Shudder Saturday: Stopmotion (2023)

If you're a fan of Robert Morgan then you will probably have a good idea of what to expect from his first feature film, especially with it being titled with his favoured form of animation. It's interesting to see Morgan prove himself as a feature director though, and this is a debut that perfectly blends elements of his brilliant shorts with the added luxury of a runtime that allows him to nurture a growing atmosphere of unease and dread.

Aisling Franciosi plays Ella Blake, a woman who is often shouted at and belittled while working on the stop-motion animation being filmed by her mother, Suzanne (Stella Gonet). Things change when Suzanne is suddenly indisposed, leaving Ella to carry out the work all on her own. Leaving Ella with some creations that she start to invade her subconscious. Does Ella have a problem, or are things around her getting very weird?

Co-written by Morgan and Robin King, who has worn many hats throughout his own career, and is certainly no stranger to dark animation, this is a fairly obvious and standard bit of psychological horror that is elevated by those horribly off-kilter and downright queasy creations that Morgan puts onscreen. While it would make an interesting companion piece to something like Censor, I much preferred this. The big difference being that an artist is at the heart of this particular journey through a landscape blurring reality and unreality, whereas Censor was about a poor . . . censor (yes, I am still side-eyeing all of you who absolutely and unreservedly loved it, and probably will forever, but I know I am almost alone in just liking it).

I loved Franciosi in the lead role here. While I don’t think I have personally seen her in any of her orbiter features, she gives the kind of brilliant and confident performance that assures you that she has been honing her craft for some time. Gonet is impressively mean and callous, which she does well enough to immediately make you stay on the side of our put-upon lead, and both Tom York and Therica Wilson-Read do a very good job as people who think they know what it takes to make such impressive art, but really REALLY don’t. The great James Swanton (if you don’t know his name then I implore you to seek out some of his work) makes an impact with his character, and, last hut not least, young Caoilinn Springall is an extra window into this world, and an extra person who may be in danger, as a curious little girl just credited as Little Girl.

Fans of Morgan have been waiting for him to deliver a feature for some time, which saddles this with some extra weight of expectation. Try to leave that aside once you start watching this though. The film itself is nicely in line with what should be expected from Morgan, even if it feels a bit light and tame when placed alongside his memorable shorts. Morgan knows what he is doing, and he knows the pros and cons of different formats and runtimes. Put a bit of faith in him and you should be duly rewarded. This was great. It wasn’t really like his short films, but then . . . what is?

8/10

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