Line #34 WebAnimation/MoonRaven


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/moon_raven_6015.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:Scary stories to view in the dark.]]
3
4	Moon Raven is a now-retired Website/YouTube-based creator of computer-animated horror shorts, most notably adaptations of stories from the ''Literature/ScaryStoriesToTellInTheDark'' book series. The adaptions of the books premiered in February 2009, with original adaptations of more contemporary [[{{Creepypasta}} creepypastas]] (usually of Raven's own creation, although other authors were featured occasionally) appearing in July 2012.
5
6	Despite the "animation" descriptor, most of Moon Raven's videos tend to be collections of CGI-rendered still images (although occasional animation does show up).
7
8	Viewers seem to be split between people who find the adaptations to be cheap-looking and {{narm}}y, and people who think they are good adaptations whose scariness factor is actually improved by the aforementioned minimalistic production quirks.
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10	After almost a decade of making videos, on August 9, 2018, Moon Raven posted her fiftieth and final animation, [[https://youtu.be/l0YUPgSpHdY "The Heartless and the Wicked"]]. The video was delayed for over a year, stuck in DevelopmentHell due to her battle with an undisclosed illness. Accompanying the video was a heartfelt message to longtime viewers and fans thanking them for their support over the years and explaining that she was retiring the series to focus on living with her illness. Reactions were suitably thankful.
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12	In December 2019, the channels were taken down for violating Website/YouTube's policies, but Moon Raven and [[WebVideo/ChillingTalesforDarkNights Chilling Tales for Dark Nights]] announced they were working to get the videos archived on the latter's website.
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14	With the channels now gone, [[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt3DM4xrt--5ohW2uBzhzwg you can find some re-uploads of the videos here]]. For a complete collection of Raven's work, check out [[https://www.youtube.com/user/2apocalypsex this channel]] that has managed to archive practically every video.
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17
18	!!Tropes associated with Moon Raven's animations:
19
20	* AnimalisticAbomination:
21	** The Hobyahs, which look like little green devils.
22	** The Rainbow Cat, with its multicolored fur and haggard appearance.
23	** Mr. Widemouth is described as looking like a Furby, except for his [[SlasherSmile impossibly wide grin]].
24	** The creature from "The Tailypo", which looks like some mutated, half-rotting, rabid dog that can speak.
25	* AlphaBitch: The protagonist of "The Second Stall". She gets what's coming to her.
26	* AmbiguouslyEvil: The relator and the titular cat in "The Rainbow Cat". While they never do anything explicitly evil, their actions are unnerving and suspicious at best.
27	* AntagonistTitle: "Xanadu Beyond Beyond", "Shavis Cravis".
28	* ArtifactOfDeath: The titular record in "The Black Record".
29	* AssholeVictim:
30	** [[spoiler: Michelle]] from "The Second Stall"
31	** [[spoiler: Megan's parents]] from "The Hobyahs".
32	** [[spoiler: Smila]] in "Did You Hear Something".
33	** [[spoiler: Victor]] in "The Bullet That Found Its Mark".
34	** For some, [[spoiler: Gilda]] in "The Hour of Darkness".
35	* AxCrazy:
36	** Reiko from "Kimyona Sekai" is clearly suffering from some form of mental illness.
37	** Shavis Cravis doesn't seem right in the head.
38	--> '''Shavis Cravis:''' You can't eat chestnuts when you're dead. You can't eat anything when you're dead. You can't breath. Being dead ''hurts''. '''But being dead has never stopped Shavis Cravis from harming children.''' '''''Nothing will ever stop Shavis Cravis.'''''
39	* BadPeopleAbuseAnimals:
40	** The killer in "The Intruder" brutally slaughters Beth's dog and leaves it in her bathroom sink to find when she wakes up.
41	** Tara in "The Frog" kicks at one and even stomps its spawn to death. [[ForcedTransformation This later gets her turned into a frog]].
42	* BadSanta: "Hello Santa!" An obviously mentally deranged guy tricks a little girl into believing he's Santa, and kills her parents before kidnapping the girl.
43	* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: The farmer in "Man-Eater" has too much cattle and wishes for way to be able to eat more of them. His wife later gives birth to a son that has an endless appetite...[[spoiler: so much so that after he's eaten all the cattle, he moves to humans]].
44	* BewitchedAmphibians: After Tara is turned into a frog in "The Frog", she has to wait for a curious boy from her school to kiss her before she can turn back.
45	* BigEater: The wife in "Man-Eater" while she's pregnant. She later gives birth to a monstrous son that has an incurable appetite.
46	* BloodyHorror:
47	** In "The Intruder" we are given a very graphic shot of [[spoiler: Beth's dog ripped open from stomach to neck]].
48	** [[spoiler: Valarie]] in "Aren't You Glad You Didn't Turn On the Light" has her throat slit rather brutally.
49	** In "The Wobi Wobi", we're treated to a very detailed shot of the creature crushing [[spoiler: Ray's]] head.
50	** The titular actress in "A Bad Encounter with an Actress at a Casting Agency" bites her own tongue off, splattering herself and the protagonist in blood.
51	* BodyInABreadbox:
52	** That strange scent the couple in "The Surprise Roommate" can smell in their Las Vegas hotel room but can't find the source of? [[spoiler: It's a rotting body hidden in the mattress.]]
53	** The titular stranger in the alley in "The Stranger" turns out to be [[spoiler: a dead body tied to a pole with barbed wire]].
54	* BreakTheHaughty: [[CreepyChild Reiko]] from "Kimyona Sekai" goes through this ''hardcore''. First, she [[spoiler: witnesses Kayako brutally kill Matsumi, Hoshi, and Koji. Then, just when it appears she's reached safety, she goes into a bathroom and runs into Kuchisake-onna...]].
55	* TheBully: Jun and Emiko from "Kimyona Sekai".
56	* CallingCard: The serial killer in "Smiley Faces" loves drawing them ons his victims with blood.
57	* TheCallsAreComingFromInsideTheHouse: The whole premise of "Did You Check the Children".
58	* ChekhovsGunman: The hunter that buys Ghengis in "The Hobyahs" [[spoiler: helps Megan kill the creatures and even adopts her after they kill her parents]].
59	* CruelAndUnusualDeath:
60	** [[spoiler: Michelle]] in "The Second Stall" gets her face ripped off.
61	** [[spoiler: Yumiko]] in "TEK TEK" [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe gets ripped in half by a vengeful ghost]].
62	** [[spoiler: Gilda]] in "The Hour of Darkness" gets DraggedOffToHell by the ghost of a child murderer.
63	* CurtainCamouflage: The realtor in "The Rainbow Cat" hides behind some curtains. At least, [[NothingIsScarier we're assuming that was the relator behind the curtains...]]
64	* CuteMonsterGirl: The protagonist of the remake of "The Slithery Dee" appears as a blue-skinned elf-like girl with pink hair. It's implied that the setting takes place on another planet.
65	* CreepyDoll: "The Staring Doll", obviously.
66	* CryptidEpisode:
67	** "The Wobi Wobi" focuses on an alleged lake monster at a summer camp and three boys arguing over whether or not it's real. [[spoiler: It is, but it doesn't live in the lake...]]
68	** "Kimyona Sekai" is one, though it deals with ghosts.
69	* DeadAllAlong:
70	** [[spoiler: Everyone in]] "The House on 47th Street".
71	** [[spoiler: Nick]] in "The New Neighbor".
72	** [[spoiler: The man in the alley]] in "The Stranger".
73	* DeathByGenreSavviness: [[spoiler:Mai]] in “TEK TEK” is unnerved of the derelict trainyard that [[spoiler:Uniko]] insists that they explore as part of a project, even with the tale of an undead girl who stalks there after being killed by a train. And when she hears a strange “TEK TEK” sound, her friend insists that it’s probably nothing. [[spoiler:It turns out to be the undead girl clicking her teeth together, who comes out from behind a corner preparing to attack. Uniko is freaked out and makes a mad run for it, but Mai is shocked to be right all along, which gives the undead girl enough time to launch herself on her and rip her to shreds]].
74	* DeathByIrony: The dead woman in "I've Got You!" murders Mrs. Thompson's husband by dragging him under the ground. In the sequel "I've Still Got You!" the dead woman is killed ''again'' herself by being dragged under the ground by the ghost of Mrs. Thompson's great-grandmother.
75	* DepravedBisexual: Implied on [[spoiler: Dawn]] from "The Second Stall". She's apparently so stir-crazy that she [[spoiler: [[FaceStealer rips her friend's face off.]]]]
76	* DesignatedBullet: "The Bullet That Found Its Mark". Two men get in an argument and one kills the other with an axe, but not before he manages to shoot a bullet into a nearby tree. Years later, [[spoiler: when the man goes to blow down the tree with dynamite, the explosion sends the old bullet ricocheting right into his head]].
77	* DraggedOffToHell:
78	** We're assuming this is what happens to the protagonist of [[spoiler: "The Black Record"]].
79	** [[spoiler: Gilda]] in "The Hour of Darkness" is caught by [[spoiler: Shavis Cravis]] and dragged into the ground.
80	* DrivenToSuicide:
81	** Kayako from "Kimyona Sekai". [[spoiler:This causes her to become an onryo ghost.]]
82	** [[spoiler: Jennifer]] in "Blue Eyes". [[spoiler: It's a part of a scheme to leave behind a corpse so twisted and bloody to cause her sister to rip her own eyes out]].
83	** [[spoiler: Adam]] in "A Cry in the Darkness". [[spoiler: After finding out his fiance has died, he throws himself off a bridge. Too bad she never actually died...]]
84	* EatenAlive: Happens to the man in "Nothing There". All that the ghost leaves behind is his head.
85	* EyeScream: The sight of [[spoiler: her sister's eviscerated corpse]] in "Blue Eyes" causes [[spoiler: Sarah to tear her own eyes out]].
86	* FaceStealer: "The Second Stall".
87	* FantasyKitchenSink: The "Legendary Beasts" series. Claire is chased by a goblin, a griffin, and a leviathan. In addition, [[ForcedTransformation She transforms into both a harpy and a mermaid]].
88	* ForcedTransformation:
89	** Claire in the "Legendary Beasts" series gets turned into a harpy and a mermaid.
90	** Tara in "The Frog" is turned into one for killing some spawn. Luckily, she turns back at the end with the help of a kiss.
91	* GoMadFromTheRevelation: After the actress in "A Bad Encounter with an Actress at a Casting Agency" realizes that she'll never be famous and end up homeless and poor, she goes crazy, bites her own tongue off, and is taken to a psychiatric ward.
92	* GoodAllAlong: The creature with the red skull in the "Legendary Beasts" series. The injection he gives Claire while she sleeps gives her powers that allow her to escape the creatures coming after her.
93	* TheGhost: Whalem Balem in "Whalem Balem". Each successive monster that terrorizes the preacher asks if he's going to wait until Whalem Balem comes. After the last creature's inquiry he yells "Nope!" and runs away from the cabin, meaning we never get to find out who or what he is.
94	* GlasgowGrin: The antagonist of "Kuchisake-onna" sports one.
95	* {{Gorn}}: "Kimyona Sekai" is by far Moon Raven's goriest video, [[spoiler:complete with a ghost disemboweling multiple people and eating their intestines as they bleed everywhere and scream. One death is even punctuated with gurgling noises as the gravely wounded person bleeds out.]]
96	* HalfTheManHeUsedToBe:
97	** [[spoiler:Koji from "Kimyona Sekai".]]
98	** The antagonist of "TEK TEK".
99	* HeroicDog: Ghengis in "The Hobyahs" saves Megan from drowning, rescues her from a creepy man that tries to kidnap her, and [[spoiler: kills the Hobyahs after they take her prisoner]].
100	* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Smila in "Did You Hear Something" is tired of her boyfriends leaving her because she's a bossy nag, so she marries a man with hearing problems that she can boss around all day. [[spoiler: When she chokes on a fish bone while getting a midnight snack, he is unable to hear her calls for help from downstairs and she dies]].
101	* HollywoodSatanism: [[spoiler: The priest]] in "The Haunted Church" is a practitioner, complete with [[RedEyesTakeWarning red-eyed demons]] and a satanic spellbook.
102	* HumanoidAbomination: Kyle in "The Outsider".
103	* ImAHumanitarian: "Wonderful Sausage", "Shavis Cravis", "Man-Eater", "Xanadu Beyond Beyond", "Kimyona Sekai".
104	* TheInsomniac: Henry in "The Stranger" can't fall asleep; this is only made worse by the creepy man standing in the alley outside his window. [[spoiler: After he finds out the man is dead and tied to a pole with barbed wire, it's unlikely he'll ever sleep again...]]
105	* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler: Charlie]] from "The Wobi Wobi", who's an insufferable know-it-all that has to be right all the time. [[spoiler: It's his open-minded friends that get killed by the creature, and he just stares there dumbfounded at being so wrong]].
106	* KidHero: The kids Ashley is babysitting in "The Clown Statue" jump up and help her fight off the story's antagonist when it attacks her.
107	* LaserGuidedKarma: A few, though none more literal than "The Bullet That Found Its Mark".
108	* LargeHam:
109	** The guy who does most of the ''Scary Stories'' shorts. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hp8jg1FSOf4&list=UUgSr_FbsyTxcvazMJqb1YgQ Observe.]]
110	** Frequent narrator KM Sumrall just loves ChewingTheScenery. Best seen in [[https://youtu.be/WslxmfPPBTM "The Intruder"]], which he ends with a ridiculously over-the-top EvilLaugh.
111	* LimitedAnimation: When there's any animation at all (which is a rare treat to be sure), it's mostly this.
112	* MadwomanInTheAttic: Happens to [[spoiler: Mel]] in "A Cry in the Darkness". [[spoiler: After she refuses to not marry the man her mother disapproves of, she is locked in a windowless room for twenty-five years and only fed bread and water, while her family claims that she died]].
113	* MegaNeko: One of the creatures that terrorizes the preacher in "Whalem Balem" is a gigantic jet-black saber-toothed cat.
114	* MindScrew:
115	** True to the source material, "The Man Who Lived in Leeds". Also, some others like "The Rainbow Cat".
116	** "The House on 47th Street". Two boys travel back in time [[spoiler: and one of them dies, his death becoming a famous unsolved crime]].
117	** "The Black Cat". A girl visiting her grandmother is warned by her parents to not follow a black cat she sees outside her window. She does so one night and [[spoiler: comes upon a field, where puppet arms come out of the ground and bind her before a man with red eyes kills her. The field then fills up with daisies, covering both her body and the man, and then she goes to heaven]].
118	* MonsterClown: One appears in "The Clown Statue", naturally.
119	* MoodWhiplash: "Xanadu Beyond Beyond" for the most part is light-hearted and humorous, then [[spoiler: the titular space alien bites the head off of the cat and kidnaps the children with the intent of eating them alive]].
120	* MundaneGhostStory: "Hello, Santa!", "The Clown Statue", "The Second Stall", "The Surprise Roommate", "Did You Hear Something", "The Bullet That Found Its Mark", "The Stranger", "Backwoods Shack", "The Intruder", "Smiley Faces", "Did You Check the Children", "Blue Eyes", "Aren't You Glad You Didn't Turn on the Light", "A Cry in the Darkness", and "A Bad Encounter with an Actress at a Casting Agency".
121	* MummiesAtTheDinnerTable: "Backwoods Shack". Of course, there is some disparity between the visuals and the narration here. The narration describes something akin to Ed Gein's "interior decorations," but the video just shows some rather tame skeletons lying around and a shirt which may or may not be made from human skin.
122	* NeverFoundTheBody:
123	** The victims of Shavis Cravis are never able to be located. Not even their remains can be found
124	** After being shot by John in "Backwoods Shack", presumed SerialKiller Alan stumbles off into the woods. Though the rangers in town are unable to locate his body, they just assume he died of his wounds and leave it at that. [[spoiler: This comes back to bite John weeks later after it turns out Alan survived being shot and he kills him]].
125	* NeverTrustATitle: "The Wobi Wobi" sets us up with a campfire legend about a monster in a lake. [[spoiler: It turns out the creature doesn't live in the lake, but in the woods beside it]].
126	* NightmareFace:
127	** The creature with the rust-red skull for a head in the "Legendary Beasts" series.
128	** Shavis Cravis with his white eyes and pasty skin.
129	** Mr. Widemouth, with his bat-like ears, gigantic eyes, and [[SlasherSmile impossibly wide grin]].
130	* NobodyHereButUsStatues: In true horror fashion, the clown Ashley thinks is a statue in "The Clown Statue" turns out to be real.
131	* NonAnswer: Henry in "The New Wife" evades all of his friend's questions about the strange woman they see in his car only a month after his wife's death. [[spoiler: It's the corpse of his wife that he takes everywhere he goes.]]
132	* NothingIsScarier:
133	** "The Rainbow Cat". Don't expect any kind of explanation for the story's creepy events.
134	** "The Stranger". It's never explained [[spoiler: who killed the man in the alley and tied his body to the pole with barbed wire]].
135	** "Aren't You Glad You Didn't Turn on the Light". Valarie [[spoiler: is killed by a murderer in her room while her roommate Jenny and Jenny's boyfriend sleep in the living room]].
136	* OneSteveLimit: Jessica in "The New Neighbor" is horrified to learn that she shares the name of [[spoiler: the dead wife of the ghost of her neighbor, Nick. It was her untimely death that caused him to commit suicide]].
137	* OnlySaneMan: Yumiko in "TEK TEK", who tries to avoid the haunted trainyard like the plague. [[spoiler: Her friend eventually drags her there and she winds up killed by the ghost.]]
138	* OurVampiresAreDifferent: The creature from "The Window" is implied to have been a vampire.
139	* OutOfTheFryingPan:
140	** The main character in "Kuchisake-onna" escapes from a potentially violent homeless man....only to find an even greater danger in the bathroom she ducks into to hide...
141	** [[spoiler:In "Kimyona Sekai", Reiko is the only one to survive the encounter with Kayako, only to encounter Kuchisake-onna later on.]]
142	* ParentalFavoritism: The parents' better treatment of one of their daughters over the other in "Blue Eyes" leads to [[spoiler: the former gouging her own eyes out and the latter to commit suicide]].
143	* PoliceAreUseless: The officers in "Smiley Faces" apparently don't think it's a good idea to tell a woman that her new house used to be the den of a serial killer. Even after she wakes up one morning to find smiley faces painted in blood all over her walls, they just send a patrol car to cruise the house once at night. [[spoiler: Is it any wonder she gets violently killed right under their noses?]]
144	* PsychoLesbian: Possibly [[spoiler:Dawn]] from "The Second Stall", seeing as she's implied to have been [[AlphaBitch Michelle's]] stalker and later [[spoiler:rips off her face because she finds it so beautiful]].
145	* ReplacedTheThemeTune: The first few animations featured [[LonelyPianoPiece a somber, piano-driven piece]] as the theme music. This was later replaced with a sinister choir-lead one, only for that to be replaced in turn with a mellow guitar tune. Starting with "Nothing There" the theme was changed finally to an Irish-flavored instrumental with fiddles and flutes, which remained as the intro music until Moon Raven's retiring.
146	* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: In "Kimyona Sekai", Reiko winds up on the receiving end of one from Matsumi.
147	--> '''Matsumi:''' [[spoiler:That's enough! You're not right, do you realize that, Reiko? You've got something SEVERELY wrong with you! I mean you eat BUGS. You carry SKELETONS around in your backpack?! And we're all here because you want to capture the ghost of a girl who died LONG before we were born. To take her home as a PET, no less? You belong in an insane asylum, you psychopath!]]
148	* RedEyesTakeWarning: The antagonists of "The Outisder" and "The Haunted Church" each sport a pair.
149	* SeaMonster: The Wobi Wobi, of the lake monster variant. [[spoiler:Except it's not]].
150	** The titular monster from "The Slithery Dee" is one that resembles a giant anglerfish.
151	* SkullForAHead: The antagonist of "TEK TEK."
152	* StealthSequel: [[spoiler: "The Hour of Darkness"]] to "Shavis Cravis".
153	* SnakesAreSinister: A giant horned snake from the depths of hell terrorizes the preacher in "Whalem Balem".
154	* TheSociopath: Reiko from "Kimyona Sekai".
155	* TalkingAnimal:
156	** Both the titular beasts from "Mr. Widemouth" and "The Frog".
157	** The creature from "The Tailypo".
158	* TooDumbToLive:
159	** Mei in "TEK TEK", who insists on exploring a haunted trainyard where a girl died twenty years before. [[spoiler: In a subversion, it's her smart friend that she takes with her that is killed by the ghost]].
160	** Gilda in "The Hour of Darkness". [[spoiler: Maybe it's not such a good idea to taunt the ghost of a child murderer and remind him that he's dead]].
161	** Sarah in "Did You Check the Children". [[spoiler: Even after the man keeps calling and telling her to check on the children, she doesn't. When she finally goes upstairs after calling the police, he's waiting]].
162	** Benjamin in "The Tailypo" decides to eat the tail he shot off of a strange creature he doesn't recognize. [[spoiler: The creature comes back to collect its tail later on...]]
163	* VengefulGhost:
164	** The dead girl in "TEK TEK" is ''not'' happy that she was killed by [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe being sawed in half by a train]]. She seeks out the living to give them her fate.
165	** The dead in woman in "I've Got You!" and "I've Still Got You!" spends her days searching for her missing son, killing anyone she runs into that can't give him to her.
166	* WeaksauceWeakness: Shavis Cravis just ''loves'' roasted chestnuts.
167	* WhyWontYouDie: Uttered word for word by the father in "The Outsider" after his bullets have no effect on the story's antagonist.
168	* WouldHurtAChild:
169	** Shavis Cravis. He murders children, eats them, makes utensils out of their bones, and uses their skin to make clothes and furniture.
170	** Mr. Widemouth. He tells the story's protagonist to jump out a two-story window with an imaginary trampoline at the bottom, tries to get him to juggle knives, and almost takes him to a children cemetery.
171	** The creature from "The Wobi Wobi", which doesn't have any trouble slaughtering [[spoiler: Ray and Dennis]].
172	** Xanadu.
173	** Kayako.
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Context WebAnimation / MoonRaven