Stopmotion — Stopmotion( Blu Ray)
Stopmotion is a British horror film from last year regarding a twenty-something stop-motion animator who is struggling after her overbearing mother is taken ill. It mixes a pervading sense of unease/disquiet, with ghoulish effects, grim fantasy traces, some effective moments of fear/ dread, and a good enough cast who sell the whole thing well enough. Here from Acorn Media International is a new Blu-ray release of the film- taking in a selection of extras.
Stopmotion was directed/ co-written by Robart Morgan. He has a total of nineteen director credits- though this is his feature-length debut. His other credits are shorts, anthology episodes, etc- such as the animated drama The Man in the Lower-Left Hand Corner of the Photograph(1997), sub-human creature-led horror Bobby Yeah ( 2011), and Tomorrow I Will Be Dirt ( 2019) which an authorized, stop-motion sequel to Jörg Buttgereit's 1993 film Schramm.
The film revolves around Ella Blake(Aisling Franciosi) she lives & works with her mother Suzanne( Suzane Blake) in a shadowy and grim house. Suzanne is a respected stop motion artist- though in recent years her health has declined, with her hands- which of course are key tools, becoming near useless claws. So Ella is key to making films for her mother, and the one they are working on regards a one-eyed female Minotaur. Suzanne is frankly horrid to her daughter- constantly belittling/talking down to her.
She has a few friends including neatly bearded Tom( Tom York). Around twenty or so minutes into the film Suzanne collapses & is taken to hospital, and this sees the pair being kicked out of their house. So Ella takes an apartment in a seemingly abandoned ready-to-knock-down block- whose only occupant is a curious if rather strange ten-year-old little girl(Caoilinn Springall) who befriends Ella.
As the film unfolds the little girl suggests a new stop-motion project for Ella- regarding a girl lost in some woods. And from here her sanity starts to rather waver, with the first troubling sign of this being her wanting to use chopped-up meat to build her puppets.
The tone is largely grey 'n' grim- underfed by a feel of ghoulish fantasy. As the film moves on it certainly becomes both more unsettling, and at points fairly gruelling gory- so if you have issues with self-mutilation/ cutting be aware there is a fair bit of this later on.
Acting-wise Blake is good/ believable shifting from a downbeat/ belittled to focused if troubled, to decidedly unhinged & unpredictable. The surrounding cast is good enough- save York, who is a little one-dimensional at times, with honourable mentions going to Therica Wilson-Read as the smugly backstabbing Polly.
Unlike a lot of modern films Stopmotion rolls in a more normally/ manageable runtime of one hour and thirty-three minutes- with the film largely keeping one's attention, as it first pulls into the subtle uneasy- which is effectively built before the more freaky/ disturbing content is revealed. All moving towards a grim & downbeat resolve.
On the extras side, we get two interviews- one with actress Aisling Franciosi(4.15) and one with director Robart Morgan( 9.35)- these are fairly standard interviews, but we get to learn a few worthy bits & bobs of information. There’s behind-the-scenes footage( 9.26) which takes in some of the neat effects & general behind-the-scenes stuff.
Stopmotion is certainly one of the more original horror films in recent memory- with the mix of normal footage & stop motion being most distinctive. I’ll certainly be keeping an eye on what Morgan does next, as he is a most promising talent.