STOPMOTION *** UK 2023 Dir: Robert Morgan. 93 mins
Stop-motion animation is a painful task that demands hours and hours of your time to mould your characters out of Tacky Wax and then photograph their every movement for a mere second of your film’s runtime. Stop-motion animation also demands patience from you to not crush these figures and burn your house down in this intricate process.
British director Robert Morgan’s ambitious animation/live-action hybrid Stopmotion exemplifies the gruelling routines of the craft, tapping into the psyche of a stop-motion animator who starts losing herself a bit too much in the process. Aisling Franciosi stars as Ella Blake, the daughter of a gifted veteran in stop-motion animation. After years of apprenticeship under her mother, Ella is determined to carve her own legacy in animation.
But when a mysterious girl in her new neighbourhood starts giving her ideas for her next animation project, Ella (and the viewer) go down a gut-wrenching abyss. What makes Morgan’s film instantly stand out is, of course, the director’s trademark style of grotesque animation. Complete with deformed figures, charred skin, and murmured squeals, the animation sequences are a nightmarish treat for midnight audiences. They make you squirm, frown, and at times, just close your eyes.
And yet Stopmotion doesn’t rely on its titular art for shock value. The Kafkaesque routine of an artist tapping into the darkest corners of her mind is poetically brought to the screen by Franciosi’s controlled performance and Aurora Vögeli’s razor-sharp editing that effortlessly flips between the real and the surreal. The movie ties up its multiple threads neatly in a 90-minute runtime, making you wish that it was a bit longer for more character exploration. Regardless of these yearnings, Stopmotion is impressive enough to rely on almost no cheap jump scares or surface-level exposition.
Morgan has directed many previous animated shorts, a prominent example included in the anthology The ABCs of Death 2. But with Stopmotion as his feature directorial debut, the BAFTA nominee has a bright future ahead in psychological horror. The visuals of Stop-Motion won’t give you nightmares. They are the stuff that nightmares are made of.
Review by Shaurya Thapa
STOPMOTION is out now on Blu-ray and DVD in the USA and is also available to rent/buy on Amazon Prime Video
STOPMOTION is also available to rent/buy on Amazon Prime Video in the UK
STOPMOTION is out now on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital in the UK from Acorn Media International