AFTER several years of relatively decent horror sat alongside run-of-the-mill Blumhouse-styled productions, the genre seems to be back on the offensive in 2024 with some great offerings that broke the mould.
Earlier this year, Immaculate set the stage with great acting, The First Omen followed it up with weird visuals and cinematography, while Abigail brought the blood and guts.
Now, Stopmotion has hobbled onto the scene, bringing a nearly complete package for arthouse horror fans.
Having worked as an assistant to her stop motion animator mother for so long, Ella Blake (Aisling Franciosi) finds herself liberated when the old woman falls into a coma. No longer chained as the “hands” to the latter’s “brain”, Blake decides to take a more active role as an animator.
As she quickly finds out that she lacks the imagination that her mother and peers have, Blake begins to experience questionable events that defy logic. Instead of moulding her stop motion materials into a coherent story, the art begins to mould her reality.
Directed by Robert Morgan, Stopmotion mixes stop motion animation with live action, with each medium progressively infesting the other as Blake’s sensibilities and mental state rot away.
Being an arthouse film, there is a great emphasis on the visual and aural experience. The focus remains largely on its shock value and the hallucinatory trip that it takes viewers on. But do bear in mind Stopmotion’s narrative – and ending – is interpretive and viewers need to manage expectations.
