They were cute.
I think it's interesting because of what you said in your original post:
I have been watching Buffy lately, and I've realised that the only monsters there I am properly afraid of (as in, I'll skip the episode or hold hands in front of my eyes) are the guy in Killed by Death and the gentlemen in Hush. And the more I think about it, they follow a trend in how I react to monsters. If there is something wrong with the eyes or they smile wrong (my main problem with Hufsa in the Moomin), I am petrified. That is all it takes. It in addition they are tiny children or float instead of walking, I will sleep with the light on, but the core of the problem is eyes and smiles.
Is this just me? What makes a monster scary?
I may stop reading replies if they get too scary.
All of the monsters in that movie are 'deformed' in the ways people imagined them as children. A couple of them have just one eye. Others have 3, or 5. Some have extra arms and legs, horns, etc. As far as smiles go, they are fairly 'human'
I think it's pretty interesting that you would find these characters to be 'cute' in that case.
It's pretty remarkable to think about what scares people. Along these lines, have you ever heard of the Uncanny Valley hypothesis?
I have, and it is quite true. Regarding the Monsters Inc monsters, however, I think the cue is not only that they don't look human (they look like big bears &c), the parts of them that do (as you say, smiles) are right, while smiles have the power to unsettle if they are wrong and on something that looks human, having one on a big blue bear (fuzziness helps) merely makes them relatable. I think all their eyes are big as well, regardless of number. For some reason that has the same effect (but only in drawings -- similar eyes in a realistic-looking film would scare me silly. Perhaps the divorce from reality that a drawing entails punctures the uncanny by removing it too much (or, rather, enough) from reality.
*MySmiley*
structured procrastinator
structured procrastinator
Monsters. Why are they scary?
- 13/09/2010 05:44:08 PM
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It's always best not to see the monster
- 13/09/2010 06:06:07 PM
700 Views
Invisible monsters are scary the first time you see the film/episode
- 13/09/2010 06:33:15 PM
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I get more scared by writing than by film, so I'm going to go with the unseen bit.
- 13/09/2010 06:49:38 PM
704 Views
Re: I get more scared by writing than by film, so I'm going to go with the unseen bit.
- 13/09/2010 06:52:07 PM
740 Views
im not scared of then but i'm creeped out by children.
- 13/09/2010 08:34:59 PM
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children singing nursery rhymes and making the lyrics sound scary
- 14/09/2010 08:56:37 AM
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Things that are Wrong or unknowable.
- 14/09/2010 02:04:54 AM
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But aren't all monsters "wrong" by definition? *NM*
- 14/09/2010 10:04:05 AM
401 Views
anything that makes me jump
- 14/09/2010 09:01:11 AM
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Re: anything that makes me jump
- 14/09/2010 10:05:49 AM
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no because there's often some screechy violin or some music in the background
- 15/09/2010 10:36:26 PM
666 Views
The Gentlemen from Hush were probably the creepiest monsters I've ever seen.
- 14/09/2010 04:10:22 PM
722 Views
Re: The Gentlemen from Hush were probably the creepiest monsters I've ever seen.
- 14/09/2010 04:13:27 PM
724 Views
I think that feeling of something being just off is quite creepy
- 14/09/2010 04:51:02 PM
758 Views
Re: I think that feeling of something being just off is quite creepy
- 14/09/2010 04:51:47 PM
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You really need to watch Monsters, Inc. *NM*
- 15/09/2010 03:53:20 AM
358 Views
I read the graphic novel of Coraline yesterday. The villains have buttons for eyes.
- 18/09/2010 12:32:49 PM
868 Views
Re: I read the graphic novel of Coraline yesterday. The villains have buttons for eyes.
- 18/09/2010 12:33:46 PM
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I watched an interview with Gaiman in which he said Coraline scares adults but not kids.
- 18/09/2010 12:41:40 PM
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I think that what I can't see is scarier. Once they actually take a physical form it ceases to work.
- 18/09/2010 10:37:53 PM
788 Views
Re: I think that what I can't see is scarier. Once they actually take a physical form it ceases to .
- 18/09/2010 10:49:13 PM
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