Jan 26, 2024

Robert Morgan's Hybrid Thriller "Stopmotion" Releases Stomach-Crunching Trailer Ahead of February 23 Theatrical Release

IFC Films has released the spine-chilling trailer for Robert Morgan's meta-hybrid thriller Stopmotion.

One of the most unique stop-motion filmmakers working today, Morgan makes his feature debut with this film. The film won the Special Jury Prize at the Sitges Film Festival in Spain and the Best Director Award at the Fantastic Film Festival in Austin.

The release date and trailer for "Stop Motion" were first introduced by Entertainment Weekly.

IFC's synopsis reads:

Ella Blake is a stop-motion animator struggling to control her demons after the death of her overbearing mother. As Ella's psyche begins to splinter, the characters in her projects take on a life of their own.

Morgan is an auteur who has been producing films for nearly 30 years that have wowed critics and audiences and have been recognized at major film festivals and awards. Influenced by the horror of Francis Bacon, Edgar Allen Poe, and the Brothers Quay, Morgan's animated shorts such as "The Cat with Hands" and "The Separation" force viewers to confront the darkest parts of their subconscious. 2011's short film "Bobby Yeah" was nominated for a BAFTA and screened in competition at the Sundance Film Festival.

As successful as "Bobby Yeah" was for Morgan, the director became somewhat disinterested during the making of the film and told Entertainment Weekly that the experience inspired the stop-motion:

I think "Yeah Bobby" took on a life of its own. It was as if Bobby was telling me what to do, rather than me telling him how to be. [It was a slightly exciting, yet slightly unsettling feeling, as if what I was creating was controlling me, rather than that I was in control.

Diving deep into his own psyche, Morgan explained that his horror influences date back to his childhood, when his uncle showed him a fragment of the British film "The Faceless Villain" (1958) when he was only four years old. He recalled:

The killer's brain was crawling around, and it was staged in stop motion. I knew essentially at that age that there was something creepy about the way these brains were moving. So maybe that's the root of it all.

The stop-motion cast includes Aisling Franciosi (Game of Thrones), Stella Gonet (Spenser), and Thom Yorke (Poldark). The screenplay was written by Morgan and Robin King and produced by Alain de la Mata and Christopher Granier-Deferre. Cinematography by Leo Hinstein and editing by Aurora Vogeli.