A work years in the making delivers a genre-bending journey into mystery that brings incredibly well-done fantasy horror to the table.
“I’ve never really felt like the genre lines between horror and fantasy were actually very far apart. I’d even argue that, often, horror is genuinely fantastical in a way that fantasy often isn’t”.
It was Morgan Galen King, co-director and lead animator of The Spine of Night, who told me this in a brief exchange a week ago; And the more I think about it, the more I have to agree with him. The Spine of Night is a perfect fusion of a film that inherits both genres and firmly embraces the intersection of the fantastical, bizarre, and gruesome to produce something that feels truly and honestly phantasmagoric.
I’ve been following King’s animation since a friend brought it up to my attention a few years ago with the short film prequel Exordium (if you’re reading this, thank you, Joseph!). Exordium was much of the same, and a reinterpretation of it can be found within this film’s best scene. It was so exceedingly slick that I was beyond excited upon hearing that he and co-director Philip Gelatt were making a full-length feature film.
The first thing you’ll notice is that this film boasts an ensemble cast, ranging from people like character actor Larry Fessenden and musical star Rob McClure, to the likes of Lucy Lawless, Richard E. Grant, and Joe Manganiello. All of them are put to good use for their respective roles, but Lawless’s Tzod and Grant’s The Guardian stand out with their incredible voice acting throughout.
We follow Tzod, a priestess who has located the source of a strange, enchanted flower known as The Bloom. Along with it, she finds the aged and mysterious Guardian, who has tried to protect mankind from the burdensome knowledge, and powerful magic the Bloom carries. Tzod informs him that the flower has spread in the form of spores carried on the wind and recalls the downward spiral that has happened to civilization as a result. An apocalyptic film, we watch through the centuries as the influence of the flower corrupts those who use it, specifically the mage Gol Sur who becomes the host for a grotesque extra-dimensional influence. Laden with magic, horror, and more than a few references to inspirations like Hellraiser and the writings of Clark Ashton Smith, King, and Gelatt present a tale of gory sword and sorcery.
Still, Spine is a film of peaks and valleys. The film’s first act focused on Tzod’s abduction is by far the weakest part, even if it has its moments. The opening comes to mind with some unflattering shots of the nude Tzod trekking up the snow-covered mountain, where the animation is rough. One star’s voice acting in this section of the film makes things truly hard to focus on (trust me, you WILL know whom I’m talking about).
The entire film is rotoscoped in the same vein as Ralph Bakshi’s Fire and Ice, an evident inspiration throughout. Unlike Bakshi’s work, the faces of some of the actors are not stylized enough, which causes the rotoscoping on certain performers’ faces to be especially rough in close-up shots that don’t flatter all the nuance in a performance. On the other hand, there are moments where the actors look so exceptionally good that I have to remark on the realism of the detail. Betty Gabriel’s performance as Phae-Agura, as brief as her presence is, is wonderfully realized in her conversation with Fessenden’s blind prophet who sees trouble on the horizon.
Besides the acting, the animation’s realism comes in spades with the kills in this movie. The deaths here are some of the most gruesome and well animated I’ve ever seen, like they were plucked off the cover of an over-the-top heavy metal album. We see every manner of demise in vivid and violent detail. And since it’s a fantasy film, you can expect the high intensity animation to render some exceptionally harsh slashes, crushes, and stabs in the throes of hand-to-hand combat. Expect gratuitous flames and fury when you delve into this, and don’t get too attached to any one character.
RATING: 4.0 (Eldritch Fluorescent Flower Petals)/5. If you can get past its rough patches, it’s a very enjoyable film with a bleak and finely tuned atmosphere. When all is said and done, the peaks most definitely outweigh the valleys. For every shot with truly stilted or awkward movement, there are five where the motion’s fluidity is exceptional. The entire sequence focused on the origin of the Bloom and Seer the First King is by far my favorite animation in years. When it’s bad, it’s bad. But when it’s good, it is some of the best animation I’ve seen out of a film to date.
Catch ‘The Spine of Night’ streaming on Shudder!