This new, scary live-action film uses stop motion perfectly to increase the horror

2024 has been seen as a step back for the horror genre compared to recent years as there is yet to be a major, groundbreaking blockbuster, and while that may be true from a financial perspective, creatively the horror genre is doing just as well as ever. The perfect example of this is Robert Morgan‘S Stop motion functionwith Aisling FranciosiHorror fans may know The Nightingale. It is not a slasher or a monster movie, but a look into madness told through body horror and psychological torment, mixing live-action and stop motion to deliver one of the scariest horror films of recent years. Its theme of what happens to an overworked person whose obsession begins to eat away at their psyche has been explored before in films such as The glowBut Jack Torrance got off lightly and only had to deal with ghosts. Ella Blake (Franciosi) must face a terrifying new creature in a battle where anything can happen.

Stop Motion (2024) – The Movie

A stop-motion animator struggles to control her demons after the loss of her overprotective mother.

Release date

24 September 2023

director

Robert Morgan

Duration

93 minutes

Authors

Robin King, Robert Morgan

Ella Blake’s work in “stop motion” drives her crazy

Stop motion function is director and co-writer Robert Morgan’s first feature-length film, but his past experiences made him the ideal film for this film’s plot. Morgan worked for years as an animator and director on short films, and although Stop motion function is only 93 minutes long, there are several scenes with stop motion animation throughout the entire running time. The story is about Ella Blake (Franciosi), whose whole life revolves around working for her demanding mother Suzanne (Stella Gonet).a stop motion artist who is unable to complete her latest film due to her worsening arthritis. She gets Ella to do the work for her, which involves moving puppets a few inches, taking a photo, and then moving a little more to take another photo, over and over again. It’s a laborious and stressful process, made even worse for Ella by her mother standing behind her, berating her the entire time.

Ella endures the abuse, and although she has a man in her life, Tom (Tom York), who takes care of her, she cannot give him much emotionally. Moments after sex, she is already thinking about leaving his bed so that she can go back to work. When he drives her home, Tom tells Ella to try to make her own film, but she tells him, “I don’t have a voice of my own.” She is her mother’s work, and that is her entire identity. Even late at night, when Ella is desperate for sleep, her mother forces her to work, calling her “doll,” which is not a pet name but a summary of who Ella is. Her life suddenly changes when Suzanne has a stroke and is hospitalized. Although tragic, it is an escape from filming for Ella. But instead of taking a break, she becomes even more obsessed with the film – until a mysterious girl enters her life and sets her on a different path.

While she is working day and night alone in the studio on her mother’s film, a young girl who lives in the building shows up and is immediately interested in Ella’s work.. This girl has the curious mind of a child, but she is not impressed with the film her new friend is working on. The girl, whose name we never learn, tells Ella to make another film, a better one, with a story about a girl who is scared and lost in the woods but finds a house to hide in from the Ashman who is stalking her, “who no one wants to know.” The Ashman is a lumbering man made of ash who is meant to represent death, and he’s not just after the doll.

“Stopmotion” uses frightening animations to enhance the horror

Ella begins this new film by making a doll out of corpse wax at the request of a child she has just met, which leads to some truly terrifying imagery. If you are expecting this to be a run-of-the-mill horror film, with little dolls coming to life and attacking people, Sorry, that is not Child’s playbut a film that is much more frightening in its slow visual symbolism. Rather than describing the horror, Robert Morgan shows it to us and leaves it up to us to understand. If you pay attention and really get inside Ella’s head, it’s not that hard to decipher.

To feel empathy for a woman lost in her grief and who is more focused than ever on her work to get over it is to understand Ella and how she could lose her mind so quickly. The doll in Stop motion functionwith her skin made of mortuary wax, she almost looks like she’s melting, her little eyes are both terrified and lifeless. It’s not a spoiler to realize that this doll represents Ella running away from her fears, just as the doll girl runs away from the Ashman. Stop motion function does an excellent job of bringing this vision to life, taking us into the stop-motion film several times, each time so jarring that it could be a horror film of its own. In one scene, the wax doll is hiding in the house when the distorted Ashman appears in the night and knocks on her door. With these strange characters coming to life like nightmares, it’s a blessing that we’re only transported into this world for a few seconds at a time.

2:33

Related

This Stephen King-approved horror film is the best monster movie in years

Murderous spiders with a deeper message.

Stop motion function digs deeper into Ella’s psychological breakdown. As our protagonist increasingly loses control over what is real and what is not, the viewer cannot recognize this either. Does the director make stylistic decisions in certain scenes or Is Ella’s disturbed mind in trouble under the burden of her mental illness and stress? This growing madness leads to a sense of betrayal and violence, but even more shocking is the symbolism behind Ella’s breakdown. Ella never had a proper childhood where she could be herself. Instead, she has always been a puppet of her mother’s work and doesn’t know what to do without her. As she told Tom, she has no voice of her own. When she is all alone, that voice seeks out in the form of a familiar little girl, told in pieces by a disfigured doll with brown hair and brown eyes, just like our hero. With her mother and Ella’s psyche dying, is it any wonder she uses corpse wax to mold this creation?

The girl wants Ella to come up with a better story, but all she can think about is being found by the Ashman. Ella begins to break down, figuratively and literally, as she is consumed not only by her work and her fears, but by the Ashman himself. She becomes her work because she is her work, tearing away her own shell in the process. There are also bizarre shots of an egg that might confuse the viewer at first, but Ella’s fragile mind is shattered just like this one. Stop motion functionThe most intense scenes are when the Ashman becomes life-sized and is born in Ella’s world.. It represents the sadness and inadequacy that makes her put her whole being into her work. The girl says that dolls are put back in the box when they are no longer useful. When Ella, a doll belonging to her mother and now her own obsession, stops working, does her usefulness end too?

“Stopmotion” combines reality with stop motion to explore obsession

Obsession is one of the most commonly used motifs in horror films, which is understandable as it involves a lack of emotional or physical control over one’s actions. Often this obsession lies with the antagonist of the film, with a killer unable to control their evil thoughts, such as the mannequin-loving killer in Insaneor the men who appear in recent horror films like TheInvisible Man And observerSometimes, however, it is the protagonist who is forced to overcome the obsession. Swallow did this with disgusting success with a young housewife (Haley Bennett) that cannot prevent swallowing inedible objects such as thumbtacks. This is Ella in Stop motion functionthe heroine we follow as her work takes up so much of her time that she may no longer be the heroine of her story.

It is said that many artists suffer for their art, and this is especially true of Stop motion function‘s Ella Blake. She lost her childhood to someone else’s obsession, and she’s lost her adult life and now her sanity to her own. So if you’re a workaholic, take a break every now and then and figure out who you really are. If you don’t, the Ashman could be coming for you next.

Stop motion function can be viewed in the US on Shudder

WATCH ON SHUDDER