3. This Man
Richard D. James, otherwise known as Aphex Twin, had released several albums of deeply unsettling electronica by the mid-90s, but they were positively sunny compared to the total sonic and visual assault of his 1997 single 'Come to Daddy'. Intended by James as a parody of The Prodigy's swaggering big beat yobbishness, the track was accompanied by a music video... The track was accompanied by a music video. A music video. Dear God. That music video. An old lady walks her dog through a rundown council estate. Somebody's dumped a TV outside. She goes over for a look...unaware that she herself is being watched, by a gang of kids. Kids with the face of Aphex Twin. These kids go on the rampage. They smash up a car, throw rocks at a guy with a pony tail and pull some sweet Kung-Fu moves. It's creepy but also weirdly funny. Hold on though- what's that in the TV? That strange figure forming out of static? Oh, nothing much. Just an eight foot hellspawn with the face of Aphex Twin. This abomination oozes out of the TV set, ribs showing through its pale, almost translucent flesh, and proceeds to SCREEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMMMMM at the little old lady. The poor biddy looks like she's trapped in a wind tunnel. The video ends with the creature, face frozen in a beardy leer, jerking spasmodically to camera, pure malevolence coursing through its distended veins. It is, to put it succinctly, the most terrifying thing ever to have been imagined by an apparently sane mind. But not the only terrifying thing. Director Chris Cunningham (who, it might un-surprise you, also gave us the Mental Wealth adverts) later directed 'Windowlicker', an almost equally gruelling masterpiece in which James' face is pasted onto the bronzed bodies of half-naked lady dancers. It manages to be funny and soul-crushing, but mostly the latter.
But then, when that's the face you were born with, it's hard not to be soul-crushing.