Every horror fan has to start somewhere. And while some of us were immediately immersed in scary media from a young age, others were eased into this world of killers and monsters by family-friendly retellings and even cameos. My point is: gateway horror comes in all shapes and sizes, and even as a hardened genre […]
SO WHY IS IT WORTH WATCHING?
After winning Best Animated Feature at the 78th Academy Awards and raking in $192 million at the box office on a $30 million budget, I don’t think Curse of the Were-Rabbit can really be considered a hidden gem in need of rescuing from obscurity. In fact, cinephiles almost unanimously agreed that Wallace & Gromit’s Oscar win was one of the only things that the Academy did right the year that Crash won Best Picture, all this despite the fact that it was running up against films by Hayao Miyazaki and Tim Burton.
This isn’t all that surprising when you consider that this passion project boasted a shooting process so laborious that the team could only extract three seconds of usable footage per day. And while 2005’s Corpse Bride also featured stunning stop-motion work, Park and Box insisted on taking these old-fashioned techniques to the next level through absurdly intricate action sequences that took literal years to animated – all the while refusing to use digital short-cuts whenever feasible.
Of course, the heart of any Wallace and Gromit story lies in the relationship between our iconic duo, and their first feature-length adventure is no different. It would have been quite easy for the filmmakers to end up making Wallace unlikeable once he begins to ignore his best friend’s concerns due to the love triangle involving Wallace, Lord Quartermaine (Ralph Fiennes) and Lady Tottington (Helena Bonham Carter), but despite their disagreements, our leads remain lovable even at their most aloof.
This is also the first Wallace and Gromit project to really flesh out the town of Wigan, Lancashire by populating it with an eccentric cast of vegetable-loving residents. From the crazed Reverend Hedges (Nicholas Smith) to the fan-favorite Police Constable Mackintosh, these memorable bit parts bring the flick to life in ways that previous Aardman shorts couldn’t afford to do in the past.
This added sense of scale also extends to the movie’s overall atmosphere, with both the unforgettable score by Julian Nott and the insanely detailed production design (which often incorporates subtle background gags such as the hilarious cheese puns on Wallace’s bookcase) pulling you into a world that you’ll soon forget is made out of 2.8 tons of plasticine.
AND WHAT MAKES IT HORROR ADJACENT?
A creature feature is only as good as its monstrous antagonist, so it’s quite fortunate that both Nick Park and Steve Box are genuine horror fans who saw this project as an opportunity to translate classic werewolf tropes for a younger audience – albeit without toning down any of the associated style and craftsmanship.
From the transformation sequence where Wallace’s hands extend and deform into paws in a cheeky recreation of David Kessler’s ordeal in An American Werewolf in London to the action-packed finale that sees the Were-Rabbit fall from Tottington Hall like King Kong plummeting from the Empire State Building, there are countless nods and even full-on re-imaginings of familiar monster movie moments here.
Even monstrous effects legend Ray Harryhausen paid the set a visit once he heard what the film’s influences were, and I doubt he was disappointed with what he saw. After all, despite the flick’s cutesy veneer, Curse of the Were-Rabbit boasts a handful of legitimately suspenseful sequences that end up making the film even funnier because of how out-of-place they are within the context of a children’s film.
I’m a huge fan of how the first Were-Rabbit attack looks like it was lifted directly from Werewolf of London, and the aforementioned transformation sequence is also incredibly serious right up until the moment where you realize the monster looks like a chunky bunny. Of course, it’s the expertly crafted mood that ties everything together, with the film’s eerie use of shadows and old-timey set design harkening back to a bygone era of Hammer Horror productions in a way that few legitimate horror movies have been able to replicate.
Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit is obviously a family picture, featuring no real scares or even notable moments of violence, but there’s an undeniable love and respect for genre filmmaking on display here regardless. That’s why I think horror fans would do well to revisit this 20-year-old thriller with an open mind – especially if you’re trying to get a younger family member into werewolf cinema but don’t want them to be traumatized by Rick Baker’s disturbing effects work.
There’s no understating the importance of a balanced media diet, and since bloody and disgusting entertainment isn’t exclusive to the horror genre, we’ve come up with Horror Adjacent – a recurring column where we recommend non-horror movies that horror fans might enjoy.
