitely applies here:

“That’s the trick of nostalgia, and why yoking it is such a dangerous business.  It’s never ‘as good,’ because it can’t be. ‘As good’ wouldn’t satisfy you, now, because you aren’t the person who was satisfied by it anymore, partly because of the satisfaction you felt earlier, but also because of every other force and beam and ray which is always operating on your aggregated being.”

I don’t get the sense that anything Anamanaguchi does is calculated and, even though their style (both sonically and visually) might appear to be borrowed from another decade, it feels inexplicably modern and wholly their own. This is goddamn party music and that shit never goes out of style.

I absolutely love the arcade/clique theme that underscores the whole video and super-dig the pixel art animation sequence that kicks off after Ary is blasted to Furblivion by the L4Z3R R4V3RZ (especially the cameos-created illustrations that run from 2:30-2:33).

Full-screen HD is a must. ENJOY!

[ Anamanaguchi - 「MEOW」 (Official Music Video) ]

The Spirit of Christmas

“A heartwarming tale of seasonal goodwill. Probably not safe for small children…”

Some bizarre holiday horror from Sir Cyriak...Merry Christmas!!

[ The Spirit of Christmas ]

The Egg Breaker

A potent dose of bizarre courtesy of Emanuel Strixner. Enjoy!

[ Die Eierbrecher ]

Selections from the Universal Monsters Show at Mondo Gallery

'The Trip' by Drew Millward (http://drewmillward.com/)
'The Trip' by Drew Millward (http://drewmillward.com/)'The Mummy' by Rick Baker (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Baker_(makeup_artist))'Frankenstein' by Graham Erwin (http://www.grahamerwin.com/)'Wolfball' by James Groman (http://jgroman.blogspot.com/)'Mutant from Metaluna' by Scarecrowoven (http://scarecrowoven.com/)'The Bride of Frankenstein (Detail)' by Jason Edmiston (http://www.jasonedmiston.com/)

Mondo Gallery in Austin opened it’s doors on October 19th for their Universal Monsters gallery show and (thankfully) Scott Wampler from Collider was there to snap lots of fantastic hi-res photos of the gorgeous artwork on display. The six attached to this post are but a small sampling of the 90+ taken at the event so, if you’re interested in seeing more, just click this hyperlink.

Happy Halloweeeeen! Mwah-ha-ha-ha!!

[ Limited Paper: Mondo Unleashes the UNIVERSAL MONSTERS at the Mondo Gallery; Check Over 90 Images from the Event! ]

Ryohei Hase

'Tayutau' by Ryohei Hase (http://ryoheihase.com/newimages/01.html)
'Tayutau' by Ryohei Hase (http://ryoheihase.com/newimages/01.html)'THE ANATOMY OF HACKING (an illustration for the November 2011 issue of Playboy magazine)' by Ryohei Hase (http://ryoheihase.com/newimages/32.html)'Repetition (2011)' by Ryohei Hase (http://ryoheihase.com/newimages/03.html)'Untitled (2011)' by Ryohei Hase (http://ryoheihase.com/newimages/newimages.html)'Drown in the empty dried-up room (2008)' by Ryohei Hase (http://ryoheihase.com/newimages/room.html)'Blood (2008)' by Ryohei Hase (http://ryoheihase.com/newimages/26.html)

Ryohei Hase is a freelance illustrator based in Tokyo, Japan who cut his teeth as a concept artist at NAMCO Bandai. To see more of his work, visit ryoheihase.com.

[ ryoheihase.com via Axis Animation ]

Crossover

I found this little gem by Fabian Grodde while perusing the Vimeo Festival Awards picks for 2011. I’ll leave the flowery prose to a minimum; it’d be a crime to spoil the surprise. However, I should probably mention that you need to grab your headphones as the music/sound-design by Alexander Binder and Johann Niegl is top-flight. Enjoy!

P.S. Go vote! Below is a list of all the videos currently in the running that we’ve posted to the site, organized by the category they are nominated in. To show your support, click the link next to the category name and it’ll take you to the appropriate voting page…you should be able to figure it out from there.

Music Videos (vote link):

Animation (vote link):

Motion Graphics (vote link):

Lyrical (vote link):

[ Crossover ]

Breezeblocks

I’ve seen some truly heinous shit in my day but the panic that gripped me as this music video progressed was terrifying.

I think this has more than a little to do with the birth of my first child, an incredible experience that occurred just over a week ago. When she emerged slick and squirming from my wife’s birth canal I could feel the neurons in my brain twitching with a busy psychedelic electricity, their axons plumbing to new depths while fingers of delicate dendrites spread outwards to deposit a bumper crop of synapses into my grey matter. The initial effect was euphoria, unlike any I had ever felt; nothing can prepare you for it; there is no fitting analogy to aptly describe the wholesale expansion of conciousness that takes place when a new member of your family arrives.

Much ado is made of the love that floods through you in that moment – and let me assure you, it’s there in prodigious quantities – but the fear that slowly creeps up your spine when the medical equipment is wheeled out and you are left alone with your swaddled heir is rarely mentioned. In the apt words of Jerry Holkins, “they’re only using the word fear because they don’t know what else to call it, how to name that rising, primal ice one feels when faced with the hanging jowls of the unknowable.”

Oof.

You quickly realize that the world you have inhabited for the past few decades is not fit for human life, or rather (I should say), for this human life. She is too delicate, too pure; too beautiful, too sweet. I could not bear the thought that any harm might befall her and I wasn’t quite sure it would be wise to ever leave that hospital.

A few years back I finally refined enough mental rocket fuel to propel me free of my inherited belief system’s gravity. You know, the one where you can avoid an eternity of perpetual immolation by placing your trust in a two-millennia-old fully-God-and-fully-man jewish carpenter? To be clear, the after-death insurance policy isn’t what kept me there for so long but the idea of an always-there, infinitely wise best friend who had a ‘plan’ for my life. The entirety of my psyche was stuck in a mental holding pattern, waiting in vain for the God of the Universe to tell me what it was that ‘He’ wanted me to do. Many of my former fellow congregants spoke smiling and glassy-eyed about how there was ‘freedom in Christ’ but I honestly never understood what that meant. It just felt like torturous cognitive incarceration to me.

And again, when that warm, initial giddy wave that accompanied my new-found spiritual freedom receded back, a cold realization deposited itself like jagged, rusty flotsam on the shore of my mind: no one is minding the store. There is no ultimate authority on right and wrong, no final judgement on those who seek to harm, no all-powerful hand to ensure that love ultimately prevails…

...no perfect being to protect her.

So yeah, this video! It’s messy, and raw, and real. And watching the narrative unfold in reverse (as expertly directed by Ellis Bahl) grips me with terror: who is her father? Does he know where she is? Can he get there in time? Who will save her?

I know it’s just a music video but this all could have (and, in all likelihood, probably has) happened here, in the real world. And just as I have decided to shrug off the illusory restrictions of some distant, intensely-interested-in-my-future deity, I am also determined to not be held in captive fear by all the potential ultimately-out-of-my-control ways harm could materialize around my daughter. I guess what I’m trying to explicate here is that, in spite of all this, I still have a say in the matter; I am endowed with the freedom to contribute my efforts, no matter how small, to shaping this marvelous plane of existence, too.

A sometimes scary but blindingly beautiful world awaits your discovery, Maia; there is so much I want to show you.

[ ∆ | Breezeblocks ]

topo glassato al cioccolato

Warning! (Kinda) NSFW: There’s some brief shots of hand-drawn nudity in this one so you might not want to watch it at work.

We’ve been getting loads of great suggestions recently and have been slowly-but-surely passing them through our mental baleen, reserving only the tastiest bits of internet to pass along. Sam Lillard sent this fantastic morsel of bizarre, dark animation by Donato Sansone (a.k.a. milkyeyes) our way back in the beginning of December and it’s a shame we didn’t post it sooner. I’d recommend watching it late-night in a dark room with the volume way up as the sound design by Enrico Ascoli greatly enhances the unsettling, high-definition visuals. Thanks, Sam!

[ TOPO GLASSATO AL CIOCCOLATO ]

Homunculus

“Taking its title from the Latin word for “Little Human”, the piece is an associative mashup between the two concepts behind the word: The first being middle-age alchemical beliefs that “little men” could be spontaneous generated from dead or decaying matter. The second being Carl Jung’s usage as a personification of pure id…more

Set phasers to bizarre; this short film, directed by Sam Stephens and created by Hydra – the in-house collaborative directing team at NYC-based Humble TV – provides an ample, potent dose of weirdness. Enjoy!

[ Homunculus ]

Do I have power?

“In a movement of a thousand helping hands,
I am not beyond the saccharine of sycophantic rants.
In a moment of a wilderness exposed,
Is this lack of wisdom better than a charismatic soul?”

Lovin’ this ominous, spooky and monochromatic music video for Timber Timbre as directed by Carlos De Carvalho with animation from Pierric Danjou, Thomas Lecourt and Charles Lemor. Happy Halloween, y’all!

[ Do I Have Power - Timber timbre (2011) ]

I live in the woods!

Today’s dose of LOLWAT is served up by stop motion animator Max Winston who completed this project while studying at CalArts. Get ready for some bizarre whacked-out horror!

Cheers to Sam Lillard for another fantastic suggestion!

[ I Live in the Woods! ]

Fantasy

Jérémie Périn, best known for his brilliant work on 16-bit sexcapade Truckers Delight, is back with a new music video for DyE‘s latest release on Tigersushi. It’s a potent, high-definition dose of the bizarre and a perfect apéritif to calibrate your palette for All Hallows’ Eve. I’m not going to divulge any details for where this ends up (it’d be a crime to spoil the surprise) but I should mention that it’s a bit NSFW so wait to click play until you’re off-the-clock. Enjoy!

A big thanks is due to Choplogik for sending this one our way. Cheers!

[ DYE "Fantasy" Official Video by JEREMIE PERIN ]

Neomorphus

A generous helping of bizarre courtesy of Animatorio‘s stop-motion wizardry. It’s very Burton-esque and just the thing to get you into the Halloween spirit. Enjoy!

P.S. Click here for a behind the scenes look into how Neomorphus was created.

[ Neomorphus ]

Alma

You’ve no-doubt seen the work of Rodrigo Blaas before – he’s been a long-time member of Pixar‘s elite animation team and his name can be seen in the credits following such films as Partly Cloudy, Up, WALL·E, Ratatouille, Cars, The Incredibles, Boundin’ and Finding Nemo (just to name an obscure few) – but this marks the first time he’s taken on the mantle of writer and director. I’d rather not spoil the surprise so I’ll make it brief: Alma is gorgeous, bizarre and entertaining stuff. Enjoy! (Full-screen and headphones recommended.)

Loads of talented folks were involved in putting this together so hit up the film’s official site for a full list of credits.

[ ALMA - Cortometraje animación ]

Take Your Medicine

Come on, get up and on your feet;
Beyond refuge of troubled sleep.
Have I had enough? Or did I take too much?

Oh em gee! This shit is the dopeness y’all; easily an instant classic of The Tripatorium™. If you’re a regular visitor to this site you will guaranteed-love this music video directed by Nader Husseini for San Diego based rock outfit, Transfer. I’m having a hard time encapsulating why I enjoy it so much with just a couple of sentences: is it the giant demon beast with a dolphin-esque skull steadily keeping the beat on an array of floating drums? The exploration of substance abuse/dependence that culminates in a cascade of pills spilling forth from aforementioned aquatic mammalian skull monster? How the rich, undulating textures and muted color palette support the steady emotional build-up breakdown? There, I’ve done it: it’s all of those things together, at once. Enjoy the ride…

To see a complete list of the talented dudes and dudettes involved in making of ‘Take Your Medicine’ as well as a lengthy list of it’s awards/nominations click here.

[ "Take Your Medicine" by Transfer | Official Music Video ]

First Of The Year

File under: LOLWAT

Skrillex‘s latest is directed by Tony Truand with production assistance from HK Corp. A ‘cheers!’ is owed Ethan Curtis for the heads up on this one – thanks for writing in!

[ First Of The Year (Equinox) - Skrillex [OFFICIAL] ]

Hambuster

Five students from Supinfocom ArlesPaul Alexandre, Maxime Cazaux, Dara Cazamea, Romain Delaunay and Bruno Ortolland – expertly crafted this surreal, bizarre and most-definitely trippy animated short for their final graduation project. As a life-long fan of monster movies I whole-heartedly approve. Enjoy!

A big thanks goes to Ted Mentele for submitting this all-the-way back in May. Our apologies for not getting it on the site sooner; it was inexplicably buried deep within our inbox and, like a treasure long buried, became a most-welcome surprise when we unearthed it this morning. Cheers!

[ Hambuster ]