I have to apologize to my fiance after dragging her to drive away dolls and then this. I might lose my right to take her to the movies. All I can say is the creepy meat puppets are cool, but this film is pretty dumb. Lose plot and uninteresting characters drag this movie down long before the third act delivers the death blow. Little weary of IFC movies currently
With no characters worth investing in, a lacklustre plot and a longer runtime than is required, this was not an enjoyable watch.
Only watchable if you assume the little girl is the lead's own inner voice .
This could have been a cool possibility to tease out of the narrative is the little girl real? maybe not? but instead the little girl and the lead have a totally nonsensical relationship.
Disappointing that such a great environment for horror - the desire for control and autonomy; meat puppets ?? - couldn't keep it together in the details to deliver the movie this should have been.
Seriously... your abusive mom suddenly falls into a coma, and first thing you do is rent a whole other apt? and move all your stuff there ? why, with what money ? then just abandon your movie bc a bossy little girl starts telling you weird stuff ? Bummer.
Master piece !!
I love It so much !!
I don’t understand…who actually LIKES this kind of movie, and why?
The only reason I even gave this a 1 was because I couldn't give it a 0 and the stop motion animation was well done and I'd like to recognize the people who worked on that.
Also, the little girl looks like Felicity Jones, only 10 years old.
Predictable? Yes. Originality? So so. Foreshadowing? Ridiculous amounts. Still works? Oh, dear me, yes it does.
Awesome animation, neat practical effects, great nightmarish atmosphere. The narrative is a bit derivative but the sensation of unavoidable impending doom balances it out. A little more work on the script and removing some of the most obvious tropes and plot holes and it would have scored higher, but even as flawed I find it a solid eight out of ten.
It's one of those "horror" movies. "It's mental illness, innit."
A movie that had everything to be incredible, but isn't. The make-up, the idea and the ambience are very interesting, but the director chose to focus on scenes where delirium and reality mix, forgetting to develop the characters and the story. The film becomes apathetic, with dialogues that don't contain much and everything lacking emotion.
A really good movie, if we talk about visuals and soundtrack, is quite an experience, but the plot never really lands. I see that the reference to the littlegirl is actually a young version of her, and she's telling her story, but I can't find the connection between that and her mother's coma.
Way too slow and way too long. It teases you with amazing stop motion animation just to cut away and almost never return. The soundtrack was insanely good, especially with the editing and camerawork. The casting and acting was fine, but was the little girl necessary? When will horror stop relying on annoying little girls and creepy old women? It took way too long for the story to actually get anywhere, so an hour in, I ended up turning it off. The concept was unique and interesting, so I'll be waiting on a stop motion horror movie that's actually stop motion.
It was quite the strange premise. It had some pretty cool stopmotion scenes though.
Do not watch this stupid movie
Solid little horror movie, but there’s only few people I’d recommend it to. Very interesting concept with creative, abstract presentation, really loved the stop motion bits. It leans more towards the elevated horror side, lots of subtlety and challenging psychological aspects that will be more rewarding for an experienced viewer. The structure of it is fairly lean, and while I found the arc of the main character compelling, it could’ve used more character development (or stronger performances, I think everyone’s just fine). For a movie about artistry it pushes to some pretty bold places, even if the horror is sometimes played up a little awkwardly. What doesn’t help in that regard are the score and sound design choices, which to me feel like they come from a more commercial film. So, it’s nothing amazing but there are more than a few memorable moments.
5.5/10
As a psychological horror movie fan this caught my interest after seeing it was playing at my theater. It definitely hits the psychological horror itch. You know you did a good job when the entire theater is squirming with disgusted reactions. My only complaint is that the cast could’ve been more fleshed out. Feels like I really don’t know any of the characters and their motivations well. But if you just want to see an effed up movie then I recommend.
What I imagine a Behind The Scenes movie about the making of Phil Tippett's "Mad God" would look like.
Solid 'experimental' horror with sightly too much stress on 'mental' for my tastes.
Review by AcoucalanchaVIP 4BlockedParent2024-03-17T15:36:16Z— updated 2024-03-26T02:38:43Z
I went into this thinking it would offer stunning stop-motion animation segments but a boring cheap story but it's not the case, I enjoyed both. Stopmotion is about an artist so deperate to find her own creative voice that she ends up losing her sanity while searching for it. The story and themes aren't anything new but the execution is what makes it good and memorable.
I'm in love with the stop-motion segments in this movie, they're some of the best horror centered stop-motion segments i've seen in a while (Coraline and Mad God are easy inspirations here). Really creepy, disturbing, morbid, grotesque, unsettling stuff. We also get some of the best practical effects i've seen in a while; the wax face, the squirmish gore, the body horror, the miniature sets and figurines... so creative! That one scene where the two mediums (stop-motion and "real life") meet was the best sequence.
Really good central performance from Aisling Franciosi but the child actress (Caoilinn Springall) absolutely stole the show anytime she was on-screen, she's so confident and knows how to get real creepy. A decent creepy score and the sound is crisp. The dialogue is metaphorical and so is the story. There are some slow parts that could have been shorter and better handled. The sister wasn't necessary in my opinion. The twist was super obvious. Great ending. Could use a rewatch to make sense of everything.
An easy recommendation for any horror fan or practical effects freak!