Lee Hardcastle’s motto is that he makes claymations “that are not for children.” His latest video goes even further, turning a beloved snowman into a zombie-killing machine.
In Hardcastle’s music video for “Mr. Frosty Man” — a track off of indie rocker Sufjan Stevens’ upcoming holiday box set Silver & Gold — a rural home gets ransacked by walkers after a nuclear spill hits a graveyard, creating a swarm of zombies. (Got all that?) Mr. Frosty Man, however, is none too pleased about the undead disemboweling the family that made him, so he goes all Tallahassee-in-Zombieland and begins eviscerating them with a shotgun and chainsaw.
“It’s all Stevens’ ideas,” Hardcastle said in an e-mail to Wired. “He had a very good idea already how he wanted the video to be; he fired a gazillion ideas and scenes at me to pick and choose from, and so I crafted the story from those ideas.”
It’s about as gory as claymation can get — and just the kind of thing one would expect from Hardcastle (if not what one would expect from gentle soul Stevens). The animator has gained web infamy for his gruesome Pingu and cat versions of John Carpenter’s The Thing. He’s also the mastermind behind clips like “Hamster Hell” and “Chainsaw Babe 3D.”
Videos like those helped Hardcastle land the “Mr. Frosty Man” gig.
“Stevens contacted me by e-mail, I ignored it at first because I get so many requests from artists asking me to make music videos in exchange for exposure,” Hardcastle said. “But he was persistent and expressed how much he liked my previous videos, so we made a deal and took it from there. I’m actually a fan of Stevens, and when I realized who it was I was apologetic.”
Hardcastle made the video over a few weeks back in May. With Halloween just around the corner, is there any chance he has more gore in store? Sadly, no. But his upcoming alien-attack project, which he hopes to have done in a month or so, sounds pretty rad.
“I’ve built this great set that stands like a dollhouse, and so the action travels from room to room and up the staircase etc.,” he said. “I’m very excited about it — it’s a one up and more ambitious than my previous videos.”
[via /Film]
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