Release Date – 23rd February 2024, Cert – N/A, Run-time – 1 hour 33 minutes, Director – Robert Morgan
After the passing of her mother (Stella Gonet) Ella (Aisling Franciosi) is determined to finish a stop-motion film they were working on, however with her determination comes isolation and eventual demons.
When asked why she’s spending her time making an animated film Ella (Aislin Franciosi) tells the young girl that’s just burst into her workspace (Caoilinn Springall) “because I like it, and I’m good at it. And it’s like I’m bringing something to life”. After the passing of her controlling mother (Stella Gonet) Ella becomes more and more determined to finish the stop-motion project they were working on together, wanting to make it just as perfect as her mum would have had it. However, as she isolates herself the models seem to take a new life of their own – especially as they begin to take on a much more flesh-like form thanks to their non-plasticine materials.
The demons which start to haunt Ella as she locks herself away take various different forms amongst the horrors of Stopmotion. While there might be an initial air of eeriness to certain moments they don’t exactly create a feeling of being truly on-edge. Where the real effect lies is in the moments focusing on the stop-motion animation and the potential lives that the models and characters take on. For a good chunk of the film these brief instances are the best moments – rooting in Ella’s insistence that “I don’t know how to do anything else”, haunting her just as much as the idea of the project itself.
As things progress the real world mixes more with the animation, bringing in extra detail with some truly effective gore and puppet design, courtesy of designer Dan Martin. Ella finds herself delving into an uncertain world and with her the horror amplifies making for a stronger second half, particularly in the third act where the uncertainty is ramped up as part of the visuals. Bringing out the horror more – generally improving as the film goes on – and allowing for the overall course to progress further and with more pace. Things may be slightly staggered to start with as they gradually grow amongst a weird drug sequence early in the film, but as a whole the 93-minute run-time isn’t felt. It takes some time to come together, but indeed the best stuff revolves around the titular focus of stop-motion and just how real and personal it can become.
It might take a bit of time to build things up and develop its horror, but once it does Stopmotion produces a good deal of effect through its visual design and the pacier course of its second half.
Just A Little Bit Random 