#caoilinn springall

[sesiondemadrugada]

Stopmotion (Robert Morgan, 2023).

[brokehorrorfan]

Protector. Provider. Predator. British werewolf film The Beast Within will be released on Blu-ray and DVD on October 22 via Well Go USA.

Broke Horror Fan is giving away three copies of The Beast Within on Blu-ray. To enter, email [email protected] with THE BEAST WITHIN in the subject line. In the body, include your name and mailing address.

One entry permitted per address. This contest is open to US residents only. Three winners will be randomly drawn next week.

Alexander J. Farrell makes his feature directorial debut from a script he co-wrote with Greer Ellison. Kit Harington stars with Ashleigh Cummings, Caoilinn Springall, and James Cosmo.

After a series of strange events leads her to question her family’s isolated life on a fortified compound deep in the English wilds, 10-year-old Willow follows her parents on one of their secret late-night treks to the heart of the ancient forest. But upon witnessing her father undergo a terrible transformation, she too becomes ensnared by the dark ancestral secret they’ve tried so desperately to conceal.

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Doctor Who 14.03 - "Boom"

size: 1920x1080 2,648 screencaps

[moviemosaics]

Stopmotion

directed by Robert Morgan, 2023

[moviesandmania]

THE BEAST WITHIN Werewolf horror - trailer and release date

‘Protector. Provider. Predator.’ The Beast Within is a 2024 horror film about a young girl who realises her parents are harbouring a dark family secret. The movie was directed by Alexander J. Farrell from a screenplay co-written with Greer Ellison. The Paradox House-Filmology Finance-Ill Luxury co-production stars Kit Harington (Game of Thrones), Ashleigh Cummings, James Cosmo, Caoilinn…

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[moorheadthanyoucanhandle]

MEAT PUPPETS

In theaters this weekend:

Stopmotion--The peculiar low-tech magic of stop-motion animation has always been one of the special delights of cinema for me; it's one of the reasons I became a movie lover as a child. Because of the work of masters like Willis O'Brien, Jim Danforth, Karel Zeman and the great Ray Harryhasuen, the labor-intensive, expensive technique is often associated with whimsical fantasy or science fiction. But it can be used for nightmarish horror as well, and this nasty, self-referential British chiller, directed by Robert Morgan from a script he wrote with Robin King, takes us to that dark side.

Ella (Aisling Franciosi) is the daughter of famous stop-motion animator Suzanne (Stella Gonet), and an animator herself.  Because she no longer has the use of her hands, Suzanne directs Ella in painstakingly manipulating her puppets; she refers to Ella herself by the affectionate--or maybe not so affectionate--nickname of "puppet," and she's quietly, passive-aggressively tyrannical toward her, constantly unsatisfied with her work, constantly demanding retakes. Ella would like to contribute her own ideas to her mother's work, yet when asked what these ideas are she's stymied, daunted by Suzanne's greatness. 

But when Suzanne falls into a coma, Ella meets a nervy little girl (Caoilinn Springall) in her building who talks her into abandoning Suzanne's project--a traditional tale involving a cyclops--and starting a new stop-motion film based on a storyline she suggests. It involves a terrified girl fleeing through the forest and taking refuge in a cabin, stalked by a hideous figure called the Ashman. She also insists Ella start using actual dead animal parts, and worse, over her armatures. Before long Ella is haunted by visions, some of them pretty hair-raising, of the gruesome characters in her film.

The live action side of Stopmotion has a strong streak of Cronenberg-esque "body horror," while the stop-motion sequences show the influence of Jan Švankmajer and the Quay Brothers. It's a potent one-two punch of creepiness. This is one of those movies where the line between dreams and reality isn't always certain, but Morgan keeps enough of a coherent narrative that this doesn't become tiresome, and there are freaky erotic touches, as when Ella is having sex, and fingers her lover's back as she would a stop-motion puppet.

Like many films of this sort, when Stopmotion shifts to overtly murderous, gory grapples in its last half-hour or so, it loses some of its macabre potency. But Franciosi, who played the stowaway in The Last Voyage of the Demeter, is a compelling presence, and on the whole, this is one of the more memorable horror pictures in a while. The only real complaint is the same one that applies to most films that showcase stop-motion: there isn't enough stop-motion.

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Stopmotion (2023) Robert Morgan

March 20th 2024

[sweetcritique]

Series thoughts: Citadel - Season 1

Movies about secret government agencies doing good (?) and double crossing agents is not a new concept.  😝 The cast is very pretty and has great chemistry together.  (I'm starting to think that Stanley Tucci can have chemistry with a table, I love him so 💜)

I think the back and forth timeline was more confusing than clever.  I sometimes had to talk it out to be sure I understood where we were with the characters. 

As a viewer we're meant to wonder who was the traitor - Mason or Nadia.  While I did not know why, I called it was Mason from the start.  However, I did not predict that Dahlia Archer was Mason's mom.  (And I should have because they made such a point about how his mother walked out on him as he was nothing; not that she died.)

Mason told his Mom the Citadel details so that the organization could be held accountable for crimes...vOf course she used it to destroy Citadel and while Mason wasn't supposed to be on the train, Dahlia didn't seem to shed a tear for losing her son; caring for only revenge.

I'm struggling to reconcile with Mason's decision to trust Dahlia with the secrets, was it really because it's his mom? It's been over 30 years since his mom left, I'm sure he's known about Dahlia for years and never acted on it.  But one meeting with her and he turns his back on the Agency he's devoted his life to?  Are we to assume he validates the details of the bombing?  Researches more around claims of collateral damage?  Or just he just offer up the details in order to find Nadia?

It's just frustrating to think than an adult would be swayed by something that happened 30 years before.  It does not compute to me. Yes, it was traumatic, and clearly Mason spent most of his life struggling with his identify, but to turn his back on everything he had done and made for himself? 🤨

The character of Mason is fascinating because how is he going to reconcile everything he's done?  As Kyle he's a loving father and husband but as Mason... he's done so much: wiping Abby, causing the death of all those Citadel agents. 

The final scene of Mason leaning against the two way mirror wall - excellent.  The way he leaned, being bombarded by all his memories, and then both women approaching him but Nadia is on the other side of the wall.  It was beautifully done.  As was the fact that Mason didn't make eye contact with Abby.  He embraced her, but didn't look at her.  How can he?  He needs more time.

It was renewed for season two, so I hope they have a plan to wrap things up (as it didn't seem to be well received to be an ongoing series, although they have a spinoff called Citadel: Diana - which was a surprise.)  I enjoyed the show, loved that it was only 6 episodes.  It was an easy watch and was constantly moving, which is everything you want in a show.