Five Incredibly Creepy Animated Short Films
Alma
httpv://youtu.be/irbFBgI0jhM
Probably the most well know of all the short films on the list, but also the one that has the unlucky title of : Most Likely To Be Messed Up By A Major Studio. Alma is an amazing little film that deserves the accolades it is getting, but, much like the store in the short film, it is best just left alone.
Though, we must admit, the fact that Guillermo Del Toro is producing the feature length film version of Alma with the original director of the initial short is about as comforting a prospect as we can get for something like this.
Alma is a very well made short , more so than the others on this list, and that is because Rodrigo Blaas, who works for Pixar, made it with the specific intention of being picked up as a property, so I guess we can’t be TOO mad that it is being made into a feature, if that was the goal the whole time.
Alma ends up being a creepy morality tale about how we need to be VERY careful when we are snooping around some place that we shouldn’t be. Short but wonderfully creepy (in a Pixar way), I would be lying if I were to say I am not curious (and a bit apprehensive) to see how they stretch this out to a feature length film, but they left enough open in the story that it may be fun to explore.
Time will tell.
The Sandman
httpv://youtu.be/UjgHbRrnjhU
While this one is slightly older than the other two (an animated short BEFORE Youtube, they shout, how did anyone see it, they shout.) The reason I decided to include this video is because you see this guys work almost every day during winter time. Wha-huh? Well, he is the man behind all of those Puffs Plus animated tissue ads. The ones that look exactly like this short film.
In a lot of ways, this film was the resume’ that got him the job with Puffs.
Impressively creepy resume’, good sir.
And this film is a wonderful take on the European version of the Sandman fable. I Imagine a lot of children would not be sleeping so soundly at night if they were more familiar with this version.
Also, extra points for a wonderfully creepy ending most will not “see” coming. See what I did there? Some would call it witty, most would call is grasping at straws, I am comfortable with either.
Honorable Mention: 9
I am only not talking up 9 here because I feel it is a bit more sci-fi than the other short films on the list. And also, because Tim Burton produced it and helped to make it into a 90 minute movie that sucked all the cohesive story and joy out of the original short film, and left us with a big, shiny, cool thing to look at that was just dead on the inside. Proving my theory, that these films need to stay short films. In most cases, that is specifically WHY they work.
So now is the part where I ask you guys if you know of any and I kindly ask you to leave the links in the comments so I can check them out. I shared, now it’s your turn! Judging from some other stuff you guys have told me about, my mind will most likely be blown again. Allow me to thank you ahead of time.
Sebastian’s Voodoo is from the paraguayan director Joaquin Baldwin, currently working in Disney in the team of Wreck-It Ralph. That’s an awesome shortfilm.
Oooo! My favorite creepy short film is The Birds Upstairs.. I saw it at a filmfest last month. Very profound… kind of a dark, creepy comedy.. in some ways.
Great list! Thanks for posting these; I can’t wait to watch them later.
Nice list. Alma, and the Backwater Gospel I’d seen before but the others were new to me. And that last one, wtf? I thought, this is a nice little play on childhood fears…. uh, not so much.
I’ve already seen Backwater Gospel and Smile, both were wonderful. After finishing Sandman, I realized I had seen the ending, and only the ending, as a young kid during Halloween on TV one year. That short scared me for a long, LONG time. Probably the reason I have a fear of eyeball gore too.
Wow. Thanks for that. One hell of showcase. Backwater Gospel is just wall-to-wall genius. I love that Catholics got offended by it. It proved the film’s point about intolerance. Death/God/Satan/whatever are just spectators to our madness. It’s our own hand that is responsible for the death and suffering and madness we create, but it’s always much easier to extricate it from ourselves to an outside source (preferably something different and therefore scary), and in doing so our resulting fear and hate and (over)reactions to that fear and hate create the exact evil we were so afraid of in the first place. It bugs the hell out of me that stuff like this is relegated to self-funded personal passion projects while idiots like Michael Bay blow through billions making condescending sugarcoated garbage for children.
^wonderfully put, thanks man. As soon as I saw Backwater I immediately made this list AROUND it, because I felt more people needed to see it. I have watched it at least 30 times, and every time, I notice a nuance I missed.
Somehow I feel the video “Crooked Rot” should be on here…It’s scarier than most scary movies I’ve seen these days.
I won’t lie we all know the main attraction was Backwater Gospel, when watching it I immeditaly thought Borderlands and RAGE whic I thought for the graphics and how comedic it was both. Sorry if I am the the only one who laughed when watching it. I am going into film and directing and no I would not want anyone, other than creators, to make a this a movie. Of course I don’t think this should be made into a movie but I would love to work with the directors and graphic designers who made the short film. Oh also quick note I love the honor in Sebastian’s Voodoo, I have seen it before and also the Pixar short, but I was also curious if anyone else thought steampunk Bioshock for the graphics of that film??? Oh if anyone wants to rant at me my email is spencercrea@aol.com. I hope everyone liked these films as much as I!
Great list. If you like these i suggest “The Cat with Hands”. Seen it a long time ago but it always stayed with me. Creepy as hell.
Has anyone here seen “The Pier”? Wonderfully creepy short film.
It’s strange that the claynimations such as Pussycat or Bloody Date aren’t here.
I wouldn’t say that the 90 min version of 9 ruined it. Come on, that sounds too fatalistic. I do prefer the short version, but I like to keep an open mind. It wasn’t bad, is what I believe and say, it could have been horrible and it ended up being enjoyable.
Katie towell on youtube has three good ones also there
“Never woke up”
“Agony”
and “Don’t Go Near the Old Ash Tree”
one short i like in particular is Teddy’s Nightmare. this is what i feel like our teddy bears are protecting us from.
Nice selection. Here is a few that I’ve seen that are kinda creepy…Zero, The Little Girl Who Was Forgotten, Styx & Stones, Frat, Mortys, Mirror (although very short…its…freaky..)Bad Egg and lastly…The Maker. I actually have only seen the trailer for it, but it looks promising.
how was this not on the list?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqi5F5MqqTQ
Wow, that was freaky. Brilliant animation, but seriously creepy. Where’s it from?
An animated film called Tidy Monster.
Genius Party is an anime short movie collection including “Deathtic 4” it’s actually quite a nice story, but nonetheless monumentally creepy