An epic animation fantasy that brings to mind the stylings of Ralph Bakshi’s animated 1980s version of The Lord Of The Rings, The Spine of Night is a portmanteau tale of the pursuit of The Bloom; by turns, gory, full of unnecessary nudity and bonkers.
With animation achieved via the arduous, painstaking process of rotoscoping (see also A Scanner Darkly by Richard Linklater), the film follows a mostly naked swamp queen – Tzod, voiced by Lucy Lawless – who has struggled up the snowy peaks of a mountain range to swap tales with Richard E. Grant’s Guardian about the Bloom, a blue flower of unspeakable power. A seed of this flower had got away from him, infecting humankind, allowing them to access a void of Lovecraftian one-eyed madness and power.
Tzod relates stories of the past, how the power of this bloom has wreaked devastation and dictatorship over centuries – and we see several of these rather grisly battles, with the power-crazed Ghal-Sur (Jordan Smith) proving to be the biggest, blue-eyed threat. Limbs are hacked off with bloody animated abandon, bones snapped and complex mythology created. Amidst the painterly backdrops, there is dense philosophy and world-creating and although some of the voice performances feel rather at odds with the visuals, The Spine of Night is still an impressively rich achievement.
Directors Galett and King are obviously hardcore fantasy lovers of Bakshi, Heavy Metal and sword and sorcery pulp like Conan The Barbarian, with elements of Flash Gordon. The tales in The Spine of Night embrace medieval serfdom, religious libraries and post-apocalyptic steampunk with intriguing results. A treat for fantasy fans who like their animation gnarly.
Dir: Philip Gelatt/Morgan Galen King (15, 93 mins)
Streaming from Thurs 24 Mar on Shudder
words KEIRON SELF
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