10 Genius Suspense Tricks That Made Movies Great
3. The Uncanny Valley Was Exploited For Subtle Discomfort - Blade Runner 2049
One of the primary ways for blockbuster films to unintentionally evoke unease from audiences is through the uncanny valley - that is, when a CGI creation isn't quite believable enough to pass as "real," prompting feelings of revulsion.
Some of the more infamous examples include The Polar Express, Tron: Legacy, Mars Needs Moms, Star Wars: Rogue One, 2019's The Lion King, and Gemini Man.
The CGI characters in these films, though in many cases advanced for their era, nevertheless failed to quite reach the level of fidelity whereby audiences en masse would accept them.
Compare it to the Na'vi in Avatar, which despite resembling humanoid cat-like alien creatures, from a design and visual effects perspective still look incredibly lifelike today.
But on the very infrequent occasion, filmmakers can actually use the uncanny valley to their advantage, employ it to double-underline a CGI character's "otherness."
This was absolutely the case with Blade Runner 2049, which while focusing heavily on the character of Rachael (Sean Young), keeps her off-screen for most of the movie - her being dead and all.
But when a replicant clone of Rachael is wheeled out in the third act, the audience is stunned, both at how impressively Sean Young's likeness has been captured with cutting-edge CGI, and also how ever-so-slightly off she looks.
There's a vacancy to her facial expressions, especially when contrasted with the similar-looking Luv (Sylvia Hoeks), which truly sells to the audience that she isn't the Rachael we knew in the first movie, confirmed by Deckard's (Harrison Ford) similarly horrified reaction.
Knowing that we're looking at an almost-human abomination incites a certain dread in the viewer. Considering that studies suggest the uncanny valley unconsciously reminds people of death and their own mortality, it's really the perfect cocktail for a repulsed viewer.
Granted, Blade Runner 2049 is brilliant for so, so many reasons, but as a payoff to two-ish hours of digging into Rachael's legacy, this was brilliantly chilling.