Review: Stopmotion is the First Great Horror Film of 2024

Writer/director Robert Morgan brings newfound terror to the stop motion style and showcases a palpable descent into madness with his feature directorial debut,  Stopmotion. 

The film follows stop motion animator Ella (Aisling Franciosi) – whose latest film distorts her reality as she’s led down a deadly path for success. Stopmotion utilizes a familiar yet always intriguing framework for Ella’s narrative – that of the struggling artist. The film, in a similar vein to Whiplash, Cam, and Black Swan, sees its central artist become lost in the obsession of her work leading to disturbing results. At first, you resonate with her ambitions to carve her own path to success and then suddenly find yourself begging for her to stop before it’s too late. Then, when she’s gone too far, you’re horrified by the state she’s in and the disturbing lengths she’ll go to make this nightmarish vision a reality. It’s an effective story direction that makes viewers feel helpless when Ella is too far gone – which only amplifies the fear – and it ultimately creates this intriguing plot about creators succumbing to their own creations. 

Even with the clear familiarity, the film manages to stay fresh thanks to Franciosi’s performance and the vision that Morgan has for this story. Films like Jennifer Kent’s The Nightengale and more recently The Last Voyage of the Demeter have shown Franciosi’s talent and Stopmotion continues that trend nicely. With each new step further into madness, Franciosi elevates the sense of panic within Ella as well as her unbroken determination for success. She brings a great range of emotion that makes you care and fear Ella, and fully commits to the horrors in the final act – which is what makes it so memorable. This arc wouldn’t be as tantalizingly terrifying without Franciosi’s performance and she’s a great backbone to this slow-building horror story.

The real magic of Stopmotion though is Morgan’s use of the titular technique to implement this unique storytelling approach and creepy aesthetic. While the stop motion genre is mostly filled with family-friendly animated flicks, the likes of Tim Burton and Henry Selick have added some horror-inspired worlds. Yet, Morgan takes things to a whole new level of horror with Stopmotion. The character designs of Ella’s little creations are simple yet feature some unsettling elements. The melty faces of the characters are chilling, and Morgan utilizes the stop motion segments of the films really well to build up the dark atmosphere surrounding Ella. 

The way the stop motion scenes of Ella’s film are organically intercut with the flow of the narrative is perfect and helps create this foreboding presence. These scenes deeply elevate the storytelling and atmosphere of the film and create these pockets of horror that slowly slither under your skin. Also, honestly, the stop motion scenes just look fantastic and could honestly make for their own watch-worthy short film. Admittedly, it takes a little too long for the stop motion elements of the film to reach their potential and horror fans could be left feeling hungry for the first half of the film. But, once Ella really starts spiraling, Morgan goes all-out in presenting a shocking and disturbing visual showcase. 

Morgan blends live action and stop motion animation flawlessly to create these unique scary sequences and make them highly engaging. The way Ella crafts these characters is genuinely mortifying, and viewers will find their stomach twisting and turning when they see the final product. Stopmotion has such distinct depictions of body horror and it’s what makes these small characters so immensely sickening. The entire last stretch feels like an inescapable nightmare in the best way possible and features some of the coolest practical effects you’ll see in a horror movie. There’s a lot of gut-wrenching gore that’ll have viewers squirming. The visuals become hypnotically trippy in the most perplexing and satisfying ways possible. Plus, despite the ambiguous and dream-like nature of the ending nearly thwarting the engaging momentum, the film never loses the tension and spark of its thrills and horror. So, you feel like you’re on a horrifying rollercoaster ride you don’t want to get off of and are relishing its scariest moments.  

The first great horror film of 2024 arrives with Stopmotion as Morgan unleashes an incredibly captivating and impressive feature debut unlike anything the genre is currently offering. The stop motion style takes a horrifying new form that genre fans will delightfully eat up, and it works in putting a distinct spin on a classic story of an artist’s ambitions becoming unexpectedly monstrous. 

Stopmotion is now playing in theaters nationwide.