This piece was written during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labour of the actors currently on strike, the movie being covered here wouldn't exist.
Horror and filmmaking seem to go hand-in-hand. Features like Berberian Sound Studio and Censor effectively use different aspects of the filmmaking process to tell wickedly twisted stories, and Stopmotion aims to follow suit. It doesn't quite reach those heights, with an underwhelming story and half-cooked narrative themes, but the increasingly nightmarish visuals still make this a ghoulishly fun time.
Ella (Aisling Franciosi) is a stop-motion animator working on a project for her mother, Suzanne (Stella Gonet). Suzanne was a master animator, but terrible arthritis has forced her to stop and now uses her daughter to bring her projects to life. Overbearing and borderline abusive, Ella is controlled by her wicked mother until she suffers a stroke and ends up in a coma. To deal with her grief, Ella decides to finish the project herself, and things only get worse from there.
As Ella moves her animation setup to a dilapidated flat, a young girl (Caoilinn Springall) in the block approaches Ella and becomes involved in the film project. It's immediately apparent that something isn't quite right with the girl, who takes over the project and suggests a new unsettling story, in which Ella obliges and follows through. When the girl devises a character called ‘the Ashman' and entices Ella to start using meat to create her puppets, it's pretty clear where Stopmotion is heading.
It does take a while for the film to kick into gear, and it certainly doesn't help that it tries to juggle so many narrative themes. Ella herself is a puppet without a voice, a puppet with strings controlled by not just her mother but also the mysterious girl. As Ella begins losing her sanity, questions of the cost of artistic pursuit are asked, and everything alludes to processing grief and emotional abuse. Whilst each thematic element vaguely ties in to each other through character actions and motivations, they don't neatly come together and form a conclusion by the time the credits roll.
What helps keep Stopmotion engaging is the committed performance from Franciosi, some genuinely inspired directorial flair, and the true star of the show: the stop-motion itself. Director Robert Morgan is no stranger to stop-motion projects, and he cleverly plays into the narrative of this young animator working on one herself. The stop-motion sequences are jittery and characters lack minute movements that breathe life into them, but this feels absolutely intentional. In the world of the film, these sequences are created by an animator that is still learning after all, and outside of that the uncanny animation cranks up the tension and uneasiness.
Make-up Effects Designer Dan Martin is the devilish mastermind behind the nightmare-fuel puppet designs, which only become more terrifying (brilliantly so) as the narrative progresses. Sound Designer Ben Baird deserves praise too for some hellish soundscapes – namely creaks, heartbeats and raspy breaths – that will send shivers down your spine. Together, Martin and Baird create an assault on the senses that will be sure to make you nervously grin as you peep through your fingers. The pacing of the film ratchets up towards the end, rewarding viewers with gory and horrific sequences, making the second half far superior than the slow beginning.
Stopmotion is an odd feature, with flourishes of brilliance marred by odd pacing and narrative choices. It's a predictable story too, but who cares when the horror looks and sounds this awful. Trust me, that's a very high compliment.
Stopmotion screened as part of the BFI London Film Festival 2023 and will be released by IFC Films in 2024
