Stopmotion

The film did its job of grossing me out with the body horror bits, and to an extent, successfully bothered me with its psychological horror layers. But as a whole, it still felt undercooked and wildly predictable in the final act. Undoubtedly, the best parts of the film are the stopmotion animations featuring these creepy meat-puppets. There's something eerily unique about stopmotion animation, isn't it? Maybe, since it's got to do with bringing inanimate (read: dead) things to life. The film conveys the uncanny aura of the entire process quite effectively, in a minimalist setting.

I thought the plot already had an interestingly uneasy angle to explore between the mother and daughter; however, the makers went in a totally different direction as it progressed, with subplots involving the boyfriend's sister and so on, which didn't hit the mark completely for me. I still applaud writer-director Robert King's approach to creating something wacky and authentic, unlike most horror films these days. Aisling Franciosi also does a solid job playing the lead who's facing a creative block. It's certainly NOT one of those films you'd rewatch a lot, and I guess, for good reason.

The film has that aura of uneasiness from the beginning. The stop-motion sequences are incredible. The puppets are disturbing, and that's an achievement in its own right. Everything is there save the writing, since it suffers from unambitious character development. Besides a strained relationship with her mother, there are only glimpses of who the protagonist is. This results in a main character not so interesting when she's not working and doing stop motion. The scenes where she's partying, dining with her boyfriend, etc. Are ultimately boring and add nothing of importance to the story. This is a tragedy considering the time spent in those scenes could've been used to explore ideas that were, sadly, barely examined but memorable.

The concept is interesting, the performances are good, the craft is great, and the gore is effective, but it ultimately fails due to its bad foundation.

Ella Blake (Aisling Franciosi) works under her demanding mother Suzanne Blake (Stella Gonet) doing their own indie stop-motion animated films. She's doing all the work since her mother is disabled. After her mother suffers a stroke, she encounters a young girl. She creates a new character with usual materials.

I really like some of the ideas in this movie. There are some interesting themes and I really like the creation. It reminds me of Puppet Master with elements of Cronenberg body horror. There is a lot to like, but the overall effect is a slow moving indie horror. Despite the individual ideas, none of them can overcome the general grind of the story telling.

Despite having its ups and downs, this film can captivate, in its weakest points I could say that its climax is very short and since the plot is so slow, little by little it is difficult not to imagine what is going to happen, they put a lot of effort in the visuals and left the script aside, since it is a horror story related to the artist and for those who really enjoy stop motion, and its well-crafted sounds. I would say that it is not a movie that you will love, but if it is something that will keep you watching, and that is a lot.

I would recommend watching it the day you want to see something different and if you are a casual viewer like me, and you like a little bit of everything, you should give yourself the opportunity with this movie.

Creepy? Check. Tense? Check. Realistic and bloody gore? Check. Character development/story building? ((Crickets))

The stop-motion sequences are amazing but still not as great as the sound. The squishes, tears, cuts and breathing kick you into this movie more than anything. The lead dives headfirst into her descent to madness well, but something is still missing.

The cast does well, but the chemistry between them all lacks greatly and their relationships aren't fully fleshed out. It seems as though they could have cut most of the relationship scenes (particularly her partner and his sister) out OR added 20 minutes of additional backstory into them. What I was left with was confusion.

The movie ended and I was a bit confused about how I felt about it, hence a 6/10. It's a tense and unsettling movie.