So Human-like, It's Unsettling

Have you ever watched a movie in which the CGI was so realistic you couldn't decide whether the characters were real or not? Take Shrek, The Polar Express, or Avatar as perfect examples.

Or maybe you've had just this experience playing a video game.

Okay, you knew well enough they weren't real but there was just something about them that made you question their reality and might have even made you feel a little uneasy.If you can relate, you've just experienced the phenomenon of "uncanny valley".

When a robot expresses life-like human emotions such as compassion and happiness and other positive human features and expressions, we usually welcome it with a relatively positive response. People like it and find it warm and welcoming when robots look like them. Take a child's toy wound up robot for example. It has a robotic voice that greets you and a genuine looking human-like smile.

Most of us are not bothered one bit by industrial robots or stuffed animals.

However, cross a certain line in making robots more human-like and you've just entered the uncanny valley.

The Uncanny Valley Phenomenon

First off uncanny means finding something unsettling strange and mysterious and being unsettled by it. The feeling might even feel eerie and near supernatural as it falls into the realm of the unexplained.

The concept of uncanny valley was first created in 1970 by Masahiro Mori, a Japanese professor of robotics from the Tokyo Institute of Technology. He called this phenomenon bukimi no tani genshō or "valley of eeriness".

When one crosses the threshold of uncanny valley, the human-like features of robots are no longer welcoming but now, downright creepy and unsettling.

Uncanny valley is that strange and unsettling divide between human but not quite human.

Give that toy robot a more human-like voice that is near indistinguishable from a real human's voice and suddenly that toy robot becomes more creepy. We see things in CGI animated characters in movies and video games that are human-like but not quite and in a way, it creeps some of us out!

When robots cross that threshold of being more human-like but not quite and we find it hard to distinguish their reality, we trust them less and can even feel repulsive towards them. Maybe you've even avoided watching a movie with ultra realistic CGI effects because of this very reason.

The Uncanny Valley in Horror

While the uncanny valley can be unnerving, it is a popular and all too effective concept in horror movies. There's an unsettling feeling we get when we watch a horror movie with uncanny creatures and that might be more effective in scaring us than any jump scare could.

Some notable examples of uncanny valley in horror include:

Zombies

One well known example of the uncanny valley in horror are zombies. As they stagger about in search of human victims in movies like Dawn of the Dead (2004) and TV shows like The Walking Dead (2010), they move in a human-like way and have appearances that are similar to humans but not quite. Zombies have emotionless facial expressions and move in a way that disturbs us. Even more so, zombies fall within that verge between the living and the dead and that makes them especially uncanny and unsettling.

Dolls

Another popular uncanny example of the uncanny valley in horror are dolls. This includes ventriloquist dummies (definitely creepy!) and mannequins. To some people, there's just something about dolls that they find a little unsettling. Maybe it's the way their unblinking eyes appear soulless as they look at you.

Dolls have an appearance that is similar to humans but again falls within that strange divide between human and not quite human.

The first example of dolls that are more than a little unsettling in horror is the Chucky film franchise. There is also The Twilight Zone episode (season 5, episode 6) Living Doll.

Clowns

There are some people that find clowns downright creepy rather than something entertaining and something to be laughed at.

Clowns have unmistakable human like features but the way they smile in such a prolonged way under all that face paint, makes them a little too uncanny.

Easily the most well known example of clowns in horror is the horror franchise It inspired by the novel of the same name by Steven King.

So the next time you're disturbed by a humanoid robot that blinks or moves a little too like a human but not quite, you can say you've experienced the unsettling phenomenon of uncanny valley.

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