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The best stop-motion Horror movies show that the unique animation style isn't only suited for comedies or kids' films. The visual style that stop-motion creates can't really be imitated by any other medium. It also lends itself incredibly, incredibly well to horror movies. When done well, there's something unique and uncanny valley-like that makes stop-motion animation unnerving. Directors have been using stop-motion to create scary films since the very dawn of cinema with titles like J. Stuart Blackton's The Haunted Hotel in 1907, and the tradition continues to this day.

One of the great things about stop-motion horror movies is that utilizing animation has also led to some great scary movies for kids. It allows directors to portray the spooky and the sinister in a way that won't traumatize younger viewers. However, at the other end of the scale, there have been some incredibly disturbing stop-motion horror films that are...

Tearing Down the Spanish Flag is recognized as the first-ever war movie, despite its limitations and controversial nature. Unlike modern war movies that focus on personal stories, this film served as propaganda during the Spanish-American War. The movie capitalized on the public's fear and curiosity about the conflict, inspiring other filmmakers to follow suit and drawing audiences into theaters.

Tearing Down the Spanish Flag is the first-ever war movie, but strangely, with only one scene, it caused some controversy. War movies started not long after the creation of motion pictures and have turned into a very successful genre. Tearing Down the Spanish Flag is technically the first war movie, even if it was limited by technology at the time and only had one scene.

Directed by J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith, Tearing Down the Spanish Flag differs greatly from what is associated with war movies today. War movies such as Dunkirk,...

In a year in which the film industry was still in disruption because of the formidable powers of digital streaming, stop-motion animation — maybe the most analog of all styles of filmmaking — has had a peak year, with three features vying for awards and shorts introducing powerful new talents. It definitely hasn’t always been like this, but several stop-motion helmers hope the trend continues.

The stop-motion films “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio,” “Wendell & Wild,” and “Marcel the Shell With Shoes On” were all released in 2022, which is rare since the techniques used to make stop motion can be incredibly detailed and often require dozens of artists to be shooting scenes for the film if it’s ever to be completed in a reasonable amount of time. Add to that the need for, among others, hundreds of replacement faces for the various puppets, clothing made of fabric scaled down for...

The Scottish Play has been adapted into more than 25 different movies since J. Stuart Blackton first gave it a whirl in 1908, and yet Joel Coen’s “The Tragedy of Macbeth” is such a strange hybrid between cinema and theater that it seems to exist in a realm all its own. Shot in atemporal black-and-white on a Los Angeles soundstage made to resemble the half-empty guts of a leaky snow-globe, this dark lucid dream of a film might be the latest example of a grand tradition, but its hermetically sealed design makes it sound more like an echo chamber. There are mad whispers bleeding through the concrete walls — dark thoughts that curve around the fake night sky — but the voices seem to be coming from inside the castle.

Which isn’t to suggest that the quizzical calm of Denzel Washington’s lead performance doesn’t make for an arresting contrast against...

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“Exploitation At Its Wor—ER, Finest!”

By Raymond Benson

There have always been what have been termed in the motion picture industry “exploitation films,” even back in the silent days. The late 1930s and much of the 1940s, however, saw a deluge of cheap, not-even-“B” pictures made, usually independently of Hollywood and marketed in guerilla fashion as “educational” adult fare. You know the type. Reefer Madness. Child Bride. Mom and Dad.

Dwain Esper was one of the most notorious directors who made these types of pictures in the 1930s. He was assuredly the Ed Wood of that decade. He purposely chose sensational subjects—drug use, sexuality—and produced them independently of Hollywood. The Production Code was in full force during most of his working years, so distribution had to be done in creative ways—renting theaters and advertising locally that the films...

Look out, it’s an X-Ray Death Ray! We rushed this review out, and it’s only 104 years late. One of the feature films on a new disc devoted to an unheralded woman filmmaker is The Intrigue, a nascent science-fiction thriller of the ‘deadly invention’ variety. It’s all from 1916, when WW1 was being fought. Julia Crawford Ivers’ adept screenplay offers good espionage twists and Frank Lloyd’s direction incorporates some interesting visual effects. The show stays smart until a ‘pacifist finale’ that will elicit justified jeers from the hawkish among us.

The Intrigue

Part of the Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers Series

Blu-ray

Kino Lorber Kino Classics

1916 / B&w with Tints / 1:33 Silent Ap. / 64 min. (197 minutes in all) / Street Date March 17, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Lenore Ulric, Cecil Van Auker, Howard Davies, Florence Vidor, Paul Weigel, Herbert Standing.

Cinematography: James Van Trees

Written by Julia Crawford Ivers

Directed by...

This week, the pioneering studio Laika returns with “Missing Link,” the stop-motion animated family film starring Hugh Jackman and Zach Galifianakis. With “Missing Link” landing in theaters on Friday, TheWrap looks back at the history of stop-motion animation, going all the way back to the dawn of cinema.

“The Humpty Dumpty Circus” (1898)

The first ever stop-motion animated film was made by J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith between 1897 and 1898, “The Humpty Dumpty Circus.” Though the film is lost to history, the directors used their daughter’s dolls to imagine acrobats and animals in motion.

“The Enchanted Drawing” (1900) and “The Trip to the Moon” (1902)

Early cinema experimented with editing techniques to create illusions and special effects on screen in what would become traditional stop motion. Shorts like “The Enchanted Drawing” (1900) or “Fun in a Bakery Shop” (1902) found actors on screen manipulating drawings or piles of dough as if by magic.

This week Wes Anderson returns to stop motion animation with “Isle of Dogs,” his first animated film since 2009’s “Fantastic Mr. Fox.” The movie is bursting with voice talent and Anderson’s irreverent sensibilities, but it’s still rare to see such a high profile filmmaker working in the medium. In honor of the film’s release, TheWrap looks back at the history of stop motion animation, charting a timeline that goes all the way back to the dawn of cinema. “The Humpty Dumpty Circus” (1898) The first ever stop-motion animated film was made by J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith between 1897...

‘Kubo and the Two Strings’ (Courtesy: Laika)

By: Carson Blackwelder

Managing Editor

If the nominations for best animated feature this year tell us anything it’s that we might be experiencing a comeback for stop-motion animation. Two of this year’s nominees are stop-motion films: Kubo and the Two Strings (a critically acclaimed letdown at the box office) and My Life as a Zucchini (which just so happens to be a foreign film, too). Let’s look at the relatively recent history of the best animated feature category to see how stop-motion is coming into its own and theorize on why that could be happening.

In addition to Kubo and the Two Strings and My Life as a Zucchini in the best animated feature category, there’s a solid showing by other styles. There are two Disney hits, Zootopia and Moana, that feature computer animation and one Studio Ghibli underdog,...

Sean Wilson Sep 16, 2016

With Kubo & The Two Strings now playing, we salute some of our favourite stop motion animated movies...

With Laika's visually sumptuous and breathtaking stop motion masterpiece Kubo And The Two Strings dazzling audiences throughout the country, what better time to celebrate this singular and remarkable art form?

The effect is created when an on-screen character or object is carefully manipulated one frame at a time, leading to an illusion of movement during playback - and such fiendishly intricate work, which takes years of dedication, deserves to be honoured. Here are the greatest examples of stop motion movie mastery.

The Humpty Dumpty Circus (1898)

What defines the elusive appeal of stop motion? Surely a great deal of it is down to the blend of the recognisable and the uncanny: an simulation of recognisably human movement that still has a touch of the fantastical about it. These contradictions were put...

With the recent release of “Kubo and the Two Strings,” Vimeo user Vugar Efendi decided to create a three-minute video essay about the evolution of stop-motion. Featuring films like “The Enchanted Drawing,” the 1933 film “King Kong,” “Star Wars: A New Hope,” “A Nightmare Before Christmas” and many more, the filmmaker takes viewers all the way back to the early 1900s to show how the animation technique has changed and improved over time.

Read More: Stanley Kubrick & Andrei Tarkovsky’s Cinematic Styles Are Compared In Beautiful Video Essay

One of the first uses of stop-motion is credited to Albert E. Smith and J. Stuart Blackton for the 1898 film “The Humpty Dumpty Circus.” The 1902 movie “Fun in a Bakery Shop,” shown in the video below, was also one of the first to use the technique.

Read More: Watch: Film Imitates Art In This Beautiful Supercut

IndieWire has previously showcased Efendi’s videos...

From George Melies through to Peter Jackson and Jj Abrams' Star Wars film, the rise, fall and rise of practical effects explored...

From the very earliest days of cinema, practical effects have been the big draw for audiences. The very first films may have wowed the crowds with images of trains pulling into a station, but it was the fantastical made real that fired the imaginations of millions, and led to film as we know it - narrative flights of fancy which have entertained and made us gasp for well over 100 years. But the last 25 years have seen practical effects fall by the wayside.

Digital effects created in a computer took over, and allowed filmmakers to dream even bigger. But practical effects are beginning to make a comeback. Some of this is due to audiences feeling the CG burnout; no longer quite believing what they’re seeing, resulting in...

With Godzilla and even Gamera getting all the giant monster love lately, we'd be remiss if we didn't wish a hearty Happy Birthday to one of the big screen's most incredible creatures, Gertie the Wonderful Trained Dinosaurus!

From Wikipedia: Gertie the Dinosaur is a 1914 animated short film by American cartoonist and animator Winsor McCay. It is the earliest animated film to feature a dinosaur.

McCay first used the film before live audiences as an interactive part of his vaudeville act; the frisky, childlike Gertie did tricks at the command of her master. McCay's employer, William Randolph Hearst, later curtailed McCay's vaudeville activities so McCay added a live-action introductory sequence to the film for its theatrical release. McCay abandoned a sequel, Gertie on Tour (c. 1921), after producing about a minute of footage.

Although Gertie is popularly thought to be the earliest animated film, McCay had earlier made Little Nemo (1911) and How a Mosquito Operates...

Cartoonist J. Stuart Blackton in front of the 1900 drawing that magically comes to life. Film archives have been doing wonderful work for decades, rescuing and preserving rare, important films, but unless you happen to live in the city where one of these institutions resides, or have the ability to travel to film festivals, you may not have had the opportunity to enjoy the fruits of their labors. That’s one reason I’m so grateful for the Treasures from American Film Archives DVDs from the National Film Preservation Foundation, and so pleased that funding has finally been gathered from a variety…...