Stopmotion
Directed by Robert Morgan
Written by Robin King, Robert Morgan
Starring Aisling Franciosi, Therica Wilson-Read, Stella Gonet, Caoilinn Springall, Tom York
Rated R
Runtime: 93 minutes
Digital rental available March 15

by Tori Potenza, Staff Writer

It’s an incredible medium…bringing dead things to life.

There is nothing quite like the art of stop motion animation. It requires a creative eye to make something that really captures the audience, on top of an ungodly amount of patience in order to adjust and snap images of each minuscule movement. Phil Tippett’s feature length film Mad God from 2021 took 30 years for him to complete. There is a level of madness that must go into the process to be a success, which is part of what Robert Morgan taps into in his new film Stopmotion. What is particularly interesting about this feature is how Morgan brings stop motion elements to a live action horror film. Not only is it a fascinating blending of art, it also helps to evoke the major themes of the story: the lines between art and work, sanity and madness, and reality versus fantasy.

I was lucky enough to first see Stopmotion at Brooklyn Horror Fest last October. I knew relatively little about the film or Morgan’s work, but as someone who grew up on things like Wallace and Gromit, Robot Chicken, and Action League Now!, I have long been a fan of stop motion animation. I did not expect it to become my favorite film of the fest, and one of my top films of the year. Much of this has to do with its story which centers around a young stop motion animator Ella Blake (Aisling Franciosi) who’s been working as an assistant to her mother who is famous in the industry. Ella has not been able to strike out on her own because of how reliant her mother is on her as she ages. After her mother is taken to the hospital, Ella is given the freedom to finally explore her creative side. Yet Ella struggles on her own, and the deeper she gets into her project, the more the lines of art and real life blur, as we watch an artist become dangerously close to slipping into madness.

While tonally different than Ti West’s Pearl (2022), it delves into the same world of a suppressed woman and her strained relations with her mother, but it has dark fantastical violent aesthetics similar to works like the TV show Hannibal (2013-2014). It is bursting at the seams with different ideas and themes that Morgan is expertly able to explore: the horrors of suppression, imposter syndrome, and an artist throwing their entire selves into their work. There is so much to grasp onto while also having a film that is horrific, darkly humorous, and awe inspiring in the amount of dedication that went into it.

Franciosi dominates the screen as Ella and gives us a complex monstrous feminine character that is sure to resonate with many who see it. Her struggle to find herself, take up space, and see herself as an artist is something that many of us in the arts will surely understand. She brings to life a character that seems to be walking a dangerous tightrope between passion and obsession. To see someone on screen delve so deep into their own darkness, even revel in it, felt important to see. So frequently we try to hide the parts of us that are scary or seem wrong, and Franciosi lets Ella lay it all bare right in front of us without judgment.

Stopmotion is not for the faint of heart. I remember more than one person in the theater groaning as some of the more violent moments in the film. Yet there is a heart and humor to what is seen on screen. Even the violence has a humor to it, subtle but rewarding if you can get on its wavelength. In the end, the film is a reminder that the creative process is not some beautiful glamorous process. It is dark, and it requires an artist to put more into it than they might want to give. One must muck around in the mud and unearth deeper more complex emotions than we typically do.

Even if some of the violence and imagery on screen might churn your stomach, it is important to appreciate the amount of work that went into the process. When you see a scared Ella laying in bed as a tiny stopmotion figure wanders over to her, it is hard not to be utterly enthralled by the amount of work that went into bringing these mediums to life and letting them share a screen. Much like Ella, we can see that Morgan is a true artist who not only creates something visually stunning but also layers it with themes that resonate and bring the world to life. I have never seen something quite like Stopmotion, and I doubt many who watch it have either.