10 Subtle Tricks Horror Movies Use To Scare You

Familiar to fans of Freudian psychoanalyses and video games alike, uncanny valley is a term used to refer to the strange space in which non-human entities with human-like appearances stop being cute and cuddly and become... well, uncanny.

If that sounds complicated, you might be surprised to find out you're already subconsciously familiar with the phenomenon in practice.

Coined by a roboticist in reference to a trend they noticed in robot design, the uncanny valley is the point at which a non-sentient object, whether it's a doll, robot, or CGI creation, becomes sufficiently human-like to no longer appear cute. For some viewers this provokes unintentional hilarity, as evidenced by many people's reaction to poorly constructed CGI models.

However for many more viewers, the uncanny valley is a deeply creepy and haunted space, and that's where horror comes in.

Slightly twisting and distorting the appearance of a regular human face, whether it's via a clown, a doll like the infamous Chucky of Child's Play fame, a clone, a double, or an android results in a reflexive reaction of unease and discomfort as the viewer's brain struggles to contextualise what makes something so recognisable seem unfamiliar.