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Return to the main page [[Uncanny Valley|here]].
{{examples
* ''[[Drive]]'', starring Ryan Gosling as a character whom is never given a name other than Driver and is more or less human most of the time, but seems able to just turn off all emotions at will [[Kicking Ass and Taking Names|for the purposes of kicking ass]]. Your mileage may vary about how well that qualifies him for this trope, but when he dons his human-like rubber stunt driving mask and practically stares someone into drowning himself in the ocean, this trope is in full swing.▼
▲* [[Drive]], starring Ryan Gosling as a character whom is never given a name other than Driver and is more or less human most of the time, but seems able to just turn off all emotions at will [[Kicking Ass and Taking Names|for the purposes of kicking ass]]. Your mileage may vary about how well that qualifies him for this trope, but when he dons his human-like rubber stunt driving mask and practically stares someone into drowning himself in the ocean, this trope is in full swing.
* The Uncanny Valley has been around since the early 20th century. Ladislas Starevich had made some very early stop-motion animated films, originally for educational purposes but then he realized, "hey, I got a lot of potential stuff to do!" so he decided to make his puppets star in dark comedies. What were these puppets of? Actual embalmed insects. He originally intended to recreate a stag-beetle fight because he couldn't get them to do it under stage lights.
* Speaking of stop-motion: [[Jan Svankmajer]]'s way of animating otherwise lifeless objects is chillingly uncanny!
* When living humans are animated via stop-motion, the result is often creepy and unnatural. Doubly so if they are filmed [[Under Crank|moving deliberately slowly but with the camera running at high speed]], so that they move at normal speed on playback but look all twitchy and deranged.
** See the remake of ''[[House
** This effect was used deliberately in 1999's [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0164181/ Stir Of Echoes] to emphasize the murdered girl's status as a ghost.
** Which is also used to rather spooky effect in both ''[[The Ring]]'' and ''[[The Grudge]]''.
** This kind of twitchy movement in ghost-themed films is probably common enough to be considered a trope in itself; it can be traced back at least as far as ''[[
* The poster for [http://www.iwatchstuff.com/2009/03/16/orphan-poster.jpg the movie Orphan] looks... wrong. Just vaguely creepy in the facial area, and you can't really tell how or why it's wrong. It's actually because the face is TOO symmetrical, because it's actually half the face mirrored to make a whole face. Human faces aren't perfectly symmetrical, so a perfectly symmetrical face goes into Uncanny Valley.
* You know the clone pilots in the ''[[Star Wars]]'' prequels? Take a closer look at their faces. Yep, [[George Lucas]] just can't get enough CGI.
** This is deliberately invoked in [[The Thrawn Trilogy]] - at the end of the second book, Luke and Han remove the masks from some of Thrawn's dead [[Mooks]] and are ''deeply'' creeped out to find that ''every corpse has the same face''. {{spoiler|To say nothing of the trilogy's climax, when Luke finds himself forced to duel a [[Brainwashed and Crazy]] clone ''of himself''.}}
* Similarly, the Oompa Loompas in ''[[Charlie and
** Although for some people, it's the other way around - the orange skin and green hair can make them look REALLY creepy, while the newer ones are human enough that, if you were to pass one in the street, you'd just think he was a strangely dressed little person.
* In the film adaptation of ''[[Bicentennial Man]]'', when the protagonist gets a new, completely realistic android face, every blink is regular and accompanied by a little whirr. Creepiest thing ''ever''.
** However, this trope is deconstructed as Rupert starts making Andrew's new face, he mentions how minor flaws in human appearance, such as an asymmetrically shaped nose, make people more realistic looking.
* Also used for effect in the draft examination sequence of ''[[Across the Universe (
* In Schwarzenegger's movie ''[[The 6th Day]]'', Arnie buys his daughter an animatronic doll thing. The movie gave the impression that the doll was very popular in the future, but it looks creepy. It comes to its demise when it's destroyed and slowly says "I have a boo-boo." [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyyzboAXzFk This video was probably inspired by that doll]. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UflYaxQMTa0 The doll itself here].
* Another inadvertent in a Schwarzenegger movie: ''[[Total Recall]]'', with JohnnyCab. He's even creepier when he's melting.
** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V17duGlHEYY "TWO WEEKS!"]
* Disney's ''[[
* Darla Dimple from ''[[
* The Spielberg movie ''[[
** Not to mention the fact that most robots looked a tad too perfect, with smooth skin, perfect hairline and so on. They were sliding deeper into the valley the more you looked at them.
* The Dark Seekers of ''[[I Am Legend]]'' were impressively done in terms of integrating film footage with their movements, but whenever you got a clean look at them, they were just enough [[Conspicuous CG]] to throw off the belief.
* The 2003 ''[[Hulk (
* Many of the human characters except for Penny in ''[[
* The puppets in ''[[Team America: World Police]]'' were capable of incredibly subtle and detailed movements (in their faces, of course). The producers decided they were too realistic, and thus too creepy, and decided to purposely scale them back a bit. Most notably when they make fun of the fact that the puppets can't really walk. They also used a program to precisely match the puppets' mouth movements to the dialogue, but the effect was too terrifyingly realistic, so they toned it down to make the puppets seem more puppet-like.
* Both ''[[Terminator]]'' and ''Terminator 2'' (deliberately?) enter the Uncanny Valley: the former when {{spoiler|the Terminator performs surgery on its face in the mirror}}, and the latter when {{spoiler|the T-1000 is talking on the phone in a woman's voice}}. Some people have said that they found Terminator in the first movie creepy. Look closely and he doesn't look normal, and there's something funny about his eyes before he damages one. The reason his eyes look funny is that he's lost his eyebrows. [[James Cameron]] had Arnie's face sprayed with Vaseline to deliberately invoke this trope and make it appear that something wasn't quite right about his skin, but that you wouldn't consciously know what. Done again in T3 with CGI used to erase any trace of the Terminators blinking when they get hit in the face or fire their weapons.
** This was also used to great effect with the {{spoiler|CGI T-800}} cameo in ''Terminator Salvation''. The way the inherently imperfect CGI drove {{spoiler|Arnold's face}} right into the Uncanny Valley made the {{spoiler|T-800 look like a genuinely creepy soulless killing machine}} again.
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** When we do get to see the actual T-600s in ''Salvation'', they are in fact creepy simply because their rubber masks are so crude and lifelike, yet they are humanoid in appearance and mannerisms.
* Intentionally used in ''[[Mirror Mask]]'', from The Jim Henson Company but with a screenplay by [[Neil Gaiman]] and directed by visual artist [[Dave McKean]]. It featured a scene of intentionally Uncanny Valley-tacular robots singing "Close To You" while hypnotizing the protagonist.
* Mr. Universe's [[Sex Bot|"wife"]] in ''[[
* The remake of ''[[Alice in Wonderland (
** And now joining them is the [http://www.imdb.com/media/rm2983300608/tt1014759 Cheshire Cat].
** The Knave of Hearts is particularly creepy because unlike the Queen, Cat, and Tweedles, at first glance, he seems normal. It's only when he moves that you notice he's ''wrong'': an effect achieved by lengthening his limbs and torso just a wee little bit too much to be properly human. Creepy. As. [[This Trope Is Bleep|****]].
** The White Queen just feels slightly weird due to the exaggerated dark make-up and [[Cloudcuckoolander|flaunting mannerisms.]] You might say she's adorably wrong in this sense.
** [http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2678/4402378381_246c62dbab.jpg The Caterpillar]. [[Alan Rickman]]'s face? Very nice to look at. [[Alan Rickman]]'s face ''on a caterpillar''?! No. Sorry, but an insect's face should ''not'' emote like a human's.
* While we're on the subject of Alice in Wonderland, BKN Animation's 2008 film "What's The Matter With The Hatter?" Seems like you average cheap mid-to-late 2000s direct to video childrens CGI movie. Then you realize that ALMOST. EVERYTHING. IS [[Cel Shading|CEL SHADED]]. Alice stares at you with wide, soulless eyes, her mouth movements are erratic, and the Chesire Cat...!!
* ''[[The Brady Bunch|The Brady Bunch Movie]]'' and most its sequels somewhat fairly live in the Valley. ''[[The Movie]]'' family lives (or has lived) seemingly forever in the stylized 70's world of the original TV series which means that none of them have never gotten any older, none of the children never have graduated from any form of education (High School, Junior High, Elementary..) (and still have seemed to attend the same schools FOR NEARLY 40 YEARS!!), None of them have seem to bought new clothes (although this is averted by Marsha needing to get a job for new stuff) (they must only buy Vintage or second hand.), and in the end absolutely [[Idiot Ball|NONE of their neighbors]] seem to notice this.
** Also to add to the obviousness of this trope is that all of the main characters act Not..Quite..Right. Almost as if the Brady Family were in the interim of 30+ years after the original show were [[Pod People|abducted then replaced with Aliens]] that don't quite know how to react with normal Humanity. However this is something that even their obnoxious next door neighbors do notice then then rest of the neighborhood (this is something that the Bradys greedy Realtor next door neighbor exploits in order to have them evicted from their home.). To boot most of the principal actors (as is common with most TV to theatrical film Remakes) bear very little resemblance of their original counterparts. Although for most of the film it really isn't creepy just annoying, You'd think that after over 30 years their personalities would have evolved a little.
** And for a final amount of ''Squick'' in the sequel, Marsha and Greg (even though have lived together in the same house for what in ''[[Real Life]]'' equates to their entire adolescences and most of their adulthoods) seriously consider to start dating...'''[[Brother
* However in fairness most feature films either based on or inspired by classic television sitcoms made before the mid to late 1980's (''[[Pleasantville]]'', ''[[Fat Albert
* ''[[
* The title character of ''[[Son of the Mask]]'' is a baby with extraordinary cartoon-like powers. Every time he uses them, you can spot the exact moment he stops being a real baby onscreen and becomes his CGI replacement, and the effect is creepy as hell. Especially when he whispers "I must be losing my mind" over and over again into his dad's ear. Ugh.
* The human characters from Dreamworks' ''[[Monsters vs. Aliens]]'', due to the extreme detail rendered into their skin. * shudder*
* In ''[[Let the Right One In]]'' the eyes of the vampire character reflect in the dark for just a second. Then the light comes on, and for half of another second you see cat-like slit pupils before they return to normal.
* Mostly averted in ''[[Beowulf (
** Even ''with'' the motion cap. The faces just...don't look right.
* This trope is played straight with the posters for the Disney adaptation of ''[[A Christmas Carol]]'', featuring [[Jim Carrey]] as the voice of Scrooge and the three ghosts.
* While [[Audrey Tautou|Amélie]] looks pretty normal in [[Amelie|her eponymous film]], the cover/poster rendition of her is a bit [http://thetravelcrew.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/le-fabuleux-destin-d-amelie-poulain-original.jpg unsettling]. Those eyes....
* Something about the faces of Santa Claus and Merlin in the infamous ''[[Santa Claus (
* The unnaturally toothy smile of one of the titular characters in ''[[The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl]]'' (guess which one) is surprisingly disturbing. {{spoiler|Of course, this "uncanniness" is largely subverted as we discover that, despite his unnerving appearance and personality he is in fact a [[Good Is Not Nice|good guy]].}}
* ''[[X-Men (
** For those of you who haven't seen this film - he looks like Humpty Dumpty.
** The same effect was used in ''X3'' to de-age {{spoiler|both Xavier and Magneto}}, but was much better-looking and a lot more convincing.
* ''[[
* Deliberately invoked by the victims of the [[Serial Killer]] in ''[[The Cell]]'': He drowns, then bleaches his female victims to resemble dolls, and when the therapist [[Journey to
* In ''[[The Love Guru]]'', there is a scene with a young Guru Pitka, which is just Mike Myers's head CGI-ed onto some kid's body. In addition to being conspicuous, it made his head look enormous.
* The scene on the Extended Edition of ''[[The Lord of the Rings (
** He originally wanted also to turn his mouth ''sideways'', but they couldn't make this look remotely natural with his real chin moving normally, so this idea was thankfully scrapped.
** A more subtle example would be Grima Wormtongue, whose corpse-like makeup was meant to make him look fairly creepy. The part that really did it was that actor Brad Dourif shaved his eyebrows. Off-set and without makeup, people kept telling him there was something just not right about him.
* Chucky of ''[[
* The [http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/1066/startreksonitan.jpg big-eyed doctor] in the new ''[[Star Trek (
** [[
* In the film adaptation of [[Frank Miller]]'s ''[[Sin City]]'', CGI is used to erase the actress's blink when Miho is sprayed with blood. Because it's practically impossible for any human to ''not'' blink when something hits him in the face, it serves to make her exceedingly creepy.
** The facial prosthetics used by many of the characters in the movie to make them more closely resemble their characters from the comics tend to fall into the Valley as well. Benicio Del Toro in particular looks about half a step shy of being human. Reportedly, Robert Rodriguez wasn't going to give Del Toro prosthetics, because he already looked a lot like the character in the comics, but Del Toro insisted on it, possibly in recognition of this trope.
* The [[Bruce Willis]] movie ''[[Surrogates (
** The fact that there is a ''whole planet'' of sad shut-ins living through these weird robots just digs that Valley deeper and adds another layer to a movie that's already [[Firefly|morbid and creepifyin']].
* Oh geez, that hideous baby with [[Arnold Schwarzenegger]]'s face in ''[[Junior]]''.
* The Incubi from ''[[Ink]]'' purposely invoke this trope. Their overly large glasses, and screens in front of their faces exaggerate their features rather [[media:
* An interesting silent era example: In ''[[Metropolis]]'', Brigette Helm effectively conveys the False Maria's "wrongness" with generally off behavior, particularly insect-like head twitching.
* ''[[Evil Dead]] 2'': Ash's [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-jtX6CCgxg dancing stop-motion, skeleton girlfriend] and [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0YfEwRLGrc Henrietta...the Deadite]!!!
* In ''[[The Dark Crystal]]'', the two Gelflings are the most human-looking characters and the least convincing. Since they qualify as [[Petting Zoo People]], however, they aren't quite as creepy as some of the other examples.
* The costume designers of of ''Killers from Space'' were probably aware of the Valley when designing the titular villains, but that film's instance of this trope [[Nightmare Fail|has aliens looking stupid and hilarious rather than creepy]]. As Mike Nelson of ''The Film Crew'' commented, "He looks a little like [[Toy Story (franchise)|Buzz Lightyear]]!"
* The odd French-Italian film ''Immortel'' has many eerie [[Conspicuous CGI]] side-characters who interact with the live actors. They're supposed to be mutants, gods, and people with strange body augmentations (mainly skin grafts), and seeing them next to live actors (even ones with [[You Gotta Have Blue Hair|ice-like blue hair]] and bluish-white skin) is jarring.
** This was sad to have been done to show that most of people on Earth (except few main characters) have been dehumanized.
* The Na'vi in ''[[Avatar (
** The facial proportions are very different. It's relatively subtle at first, but the eyes are 2 to 2.5 times larger than normal and more widely spaced...because the nose is about twice as wide and flattened considerably. The mouth is normal-sized, which serves to emphasize the other changes. The ears are not just hollowed and pointed, they're a full inch and a half higher on the head.
*** The less Na'vi-like avatars (such as Grace's) did this with the human nose, making it look disproportionate compared to the Na'vi faces, which look disproportionate compared to humans.
** ''Avatar'' is often invoked as the "exception to the rule" of the CGI Uncanny Valley effect alienating (or disturbing) viewers (to the tune of $2 billion-plus box office and single-handedly causing the rebirth of 3D).
*** One thing that really helped here was a techonological breakthrough: a small camera worn by the actors could capture and record the subtler facial
* Invoked deliberately in ''[[Silent Hill (
* Somehow done in live action with real actors by [[David Lynch]] in ''[[Mulholland Drive]]''. See [http://moviesmedia.ign.com/movies/image/md_7482.jpg Mr.] [http://movieimage3.tripod.com/mulholland/mulholland11.jpg Roque], Mafia kingpin. This, incidentally, is Michael J. Anderson's only role as a regular-sized person! And [http://www.mulholland-drive.net/pics/cast/cowboy.jpg The Cowboy], who is this despite being a seemingly normal person. He's able to get a dyed-in-the-wool Hollywood insider to stop snarking. Not to mention whatever it is behind Winkies.
** The too-chipper-to-be-real Betty Elms has this effect on some. The effect is magnified by dressing her in clothes that look as though they might be what she wore as a teenager: they clash with contemporary style, and don't fit her well.
* In ''[[Who Framed Roger Rabbit?]]'', the Uncanny Valley is invoked in Judge Doom as [[Foreshadowing]].
** He is at least half a head taller than any other character.
** His eyes are often hollow and he ''never'' blinks.
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* The Mystery Man at Andy's party in [[David Lynch]]'s ''[[Lost Highway]]''. It takes you a while to work out what's so off about his face, gradually you realise that (well, among other things) it's his fairly subtle eyeshadow and lipstick in combination with the fact that he never blinks. He also has no eyebrows, which has the handy effect of making a face look slightly odd, usually without people knowing quite why unless they are looking for it.
** Also, his eyes have no irises, just huge pupils.
* At the climactic scene of ''[[
* ''[[Little Miss Sunshine]]'': Most of the contestants in the beauty pageant, except for Olive.
* Just like the ''[[Son of the Mask]]'' example above, there's a brief moment in ''[[Moonwalker]]'' where, right at the end, Micheal...turns into a robot, then a spaceship, to fight the bad guys ([[
* There's also the 2010 movie ''[[
* The effects used to make Mr. Fantastic (as played by Ioan Gruffud) stretch in both ''[[Fantastic Four (
** Technically, however, neither the Thing or Dr. Doom qualify for "Uncanny Valley" status as both are indeed played by real-life humans simply wearing costumes, as opposed to being partially or completely rendered in CG.
* The film adaptation of ''[[The Da Vinci Code]]'' features Jean-Pierre Marielle as Jacques Sauniere, but for most of the time the character is onscreen he is a corpse splayed out on the floor of the Louvre, and it is really a realistic model of the actor. While the effect is terrific, Jean-Pierre Marielle himself and his wife were severely creeped out by the sight of "his" dead body, as he revealed in an interview that can be seen on the Special Edition DVD.
* In ''[[
* The entire film ''[[The Polar Express]]'' is widely considered to be creepy beyond belief.
** From the same company there's ''[[Mars Needs Moms]]'' and holy Jesus are the humans terrifying.
* [[Being John Malkovich|Spi]][[Adaptation|ke Jo]][[Where the Wild Things Are|nze's]] short film [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfVgc-U_ZMc I'm Here] is a very sweet and heartwarming film. However, the robots look a little...off. This is because they have very human-like facial expressions despite their artificial appearance, especially since the male robots have what look like computer cabinets for heads.
* Deliberately [[Invoked Trope|invoked]] in ''[[
** During the scene where they're using polyjuice potion to create duplicate Harrys, some of the intermediate states are quite disturbing. Fortunately, they're not on screen for long.
** The people who produced
* Oddly enough, the more human looking Midians in ''[[Nightbreed]]'' are creepier than the ones who look just plain demonic. A perfect example is the guy with the crescent shaped head.
* Jeff Bridges' CGIed face in ''[[Tron
** The biggest problem with this is at the beginning of the movie, we see a flashback of Flynn while he was young which used CLU's CG facial model and it's exactly the same. The problem is in the eyes and eyebrows. Clu (And flashback Flynn) have a solid immovable brow and their eyes almost never widen the way Jeff Bridges' do and did in the original film. The lack of emoting is the biggest problem with the CG model. That's fine for CLU, but makes no sense for the younger version of Flynn!
** Many of the live-action characters in this film can seem a little off, ''especially'' the sirens.
* The baby on the ceiling in ''[[Trainspotting]]'' during Ewan MacGregor's withdrawal scene.
* ''[[Mars Attacks!]]'' had two martians disguised as a woman. It was deeply in the uncanny valley, but it didn't bother the guy who was hitting on her. {{spoiler|Until the martians bit off his finger}}.
* Shawn and Marlon's "disguises" in ''[[White Chicks]]''. Holy jumping shitballs!
* In ''[[Jack Frost (1998
* The pre-serumed Steve Rogers in the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1Hi8B1jOBo&feature=player_embedded Captain America trailer] is distinctly...off. Given that the CGI's done' by the same people that did ''[http://www.thedorkreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/curious-case-of-benjamin-button-1.jpg The Curious Case of Benjamin Button]'', it's not much of a surprise.
* The battle room drones in ''[[Flash Gordon (
* E.B. in the film ''[[Hop]]''. His fur and facial features is realistic enough to pass for that of a real rabbit. Yet the proportion of his head and body size just doesn't look right, and healthy rabbits aren't supposed to be that skinny. It just doesn't add up.
* Porn stars can have this effect on someone who is either not attracted to porn stars, or not into the particular gender that porn focuses on.
* Any time a human character is revealed to actually be a robot, they cross into Uncanny Valley. When my nephew was around five years old, he freaked out watching the beginning of ''[[Austin Powers]]: The Spy Who Shagged Me'' when it was revealed that Miss Kensington was actually a fembot. He refused to watch any more Austin Powers after that, which turned out to be a good choice. There is a certain betrayal when a character you thought was human is actually robot. Kind of like catching a cheating spouse in the act.
* ''[[Resident Evil: Degeneration]]''. The character animations were stiff, and the lip synching was not of the best quality. Though the lip syncing may or may not have simply been due to the fact it's Japanese.
* ''[[The Smurfs (
* In [[Daft Punk
* I might be alone in this, but something about [[Amanda Seyfried]] in the trailer for ''[[In Time]]'' looks...off. Maybe it's the hairstyle with her eyes, but something looks wrong.
* Michael Myers' mask from ''[[Halloween (
** Dr. Loomis' description of Michael's actual face fits this trope like a glove.
{{quote|
* In the second Hellboy movie, the baby that [[Hellboy (
* ''[[The Adventures of Tintin]]'' movie got slammed in several reviews for this, particularly in the design of Tintin himself as opposed to the more cartoony side-characters.
* [[Tim Curry]] as Pennywise The Dancing Clown in ''[[IT]]''.
* {{spoiler|Renesmee}} from [[Breaking Dawn|Breaking Dawn Part I]]. She's like a moving [[Creepy Doll]].
* In the live action film of ''[[How the Grinch Stole Christmas (
* ''[[Rango]]'': Beans in general. Rather than resembling a real desert iguana, she looks like a cross between a little girl's doll, an alien, and something almost equine. It's the lizard variant of [[Uncanny Valley]].
* ''[[
* Judging from his performance in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgJs7uluwlU this] promotional video for Prometheus, [[Michael Fassbender]] will be pulling this off rather nicely. It's the cheerful monotone, neutral expression, and the fact that he can apparently cry on demand that does it.
* A lot in ''[[Tideland]]'', from Jeliza Rose's borderline sociopathic behavior, to some of the effects, like when Jeliza's face appears on one of her doll-heads, which actually makes [[Brows Held High|Oancitizen]] jump.
* In ''[[Bride of Frankenstein]]'', the Bride looks mostly normal, unlike [[
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