(Because it’s not just the Dark But Shining boys who can bring you frightening things to look at online…)
Last night my wife stumbled across this short film. With no background information other than “this is weird,” we were equal parts enthralled and horrified by what we saw: footage, shot in night vision to further enhance its snuff-film/lab-surveillance verisimilitude, of a mutant man-child. This is real nightmare material.
What it is is “Rubber Johnny,” a short film by music video director Chris Cunningham using the music of his frequent collaborator Aphex Twin. (Before I discovered this, I definitely thought to myself “gee, someone’s a big ‘Come to Daddy’ fan…”) In addition to the film itself and the project’s homepage, further information about it can be found here (interview with Cunningham included) and here.
I haven’t really seen all that much of Cunningham’s work, but I always really got a kick out of just how over the top his videos for Aphex Twin are, particularly because they mesh so perfectly with the comparatively outre Aphex songs he’s been tapped to adapt; the Clive Barker references in “Come to Daddy” were an especial treat for me (as it turns out, Cunningham has worked for Barker in the past), and his outrageously tacky video for “Windowlicker” ended up being pretty prophetic in terms of the techno-video aesthetic. (It’s also worth noting that Aphex (aka Richard D. James) has made some of the most subtly frightening music I’ve ever heard–his Selected Ambient Works Vol. 2 contains some moments of genuine glacial terror (a clear influence on nine inch nails auteur Trent Reznors soundtrack work for the influential first-person-shooter/horror videogame Quake), and the way the cheerily hideous lyric “I would like some milk from the milkman’s wife’s tits” blindsides you in Richard D. James Album‘s “Milkman” is unforgettable.) I’m impressed with this new foray into horror from the pair.
Go and look.