I went down to the local convenience store tonight to get some snacks, while there, I looked over their pre-played DVD selection, and picked up a copy of “The Adventures of Mark Twain”, a Will Vinton Claymation movie from 1985 (Will Vinton was best known for his claymation California Rasins commercials)
One of my favorite sequences in this film was The Mysterious Stranger, a very, very creepy and disturbing sequence in what has been marketed as a kids movie…
I can only imagine the nightmares this sequence would have caused to unsuspecting families viewing it back in 1985, as the rest of the movie seemed so offbeat and endearing…
needless to say, I loved this segment, always have, in fact, it’s the first scene I jumped to, even before viewing the film in it’s entirety
What movies have caught you off guard, being unexpectedly creepy?
The 1971 Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory has always struck me as surprisingly creepy. Not just the trippy sequence as they go through the tunnel, but the whole vibe.
Oklahoma is all bright and Technicolor and then all of a sudden it’s crazy dream sequence time. When my girlfriend was but a small person she refused to watch it because all she could think about was when the scary weirdo drags the heroine off in the midst of an odd modern dance number.
Also, pretty much all of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.
Jumanji is another movie that’s supposed to be for kids, but contains heaping helpings of unsettling stuff. Dread-laced anticipation, it’s not just for horror movies anymore!
August Rush is a saccharine fantasy love story with some interesting music. When I watched it with a neighbour who wanted to see it I was surprised tio find Robin Williams playing some uber creepy Fagin like character. I was just waiting for the scene where he started raping the children. It never happened but that whole plot element was just unresolved - he lost one kid but that was all.
Howard Hawks’s Monkey Business is a slapstic farce starring Cary Grant and Ginger Rogers. Grant plays a scientist who invents a youth serum; Rogers plays his wife. The serum is slipped into their water and they both regress back to childhood. (On his way down, Grant gets a crewcut, a convertible, and Marilyn Monroe.) The younger they get, obviously, the wackier the slapstick gets. But it also grows increasingly disturbing: as their age regresses, they become more and more uncivilized. This movie, while hilarious, always creeps me out with the implication that, beneath a veneer of self-discipline it takes a lifetime to develop and control, we’re all just idful monsters. I would give my left nut to see Cronenberg remake this as a dark comedy.
The Brave Little Toaster is a nice little children’s movie about some appliances who go looking for the little boy that used to play with them, when suddenly it takes a left turn into nightmare with the toaster’s fever dream about a scary-ass demon clown and falling into a bathtub while plugged in. :eek: Visible here.
Even more creepy – the scene in Jud’s hovel, when Curly basically comes in and says, “Hi, Jud. Why don’t you commit suicide?” and then works to convince him it’s a good idea.
The scene in the original Wizard of Oz movie where Dorothy’s passed out on the bed and the aunt is pedaling along in midair. She TURNS INTO A WITCH! :eek:
That scared the living bejesus out of me as a kid.
The Wicked Witch of the East shriveling up wasn’t much better, either.
Bill Morrison’s “Decasia” blindsided me. I thought it was just going to be a lot of stock film edited together and I watched it on IFC just out of curiosity. The images and musical score, together, blew me away. I really think there is something demonic about it that hit me in a disturbing way. I taped it the next night( I think it was on several nights ) so I could watch it at a later date just to see if it would have the same effect. I watched it two more times and now it’s collecting dust on the shelf. This was about 4 years ago.
Wladyslaw Starewicz came out with a stop-motion movie from the 1920’s, I think, that was called “The Mascot”. Starts out as a cute childrens film with a little puppy in search of an orange for an ill child. Morphs into a collection of the most bizarre creatures I’ve ever seen on screen. here’s a sample
And I think this was meant for kids to watch.
By the way, I have a collection of Starewich’s films and not all of them are as strange as this one
