Creepy Images: Uncanny Valley

"Uncanny Valley" is a psychological response to human likeness--specifically robots bordering dangerously close to imitating human appearances and actions--that results in a strangely increased perception of the foreign, the alien in the faux human object. In popular usage, this catchy phrase has extended to more than just androids like the advanced Japanese designs seen above. Almost anything designed to mimic human features enjoys at least some level of Uncanny Valley responses from human observers. How does each one of the bizarre photos of human facsimiles make you feel?


This decaying dummy is like something you might find hidden in the tales of Thomas Ligotti or Robert Aickman. Shabby, feline eyed, and stupid (at least on the surface), it nevertheless represents an Uncanny Valley moment. Of course, the human mimicry is so shoddy in this sample that other creepy facets are brought to the fore.


This doll is an even more extreme example of the inhuman mixed with the realist figure in a startling clash of Uncanny Valley with outright horror. The alteration of just the mouth on the demonic second head is really the only big aberration here. Somehow, this grinning kiss from hell is a small interruption in what would otherwise be a double dose of Uncanny Valley: two icy heads staring with all their forceful likeness into the viewer's soul. Instead, the effect is lessened, but with the trade off of unease at seeing such primitive fangs overflowing from the mouth of a would-be person.


Finally, we have this schoolgirl like manikin that stares up at the observer from a pasty face with enormous eyes. The saucer eyes, though unrealistically exaggerated, suggest something frighteningly human. They are a paradox set in an otherwise sheepish face that induces toxic doses of Uncanny Valley like fears. Studies of the psychological phenomena have shown the effect is best achieved in instances where the human likeness approaches perfection, but quirks in appearance and attitude are just a little off, preventing acceptance of the impostor as human. While the strict scientific mind will probably say several of these examples are not quite human enough to incite Uncanny Valley, the picture above approaches the pitched terror of Uncanny Valley magnified. The clash of the human and inhuman, and thus the horror, is taken to greater heights in the wide eyed manikin, than, say, the low yield eeriness felt from viewing the first image of the Japanese androids.

-Grim Blogger