Fantasmagoría 2024 - Review of "Stopmotion" by Robert Morgan

Fantasmagoría Festival Coverage 6 - Review of "Stopmotion" by Robert Morgan

We can say that Stopmotion is a film within a film and also a production that blends horror with the technique that gives the work its title. The result? An independent film with an original concept and a story of liberation and fighting against internal demons.

Robert Morgan's feature-length film has been chosen to open the Fantasmagoría Fantastic and Horror Film Festival in Colombia today.

Ella Blake (Aisling Franciosi) is struggling to find her own voice, both personally and professionally. She is a stop-motion animator who works with her mother, Suzanne, a renowned filmmaker from whom she has learned everything about this technique. Suzanne suffers from arthritis, which limits her ability to work, and she uses her daughter to complete what will be her last film.

From the first minutes, it becomes evident the controlling relationship Suzanne has over Ella, whom her mother calls a "puppet," and who has opted to stay in her shadow. Everything changes when Suzanne suffers a relapse and falls into a coma. Ella then decides to finish the film, but in a place away from their home where their studio is located. She relies on her boyfriend, who gives her a small space in an almost abandoned building that he manages. This first breath of freedom invites the protagonist to explore her creativity, but the unhealthy relationship she has built with her mother has left her with trauma that returns to torment her, pushing her sanity to the edge.

Stopmotion progresses along two narrative lines that gradually intertwine until the boundaries between reality and fantasy disappear, with tension and terror existing between the two. A girl appears in the building, showing interest in Ella's creation, and will be the one to push her to let her imagination flow and create her own film, which increasingly becomes more chilling.

Robert Morgan slowly builds this atmospheric plot that originally involves stop-motion as an active part of the storyline, creating grotesque, intriguing, and unsettling characters that support Ella's madness and contribute to the eerie tone of the story. Stopmotion also serves as a tribute to the director’s own work as an animator and expert in this technique, where he brings the idea of "bringing to life" characters through frame-by-frame movement into the realm of horror. Ella's descent into finding her identity also features visually hypnotic moments that are beautifully executed.

Stopmotion ultimately becomes a gothic fable that speaks to the disturbing nature of finding one’s own voice, the powerful family influence, the chaos of creative blocks, and the tension that accumulates due to societal pressure. It also ends with a boiling point where all of these pressures explode like a volcano for Ella. Thus, Fantasmagoría 6 begins.

Technical Details:

Direction: Robert Morgan
Screenplay: Robert Morgan, Robin King
Duration: 93 minutes
Produced by: Alain de la Mata, Christopher Granier-Deferre
Genre: Horror
Cast: Aisling Franciosi, Stella Gonet, Tom York, Therica Wilson-Read, Caoilinn Springall, James Swanton, Jaz Hutchins, Joshua Parker
Music: Lola de la Mata
Editing: Aurora Vögeli
Cinematography: Léo Hinstin
Country: United Kingdom
Year: 2024

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