Stop Motion: An Animation-themed Horror Movie
We love stop-motion animation here at AFA Towers. But not everyone feels the same. Some people find it to be innately creepy, often as they feel it skirts the uncanny valley. It's probably such a feeling that has inspired the new movie Stop Motion, a British live-action/animated horror film.
The film is directed by Robert Morgan, a filmmaker with several dark stop-motion animated shorts in his filmography, but this is his feature debut. It's also co-written by Morgan along with Robin King, an actor, writer and editor. It stars Aisling Franciosi, Stella Gonet. Tom York, Therica Wilson-Read, James Swanton ,and Bridgitta Roy,
Animator Suzanne Blake (Gonet) is unable to use her hands due to arthritis, and uses her daughter Ella (Franciosi) to work on her stop-motion animated film. When Suzanne succumbs to a stoke and falls into a coma, Ella resolves that she will finish the film on her own.
But as she works on the film she begins to lose track of what is real and what is animated and the barriers between what is real and what is part of her films begin to blur. She starts to see characters of hers come to life... in the real world.
It's a pretty original concept for a horror movie, and it being set in the world of animation will certainly make this appealing to horror-loving animation fans- or horror fans who enjoy animation. The stop-motion in the film looks impressive, and they've also done a good job of designing some creepy looking characters.
The stop-motion animated segments are influenced by films such as King Kong, The Lost World, Jason And The Argonauts, The Evil Dead and Q The Winged Serpents. It's clearly influenced by figurues such as Ray Harryhausen and Phil Tippet, as well as many lesser known stop-motion directors.
The film made its world premiere at the 2023 Austin Fantastic Fest, before screening at the BFI London Film Festival. The film had a limited cinema release from IFC in February 2024, and is now available on Blu-Ray and DVD in the US and is streaming on Shudder.
