The internet is chaotic and frequently unpredictable, but one thing it provides plenty of is weirdness. Venture into certain corners of the world wide web, and you'll find material will at least make you raise an eyebrow over its unusualness. Video sites provide an especially great platform for folks to get creative and think way outside the box with their content, as evidenced by a claymation short film uploaded called "Hi Stranger." It's...well, you'll just have to watch for itself to understand how bizarre this is.
So yeah, that definitely fits under the weird classification. And uncomfortable, if we're being honest. Written, directed and animated by Kirsten Lepore, this Vimeo short film is literally just a clay-mated nude guy (voiced by Garrett Davis) creepily talking to those of us watching him awkwardly laying on the floor with his butt sticking out. I don't know what's more off-putting: his unsettling tone or how he mentions he can feel "vulnerable" around us as he's in that position.
Watching that clay man talk to us would be weird enough, but then he suddenly conjures a miniature tree that he made and proceeding to talk about how hard it is to make things, citing the "mental energy" needed. Then the weirdness jumps to a whole new level when the figure starts talking about the sunset, and from there, the creepiness kicks up to a 10 as he states that he wants to remember all our shapes and proceed to sketch the viewer like he's Jack sketching Rose in Titanic. It's certainly not helping that the camera is slowly zooming in on his face. The whole thing concludes with him assuring those watching that we're worthy of being loved and bidding goodbye so that we can continue on with our busy lives.
Whatever well-intended message this short film has is undercut by the unsettling way that clay figure stares at you the whole time and speaks way too softly about simple matters. Oh, and the butt doesn't help things matter. But hey, that's the point! It's deliberately supposed to be weird and creepy, and judging by the comments section under the video, a lot of people got a kick out of it. At the time of this writing, the video has collected over 34,000 views on Vimeo (over 300,000 on YouTube) and a little over 2,000 likes. Not bad for something this simple and slightly disturbing.
I'm gonna do my best to make sure that figure's creepy voice doesn't echo in my dreams tonight, but by all means, let us know what you though of the "Hi Stranger" short film in the comments below.
