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 veteran who eats extreme films like August Underground for breakfast, I still believe it can be rewarding to look back on the G-rated frights of yesteryear.
And with the release of Aardman’s long-awaited Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, I think this is the perfect moment to look back on the on the unexpected thrills of studio’s surprisingly horror-adjacent work in Wallace & Gromit: The Case of the Were-Rabbit – a film that borrows heavily from some of the all-time best monster movies.
Like most Aardman projects, production on Curse of the Were-Rabbit was a slow and expensive ordeal, with the studio’s second feature film being announced way back in 2000 as The Great Vegetable Plot. After a series of false starts, principal photography would only begin in 2003, with Dreamworks helping to finance production while also giving directors Nick Park and Steve Box notes on how to better adapt British humor for an American audience.
Thankfully, the duo rejected most of these notes as they took decided that the best way to appeal to foreign markets would be to turn Wallace and Gromit’s first feature-length adventure into a horror-inspired thriller that satirized classic monster movies (as well as Hammer Horror pictures). While the folks at Aardman are no strangers to referencing classic cinema in their work, this would be the first time that inspiration would come from a source that their target audience would likely be unfamiliar with.
In the finished film, which was released in late 2005, we follow our titular heroes as they run a successful pest-control company that humanely relocates unwanted animals. When a rabbit-like creature begins ravaging the town’s crops ahead of the upcoming Giant Vegetable Competition, Wallace (Peter Sallis) and Gromit find themselves in the middle of a perilous monster hunt that will test the bounds of their friendship.
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.
This post was originally published on here
