My thought was that the egg was a symbol for how ideas sometimes give birth to themselves - how some ideas come on like a spark of inspiration that will burns like a fever, consuming the artist (no matter what the medium) who then obsessively works at "incubating" it until the idea is finally "hatched" into a fully formed creation. It goes along with the idea that she wasn't creating anything freely, she was just the vessel/ the puppet/ the way the story was able to come to life. She had no control; she was always being controlled, even by her own attempts at independent creativity.
Yep, doing stop motion animation does make you go a little mad. Hours upon hours staring at the same scene, moving it tiny bits at a time. If you knock something over and can't line it back up, oopsie time to redo that part again!! You barely see another sole for hours or even days because all you do is animate and then sleep and repeat. But pushing the playback button and seeing it come to life (haha) is the magic of it as I'm sure Ryan knows too. :) Great vid!
There's a short list of movies that effected me in unique traumatic ways. Cinderella man was the first time I watched a movie as a kid and cried on a more deep level. Precious is the only movie to make me ugly cry lol. The TV show the killing was the only time I ever cried from relief. The nightingale was a movie that i cried throughout but more noticeably was furious the entire time watching. It was kind of uncomfortable to watch a movie like that with someone else while almost shaking. Still, I felt like i really connected with the two main characters. The definition of a movie I loved but could never watch again. Anyway, sorry for the rant lol but I never seen someone else mention that minor before. It's also not exactly something you recommend.
Not sure if you’ve ever seen it, but JUNK HEAD is a stop motion scifi horror on UA-cam. I think the creator is working on a feature length version, but the short is a fun, offbeat, and somewhat Cronenbergian piece.
I really enjoyed the added layer of creative existential dread in this film. Ella has been craving the freedom to be the creator that all the people around her claim to be, yet when she has the chance to finally create, the questions of “do I have what it takes”, “what does it mean to create”, and “is it even POSSIBLE to truly create something new” just slowly consume her and her art: this thing that she supposedly loves as a way of making new things ultimately costs her everything that she is, so at the end of the day, what is it all for? What does it even mean? Does it even matter? It’s the one spin on the “falling into madness” genre that sets this one apart as unique for me
Stop-motion or claymation gives off the creep factor due to the janky movements and unnerving models that fits in the uncanny valley category, so I can see why the movie embraced that scary aspect of stop-motion and turned it into a nightmare fuel. When it comes to creepy stop-motion, it makes me think stuff like the works of Lee Hardcastle or that one scene from _The Adventures of Mark Twain._
Was also just about to throw out La Casa Lobo. Caught it on Tubi last October finally and was just left in pure awe of its craft and left shaken by its ending. One of the most profound visualizations I’ve seen of how propaganda and rhetoric always lingers.
@christianpaystrup4427 LA Casa Lobo is a film that had a profound effect on me. I will be getting ready for bed, curled up and comfy, only for the images in the film to slap me across the face even all this time later.
@christianpaystrup4427 LA Casa Lobo is a film that had a profound effect on me. I will be getting ready for bed, curled up and comfy, only for the images in the film to slap me across the face even all this time later.
Ya know Ryan, as someone who’s never really been into film or horror on an analytical level this channel has hooked me surprisingly hard. You present topics and explain things in a really cohesive/comprehensive way that just scratches my brain itch. I’m not a hyperbolic person but you’ve taken me from an interest in horror to a LOVE of horror.
4:12 i agree. It's not like a horror movie can't have a subtext, but it has to have an interesting story as well. I think "It follows" is a great example of a good story with a strong metaphore.
Oh God, you just unlocked my repressed childhood trauma of watching that claymation Simpsons video when I was, like, 12 years old. Early 2000s internet was so much more gnarly than it is today, or at least it was much easier to access that kind of stuff. That's probably a good thing, but something was definitely lost in the transition.
It's still gnarly, you just have to go through hoops to get to it now, like using a VPN so you can 007 your way into the forgotten age of WTF DID I JUST WATCH followed by the perfunctory 6 hour empty feeling where you question your life choices and maybe dad was right.
honestly its probablt worse now. Its full of companies making ad money on creepy Pregnant Elsa videos that reaching international news and ban movement levels of alarm, and UA-cam has propped them up to this day. Weird claymation horror has got nothing on the real life child predator content pushed by our capitalist overlords
I’d like to shout out a few stop motion animators that no one seems to be mentioning in regards to this movie’s spooky and horror-tinged elements, namely twin brothers Stephen and Timothy Quay (really big in the 90s as The Bros Quay) doing short films and videos, even worked on Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer.” Others that deserve mention are Cristobal León & Joaquín Cociña who created the surreal “Wolf House,” and of course the granddaddy of stop motion Jan Švankmajer (check out his version of Alice for some super creepy stop motion animation).
@@RyanHollinger the funny thing is that I don't even dislike the movie, I just found it to be so slightly above average, I had to voice my disagreement. Lol. Keep up the fantastic work, Ryan!
Agreed with your disagreement! I enjoyed the movie, but I had been hoping for it to be significantly grosser and weirder. The ending was good, and I liked the movie overall. I just think it had so much potential to be more. ETA: I'd love to know what your favorite is so far.
If you want to do another video on animation, I can't recommend "Over The Garden Wall" enough. A Halloween/Fall classic, its a children's animated miniseries that really appeals to people of all ages and is perfect for halloween. Its 10 episodes, each one about 10-12 minutes long, I'd love to see your take on it!
Hey!! Long time viewer and stop motion animator- you hit the nail on the head as to *why* I like stop motion so much as a medium; the DIY aspect of it all and the magic of a few well hidden rigs is something I adore about it- building the sets and the puppets feels so intimate in a way that traditional 2D doesnt. The physicality of actually building something lets you get really playful with texture and structure that I can't find in traditional animation you know? Thanks for putting something cool on my radar too!! I'm familiar with Morgan's work but wasn't aware he made a feature length film
I just watched Stopmotion last night and thought it was a lovely yet surprisingly savage little horror film, flawed but definitely recommended for fans of the more artistic side of the genre. It is great to see such an unusual film succeed and I do want to give the filmmakers credit for their ambition; however, despite some startling and memorable visuals, this film still somehow manages to feel a bit predictable, with plot twists and revelations that go exactly where you would expect them to. The themes here have probably been explored enough to constitute a subgenre of female-centric, descent-into-madness horror films, from "Repulsion" (1965) through "Black Swan" (2010) and - maybe the most similar in iconography and tone - "May" (2002). Having said that, the violence is truly horrific (the thigh-cutting scene had me literally squirming in my seat.)
I watched this a few weeks ago, and while I love the imagery and animation to bits, I feel the psychotic break culminating in the death and mutilation of her bf and his sister felt more like it was for shock value in the way that it was done.
And to think there are people who want CGI effects gone and stop motion effects brought back again because of the whole "soul vs. soulless" arguments, not realizing about how much excruciating work it takes to make them, coupled with worker abuse from the higher ups.
Just wanted to say your channel inspires me so much. I’m obsessed with movies and video essays and I’ve always wanted to do them myself. A big part of that is because I watched all your videos for years when I was a bit younger. I love the way you write, and you always provide new and interesting perspectives. I also greatly appreciate your knowledge of the genre. Keep grinding!
This movie seems so genuinely interesting, but I'm honestly so tired of mental health portrayals always ending in death, murder, or being locked away. I guess in this case, it's all three. At this point, I find the depressing endings more predictable than happy, or even just meh endings. Something about wanting to end a movie like this screams pretention to me. But this is a very subjective opinion and I understand that.
Thanks for reminding me of Fear(s) of the Dark. I saw that at Fantasia back when it was released and I was very impressed, especially with the last segment. Great spooky little film!
I agree so much with your small bit of skepticism in the first part of the video: Indie horror, especially indie horror films, have almost gotten entirely lost in the “subtext sauce” in the past decade. It’s not a bad things in itself at all, but it’s become quite the trope that the horror has to be reflective or symbolic of something to the point where the story and plot take a far backseat to the “point” of the horror.
Can you do the Japanese horror movie iceberg, they have a lot of hidden gems in the lower tiers. I would recommend mermaid legend 1984, labyrinth Romanesque and a haunted Turkish bathhouse!
I personally don't like allegorical works, myself. I see why you like the movie, though, and you made a good argument for it. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.
As someone who adores stop-motion animation, I love how this film is able to combine the dark yet fantastical world of the animated movie with how genuinely depressing the real world is.
4:12 absolutely this, i think i said this on my comment on your skinamarink video, so much horror/horror-adjacent media nowadays do this thing where everything has to be a metaphor or symbolic of the characters trauma or "all in le head" or something. I wouldnt mind it so much if it were an interesting metaphor, but most of the time its either about generational trauma, depression, or PTSD from a traumatic event. The best example for me is Returnal on PS5. It has a really cool idea of an entite alien civilization being stuck in a time loop, conceptually that's crazy cool. Turns out, nah, its all a metaphor for the main character's trauma, all in her head probably. Now instead of appreciating whats presented to me, thinking about the concept, I'm now looking at everything thinking "whats the metaphoric connection here?" and its usually a pretty standard connection. I end up looking at the individual puzzle pieces instead of enjoying the whole picture they make.
How you described stop motion was so spot on, it made me wear the dumbest smile when I heard it! Knowing that you have a degree in animation honestly made me fall further in love with your channel! Thanks for making such a good video, and for introducing some of us to such an amazing film!
I think this film is a great metaphor for the isolation of being any single-minded creative can be. I also like that it showed the pressure from family/friends to draw you out of that creative world (when they just don't get it), or having people (like the boyfriend's sister) treat you like a commodity/steal your ideas. A brilliantly disturbing movie indeed.
I enjoyed the movie but I think it suffers from the same issue as Skinamarink, which is that when filmmakers whose niche is short films heavily focused on visual atmosphere over character and story make a full length feature, the structure tends to be a little weaker than I'd like, tying in with what you said about the trend in horror of quiet subtext over stable plot
EDIT: Found it! It's a short called Midnight Story by Riff Studio and TheCGBros. ua-cam.com/video/-q0hUz6OEuM/v-deo.htmlsi=3cCj5wZbF6jDUuLe Same here. I'll keep searching and hopefully we can find it! Or Ryan will tell us.
This movie reminds me so much of Lucky McKee's "MAY" (2002) (....there's just so many parallels, I think-- both protagonists have mommy issues, an imaginary friend, repressed creativity that gradually drove them insane, and have slow, grimy deaths via self-mutilation soon after their killing spree.. etc. :p)
As an artist who also struggles with arthritis/pain this film hit home for me. A great look at how we suffer just to try and say something to the world through creation. Sometimes it's worth it, but many times we're left disappointed. Its not a perfect film but I definitely liked it's overall feel.
If he was ever given permission to feature a few clips, I'd love to see Ryan share his favorite horror shorts on UA-cam. One of my personal favorites of the bunch is "The Boy and the Camera."
So I literally just saw this film last night, it was playing at a bar I went to with my friends, and the scene at the end when she pulls her leg open and pulls out bits of her own muscle to use in the puppets made me throw up.
It's so crazy how much UK shaped claymation. I've been following Aardman since early HBO Family. I have a very soft spot for claymation and this movie was a great ride (reminded me of a lot of old online horror projects with no happy end). Back when Aardman had a website and actually hosted a platform for newly founded animation artists. Flash animation/Claymation was a big part of my teenage years. I miss those old days of finding websites full of flash animations especially the adult/R sites flash sites that didnt hold back on the gore or humor.
Glad you covered this one--I've been a fan of stop-motion since I discovered tim Burton as a kid (granted, Henry Selick was THE guy who did most of the stop-motion I remember most). I can only imagine what a tremendous pain in the ass it is to make a film like this. The hours that go into such short times of work is nuts. Props to those who pursue this art.
Thank you for talking about how everything has to be buried in subtext. I find the best movies are the ones that can have a deeper meaning to them, but are also to pull off an entertaining movie if you wanted to turn your brain off and have fun. So many modern horror filmmakers seem to turn their movies into convoluted messes where you basically need to rewatch it and analyze the finer details to even understand what's going on. I feel like movies should still be entertainment first and foremost, and if there's extra subtext that adds deeper meaning to a film that's entertaining at face value, that's even better, rather than making the "puzzle" of figuring out the movie the entire appeal.
I just watched this film the other night and thought it was fantastic! My reading of it was a little different to yours but I think you had some really interesting things to say about it. I saw it as being all about creativity/creation. I figured that the little girl was a manifestation of Elle's creativity, and that she was in control of the story and what Elle was doing because aren't all artists slaves to their creativity to some degree? They are puppets through which the story forces itself to be told. The boyfriend and his sister were personifications of what I guess was Elle's idea of giving up/selling out on her dreams. The boyfriend being the personification of the temptation to give up on the dream and get a regular job instead because pursuing your passion is hard and doesn't always pay the bills, and the sister personifying selling out and going corporate instead of Elle making whatever she wanted to make. When she killed them at the end, it was a metaphor for her having to kill those ideas and stick to completing her project. I thought perhaps that the girl, as well as being a metaphor for Elle's creativity, may have been supposed to resemble her younger self, and the story that she's telling may be relating something that happened to Elle when she was the girl's age (SA by an older male figure, who we see as The Ash Man). Elle has to tell this story because it's HER story, and she has to use real meat for her figures as symbolism for it stemming from real events. She is then told that the meat isn't fresh enough, meaning that it's not enough just to rehash an old painful event, it's got to be fresh, she's got to relive the pain/trauma to do it justice in her film. When we see Elle's encounters with The Ash Man, this is her reliving her memories of the traumatic event. Eventually this culminates in Elle having to quite literally reopen old wounds (as shown by what we see her do to her leg) to get to the point where the pain is freshest so that she can use it. There's even a moment where the girl says "That bit" while Elle removes something from inside her leg (a nerve?), alluding to an artist choosing which pieces of their pain/trauma to include in their work. The end, where Elle disappears into a large box, is reminiscent of an old ventriloquist dummy's box, again alluding to the fact that Elle is a puppet for her creativity to work through, and she must wait in the box until she needs to be used again. She's broken free from being used as a puppet by her mother and is now a puppet to her own creativity. As for the egg, eggs can have a lot of symbolism, and I'm not entirely sure if I'm seeing what's supposed to be there or not. We see the egg as unhatched for some time, and an unhatched egg could be symbolic of potential just waiting to be hatched. Her creativity/potential goes unhatched until the very end, when she has completed her film, at which point it has metaphorically hatched and been released into the world. We see The Ash Man force it into her mouth (again, I thought this was symbolic of SA), alluding to the fact that the seed of this idea, came from this event and then "hatched" when she completed the film. Eggs are also commonly used to represent fertility, and in her last encounter with the Ash Man, Elle has blood running down her leg. I thought this might have been alluding to the younger Elle reaching adolescence and the assault happening around about the time she first started menstruating (which would fit with the rough age of the girl character), as it's an unfortunate reality that many assaults to young girls happen shortly after they start getting their periods, especially if the abuser is known to them and would have knowledge of this (such as an older, male family member). I could be way off with my interpretation here, but it was something that once I noticed it, I couldn't un-notice it.
I’d recommend all of Twin Peaks (including the movie) if you haven’t seen it! Starts off very soap opera ish and very rapidly descends into madness and supernatural/psychological horror after it does some world building.
I’ve always adored stop motion as an animation medium and think it’s PERFECT for horror or creepy films. Just something about how stop motion moves and looks, especially clay stop motion, is so uncanny and creepy. I’ve seen so many short stop motion horror films on UA-cam that were amazing, especially as a kid that probably shouldn’t have been watching them lol, it just makes me wish the medium was used for full length films and the horror genre more! Tim Burton had it going for a while but it feels like it’s not around much anymore.. It’s so painstakingly slow and so much work but it’s so worth it. You can always tell there’s so much passion put into stop motion films.. Personally the corpse bride is my favorite film of all time, another being Coraline. I really hope we get more films like those in the future 💜
this movie looks awesome! One of my all time favorites is a stop motion version of Alice in Wonderland called Alice from 1988 by Jan Svankmajer, check it out if you want to watch more stop motion
"Love to Hate You" from '91 is a great Erasure track to check out , with cheeky lyrics and a catchy sample from Gloria Gaynor's disco classic, "I Will Survive".
I just reserved this film from my local library on DVD. Looking forward to watching it. Also, if you want a good example of animated horror, you can't go wrong with 1997's Perfect Blue.
Thank you for recommending truly unique and indie filmmaking. I wouldn't have built up such an excellent list of horror films to check out if it weren't for you.
Woah. If I had a nickel for every time Ryan proclaimed a horror movie starring Aisling Franciosi 'the best' of the year, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.
I never tend to leave recommendations on YT channels, but this is my favourite horror film channel and noone ever seems to take a look at my faves (slow burn psychological horror "Session 9", macabre/cutesy slasher with black comedy elements "May") Would be grand if you ever get chance to give them a look. Pretty tame but compelling films.
Loved the...Well stopmotion. One of the best & gruesomest (?) thing i've seen in a long time. BUT dear god that story was predictable & not very interesting. I just couldn't get into it & i'm a bit sad because everybody seems to enjoy but me.
"There's a fallacy in thinking that freedom and happiness coexist when we're all subject to what's going on in our own heads." Fucking hell, Ryan. You didn't have to clobber me with such a gutpunch this early in the week.
I know a haunted claymation film called Requiem for a Tuesday. Apparently the director never finished it because he went insane from how much work it was.
did i mishear or misunderstand smthn in the raycon ad at the beginning? quick charge function 'yields 90 minutes out of a ten hour charge'. like, as in, you charge it for ten hours, and you can use it for 90 minutes? am i being stupid lmao
Everyone wants to think we're so self aware that something so simple as doing what you desire for a living could never yield a boring or tedious lifestyle. Plateauing at your skill level can be so suffocating. It can make you feel impotent and out of control. You become so discouraged and you don't even want to watch people whose skills bypass yours greatly despite your interest. It's such an interesting concept to see illustrated using this medium.
This one disturbed me on several levels, even layers within those levels. Is it the "most gruesome?" Undecided. But, it was gawdamned dusturbing. And any art that gets a visceral reaction, is something of note indeed. Good pick and great video, as always, Ryan.
Damn Ryan, been out of the country for a bit and decided I’d wait and binge a lot of your videos back to back but I just came to say you’re looking good mate, keep it up!
Agree on your take on subtext in prestige horror. If everyone is commenting on the same thing (mental illness), it stops being an earnest commentary and becomes a generic genre trope
Is that movie at 5:09 actually just called "Horror"? Because it looks interesting, but I can't find it anywhere (and with a name like that, it's no surprise).
I would like to see you review "Crimes of The Future" . Also, if you Mr. Hollinger, or anyone want more great stop-motion, check out the works of Jan Svankmajer.
*Tell me your requests in the comments!!*
Go to buyraycon.com/ryan for 15% off your order, plus free shipping!
Brought to you by Raycon.
Wes Cravens Vampire in Brooklyn.
You could do videos on:
- The Fear Street trilogy
- Tigers Are Not Afraid
That leg scene was difficult to watch.
Review
Angel Heart
Pi
Razorback
Angel Heart
The Mothman Prophecies
Conspiracy
Exam
The Void (2016), a big love letter to 80s body horror and lovecraftian horror with a surprisingly small budget
As Gravity Falls has taught me:
"All stop motion animation is black magic"
I came to the comments to see if anyone referenced that Gravity Falls episode! Ugh one of the best!!!!
Yea but nothing is as good as Ben’s video in Parks and Rec
@@matthewalbert8469 Requiem for a Tuesday. Ben’s lost masterpiece.
🎶STAN-
"Did you really believed someone moved these things one frame at a time ? I'M NOT A MASOCHIST ! I use black magic !"
@@matthewalbert8469 And it did truly drive him insane, especially when he realized he toiled for days for a four second shot.
My thought was that the egg was a symbol for how ideas sometimes give birth to themselves - how some ideas come on like a spark of inspiration that will burns like a fever, consuming the artist (no matter what the medium) who then obsessively works at "incubating" it until the idea is finally "hatched" into a fully formed creation.
It goes along with the idea that she wasn't creating anything freely, she was just the vessel/ the puppet/ the way the story was able to come to life. She had no control; she was always being controlled, even by her own attempts at independent creativity.
I think you might’ve nailed it honestly.
I'm an artist who, for the most part, had given up, but your post has inspired me to pick up my utensils once again. Thank you so much. 😊
Yep, doing stop motion animation does make you go a little mad. Hours upon hours staring at the same scene, moving it tiny bits at a time. If you knock something over and can't line it back up, oopsie time to redo that part again!! You barely see another sole for hours or even days because all you do is animate and then sleep and repeat. But pushing the playback button and seeing it come to life (haha) is the magic of it as I'm sure Ryan knows too. :) Great vid!
Oh yeah it does
It strikes the pose in paraphin, or else it gets horribly mutilated aging....
Don't care what you think 😊
Sole?? 😂
What’s even scarier is that it’s starring the same actress as The Nightingale.
I did not ask to relive that trauma today.
There's a short list of movies that effected me in unique traumatic ways. Cinderella man was the first time I watched a movie as a kid and cried on a more deep level. Precious is the only movie to make me ugly cry lol. The TV show the killing was the only time I ever cried from relief. The nightingale was a movie that i cried throughout but more noticeably was furious the entire time watching. It was kind of uncomfortable to watch a movie like that with someone else while almost shaking. Still, I felt like i really connected with the two main characters. The definition of a movie I loved but could never watch again. Anyway, sorry for the rant lol but I never seen someone else mention that minor before. It's also not exactly something you recommend.
The House wasn't specifically an animated "horror" stop-motion anthology but the first story in it was super creepy and I loved it.
I'd say the second was a kind of horror too. I really liked that film
Not sure if you’ve ever seen it, but JUNK HEAD is a stop motion scifi horror on UA-cam. I think the creator is working on a feature length version, but the short is a fun, offbeat, and somewhat Cronenbergian piece.
Apparently the full length was already released in 2017, someone uploaded it to UA-cam with English subs
Is that on Alter's channel?
The feature length movie is already out and a sequel should be out in 2025
@@theblackflame4002Are you incapable of taking 5 seconds to search youtube? How is that even a question?
@@SnailHatan I prefer to interact with people and ask a question rather than search for things. We humans used to do this all the time.
I really enjoyed the added layer of creative existential dread in this film. Ella has been craving the freedom to be the creator that all the people around her claim to be, yet when she has the chance to finally create, the questions of “do I have what it takes”, “what does it mean to create”, and “is it even POSSIBLE to truly create something new” just slowly consume her and her art: this thing that she supposedly loves as a way of making new things ultimately costs her everything that she is, so at the end of the day, what is it all for? What does it even mean? Does it even matter? It’s the one spin on the “falling into madness” genre that sets this one apart as unique for me
Very well said! 😊
Don't care what you think! 😊
@@nolancho oh, hey! It's the "nothing is cool" kid! 👋🏼
Stop-motion or claymation gives off the creep factor due to the janky movements and unnerving models that fits in the uncanny valley category, so I can see why the movie embraced that scary aspect of stop-motion and turned it into a nightmare fuel. When it comes to creepy stop-motion, it makes me think stuff like the works of Lee Hardcastle or that one scene from _The Adventures of Mark Twain._
And then there's Wallace and Gromit
"Stay away from animation unless you have the skill and patience for it."
Never has one of Ryan's outros hit so hard.
Ryan you should watch La Cass Lobo, its super scary, its animated, its filled with methaphore and allegory and you would love it i think.
Casa lobo*
Ha! I mentioned it too! Amazing movie.
Was also just about to throw out La Casa Lobo. Caught it on Tubi last October finally and was just left in pure awe of its craft and left shaken by its ending. One of the most profound visualizations I’ve seen of how propaganda and rhetoric always lingers.
@christianpaystrup4427 LA Casa Lobo is a film that had a profound effect on me. I will be getting ready for bed, curled up and comfy, only for the images in the film to slap me across the face even all this time later.
@christianpaystrup4427 LA Casa Lobo is a film that had a profound effect on me. I will be getting ready for bed, curled up and comfy, only for the images in the film to slap me across the face even all this time later.
A rainy Irish Sunday afternoon, a cup of tea, and a new RH video! Ideal
Ya know Ryan, as someone who’s never really been into film or horror on an analytical level this channel has hooked me surprisingly hard.
You present topics and explain things in a really cohesive/comprehensive way that just scratches my brain itch.
I’m not a hyperbolic person but you’ve taken me from an interest in horror to a LOVE of horror.
Thank you!!
4:12 i agree. It's not like a horror movie can't have a subtext, but it has to have an interesting story as well. I think "It follows" is a great example of a good story with a strong metaphore.
My favorite thing about Ryan Hollinger videos is the way he says "however".
Every time I hear it, it's an instant gem.
Thank you sir
Was just on a binge of Ryan's back-catalogue when this came out, perfect timing!
Oh God, you just unlocked my repressed childhood trauma of watching that claymation Simpsons video when I was, like, 12 years old. Early 2000s internet was so much more gnarly than it is today, or at least it was much easier to access that kind of stuff. That's probably a good thing, but something was definitely lost in the transition.
It's still gnarly, you just have to go through hoops to get to it now, like using a VPN so you can 007 your way into the forgotten age of WTF DID I JUST WATCH followed by the perfunctory 6 hour empty feeling where you question your life choices and maybe dad was right.
@@desertmammoth3159are you talking about the couch gag? i think you can just search that on here lmao
@@desertmammoth3159i also might have misunderstood this comment so thats my bad
honestly its probablt worse now. Its full of companies making ad money on creepy Pregnant Elsa videos that reaching international news and ban movement levels of alarm, and UA-cam has propped them up to this day.
Weird claymation horror has got nothing on the real life child predator content pushed by our capitalist overlords
I’d like to shout out a few stop motion animators that no one seems to be mentioning in regards to this movie’s spooky and horror-tinged elements, namely twin brothers Stephen and Timothy Quay (really big in the 90s as The Bros Quay) doing short films and videos, even worked on Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer.” Others that deserve mention are Cristobal León & Joaquín Cociña who created the surreal “Wolf House,” and of course the granddaddy of stop motion Jan Švankmajer (check out his version of Alice for some super creepy stop
motion animation).
"Animated horror," you say? Might I suggest a fine little gem called 'Perfect Blue?'
That's anime and he knows about it. Don't be pretentious
@@moxiemaxie3543 Anime is animated. Nothing pretentious about that.
@@moxiemaxie3543 Well EXCUSE ME for not being psychic and knowing every single film he's ever seen!
I had to pause the video I was watching just to come in to say, "Disagree, but I look forward to watching a new Ryan H video"
Gotta get those rage clicks somehow! :P
@@RyanHollinger the funny thing is that I don't even dislike the movie, I just found it to be so slightly above average, I had to voice my disagreement. Lol. Keep up the fantastic work, Ryan!
@@RyanHollingerI think you wrong because Late Night With The devil is the best horror movie so far.
Agreed with your disagreement! I enjoyed the movie, but I had been hoping for it to be significantly grosser and weirder. The ending was good, and I liked the movie overall. I just think it had so much potential to be more.
ETA: I'd love to know what your favorite is so far.
It got overhyped a bit before it was fully released.
Edit:still a great original idea body horror flick!
The Wolf House (2017) uses stop motion to profoundly uncomfortable effect
Finally FINALLY some Robert Morgan appreciation!!
His work is amazing and disturbing.
Glad to have Ryan back. He came to make my Sunday a wonderful day.
Worst thing about being this early is having no comments to read. 😢
Reporting a pity patry of one at the BooHoo Boogaloo.....probable repeat offender....caution advised..
If you want to do another video on animation, I can't recommend "Over The Garden Wall" enough. A Halloween/Fall classic, its a children's animated miniseries that really appeals to people of all ages and is perfect for halloween. Its 10 episodes, each one about 10-12 minutes long, I'd love to see your take on it!
Hey!! Long time viewer and stop motion animator- you hit the nail on the head as to *why* I like stop motion so much as a medium; the DIY aspect of it all and the magic of a few well hidden rigs is something I adore about it- building the sets and the puppets feels so intimate in a way that traditional 2D doesnt. The physicality of actually building something lets you get really playful with texture and structure that I can't find in traditional animation you know?
Thanks for putting something cool on my radar too!! I'm familiar with Morgan's work but wasn't aware he made a feature length film
I just watched Stopmotion last night and thought it was a lovely yet surprisingly savage little horror film, flawed but definitely recommended for fans of the more artistic side of the genre.
It is great to see such an unusual film succeed and I do want to give the filmmakers credit for their ambition; however, despite some startling and memorable visuals, this film still somehow manages to feel a bit predictable, with plot twists and revelations that go exactly where you would expect them to.
The themes here have probably been explored enough to constitute a subgenre of female-centric, descent-into-madness horror films, from "Repulsion" (1965) through "Black Swan" (2010) and - maybe the most similar in iconography and tone - "May" (2002). Having said that, the violence is truly horrific (the thigh-cutting scene had me literally squirming in my seat.)
I did not know you have an animation degree! Would LOVE to see more animated horror or horror adjacent movies and shows on this channel.
I watched this a few weeks ago, and while I love the imagery and animation to bits, I feel the psychotic break culminating in the death and mutilation of her bf and his sister felt more like it was for shock value in the way that it was done.
And to think there are people who want CGI effects gone and stop motion effects brought back again because of the whole "soul vs. soulless" arguments, not realizing about how much excruciating work it takes to make them, coupled with worker abuse from the higher ups.
Just wanted to say your channel inspires me so much. I’m obsessed with movies and video essays and I’ve always wanted to do them myself. A big part of that is because I watched all your videos for years when I was a bit younger. I love the way you write, and you always provide new and interesting perspectives. I also greatly appreciate your knowledge of the genre. Keep grinding!
This movie seems so genuinely interesting, but I'm honestly so tired of mental health portrayals always ending in death, murder, or being locked away. I guess in this case, it's all three. At this point, I find the depressing endings more predictable than happy, or even just meh endings. Something about wanting to end a movie like this screams pretention to me. But this is a very subjective opinion and I understand that.
Thanks for reminding me of Fear(s) of the Dark. I saw that at Fantasia back when it was released and I was very impressed, especially with the last segment. Great spooky little film!
6:32 me every time there's a minor inconvenience
Something about stop motion looking stuff just creeps me out and I don't know why.
90's Tool videos?
So early I got the worm
I agree so much with your small bit of skepticism in the first part of the video:
Indie horror, especially indie horror films, have almost gotten entirely lost in the “subtext sauce” in the past decade.
It’s not a bad things in itself at all, but it’s become quite the trope that the horror has to be reflective or symbolic of something to the point where the story and plot take a far backseat to the “point” of the horror.
Can you do the Japanese horror movie iceberg, they have a lot of hidden gems in the lower tiers. I would recommend mermaid legend 1984, labyrinth Romanesque and a haunted Turkish bathhouse!
im not used to being this close to release. 1 minute, jeez
I personally don't like allegorical works, myself. I see why you like the movie, though, and you made a good argument for it. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.
As someone who adores stop-motion animation, I love how this film is able to combine the dark yet fantastical world of the animated movie with how genuinely depressing the real world is.
4:12 absolutely this, i think i said this on my comment on your skinamarink video, so much horror/horror-adjacent media nowadays do this thing where everything has to be a metaphor or symbolic of the characters trauma or "all in le head" or something. I wouldnt mind it so much if it were an interesting metaphor, but most of the time its either about generational trauma, depression, or PTSD from a traumatic event.
The best example for me is Returnal on PS5. It has a really cool idea of an entite alien civilization being stuck in a time loop, conceptually that's crazy cool. Turns out, nah, its all a metaphor for the main character's trauma, all in her head probably. Now instead of appreciating whats presented to me, thinking about the concept, I'm now looking at everything thinking "whats the metaphoric connection here?" and its usually a pretty standard connection. I end up looking at the individual puzzle pieces instead of enjoying the whole picture they make.
How you described stop motion was so spot on, it made me wear the dumbest smile when I heard it! Knowing that you have a degree in animation honestly made me fall further in love with your channel! Thanks for making such a good video, and for introducing some of us to such an amazing film!
That puppet montage actually goes so hard though
First "hoyevver" drops at 1:43. I watched His ad for nothing! :D
Little otik is a good stop-motion horror with little subtext, Everything is real that happens.
I think this film is a great metaphor for the isolation of being any single-minded creative can be. I also like that it showed the pressure from family/friends to draw you out of that creative world (when they just don't get it), or having people (like the boyfriend's sister) treat you like a commodity/steal your ideas. A brilliantly disturbing movie indeed.
Having a hard time animating stop motion? Just make a puppet out of human meat! That’ll make it better.
Great vid, Ryan!
I'm sure a good pair of RAY-CON ear buds with the HOYEVER code would have come in handy for Ella when making that life grueling stop motion animation.
I enjoyed the movie but I think it suffers from the same issue as Skinamarink, which is that when filmmakers whose niche is short films heavily focused on visual atmosphere over character and story make a full length feature, the structure tends to be a little weaker than I'd like, tying in with what you said about the trend in horror of quiet subtext over stable plot
5:09 whoa whats this movie?? im trying to find stuff on it but searching 'horror 2016 movie' is going as well as youd imagine
SECONDED! Searches on YT and Google are coming up empty
Got it.
ua-cam.com/video/GNWRr2nUmvg/v-deo.htmlsi=RaGBtspqhFIjmoQU
I tried to find it too but i am also not having any luck so if Ryan or someone can help,it would be appreciated!
EDIT: Found it! It's a short called Midnight Story by Riff Studio and TheCGBros.
ua-cam.com/video/-q0hUz6OEuM/v-deo.htmlsi=3cCj5wZbF6jDUuLe
Same here. I'll keep searching and hopefully we can find it! Or Ryan will tell us.
This movie reminds me so much of Lucky McKee's "MAY" (2002)
(....there's just so many parallels, I think-- both protagonists have mommy issues, an imaginary friend, repressed creativity that gradually drove them insane, and have slow, grimy deaths via self-mutilation soon after their killing spree.. etc. :p)
I was just thinking the same thing right before I came across this comment. Glad someone else shared the same opinion.
As an artist who also struggles with arthritis/pain this film hit home for me. A great look at how we suffer just to try and say something to the world through creation. Sometimes it's worth it, but many times we're left disappointed. Its not a perfect film but I definitely liked it's overall feel.
I think the egg is an ode to Poe and/or Lynch (you can't make an omelette without breaking an egg). Definitely not literal "egg is baby."
Yaaasssss! Been checking for days to see if Ryan had a New Video for days 😊🎉😮🎉🎉😊😊🎉
If he was ever given permission to feature a few clips, I'd love to see Ryan share his favorite horror shorts on UA-cam. One of my personal favorites of the bunch is "The Boy and the Camera."
So I literally just saw this film last night, it was playing at a bar I went to with my friends, and the scene at the end when she pulls her leg open and pulls out bits of her own muscle to use in the puppets made me throw up.
It's so crazy how much UK shaped claymation. I've been following Aardman since early HBO Family. I have a very soft spot for claymation and this movie was a great ride (reminded me of a lot of old online horror projects with no happy end). Back when Aardman had a website and actually hosted a platform for newly founded animation artists. Flash animation/Claymation was a big part of my teenage years. I miss those old days of finding websites full of flash animations especially the adult/R sites flash sites that didnt hold back on the gore or humor.
Glad you covered this one--I've been a fan of stop-motion since I discovered tim Burton as a kid (granted, Henry Selick was THE guy who did most of the stop-motion I remember most). I can only imagine what a tremendous pain in the ass it is to make a film like this. The hours that go into such short times of work is nuts. Props to those who pursue this art.
got so excited seeing that david romero name drop! i love his stuff.
Thank you for talking about how everything has to be buried in subtext. I find the best movies are the ones that can have a deeper meaning to them, but are also to pull off an entertaining movie if you wanted to turn your brain off and have fun. So many modern horror filmmakers seem to turn their movies into convoluted messes where you basically need to rewatch it and analyze the finer details to even understand what's going on. I feel like movies should still be entertainment first and foremost, and if there's extra subtext that adds deeper meaning to a film that's entertaining at face value, that's even better, rather than making the "puzzle" of figuring out the movie the entire appeal.
I just watched this film the other night and thought it was fantastic! My reading of it was a little different to yours but I think you had some really interesting things to say about it.
I saw it as being all about creativity/creation. I figured that the little girl was a manifestation of Elle's creativity, and that she was in control of the story and what Elle was doing because aren't all artists slaves to their creativity to some degree? They are puppets through which the story forces itself to be told. The boyfriend and his sister were personifications of what I guess was Elle's idea of giving up/selling out on her dreams. The boyfriend being the personification of the temptation to give up on the dream and get a regular job instead because pursuing your passion is hard and doesn't always pay the bills, and the sister personifying selling out and going corporate instead of Elle making whatever she wanted to make. When she killed them at the end, it was a metaphor for her having to kill those ideas and stick to completing her project.
I thought perhaps that the girl, as well as being a metaphor for Elle's creativity, may have been supposed to resemble her younger self, and the story that she's telling may be relating something that happened to Elle when she was the girl's age (SA by an older male figure, who we see as The Ash Man). Elle has to tell this story because it's HER story, and she has to use real meat for her figures as symbolism for it stemming from real events. She is then told that the meat isn't fresh enough, meaning that it's not enough just to rehash an old painful event, it's got to be fresh, she's got to relive the pain/trauma to do it justice in her film. When we see Elle's encounters with The Ash Man, this is her reliving her memories of the traumatic event. Eventually this culminates in Elle having to quite literally reopen old wounds (as shown by what we see her do to her leg) to get to the point where the pain is freshest so that she can use it. There's even a moment where the girl says "That bit" while Elle removes something from inside her leg (a nerve?), alluding to an artist choosing which pieces of their pain/trauma to include in their work.
The end, where Elle disappears into a large box, is reminiscent of an old ventriloquist dummy's box, again alluding to the fact that Elle is a puppet for her creativity to work through, and she must wait in the box until she needs to be used again.
She's broken free from being used as a puppet by her mother and is now a puppet to her own creativity.
As for the egg, eggs can have a lot of symbolism, and I'm not entirely sure if I'm seeing what's supposed to be there or not. We see the egg as unhatched for some time, and an unhatched egg could be symbolic of potential just waiting to be hatched. Her creativity/potential goes unhatched until the very end, when she has completed her film, at which point it has metaphorically hatched and been released into the world. We see The Ash Man force it into her mouth (again, I thought this was symbolic of SA), alluding to the fact that the seed of this idea, came from this event and then "hatched" when she completed the film. Eggs are also commonly used to represent fertility, and in her last encounter with the Ash Man, Elle has blood running down her leg. I thought this might have been alluding to the younger Elle reaching adolescence and the assault happening around about the time she first started menstruating (which would fit with the rough age of the girl character), as it's an unfortunate reality that many assaults to young girls happen shortly after they start getting their periods, especially if the abuser is known to them and would have knowledge of this (such as an older, male family member).
I could be way off with my interpretation here, but it was something that once I noticed it, I couldn't un-notice it.
I’d recommend all of Twin Peaks (including the movie) if you haven’t seen it! Starts off very soap opera ish and very rapidly descends into madness and supernatural/psychological horror after it does some world building.
I’ve always adored stop motion as an animation medium and think it’s PERFECT for horror or creepy films. Just something about how stop motion moves and looks, especially clay stop motion, is so uncanny and creepy. I’ve seen so many short stop motion horror films on UA-cam that were amazing, especially as a kid that probably shouldn’t have been watching them lol, it just makes me wish the medium was used for full length films and the horror genre more! Tim Burton had it going for a while but it feels like it’s not around much anymore.. It’s so painstakingly slow and so much work but it’s so worth it. You can always tell there’s so much passion put into stop motion films..
Personally the corpse bride is my favorite film of all time, another being Coraline. I really hope we get more films like those in the future 💜
this movie looks awesome! One of my all time favorites is a stop motion version of Alice in Wonderland called Alice from 1988 by Jan Svankmajer, check it out if you want to watch more stop motion
Have you considered covering I Saw The TV Glow?
I watched that yesterday. What a mind fuck.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on creepy Czech animation like The Sorcerer's Apprentice (1977), The Pied Piper (1985) or the films of Jan Švankmajer
what is that movie or short, Horror from 2016? Any more info?
"Love to Hate You" from '91 is a great Erasure track to check out , with cheeky lyrics and a catchy sample from Gloria Gaynor's disco classic, "I Will Survive".
everytime I see Bungle from Rainbow I just picture the bear suit guy from the shining
I just reserved this film from my local library on DVD. Looking forward to watching it.
Also, if you want a good example of animated horror, you can't go wrong with 1997's Perfect Blue.
Er… what is the film at 5:10? It’s frustratingly ambiguous enough that any searches bring up nothing.
After some googling, looks like it's called "Horror Short Film" by Riff and Alternate Studio. It's posted on CGMeetup's channel
Looks like it's "Horror" 4 minute CGI short by something called Rift
Thank you for recommending truly unique and indie filmmaking. I wouldn't have built up such an excellent list of horror films to check out if it weren't for you.
Speaking of things that have been hinted at, I'm still eagerly awaiting the "Last Night in Soho" video that was alluded to in the "Old" video.
Every video you have done is great and insightful. Don't know why you haven't hit 1MM followers yet. Keep it up, it will come!
Whats the segment at 5:10, the still says horror (2016) Ive been trying to look it up but cannot find anything on it
Woah. If I had a nickel for every time Ryan proclaimed a horror movie starring Aisling Franciosi 'the best' of the year, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.
I never tend to leave recommendations on YT channels, but this is my favourite horror film channel and noone ever seems to take a look at my faves (slow burn psychological horror "Session 9", macabre/cutesy slasher with black comedy elements "May")
Would be grand if you ever get chance to give them a look. Pretty tame but compelling films.
Omfg thank you for the point about subtext being too heavy and bordering being the text, which makes it LESS.
Ohhhh yeah Morph used to scare the hell out of me too.
Was waiting for this one since I saw it advertised. I love stop motion in general so this was right up my alley
please look at Saiko! The Large Family. it’s so scary! the interview parts, specifically, if you look in the background ;)
The slow pace of this film may turn a lot of people off but it makes the visceral gore and intense scenes that much louder when they happen.
Ryyaan mah boi
Loved the...Well stopmotion. One of the best & gruesomest (?) thing i've seen in a long time.
BUT dear god that story was predictable & not very interesting. I just couldn't get into it & i'm a bit sad because everybody seems to enjoy but me.
Watch 'Mad God'
"There's a fallacy in thinking that freedom and happiness coexist when we're all subject to what's going on in our own heads."
Fucking hell, Ryan. You didn't have to clobber me with such a gutpunch this early in the week.
Mmhmm, I keep coming back just because I love the psychological slaps he gives. 'Pay attention, goddamn you!' And I do. I do.
I know a haunted claymation film called Requiem for a Tuesday. Apparently the director never finished it because he went insane from how much work it was.
Just based on the footage here, it kinda looks like the director heard someone mention how creepy Tool music videos are and was like "yes, brilliant!"
did i mishear or misunderstand smthn in the raycon ad at the beginning? quick charge function 'yields 90 minutes out of a ten hour charge'. like, as in, you charge it for ten hours, and you can use it for 90 minutes? am i being stupid lmao
Everyone wants to think we're so self aware that something so simple as doing what you desire for a living could never yield a boring or tedious lifestyle. Plateauing at your skill level can be so suffocating. It can make you feel impotent and out of control. You become so discouraged and you don't even want to watch people whose skills bypass yours greatly despite your interest.
It's such an interesting concept to see illustrated using this medium.
This one disturbed me on several levels, even layers within those levels. Is it the "most gruesome?" Undecided. But, it was gawdamned dusturbing. And any art that gets a visceral reaction, is something of note indeed.
Good pick and great video, as always, Ryan.
Damn Ryan, been out of the country for a bit and decided I’d wait and binge a lot of your videos back to back but I just came to say you’re looking good mate, keep it up!
Agree on your take on subtext in prestige horror. If everyone is commenting on the same thing (mental illness), it stops being an earnest commentary and becomes a generic genre trope
The ending reminds me of Maniac with the mannequins a bit. Which happens to be one of the best recommendations I've ever got from your channel.
Is that movie at 5:09 actually just called "Horror"? Because it looks interesting, but I can't find it anywhere (and with a name like that, it's no surprise).
This looks very interesting! I like the mix of styles. Happiness of the Katakuris did something similar
Omg I love that movie
@@vi0let831 Me too 😀
I would like to see you review "Crimes of The Future" . Also, if you Mr. Hollinger, or anyone want more great stop-motion, check out the works of Jan Svankmajer.
It took me way too long to realize you dont have two of the same poster in your room. Time for some coffee...
I can only imagine that the trey Parker and matt stone advice for making a "puppet movie" applies to a stop motion movie... Their advice was "Don't"
This really reminded me of Jacob Geller’s video on the works of Kitty Horrorshow.