I love this guy. Found his videos for the first time last winter. It’s just scary enough to be funny, but not so scary that it’s mean (like this Brazilian TV spoof making people think they’re seeing a ghost in an elevator (which I have to admit I also found funny, but they’re lucky no one punched the ghost or had a heart attack)).
This, on the other hand, is much lighter-hearted. Cracks me up every time.
John Aravosis @aravosis | Facebook | Google+. Editor of AMERICAblog, joint JD/MSFS from Georgetown, worked in the US Senate, World Bank, Children's Defense Fund, and as a stringer for the Economist. A frequent TV pundit, he has been on The O'Reilly Factor, Hardball, World News Tonight, Nightline & Reliable Sources. Full bio and article archive.
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The difference with the elevator ghost girl is interesting.
Even with the frowny face Freaky the Snowman relies more on a startle effect from the shock of a presumed inanimate object moving. People almost instantly recovered processing that there must be a mechanism or guy in there. The one dog was probably flummoxed by the human smell in a bizarre form factor.
The ghost girl people were not just startled, but remained truly scared because their enculturation from scary movies and perhaps superstitious religious belief system gave them the belief that ghosts are real and she was what they look like. They prolly used a girl not just for the trapdoor size, but also because an adult man suddenly appearing in a confined space would have been physically as well as metaphysically threatening.
The elevator stunt concerned me not for the heart attack factor, but for the fact that if the elevator moved for any reason when the young girl was moving through the panel she would have been maimed or killed.
Still I laughed at both. We’re all too human.
http://www.rebeccamorn.com/mind BeccaM
Concur. I agree there’s this line between “funny scary” and “mean, borderline dangerous scary.”
andymac3
About that elevator clip, the only thing that moved with the elevator was the slide door for the girl to get in and out, and the main doors. The elevator wasn’t moving, just the numbers changing so the people thought they were travelling in a proper elevator. The woman on reception was listening outside to their screams.
hollywoodstein
if the elevator was an FX mock up then no problem. If it was a real elevator then she was at risk.
Naja pallida
Seeing these things makes me glad I have more constructive hobbies.
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