Hallo reader. Tis time for a random
post. How lucky for you! … What? …. N-No! I am not being lazy! I
am... um... broadening my topics. Yes. I am totally not just being
too lazy to write serious intelligent posts. Perish the thought! …
-cough- … Moving on.
Recently, a very close friend and I
were intrigued by the concept of Doctor Who's weeping angels. We had
never actually seen the episode, but we had seen enough to get the
gist of the idea. We had always been curious, but could never bother
to pull up the actual show. Today we decided to actually satisfy our
curiosity and look up a clip from the episode they appear in. The
results were... unexpected, and I have been inspired to take this
opportunity to talk to you about horror.
For those who are unaware, the weeping
angels were monsters from the episode entitled “Blink”. The idea
around them was this: They are vicious creatures with the appearance
of an angel, until they choose to attack wherein they acquire a more
demonic facial expression. They turn to stone whenever they are
looked upon by any living thing, including others of their kind.
Thus, they cover their eyes before this happens whenever possible,
since if they were to accidentally lock eyes with each other, they
would remain stone eternally. The idea being they can not look away
when turned to stone, and so would be unable the immobilizing gaze.
The position of bowing their head and covering their eyes gives them
the appearance of crying, thus the name “weeping angels”. They
are cruel and viscous, and almost never alone.
Sounds pretty promising right? After
all, the idea of being endlessly hunted by these creatures is
legitimately terrifying. The idea of being cornered by one, unable to
blink or look away, unsure of the location of the others and the ever
pressing fear that one could appear behind you while the one in front
keeps you trapped, is well... scary. But the execution of this cool
concept was just awful. The expressions of the angels became so
grotesque and demonic it passed the line into ridiculousness. They
honestly looked more like cartoon characters than terrifying
creatures of the night. They constantly had their face in a roaring
position, and held their clawed hands in an almost Frankenstein
manner. The entire tension of the scene was broken by these silly
caricatures. When the angels were “weeping”, they were actually
more intimidating. There was some thing about the sinister nature of
their seemingly innocent nature. It was reminiscent of the angelic
statues found in graveyards that these were no doubt modeled after.
They were creepier, and created infinitely more tension then their
snarling counterparts. The final straw of silliness came when they
had the angels “rocking” the tardis (no I am not kidding),
without actually really shifting position. It just destroyed any
horror qualities they may have had.
So why did this seemingly terrifying
concept fall flat? Well in essence, they were simply trying too hard.
The beauty of these kinds of creatures is they don't need to look
vicious. In fact the more innocuous they appear, the better. When
something looks basic or bland, it appears more unearthly and in
human. Just look at scp 173 or slenderman to see this kind of idea in
action. If the angels had simply always covered their eyes when the
characters were looking at them, it would vastly improve the effect
they had. The idea of turning away, and suddenly having an angel
literally in your face is terrifying. It does not need to roar, or
grimace, or threaten you with claws. It just needs to be about five
feet closer than it was a few minutes ago. Horror is largely about
atmosphere. It is not just about monster design. It is not about
fangs and claws. It is about lighting, and isolation, and music. It
is the emotion and the paranoia. It is about being helpless and alone
in the dark.
-BlackFox
(680)
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