Look into the Uncanny valley

 In my last blog post I took a look into what techniques can be used to make a scene scary. One of the things I found interesting and wanted to look into further was the uncanny valley. After doing some research, what I found was that, in simple terms, the uncanny valley is the strange feeling people get when they look at something that isn't human but is eerily close. 

"Alita: Battle Angel" 2019

Some ways in which the uncanny valley can be observed is CGI in movies, realistic humanoid robots, or in video games. Though there hasn't been one official explanation for the uncanny valley there have ben several proposed ones. One explanation links the uncanny valley and its ability to create fear is its ambiguous nature. A paper done in 2016 showed that seeing something that was so close to being human but wasn't created a tension that was very unpleasant to the brain. Another explanation views the uncanny valley as a biological response for survival as it might create a similar feeling to seeing something dying.

Though I am not certain on how or whether I will utilize the uncanny valley in my film opening, I feel like the overarching theme of uncertainty and ambiguity will be important things to try and incorporate. Aside from research, a lot of this has to do with the fact that I myself find that media that use those aspects scare me the more than anything.