Creepiness is always more effective in non-horror because you don't expect it. Whenever you watch anything horror, you know it's trying to scare you and the scenery just screams "spooky", but when something innocent has a bizarre moment of surrealism or uncanniness, it's like seeing a giant spider staring at you in the corner of your eye, that you never expected to see on a summer's day.
The lack of people around the town actually appealed to me as a kid. Being naturally shy and socially awkward, the lack of activity and people is comforting in a weird way. I especially remember the scene where Gromit was in the cafe. When I was little, I assumed no one was there and Gromit just walked in, and I was thinking how cool would it be to have a cafe all to yourself.
Theory: Wallace used to work in a factory and had a degree in engineering he lost his job as a result of Margaret Thatcher's policies he tries selling small inventions to the slowing depopulating town. As the years go by the town is nearly abandoned and only a few businesses have survived and now he is a depressed inventor trying to replicate the town in his mind he once loved and knew so he moved out to a more populated town (wear rabbit)
I feel the opposite way. I always thought these two had such charismatic personalities and timeless rustic designs. Watching this show feels like visiting my grandmother’s house, if that makes sense.
I was scared of a grand day out just because of the outdated models they had back then. Wallace just looked weirder. The scene where he's drawing blueprints for the rocket was always uneasy. Just the quietness and the dark basement. The scariest part of that short was when the robot was trying to break into the rocket to get off the moon. All that being said, none of the shorts that came after that one frightened me too much.
During the last scene of 'A grand day out' the rocket can be seen flying back to Earth, but what always bothered me is that there are little to no city lights shining on the dark side of the planet, which makes it seem as if Earth isn't populated.
This may seem pretty obvious, but I think the biggest redeeming factor of these movies is the slightly absent, but still very meaningful relationship between Wallace and Gromit. The scariest and most gut wrenching point in all of the shorts I think was when a defeated Gromit left Wallace in The Wrong Trousers.
“A Matter of Loaf and Death” is probably one of the most terrifying ones. This focuses on actual murder, death and conspiracy…on a franchise where our main characters go to the moon for cheese.
"Wallace may just be a lovable old guy who only wants to make inventions, eat cheese and crackers, and hang out with his dog... but he's also hideous."
I always had that weird, unnerving feeling from Wallace and gromit too. It's the dark fuzziness and warm yet slightly washed out colour pallette. The "where is everyone", liminal vibe like the duo existed in a vacuum. I think half the point of were-rabbit was to address those things, showing more of the world and making it feel more alive.
I really love the original shorts because they’re so goddamn creepy. The lighting always looks like it’s straight from a horror movie and I remember being particularly spooked by the penguin as a kid. I think it’s because he’s got those soulless beady little eyes that contain no human emotion. Also Preston the robot dog is just a full on Terminator-style nightmare.
Honestly the "theres no people around" thing is something you can get used to if you watch low budget media because hiring extras or animating background characters is a lot of work for little benefit, so people either use to make it seem like people are in the background or situations which wouldn't have people in the background or just have the background empty, which is the only real option for small claymation projects
I LOVE Wallace & Gromit, I've seen the short films probably 10 times each, and yet somehow I've never noticed the lack of people! I think it's a credit to how engrossing their stories and characters are (I'm adamant the penguin is one of the best villains in any media) but it's very creepy now I think about it.
nothing is more disconcerting than the shot of Wallace walking down the basement stairs in a grand day out. Incredible video putting voice to a perspective many of us have had to live with in our nightmares for years. 🙏
I always felt a deep, strong uneasiness and loneliness in "The Wrong Trousers" when Gromit is reading the newspaper in that empty Cafe; I think your video explained perfectly why that is.
I was always creeped out by the many silent scenes in A Grand Day Out, and as for the other shorts, the whole plot was just disturbing without being deliberately scary. If you watch all of the shorts and think about the events that occurred for even a second, you realise that they hold many similarities to the genre of psychological horror. A homicidal robot on the moon, a killer robot dog, unpredictable robot trousers, a crazy mass murderer girlfriend and a narcissistic penguin. They're all horrific and "off" but are meant to be funny. Unpredictability sets me on edge without fail. The Curse of the Were-Rabbit comforted me with more characters but the Rabbit itself was absolute nightmare fuel to look at, rendering the human characters futile. Most of this never occurred to me as a child, but some did. Great video!
Creepiness is always more effective in non-horror because you don't expect it. Whenever you watch anything horror, you know it's trying to scare you and the scenery just screams "spooky", but when something innocent has a bizarre moment of surrealism or uncanniness, it's like seeing a giant spider staring at you in the corner of your eye, that you never expected to see on a summer's day.
The lack of people around the town actually appealed to me as a kid. Being naturally shy and socially awkward, the lack of activity and people is comforting in a weird way. I especially remember the scene where Gromit was in the cafe. When I was little, I assumed no one was there and Gromit just walked in, and I was thinking how cool would it be to have a cafe all to yourself.
Theory: Wallace used to work in a factory and had a degree in engineering he lost his job as a result of Margaret Thatcher's policies he tries selling small inventions to the slowing depopulating town. As the years go by the town is nearly abandoned and only a few businesses have survived and now he is a depressed inventor trying to replicate the town in his mind he once loved and knew so he moved out to a more populated town (wear rabbit)
I feel the opposite way. I always thought these two had such charismatic personalities and timeless rustic designs. Watching this show feels like visiting my grandmother’s house, if that makes sense.
I was scared of a grand day out just because of the outdated models they had back then. Wallace just looked weirder. The scene where he's drawing blueprints for the rocket was always uneasy. Just the quietness and the dark basement. The scariest part of that short was when the robot was trying to break into the rocket to get off the moon. All that being said, none of the shorts that came after that one frightened me too much.
During the last scene of 'A grand day out' the rocket can be seen flying back to Earth, but what always bothered me is that there are little to no city lights shining on the dark side of the planet, which makes it seem as if Earth isn't populated.
This may seem pretty obvious, but I think the biggest redeeming factor of these movies is the slightly absent, but still very meaningful relationship between Wallace and Gromit. The scariest and most gut wrenching point in all of the shorts I think was when a defeated Gromit left Wallace in The Wrong Trousers.
“A Matter of Loaf and Death” is probably one of the most terrifying ones. This focuses on actual murder, death and conspiracy…on a franchise where our main characters go to the moon for cheese.
It's comforting to know that you might run into Wallace and Gromit in some undiscovered level of the backrooms.
This was fantastic! That penguin's beady little eyes still haunts my nightmares.
"Wallace may just be a lovable old guy who only wants to make inventions, eat cheese and crackers, and hang out with his dog... but he's also hideous."
I always had that weird, unnerving feeling from Wallace and gromit too. It's the dark fuzziness and warm yet slightly washed out colour pallette. The "where is everyone", liminal vibe like the duo existed in a vacuum. I think half the point of were-rabbit was to address those things, showing more of the world and making it feel more alive.
I really love the original shorts because they’re so goddamn creepy. The lighting always looks like it’s straight from a horror movie and I remember being particularly spooked by the penguin as a kid. I think it’s because he’s got those soulless beady little eyes that contain no human emotion. Also Preston the robot dog is just a full on Terminator-style nightmare.
Honestly the "theres no people around" thing is something you can get used to if you watch low budget media because hiring extras or animating background characters is a lot of work for little benefit, so people either use to make it seem like people are in the background or situations which wouldn't have people in the background or just have the background empty, which is the only real option for small claymation projects
I LOVE Wallace & Gromit, I've seen the short films probably 10 times each, and yet somehow I've never noticed the lack of people! I think it's a credit to how engrossing their stories and characters are (I'm adamant the penguin is one of the best villains in any media) but it's very creepy now I think about it.
4:23
nothing is more disconcerting than the shot of Wallace walking down the basement stairs in a grand day out. Incredible video putting voice to a perspective many of us have had to live with in our nightmares for years. 🙏
I always felt a deep, strong uneasiness and loneliness in "The Wrong Trousers" when Gromit is reading the newspaper in that empty Cafe; I think your video explained perfectly why that is.
5:28
I was always creeped out by the many silent scenes in A Grand Day Out, and as for the other shorts, the whole plot was just disturbing without being deliberately scary. If you watch all of the shorts and think about the events that occurred for even a second, you realise that they hold many similarities to the genre of psychological horror. A homicidal robot on the moon, a killer robot dog, unpredictable robot trousers, a crazy mass murderer girlfriend and a narcissistic penguin. They're all horrific and "off" but are meant to be funny. Unpredictability sets me on edge without fail. The Curse of the Were-Rabbit comforted me with more characters but the Rabbit itself was absolute nightmare fuel to look at, rendering the human characters futile. Most of this never occurred to me as a child, but some did. Great video!