Mighty Morphin' Demon Faces

Mighty Morphin' Demon Faces

-October 14th, 2008 by Scott Urmson

I found it rather strange when I came across a sort of YouTube community of people who make short, ten second clips of themselves in which they morph their faces into demons using Adobe After Effects. It can be said that these videos were deemed much less strange when I then became aware of similar video rings where people use After Effects to simulate shooting themselves with guns. These are usually comically unrealistic where as the whole head is completely eradicated to a dust-poof. The lamest of all I found is the small group of people who make videos where the effect is that their hand appears to have a hole in it and you can see through to the other side. I'll spare you any other details of that staleness.

After scouring YouTube in search of the very best demon morph videos so you don't have to, I've compiled the top 6:

#6. Creepy Alien Kid

This is one of the three that actually creeped me out. Unfortunately, there are a couple visual blunders in the morphing process that I can't help notice and therefore push it to the back of the list. Despite minor visual flaws, this video deserves a place as one of our top 6 for it's well-done creepiness. Let's face it, even if there were no special effects at all, it would still be a video of a topless little kid and that's pretty damn creepy in and of itself.

#5. Some Dude In A Polo Shirt

There's nothing incredibly special about this video. It's certainly not frightening. This guy looks like he's wearing a work shirt like he's late for his job at Staples or the pro shop at the bowling alley. He somehow found that spinning around is an appropriate method to enhance the scariness. Even though he failed in those aspects, one area he did excellent work in is the visual effect itself. Good enough to win a spot at number 5 in our list.

#4. Aphex Twin Kid

An excellent video starts with good ingredients. Here, we have a creepy fuckin' kid. He doesn't need special effects. He's got that damn British rocker hair and a long-ass face. The environment with the single natural light source coming in from the side enhances the mood. It's not like he was between the kitchen and living room of his nice house showing off his wealth like #5. Not only was this well-done from a visual stance, but this video also has a feel like something out of an Aphex Twin video to me. However, you lose points for the Linkin Park poster in the background. Too bad, sir.

#3. Fat Faced Tyrannosaurus Guy

This video is just great from an effect point of view. This one, to me, is probably the one that looks closest to movie quality in it's execution. The only problem being that it didn't scare me in any way. It does, however, have enough of a visual presence to rocket it up to number 3, which is better than you did isn't it, 'Pro Shop Employee Man'?

#2. Spit-Take Johnny

Bravo. It's fast enough to hit you by surprise and leave you asking, "What the fuck was that?!" The camera shakes only slightly, but not enough to make you hate it's existence. This one is creepy enough that it fought for the #1 spot. You'll notice it's #2, though. The more you watch it, the less impact it holds and this is it's one downfall.

#1. My Bum Is Wet From Buenoman

This video is scary for a couple reasons. One being that I'm an American, so to me, when I hear scary latin languages I think one thing; gang member. Obviously, he's just a creative guy who's good at After Effects. I don't care. Even the way he says, "Bueno", it's like he's threatening me with his demonic capacity. The other thing that makes this one stand apart is the fact that you don't find any horror movie sound clips whatsoever. The only sound given is him writhing in agony. I find it quite an unsettling noise. Of course, this is simply perspective and if you were so inclined, you could hear it perhaps as someone pushing a dump. He might even be saying silly shit, but since I don't understand, it sounds like he's threatening my family. Nice work, Bob.