The frights of Halloween may be behind us for another year, but the one of the joys of surviving the disturbing images of a good horror film is the pleasure that comes from inflicting that experience on others -- which is definitely my intention. If you're considering starting a brood of mini-filmmakers you may want to skip this one, but if not, David Altobelli and Jeff Desom have given you the perfect excuse for your aversion to hungry knee high humans in their promo for HEALTH track Tears:
Mature/disturbing content warning!!!
Taken from the score the composed for Rockstar Games third iteration of the popular shooter Max Payne, Altobelli and Desom were given free conceptual reign as long as the final result conformed to the desired tone set out by the band. As opposed to perhaps some of the more obvious 'kids acting messed up' promos which spring to mind -- Chris Cunningham's Come to Daddy or Daniel Levi's Freak -- the pair instead drew inspiration from a zombie baby comparison chart and Johannes Nyholm's restaurant trashing baby short Las Palmas.
Given the cast's tender age, there were obvious limits on the amount disfiguring make up or prosthetics that could be used, so CGI was employed to augment the horror:
In “Tears”, the use of CGI was the only way of circumventing certain restrictions that we were facing when working with babies. For example, we were very careful with how much make-up the babies and their parents were comfortable with. VFX was then used to add details like milky eyes, veins, blood stains, the occasional missing jaw.
The resulting film, which could have easily been a throwaway gag, instead paints an unsettling picture of a world so beyond redemption that even its most innocent members are to be feared. How well do you think the mix of make up and CGI elements work in transforming the young cast into the toddling dead?
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Your Comment
9 Comments
I think it's shot pretty well - I think some of the stuff is kind of dumb (the end stands out)
And I think it could have been far worse disturbing and I'm not talking about the make up effects as is.
As it stands, they were careful to walk a line between disturbing and silly - and I think it fails because of it.
Images which stand out are the angel be eaten - the baby girl at the fence - the baby girl and the zombie at the store entrance...
The rest either attempted shock value or watered it down with silliness.
I get why though - you'd have to have some real balls to go way dark - I couldn't do it unless there was some kind of message of value to be found - and if I did do it - my message would be very different that what one would think because of the loss of my daughter who was born and died 8 days later - for me it makes these kind of videos very shallow if there's no message to be found of value...
November 7, 2012 at 12:42PM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
silly - but I watched the whole thing....so the joke is on me?
I think by tomorrow ill forget about it.....but remember the movie BLINKY? Nobody forgets that one.
November 7, 2012 at 5:34PM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
very disturbing but the camera work and VFX really impressed me!
November 8, 2012 at 5:31AM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
Absolutely awesome video. Genuinely amazed people on here aren't giving it more love. I only hope I can produce work of that calibre at some point
November 8, 2012 at 8:22AM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
Anyone know what this was filmed on? Would love to see a making-of.
November 9, 2012 at 12:24AM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
Makes me look at my 1-year-old differently.. just as a normal baby!
November 9, 2012 at 8:08AM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
That was great! I always love your posts. I almost always like the shorts you find.
November 18, 2012 at 3:40AM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
The effects and music are great and I have found a new creepiness in toddlers.
Thank you.
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July 9, 2016 at 6:47PM