Don't Hug Me I'm Scared

Director:  Joseph Pelling, Becky Sloan 


Year: 2011 






 The film is made in shot motion. We open on a kitchen which has all been made in soft bright colored fabric. There are various close-ups of things you would typically find in a kitchen. The lighting is high key and the whole feel is very small children T.V. However we do see a newspaper with the words ‘right wing on it’ which is a little out of sync with the general tone. We see three characters sat at a table and then a closeup of a notepad/face who starts to sing in a flat dull child's voice very typical of the voices used in most children’s learning programs. I.E lifeless but fake enthusiastic, similar to how children are forced to cheer when in a studio audience, there is a terrible desolation to the sound. The song as well as the cheerful music is all very techno and robotic, which again perfectly duplicates the children’s genre. The pad begins to instruct the three characters on ‘being creative’ just the instruction is enough to flatten all creative urges. However, she goes on and on telling them they must be creative. As soon as one of the characters attempts to be creative by painting a clown the note pad destroys it by pouring black ink over the painting since the act was too independent for her liking. The characters seem to then become more and more anarchic and the filming suddenly becomes less like a kids t.v show and more like a horror, briefly seeing shots of blood and organs as well as the words death. Finally we return to the calm of the kitchen table with the note pad announcing ‘now lets all agree to never be creative again’.