I remember laughing my ass off with the original release thinking, "They can't be serious?" with these facial animations. They are bad. But, you are spot on, it looks way weirder with "improved realistic" head models because of how hilarously terrible the animation team did with the expressions and lip syncing.
Holy shit, I forgot about that.
I remember watching so much about Alan Wake before it went dark. I remember just being impressed by the tech demo's. People sleep on Remedy's tech chops, seems they forgot that they were integral in the PC benchmarking scene getting started. It
kind of was impressive tech wise when it released on 360, but it wasn't the showpiece it would have been had it released 3 or 4 years earlier.
I
happened to be in a Twin Peaks marathon and Alan Wake hit at such a perfect moment for me, but yeah, a big departure from the original.