Equal parts beautiful and horrifying, The Spine of Night's rotoscoped journey through surreal high fantasy won't be soon forgotten.
On a strange world of fantasy and magic, a resurrected swamp witch Tzod (Lucy Lawless) travels to the last refuge of a magical plant called The Bloom under protection by The Guardian (Richard E. Grant). As the two discuss the future of the world and The Bloom, Tzod tells The Guardian of The Bloom's impact on the world that leads to a century spanning fight against the rise of an evil tyrannical God-King Ghal-Sur.
The Spine of Night written and directed by Philip Gelatt and Morgan Galen King was a passion project seven years in the making spurred by Gelatt and King's mutual appreciation for the rotoscoped fantasy epics of the 70s and 80s such as Ralph Bakshi's Lord of the Rings and Fire & Ice and enduring cult favorite Heavy Metal which served as a strong influence on the structure of Spine of Night's story. The movie was released in October 2021 on Shudder, and it's a very passionate film that oozes personality in every frame.
While the animation was done on computers instead of traditionally, Gelatt and King recreated the same process of rotoscoped animation seen in the likes of Fire & Ice and only ever having a animation team that was at most four people. The end result does a solid job of emulating the style of Ralph Bakshi or Heavy Metal and the visual aesthetics alone make this movie well worth viewing especially for fans of those types of films that have become a rarity in this day and age.
The story like Heavy Metal is very much an anthology as we follow different eras of this world dealing with the fallout and effects of The Bloom, but unlike Heavy Metal where the Loc-Nar was used as a "one size fits all" plot device whose characteristics changed from story to story and only in the last 10 minutes tried to tack on a connecting thread that was tenuous at best, the stories seen in Spine of Night feel like the lead into each other despite the gaps of centuries between them. Spine of Night tells a story of power disparity and the lust for acquiring more power leading to fallout that generations of the future are forced to fend off and it serves as an environmental subtext beneath the beautifully rendered nudity and gore that evokes the style of Frank Frazetta or Heavy Metal.
The movie isn't flawless as there are instances where the character motions can feel slightly choppy or stilted and some of the voice acting doesn't completely fit with the characters designed, but those are relatively minor shortcomings in the grand scheme of things and the movie delivers on creating a world of captivating beauty and shocking brutality.
The Spine of Night will be a welcome throwback to fans of films like Fire & Ice or Heavy Metal as its 7 years in the making animation feels its years of effort in every frame capturing that gritty aesthetic that made those films so endearing to their cult audiences. The thematic subtext adds some extra meat to the proceedings beyond the nudity and viscera, but some technical limitations and shaky voice acting are noticeable. Solid recommendation to any animation or fantasy fans.
The Spine of Night written and directed by Philip Gelatt and Morgan Galen King was a passion project seven years in the making spurred by Gelatt and King's mutual appreciation for the rotoscoped fantasy epics of the 70s and 80s such as Ralph Bakshi's Lord of the Rings and Fire & Ice and enduring cult favorite Heavy Metal which served as a strong influence on the structure of Spine of Night's story. The movie was released in October 2021 on Shudder, and it's a very passionate film that oozes personality in every frame.
While the animation was done on computers instead of traditionally, Gelatt and King recreated the same process of rotoscoped animation seen in the likes of Fire & Ice and only ever having a animation team that was at most four people. The end result does a solid job of emulating the style of Ralph Bakshi or Heavy Metal and the visual aesthetics alone make this movie well worth viewing especially for fans of those types of films that have become a rarity in this day and age.
The story like Heavy Metal is very much an anthology as we follow different eras of this world dealing with the fallout and effects of The Bloom, but unlike Heavy Metal where the Loc-Nar was used as a "one size fits all" plot device whose characteristics changed from story to story and only in the last 10 minutes tried to tack on a connecting thread that was tenuous at best, the stories seen in Spine of Night feel like the lead into each other despite the gaps of centuries between them. Spine of Night tells a story of power disparity and the lust for acquiring more power leading to fallout that generations of the future are forced to fend off and it serves as an environmental subtext beneath the beautifully rendered nudity and gore that evokes the style of Frank Frazetta or Heavy Metal.
The movie isn't flawless as there are instances where the character motions can feel slightly choppy or stilted and some of the voice acting doesn't completely fit with the characters designed, but those are relatively minor shortcomings in the grand scheme of things and the movie delivers on creating a world of captivating beauty and shocking brutality.
The Spine of Night will be a welcome throwback to fans of films like Fire & Ice or Heavy Metal as its 7 years in the making animation feels its years of effort in every frame capturing that gritty aesthetic that made those films so endearing to their cult audiences. The thematic subtext adds some extra meat to the proceedings beyond the nudity and viscera, but some technical limitations and shaky voice acting are noticeable. Solid recommendation to any animation or fantasy fans.
- IonicBreezeMachine
- 11 jun 2022