Come to Daddy is a 1997 EP by Richard D. James, AKA Aphex Twin. Nothing new here, but the video is scary as hell, well worth a re-visit and was positioned (by Channel 4 viewers) number 35 in 100 Greatest Scary Moments, 2003. It was also named the number one video of the 1990s by Pitchfork.
Directed by Chris Cunningham – an English music video film director – the video was shot on the very same council estate where Stanley Kubrick filmed A Clockwork Orange. The location – Tavy Bridge Shopping centre in Thamesmead – is now demolished and reportedly haunted by the ghosts of Alex DeLarge and AFX Twin’s demon children.
The video opens in a dark, dank and rapey estate. An elderly woman walks her stereotypically ‘nana’ dog – a huge, white bull mastiff. The beastly pooch pees on an old television, bringing it unexpectedly to life. This potent hard-man hound piss unleashes a rather unpleasant spirit. As if this wasn’t scary and unexpected enough, a gang of FUCKING SCARY children suddenly appear, all of whom bear James’s grinning face.
The children proceed to wreck the joint; power thrust; air – kung fu and trash an already trashed alley. An innocent bystander is chased – clearly shitting his pants – to his car. The pee demon (played by Al Stokes), fuelled by the fear of mortals (maybe) emerges from the television, screams rudely in the woman’s face and gathers (his?) children. Scary. In fact, the saying…”Oooh, I wouldn’t want to meet HIM down a dark ally”…well THIS guy takes it to a whole new level. He will, without a shadow of a doubt, definitely eat your soul.
FACT – To add even more creep factor, the video features a break consisting of a spine chilling song taken from Isopropophlex of Analogue Bubblebath. This isn’t in the original song.
