Interesting Character Design

The Other Mother, from "Coraline".

This is possibly the creepiest damn thing I've ever seen. Too long, too thin, with eyes that tell you that everything is wrong with this character. In "Coraline", the titular Coraline travels to a strange world, which contains parallel versions of her parents. Now, both of them are pretty creepy, but the Other Mother simply takes the cake, with her physical frame, the spiderlike way she moves, and those horrible eyes. Human beings, I have found, universally have a problem with eyes when they don't look right. Be they missing, or, like the Other Mother, not quite right, it's a quick and efficient way to make things seem just... Off. And this is long before the Other Mother starts becoming truly monstrous.

Jack Skellington, from "The Nightmare Before Christmas".

(As a side note, this is now my desktop image, in honour of Halloween) Jack is on here partially as an interesting comparison. With his long, thin frame, and spiderlike limbs, he is very similar to the Other Mother. Yet, where the Other Mother is terrifying, Jack is charming. I think this may be because, in the case of the Other Mother, her height and thinness are exaggerated, making her look more and more wrong. On Jack, he is tall and thin, but not exaggeratedly so. He is also far less sharp. The Other Mother's more monstrous forms are full of points and sharp edges, whereas Jack is much more rounded. A good look at his torso and head make this clear. While his limbs are long, his heart (or ribcage, rather) is a much softer shape. He also has large, round eyes, and a very expressive face (or skull, as the case may be). These make him look friendly and trusting, almost childlike in a way.

"Slayer", by Tim Biskup

This is another case of taking a creature that could be frightening, and making it charming. Again, this creature is rounded and softened, with it's single eye taking up the majority of it's face, making it look childlike. These simple techniques make it seem like an innocent, even when it has sharp teeth and a bloody axe. I'm not 100% sure, but I also think the same character is in the Pictarot, or at least one very similar. Perhaps it is a container character, used for many things with minimal changing?