The uncanny valley phenomenon in Stranger Things
As the release of the fifth and final season of Stranger Things draws near, promotional material has featured significant callbacks to the first season. On Nov. 6, Netflix released the first five minutes of “Chapter One: The Crawl,” revealing the Duffer Brothers took this concept further by recreating a sequence of shots from the first season: the moment when the demogorgon breaks into Castle Byers. While I get the appeal of revisiting past scenes, especially one of such intensity as the capture of Will Byers (Noah Schnapp), its recreation alludes to a disappointing potential future in the television industry. Instead of recycling the footage from the first season, the Duffer Brothers reshot the scenes using a body double for young Schnapp and Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) to superimpose the face of young Schnapp onto the face of the young actor.
The CGI is incredibly off-putting and evokes the uncanny valley phenomenon. This phenomenon refers to the state of unease triggered by artificial creations that attempt to resemble human appearances. The valley refers to the dip in affinity between approximately 70 per cent likeness and 90 per cent likeness, revealed by statistics on the phenomenon. In this gap, or valley, the artificial creation looks nearly life-like, but not quite, which triggers an unease not present with lower resemblance scores and incredibly high resemblance scores. The CGI resembles a young Schnapp, but is not a perfect replication. Its imperfections emphasize its artificial nature and evoke an unsettling feeling. Put simply, it is just plain creepy.
This is not the first time Stranger Things has trampled through the uncanny valley, either. A key storyline in the previous season is Eleven (Mille Bobbie Brown) regaining her powers with the help of Dr. Owens and the notorious Dr. Brenner. Eleven is immersed in footage from the lab, forced to relive the past. The depiction of Eleven in these scenes alternates between her current age and the age she was at the time of the footage. Like young Will Byers in Season five, young Eleven is played by a younger actor, and the face of young Brown is superimposed onto hers.
While CGI may be a great tool in cinema, its use should be regulated. If you can not make something look realistic, you should not include it. In the case of Season five, there is footage of young Schnapp shivering in Castle Byers, singing “Should I Stay or Should I Go,” by The Clash, and anticipating the attack of the demogorgon. This footage could have been recycled for Season five. However, it was likely reshot due to the continuation of the scene. In the first season, the scene cuts after the first boards go flying from Castle Byers. In Season five, the scene continues. Will picks up the rifle he took from the shed, shoots the demogorgon, and flees the fort. A chase ensues before Will is ultimately captured and taken to Vecna’s lair in the library, the location where he is found by Joyce Byers and Jim Hopper at the end of the season.
To recycle the shots from the first season and use CGI for the additions in the fifth season would have heavily emphasized the imperfections of the CGI. However, there were other routes the Duffer Brothers could have taken to obtain the additional footage. For example, the moment where Will shoots the demogorgon could have easily been filmed without Will in frame. The audience could be positioned outside the fort, hear the shot, and then see the demogorgon recoil and Will escape. It would not be as intimate as being inside the fort with Will, but that is a sacrifice worth considering, given the other option is CGI reminiscent of Robert Zemeckis’s The Polar Express. The scenes themself are not necessary either. We have seen enough of the footage in Season one and in the promotional material for Season five, that the first five minutes feel redundant.
This type of CGI should be used sparingly, and not just for aesthetic reasons. The more entrenched the practice becomes in film, the more advanced the technology will inevitably become. The uncanny valley will be crossed, and the difference between an individual replicated by CGI and the real individual will become non-existent. This is extremely concerning, as the use of deepfakes increases in mainstream media and the severity of cancel culture intensifies. One false video could quite literally ruin your life.