Stopmotion (2023)
I had a ticket to see Stopmotion at The Prince Charles Cinema but life got in the way. Ok, sloth, sloth got in the way- or in truth and most accurately an (non sexual to be clear) infection which made my balls hurt a lot, but let’s go with sloth.
Now available on Amazon Prime, via a “Free Trial” to horror subscription channel Shudder which has long been a source of the supernatural I’ve wanted to spend on; seven day’s grace though ehl It meant a week before I inevitably pay them £4.99 a month forever. I’d like to kid myself I’ll get my money’s worth then quit, but did I mention my sloth?
The wonderful Aisling Fanciosi’s Ella loses her something of a bitch mother, who is/was a pushy parent, then finds an AWOL street urchin who happens to look just like Ella probably did as a kid and is all creepy and that. The stop motion scenes snowball into reality and somehow the story evaporates, even though the stop motion is effectively creepy.
Oh the sexy, sexy, cutthroat world of stop motion animation! Therica Wilson-Read plays Ella’s animation rival Polly (wants a cracker). Polly has a face that’d make priests uneasy- it’s both beautiful and sinister, angular and untrustworthy. Definitely in need of an exorcism. She taunts the lovely but clearly troubled Ella.
Sorry to be a bore but Stopmotion isn’t scary, or that original, and what it does have going for it is wasted by its meandering into banality as a story. Even when the reason anyone is watching (things come to life and fuck shit up) happens, I simply wished they’d spent more time on the plot.
Robert Morgan is a first time director so I’ll cut him a lot of slack, and will certainly see what he does next due to how strong Stopmotion is at its peak points. I’m unlikely to return to the film, though. I hate to score it this given how much I wanted to see it but… 4/10
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