Ultra-violent, epic fantasy set in a land of magic follows heroes from different eras and cultures battling against a malevolent force.
Philip Gelatt and Morgan Galen King’s “The Spine of Night” is so obviously a labor of love, it’s painful to fault it for its flaws. As epic as storytelling gets — albeit condensed into a swift 93 minutes — the distinctly adult animated feature deals with god-like, mythical characters, and centuries-spanning conflicts between good and evil. With influences ranging as wide as Jodorowsky, “He-Man,” Alan Moore, Ralph Bakshi, “Heavy Metal,” Miyazaki, and even Linklater’s “A Scanner Darkly,” the one thing you certainly can’t fault the film for is lack of ambition.
The story centers around Tzod (Lucy Lawless), who brings a magical plant, a symbol of hope and immense power, to The Guardian (Richard E. Grant), who resides in nigh-unreachable mountains. We then trace her stories — which imbues the feature with an anthology-like vibe — as she recalls them to the dying man. These are tales of kings and traitors, stories within stories, along with leaps in time, and not all of it coheres, nor do the sometimes-cheesy lines help the matter. Yet even at its most confounding, “The Spine of Night” remains deeply immersive, the passion that went into it palpable in every frame.
The filmmakers’ choice of rotoscoping pays off for the most part. Sure, the colossal backgrounds sometimes overshadow the sketchy character designs, yet if you consider the low budget and the gargantuan amount of craft that went into it, it’s undeniably impressive, atmospheric, and hallucinatory. The shoddier parts just accentuate the film’s rough-hewn charm.
The filmmakers concoct a fully-realized world that is gloriously violent. Folks are dismembered. Heads and bodies get sliced in half — both vertically and horizontally. People burn to death, or at least crucial parts of their bodies do. Characters drown in swamps. You’ve been warned. This has life-long child trauma stamped all over it.
“The Spine of Night” features an ensemble voice cast that’s as “punk rock” as the film itself: Lawless, Grant, Patton Oswalt, Betty Gabriel, Joe Manganiello, and legendary underground horror auteur, Larry Fessenden. The actors fully commit to their characters; particular props must go out to Ms. Lucy Flawless (as I like to call her) for an impassioned, poignant turn. She forms the proverbial spine of the film, connecting all the loose elements and ensuring that the blood keeps flowing, thick and fast.
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