Rating: Not Rated
Stars (voices): Richard E. Grant, Lucy Lawless, Patton Oswalt, Betty Gabriel, Malcolm Mills, Jordan Douglas Smith, Tom Lipinski, Nina Lisandrello, Abby Savage, Patrick Breen, Larry Fessenden, Maggie Lakis, Rob McClure, Joe Manganello
Writers: Philip Gelatt & Morgan Galen King
Directors: Philip Gelatt & Morgan Galen King
Distributor: RLJE Films
Release Date: October 29, 2021; Shudder, March 24, 2022
THE SPINE OF NIGHT is one of those movies that starts slow, but somehow increases in power as it goes. It’s an ambitious animated myth that presents a series of thematically-tied stories, including a creation legend.
We see a beautiful starry universe. Then we’re with a naked woman who’s walking through a snowstorm on a mountain range that has a graveyard. This is definitely enough to invite curiosity.
We learn that the woman, whose name is Tzod (voiced by Lucy Lawless), has come here in search of an extremely rare bloom. The bloom’s Guardian (voiced by Richard E. Grant) has been on task for centuries. He wants Tzod to leave, until she shows him that she has a bloom that is like his.
So, how did Tzod get the bloom, what does it do, and why has she come naked up a mountain to get it? Unlike a lot of movies that set up a bunch of questions at the start and then either fail to answer them or don’t track, THE SPINE OF NIGHT has in fact a strong story spine. Events and details that at first seem unrelated all come together by the end.
Written and directed by Philip Gelatt & Morgan Galen King, THE SPINE OF NIGHT is rotoscoped, which means that actors have been filmed and/or taped performing the action, and then painted over in animation.
What gives THE SPINE OF NIGHT a peculiar look is that the backgrounds are stunning but static, while the body movements are realistic, but the character animation is fairly simplistic and uninflected. It’s a strange combination, and the movie would be better served by more detailed character visuals, but we get more used to it than we might suppose at the start.
While it is not rated, THE SPINE OF NIGHT is extremely violent and gory, which works better with some actions than with others (big stuff is appropriately readable and disturbing; cuts to the body just look strange).
In broad strokes, the characters have interesting looks. Tzod, for instance, in much fleshier than standard female animation characters, and one antagonist (voiced by Joe Manganiello), appears to be modeled after Sean Connery in ZARDOZ.
Grant sounds suitably sepulchral and melancholy as the long-lived Guardian, and Lawless adopts an exotic-to-anywhere accent as the determined Tzod. Malcolm Mills and Jordan Douglas Smith bring so much evil to their bad guys that we wind up invested in seeing them toppled.
The title of THE SPINE OF NIGHT comes from a poetic observation made by a character. It doesn’t refer specifically to any major element of the film. THE SPINE OF NIGHT has narrative vertebrae that initially don’t seem to fit together, but in the end create something that produces the sensation of having read a grim but expansive storybook.
Related: Movie Review: TIME NOW
Related: Movie Review: BROADCAST SIGNAL INTRUSION
Related: Movie Review: V/H/S/94
Related: Movie Review: NEEDLE IN A TIMESTACK
Related: Movie Review: THE OLD WAYS
Related: Movie Review: MASS
Related: Movie Review: THE FOREVER PURGE
Related: Movie Review: DEAR EVAN HANSEN
Related: Movie Review: SHELTER IN PLACE
Related: Movie Review: BAD CANDY
Related: Movie Review: MALIGNANT
Related: Movie Review: THE LAST MATINEE (AL MORIR LA MATINEE)
Related: Movie Review: CANDYMAN
Related: Movie Review: BLOOD CONSCIOUS
Related: Movie Review: THE EMPTY MAN
Related: Movie Review: HOWLING VILLAGE (INUNAKI MURA)
Related: Movie Review: THE SUICIDE SQUAD
Related: Movie Review: THE GREEN KNIGHT
Related: Movie Review: VICIOUS FUN
Related: Movie Review: FEAR STREET PART THREE: 1666
Related: Movie Review: FEAR STREET PART TWO: 1978
Related: Movie Review: FEAR STREET PART ONE: 1994
Related Movie Review: WEREWOLVES WITHIN
Related: Movie Review: THE EVIL NEXT DOOR (ANDRA SIDAN)
Related: Movie Review: F9: THE FAST SAGA
Related: Movie Review: IN THE HEIGHTS
Related: Movie Review: THE VIGIL
Related: Movie Review: QUEEN OF SPADES
Related: Movie Review: THE CONJURING: THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT
Related: Movie Review: CHANGING THE GAME
Related: Movie Review: THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW
Related: Movie Review: ARMY OF THE DEAD
Related: Movie Review: THE RETREAT
Related: Movie Review: SÉANCE
Related: Movie Review: SPIRAL: FROM THE BOOK OF SAW
Follow us on Twitter at ASSIGNMENT X
Like us on Facebook at ASSIGNMENT X
Article Source: Assignment X
Article: Movie Review: THE SPINE OF NIGHT
Related Posts: