10 Great 2024 Horror Movies You Probably Missed

3. Stopmotion

Lowlifes 2024
IFC Films

Robert Morgan's feature-length debut, Stopmotion is a chilling exploration of an artist's obsessive committment to their work, and is a towering technical achievement in blending animated and live-action footage to terrifying effect.

This British horror picture follows the story of Ella Blake (Aisling Franciosi), a stop-motion animator who resolves to finish her abusive mother Suzanne(Stella Gonet)'s most recent project after the latter's ailments take a turn for the worse. Things get decidedly grotesque once Ella takes inspiration from the spine-chilling tales of her young neighbour (Caolinn Springall) about the entity known as the Ash Man.

Morgan, who also wrote Stopmotion alongside Robin King, uses part of his artistic experience and sensibilities from his past short films to craft a tale of obsession, showing the pursuit of artistic excellence and the fine line between grounded realism and disturbing fantasy. Ella's gradual descent into mental instability is an unfortunate but unsurprising consequence of her mother's abuse and her all-consuming devotion to creating the perfect stop-motion project.

Franciosi shoulders these narrative burdens with aplomb, ably aided by factors such as Springall's solid performance, Morgan's proficient direction, and the general handling of the disconcerting stop-motion scenes. 

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