Stopmotion (2023) – Film Review

Director: Robert Morgan
Cast: Aisling Franciosi, Stella Gonet, Tom York
Certificate: 18

By Roger Crow

A talented stop-motion artist becomes completely consumed by the grotesque world of her horrifying creations – with deadly results.

That’s the pitch for this low-budget indie horror thriller, which has already won praise for debuted feature director Robert Morgan.

Aisling Franciosi, who was so compelling in Gillian Anderson’s drama The Fall, steals every scene as stop-motion animator Ella Blake.

“Battleground”

Following the death of her overbearing mother, Ella is struggling to control her demons. She embarks on a new film project in the hope it will channel her creativity and help her escape her problems… but it soon becomes the battleground for her sanity.

As Ella’s fragile mind starts to fracture, the characters in her movie take on a life of their own and things spiral into an unimaginable nightmarish hellscape.

There are echoes of the dark animated worlds of genre maestro Jan Svankmajer, and the Quay brothers, who made puppets come eerily to life many years ago.

It’s also impossible to watch this without comparing it to Phil Tippett’s Mad God, which was decades in the making and featured darker visions brought to life via the eponymous filmmaking method.

“Well worth a look”

Picture quality on the Blu-Ray is excellent, as is the sound. There are some good special features too, including interviews with Franciosi and Morgan, as well as a Behind the Scenes of Stopmotion featurette.

Well worth a look, but don’t be too surprised if the film gets into your subconscious for a few days.