This practice-led thesis explores the ways in which a narrative can create a sense of the macabre, which instills the sense of fear of death, through an investigation of the relationship between illustration and typography. The research takes the traditional children’s folk tale Little Red Riding Hood as a reference for this investigation.

The research invites a rethinking of the notion of the narrative through an examination of the relationship between static and moving image developed through an illustrative and typographical short animation. It also questions the potential of how illustration and typography interact within a children’s folk tale as part of the visual narrative, and how these elements can add a subliminal component to the static animation. Contradictions between text and image is a re-occurring theme within this thesis as the idea of pairing something threatening with something nonthreatening can also help in imprinting an unsettled or disturbed feeling in the viewer.

This thesis also explores the idea of the psychoanalytic gaze, and how ideas put forth through the narratology code help to develop the sense of the macabre through story telling techniques and camera movement. The combination of these elements raise questions and provoke a rethinking of a cherished childhood folk tale.