"What are you doing? Can you not talk to me?"
An 8 episode claymation web animation series, Hamster Hell is about a boy who takes care of his hamsters while keeping them under his bed, hiding them from his family. Sounds like it could be cute, right?Nope.
Hamster Hell is an adult horror series made by Lee Hardcastle, who is known for making adult claymation videos. The first episode of the series, Arrival, aired on October 5th, 2011. Episodes started airing without a regular schedule, but were released every 3 to 4 weeks on average. The final episode, Death, aired on March 8th, 2012. A full compilation was released a few months after, in June 12th, 2012.
The whole series playlist can be found here
, or you can watch the normal compilation, which is here.
This show provides examples of:
- Adaptational Heroism: Heroism may be a bit of a stretch, but in the compilated version with no voiced lines for the hamsters, the grey hamster looks more like a regular hamster acting purely out of instinct (mating with the orange hamster in chapter 2 and eating her to preserve his own life in chapter 8) instead of a straight jerkass.
- Ambiguous Gender: If you only watched the compilated series where the hamsters' voiced lines are removed and we only get a Rape Discretion Shot in chapter 2, you could be forgiven for not being aware of the hamsters' genders until chapter 6.
- Big Bad: In the original version, both the kid and the grey hamster, though the grey hamster to a bigger extent. In the compilation, the kid's role as a villain is solidified while the villainy of the grey hamster is downplayed.
- Black Comedy Rape: Done by the grey hamster in episode 2, Wife.
- Cerebus Syndrome: This series drops any possibility of it being anything other than horrifying by episode 2, after the orange hamster is raped. It somehow gets worse.
- Death Trap: If the orange hamster's nightmare is anything to go by, the Death Coaster.
- Destination Defenestration: The grey hamster gets thrown out of the window by the enraged kid after devouring the orange hamster in the finale.
- Downer Ending: The series ends with the gray hamster eating the orange hamster, followed by the boy throwing the gray hamster out the window and crying.
- Gory Discretion Shot:
- Heavily averted, especially in the final episode when the orange hamster is eaten. The closest we get is a blur on something that... isn't blood.
- Downplayed at the end of chapter 6, when the orange hamster eats her own babies. The babies appear as a fast food meal in front of the orange hamster, but the real image is shown when she finishes eating the last one.
- Gratuitous French: The grey hamster, of all the characters, in the final episode of the original version while he's falling to his death:Grey hamster: In France, they have a saying: "C'est la vie". It means, "that is life".
- Hell Is That Noise: Any time the hamsters squeak, it's usually an indicator that something has gone wrong... or that something will go wrong.
- I'm a Humanitarian: The orange hamster with her babies, and the grey hamster with the orange hamster. Sadly Truth in Television for real life hamsters.
- Jerkass Has a Point: The grey hamster warns the orange hamster to not try to escape, as it will make their situation worse. The orange hamster escapes their cage anyway, and is caught even before leaving the kid's bedroom. This leads to both hamsters being put into a lunchbox without any air holes.
- Lethally Stupid: "Do not touch the baby hamsters. If you do, the mother will eat them." The kid does it anyways, because they're cool.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Debatable on villain, but the kid puts the orange hamster through the G-Force before putting it through the Death Coaster. Then the orange hamster gets too sick to ride the Death Coaster, and if the nightmare in the next episode is anything to go by, the orange hamster is definitely lucky.
- Nightmare Sequence: Episode 4 begins with one of these, where the orange hamster is killed in the Death Coaster from the previous episode. This is what prompts her to attempt an escape.
- No Name Given: If any of the hamsters even had names, the audience never learns them. The kid also remains unnamed throughout all eight chapters.
- Offing the Offspring: The orange hamster eats her own babies at the end of chapter 6.
- Precision F-Strike: After episode 4, this becomes almost everything the kid says.
- Red Herring: The Death Coaster is shown in the climax of episode 3 and is what killed the orange hamster in episode 4's Nightmare Sequence. Sounds like it'll be something important later, right? Well, it's destroyed at the beginning of episode 5 without any of the hamsters ever having touched it.
- Suddenly Speaking: While always voiced, if you've only seen the edited compilation, it can come as a shock when the hamsters start talking to each other at the end of the first episode.
- The Unintelligible: Downplayed with the kid's mother. All her spoken lines are gibberish, but her son understands what she says just fine.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: The kid. He almost kills his hamsters, puts them into a lunchbox without any air holes, and even throws the grey one out of a window in the final episode, but he feels legitimate remorse when he almost kills his hamsters in episode 5 and starts crying on the bed whenever he messes up.
Tropes that can be found in the sequel (Hamster Hell 2):
- Ambiguous Gender: Miss Cupcake is given a feminine name, but Waldo and his wife frequently refer to the hamster by using masculine pronouns. This is an indicator that they care so little about Miss Cupcake as a pet that they can't even be bothered to keep the hamster's gender straight, and probably they don't even know for sure if Miss Cupcake is really female or male.
- Animal Lover: Zigzagged with Waldo's wife. She hates Miss Cupcake at first, claiming that she wants to live in a clean house, and Waldo convinces her of letting him keep the hamster because of their potential to make viral online videos that could make them rich. However, after Miss Cupcake is smashed by a bowling ball, she comes to think the deformed hamster is cute.
- The Bad Guy Wins: While Waldo gets rich, Miss Cupcake dies a gruesome death and it's heavily implied that Waldo will just buy a hamster that was selectively bred to look like Miss Cupcake to replace her and pretend that she never died, so he can keep making money with his online videos.
- Bad People Abuse Animals: While the kid in the original series is portrayed as a child that ultimately means well, although he knows close to nothing about raising hamsters, and that feels remorse when his shortcomings end up harming his hamsters, Waldo and his wife only seem to care about Miss Cupcake for the money she can potentially bring them, and don't particularly care about her as a pet. They mistreat her without any remorse, until she eventually dies a gruesome death in a stunt Waldo was filming.
- Big Bad: Waldo, and his wife to a lesser extent.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: As said above, the kid from the first series was a terrible owner, but he felt remorse when his actions ended up hurting his hamsters, and it could be argued that he ultimately meant well, but was unfit to be a hamster owner, due to his young age, lack of guidance (it's heavily implied that the kid's mother doesn't want pets in her home) and impulsiveness. In this sequel, however, Waldo and his wife are two grown adults that also happen to be repentless online clout-chasers that are willing to abuse a pet if it will make them rich and popular.
- Designer Babies: Played for horror. After Miss Cupcake dies, Waldo discovers that in Indonesia hamsters are being selectively bred to look like Miss Cupcake and people are actually buying these animals. Waldo plans on buying one to replace Miss Cupcake and pretend her death never happened.
- Eye Scream: Miss Cupcake ends up losing an eye to one of the traps of "Hamster Heaven", built by Waldo. Not that it matters much, because Miss Cupcake dies horribly seconds later.
- Gory Discretion Shot: Averted in the final chapter, that shows Miss Cupcake's death in graphic detail.
- Hipster: Waldo has a fashion sense that is commonly associated with hipsters.
- No Indoor Voice: Waldo's wife almost seems to be physically unable to express any thought or idea in a tone of voice that isn't deafening.
- No Name Given: Averted with the hamster, that is named Miss Cupcake in the first chapter, and we also learn that their owner is named Waldo. We never learn the name of Waldo's wife, however.
- Playing Possum: Miss Cupcake is shown doing this for an internet video.
- Rags to Riches: Waldo and his wife provide a villainous example. They get rich because of how popular Miss Cupcake becomes and because of all the merchandising they were able to sell. And in the final chapter it's left implied that Miss Cupcake's death won't stop them from getting richer, as Waldo is planning to buy a hamster that looks exactly like Miss Cupcake to pretend the original hamster never died.
- Replacement Goldfish: The final chapter provides a rather cruel example. After Miss Cupcake's death, Waldo discovers that someone bred hamsters that look like Miss Cupcake looked after the accident, and plans on buying one to pretend Miss Cupcake never died.
- Shout-Out: Waldo dresses Miss Cupcake like Harry Potter and Indiana Jones.
- Ugly Cute: In-universe, many people think Miss Cupcake's deformed face looks cute, even though for the most part she just seems to be in pain.
- Your Head A-Splode: How Miss Cupcake dies, as the result of an accidental electrocution due to Waldo's carelessness and neglect.
