You!!!! Yes, you!
Are you a fan of Glitch Productions and it's independent animations?
Did you thoroughly enjoy The Gaslight District pilot?!?
Do you shiver with antici.....................................................................................pation at the thought of having to wait until a new episode is created and released?!?!
Would you like some possible recommendations of media that has subjectively similar vibes to various elements found in the pilot, so as to maybe take the edge off of this otherwise unbearable wait?!?!?
Well then look no further!!!!!!!
Because I'm the kind of benevolent dictator that uses their autistic pattern recognition for mostly benevolent ends, I am here to help alleviate the burden of wanting more of something that's only just been released!
So anyways without further ado, and with absolutely no order here is a brief list of some pieces of media that might interest you if you enjoyed the vibes that Gaslight District teased us with!
Do you like incredibly gross animation and post-apocalyptic settings with rust and rot in equal measures? Then might I recommend, this masterpiece of stop motion horror:
Phil Tippett's Mad God!!! Phil is one of the absolute GOATs of stop motion and this film is a passion project that was decades in the making! I had the incredible pleasure to see this on the big screen in theaters but it's still available to see on Shutter. Because it's a highly symbolic, emotional, and surrealist piece of art it's difficult to give any sort of plot summary and the film is ultimately more about the visuals and what they make you, the audience feel. Definitely don't watch this while drunk or stoned and please look up potential content / trigger warnings because there is a lot of very disturbing imagery, very very gross imagery although that element is something that's going to be shared with basically everything else on this list so I won't bring it up too many times, just do your due diligence as a media consumer.
Now Mad God is an example of stop motion animation but what if you were looking for something similarly post-apocalyptic but of a 3D animation style, the way Gaslight District is? Well then my recommendation is :
9! This 2005 science fiction horror / adventure post-apocalyptic film is based on an earlier animated short film and stars a cast of very interesting animated burlap dolls in an incredibly atmospheric story about the horrors of war and over industrialization, legacy and memory, and what it means to be given a life and what to do with it. Much like The Nightmare Before Christmas some people erroneously believe that Tim Burton directed this film but in fact he only helped produce it, and so it does have similar Gothic vibes to some of his work, but I definitely think it really stands out among other early 2000s Gothic animated films. Definitely not anywhere near as comedic as Gaslight but I'm recommending it for similar themes and elements of Resurrection, steampunk / diesel punk adjacent aesthetics, glowing neon green magic stuff going on, and the fact that it's 3D animated post-apocalyptism.
Now say you really enjoy the very specific combination of body horror and crass oftentimes vulgar humor, and let's say you also enjoy video games. If that's the case I think you should check out these two highly underrated PlayStation portable gems:
Dead Head Fred is a horror comedy action adventure with noir/police investigation elements and some really interesting and funny gameplay gimmicks that revolve around the titular characters headlessness! Endearingly charming undead characters is something both DHF and GD have in common. And the kind of messed up afterlife full of interesting but weird and physically deformed characters also brings to mind the Death Jr series of video games. That one is a little more child friendly especially the later games in this short lived series but not by much it's still far more geared towards the adult humor sensibilities that you find in The Gaslight District. These games are probably going to be very difficult to find physical copies of and obviously if you don't have a PlayStation portable and or a Wii then it will be even more inaccessible. But emulation is always an option and there are several fun let's plays on YouTube for both of these games so definitely recommend you check them out they are I think extremely underrated and overly obscure and wish that both had bigger fandoms here on this website.
Now say for the sake of argument you want more of the horror comedy vibes and the body horror but you're looking for more of a live action piece of media? Than look no further than one of the most iconic series of splatter films ever created:
This horror comedy spoof of superheroes is the definition of a classic and has a lot of cheesy and fun spin-off material as well. Ridiculous practical effects that are often so bad that you can't help but respect them anyways. Very over the top and the visuals for the characters make them seem like they would fit right in with our Rotlings. And with an upcoming reboot film here in the very near future it's a wonderful time to get into this franchise!
Okay okay, say you're not looking specifically for something that has the exact same level of Gore and body horror but has Gothic industrial aesthetics and dark cynical humor? And say you are looking to maybe check out some of the things that might have possibly influence the people who grew up to work in independent animation? I think a very good candidate to fulfill either of those appetites is :
The incomparable masterpieces of early 2000s weirdness that is the work of Jhonen Vasquez! Sure I imagine a very large portion of this website grew up watching Invader Zim but fewer people have enjoyed the particular grimy delights of Johnny The Homicidal Maniac. Invader Zim is one of those shows where it's never a bad time to have a rewatch, it's aged so well in my opinion. I also think that it's one of the greatest pieces of art satirizing American culture in the early 2000s and I don't think enough people acknowledge that fact. Seriously! Rewatch the show, really think about what it's saying, what it's showing, and then try and put that in the context of the Bush administration. It's a deeply deeply cynical and resentful piece of art that through its own weird playfulness and willingness to experiment comes across as very funny and amusing, and never overtly edgelordy.
All right, now this admittedly is going to be a more niche element of the Gaslight District's appeal. That being said however, do you like the noir elements that were apparent in the pilot? Do you find it interesting that our central characters are mobsters who cannot die and are wondering if there's any piece of fiction out there with a similar concept? There is! And it's called:
Baccano! A light novel and anime adaptation from author Ryohgo Narita, the story revolves around the lives and actions of Alchemists who have successfully created an elixir of immortality and the Mobsters who by chance of fate getting mixed up in their plots and shenanigans! Although not nearly as gruesome as some of the other entries on this recommendation list since the plot revolves around various immortals of different types with various limits to how much bodily harm they can endure, there are moments of pretty hyper violence, especially so in the visual format of the anime adaptation that you should be aware of. But those violent moments are often in the service of pretty fun fight scenes and overall the story revolves around the agendas of it's very colorful cast of characters and their various motivations. Narita's biggest strength as an author has always been his character writing and this series is no different. But yeah animated unkillable monsters is the main crossover appeal so that's why I'm listing it here.
And hey since I mentioned him earlier and there's also a lot of noisy animated birds flying around and eccentric dead people in it I might as well also recommend:
Simultaneously one of his most overlyhyped and most misunderstood/under appreciated pieces of work, this stop motion movie, and unfortunately uncredited adaptation of a Gothic Jewish folk story, directed by by Tim Burton is still to this day such a delightful little gem of cinematic puppetry. The various animated dead people in the afterlife and the multiple unique gimmicks of their decayed forms is sure to delight anyone who enjoys a man who's face is melted off or who has a butcher's knife constantly poking out of their skull, like we see in Gaslight. And like I said screeching creepy birds, although in this case it's crows rather than vultures but both are equally morbid and worthy of appreciation from a Gothic sensibility in my humble opinion.
All right that wraps up this little recommendation list for now, hopefully one or more of these pieces of fiction has caught your eye and helps you temporarily fill the Daddy Ken the Butcher shaped hole in your heart.
Feel free to reblog and or comment with further recommendations. And please feel free to ask me if I have any other pieces of media that I really like that I want to make similar lists for, because I already have so many ideas, and comparison is one of my favorite forms of media analysis since I believe that almost all art is constantly in a dialogue with every other piece of art that came before it!
