Chris Cunningham

‘Come to Daddy’- Aphex Twin – 1997 – Music Video

The music video for 'Come to Daddy' was filmed on the same council estate where Stanley Kubrick shot many scenes in 'A Clockwork Orange'. The music video is shot around Tavy Bridge Shopping centre, Thamesmead which was demolished in 2007. Part music video, part short film, this music video experiments with the surreal but also blends in genre of horror making the video very sinister and dark.

The music video opens with an elderly woman walking her dog in a grimy, industrial estate. The dog urinates on an abandoned television left lying on a pavement, which causes it to unexpectedly come to life. A sinister morphed face or evil spirit in the television keeps singing 'I want your soul'. The elderly lady is then terrorized by a group of young children, all of whom bear the face of Richard d. James. (Aphex Twin, the masks was made my silicone from a mould of Richard D. James). The young children create havoc in the estate and appear to inhabit the abandoned buildings.

Towards the end of the video the creature or evil spirit grows out of the television and screams at the old woman's face, all the children then are gathered around the creature (which also now bears the face of Richard D. James) almost looking as though they worship this creature, the creature is wrapping his arms around the children as if looking to hug them.

The mood of the music video is very dark and shocking; at one point it was banned in the UK. Although at first it may seem experimental, frightening and slightly vague to the point of the video, from watching the video a second time I believe director Chris Cunningham had some brilliant hidden messages in the video.

I believe Chris Cunningham is trying to send a message about the media and what children watch in the media such as violence, sex etc. For example, the children all bear the face of the creature and are running around creating havoc, are they copying what they see on the television?

Also, as the creature grows out of the television the children stand around in a worshipping way and the creature is wrapping his arms around the children resembling that the creature has successfully brainwashed and gained control of the children's minds. The lyrics in the song also go with the music video as the creature in the television is screaming throughout "I want your soul…I'll eat your soul…Come to daddy" this is repeated over and over which could resemble the brainwashing of the children.

'Rubber Johnny' - Chris Cunningham - 2005

'Rubber Johnny' is a six minute experimental short film and music video using music composed by Aphex Twin. The name 'Rubber Johnny' is a British slang word for condom, as well as a description of the main character, which explains the title sequence.

The concept for 'Rubber Johnny' came from Cunningham imagining a raver morphing as he danced. The idea evolved to the present film, in which Johnny (played by Cunningham) is an isolated deformed (possibly hydrocephalic) teenager kept on a wheelchair and locked in a dark basement with his Chihuahua. The film was shot in infrared night vision on digital video.

Still from 'Rubber Johnny'

The video starts out with a blinking fluorescent light, then shows a mouse crawling over a press-sticker credit followed by the title, 'Rubber Johnny' which written on a condom is played backwards being pulled of a penis. Johnny is first seen leaning backwards in his wheelchair with his oversized head hanging over the back of it. Johnny mutters distortedly which begins the Aphex Twin track and Johnny begins to rhythmically follow it, while his dog watches. His dancing involves him performing balancing tricks with his wheelchair and deflecting light beams with his hands as he dances. During his dancing the editing jump cuts between many numbers of shots making Johnny quickly change distance to the camera and position etc., creating a very manic scene full of movement and energy.

Concept art for 'Rubber Johnny' created by Chris Cunningham

A door then opens and Johnny is interrupted by someone who appears to be his father. During this, Johnny is out of his delusion and is shown sitting upright in the wheelchair, turning to look, his father yells and swears at him unintelligibly and then slams the door again.

Johnny is then seen inhaling a large line of white powder and with this the video then becomes even more erratic and delusional along with Johnny's morphing becoming more extreme and graphic. The music becomes more spasmodic remix of the previous tune and Johnny now hides behind a door, avoiding the white light beam that he previously was deflecting with his hands. Towards the end of the video we see what appears to be Johnny getting his face smashed at high speed into a piece of glass a number of times, with the camera filming from the other side so that the elastic-like skin and even some innards can be seen flattening out onto the glass every time. This was created using prosthetic-based special effects rather than digital morphing which became a more popular and easier technique during the time of video release.

Still taken from 'Rubber Johnny'

After a while Johnny is interrupted a second time by his yelling father, after which the video ends with Johnny, once again, reclining back in his wheelchair and babbling at his Chihuahua.