Curses
is a Last Life SMP Fan Animation by chrisrin, set to the song of the same title by The Crane Wives.
It chronicles the story of the second season, Last Life, through the travels of the Boogeyman curse from one player to another over the 9-week run-time of the SMP, requiring the afflicted players to commit murder to rid themselves of the curse. Through it, it gives an overview of a story of betrayal and the fragility of friendships in the Life series.
Note: By the death-oriented nature of the source material, the spoiler policy follows that of the source material, i.e. all spoilers are off excluding those related to Martyn's "Eyes and Ears" continuity.
Curses contains examples of:
- Anachronic Order:
- The Day 2 and 3 Boogeyman kills are depicted back to back, but before moving straight on to Day 4, the animatic flashes back to a breather scene from the end of Day 2, where Martyn rushes to help Ren put out the fire in his tower.
- Pearl's "Boogey on the dance floor" kill on Ren on Day 9 is depicted first, which is immediately followed by Scott's dropping to his final life by refusing to kill anyone on Day 8, then him winning the season at the end of Day 9.
- Content Warnings: The animatic opens with one:Warning: This animation contains spoilers for the Last Life SMP and depicts scenes of death. Viewer Discretion is advised.
- Cradling Your Kill: Big B is seen holding a dying Cleo in his arms after he Boogey-kills her on Day 4, crying Tears of Remorse.
- Death Is Cheap: As everyone has multiple lives, characters who were seen brutally murdered can be seen walking around just fine mere scenes later, optionally only to get brutally murdered again. The only exception to this is Scott's final death at the end of the animatic shortly after his victory.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation: Downplayed.
- In the animatic, Etho's Boogey-kill on Scar on Day 5 is dramatized to him using a fishing rod to reel Scar up the pillar he's on, then slashing him in mid-air. In the Minecraftian source material, the kill is nowhere near as elegant, with Etho simply using the fishing rod to hook Scar up and deal some fall damage to him, then chasing after Scar to finish the job.
- In the source material, Scott gets killed by Grian using admin commands (/kill) after winning the season, with no in-universe explanation for this. The animatic incorporates Martyn's "Eyes and Ears" continuity and has the Watchers appear for a split-second to strike him down with a bolt of lightning, immediately followed by his final death message. What makes this downplayed is that Grian is also revealed to be a Watcher in Martyn's POV of Last Life, leaving it ambiguous to whether it was Grian or the sadistic god-like entities who run the series who dealt the final blow.
- Expressive Ears: In the Day 9 segment, Ren's dog ears droop down when he realizes he's trapped, mere moments before he's Boogey-killed.
- Eye Color Change: Whenever a player has the Boogeyman curse, their eyes gain a red tint and quickly turn red; when they commit murder to rid themselves of the curse, their eyes return to their original colour. This is most notably shown with Big B's eyes turning from red to brown after killing Cleo on Day 4, and Scott's eyes shifting suddenly from green (with him canonically using Color-Coded Eyes on his Minecraft skin) to red before shoving Impulse into his own trap on Day 6.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: There are a few split-second moments of foreshadowing moments before a Boogey kill happens in the animatic.
- In the Day 3 segment, Lizzie is seen doing a Lying Finger Cross to trick Pearl into falling for her trap to be killed.
- In the Day 4 segment, the Boogeyman curse-spirit can be seen floating near Ren, showing he has red eyes, before Skizz indeed starts falling "down, down, down" to his death from being Lured into a Trap.
- In the Day 6 segment, as Etho is pulling out a splash potion of poison to Boogey-kill someone in the crowd, Mumbo and Bdubs can be seen in the background with red eyes, with Mumbo holding a speckle of glowing purple in one hand. This hints at how both of them also carry the Boogeyman curse, and Mumbo being ready to summon an End crystal to kill someone moments later.
- Irony: The line "Won't you stay with me, my darling?" is always punctuated with a Boogeyman killing their loved one, with Big B killing his Day 1 ally Cleo the first time, and Joel killing his real-life wife Lizzie and running away the second time.
- Lying Finger Cross: On Day 3, Lizzie having Pearl Lured into a Trap to be Boogey-killed is given Five-Second Foreshadowing of her crossing her fingers behind her back, along with the Boogeyman curse drifting through the scene.
- Mickey Mousing: Inverted. The changing of scenes in the animatic follow the beats of the song it is set to, sometimes using the song's lyrics to indirectly narrate the animatic itself. Among many examples, the animatic ends with the line "Make a mercy out of me", which is set to Scott refusing to kill anyone as Boogeyman, i.e. choosing mercy over murder.
- A Molten Date with Death: A few of the Boogeyman deaths involve lava, with Scar upending a bucketful over Mumbo on Day 2 before going in for the kill, and Jimmy's lava trap submerging Lizzie on Day 6.
- Pit Trap: Several Boogeyman victims are depicted to die from falling into such traps, as per canon, with Skizz falling into Ren's on Day 4 and Impulse being shoved into his own trap from behind on Day 6.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Every player inflicted with the Boogeyman curse is given red eyes; since Etho already has one red eye by default, this is instead changed to his non-red eye turning red. Tango is the only aversion of this, having naturally red eyes, and though he goes into an Unstoppable Rage after Bdubs' betrayal, he never does any lasting harm on-screen.
- Red Is Violent: The Boogeyman curse takes the form of a red, soul wisp-like spirit that travels between players, causing their eyes to turn red and forcing them to commit murder.
- Stuff Blowing Up: The Day 7 Boogeyman kills (Tango and Big B), from both Martyn and Pearl, are illustrated side by side in that both were caused by explosives, followed by Pearl's explosive "Boogey on the dance floor" kill on Ren.
- Titled After the Song: Like most animatics, Curses is titled after the song to which it is set.
- Unstoppable Rage: As per canon, after Bdubs kills Tango in the Day 6 segment, Tango is seen respawning in bed, being filled with rage to the point of confronting his fellow B.E.S.T. ally over his actions.
