Directors & Writers Philip Gelatt and Morgan Galen King discuss their adult animated horror fantasy film THE SPINE OF NIGHT.
The new animated feature THE SPINE OF NIGHT is and epic fantasy tale set in a world where a sacred planet rose for the corpse of ancient gods. There are those who worship the planet and other who seek it for the forbidden knowledge it imparts. The narrative offers the tale of an ambitious young man who steals the forbidden knowledge from one of the last sacred plants and unleashes ages of suffering onto mankind. The film then chronicles several stories about those who stand against him - a daring tomb-robber, star-crossed lovers, a maniacal necromancer, winged assassins, and an undying guardian.
THE SPINE OF NIGHT is a result of the visionary filmmakers Philip Gelatt and Morgan King . The animation was drawing by hand, frame-by-frame, on a computer with a core team of 3 animators. That's extremely small crew as most animated features have hundreds of animators. It took 7 years of non-stop animation to compete, and it's not a particularly unique aspect of old-school rotoscoping, as they used no motion capture or computer-assisted animation at all, which is very unusual in today's features. If you are a fan of the Ralph Bakshi animates films such as “Wizards,” “The Lord of the Rings” and “Fire and Ice,” then THE SPINE OF NIGHT, with images inspired by Heavy Metal Magazine and artists Frank Frazetta or Boris Vallejo, is sure to be a long awaited treat.
Philip Gelatt (picture above) has worked in videogames, comics, and film. His first film as writer and director, The Bleeding House premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2011. He went on to write the Nebula Award nominated 2013 film Europa Report. He move into videogames, for which he won the WGA writing award in 2016 for his work on Square Enix’s Rise of the Tomb Raider. In 2018, he wrote and directed the surreal sci-fi thriller They Remain. Currently, he is the lead writer on Netflix’s animated series Love Death + Robots.
Currently residing in Halifax, Nova Scotia, by way of Philadelphia, Morgan Galen King (picture above) has been refining a modern approach to hand-drawn rotoscope for the better part of a decade, culminating with The Spine of Night. King's process draws heavily on the work of Ralph Bakshi and the cult classic Heavy Metal. The Spine of Night is his first feature film.
RLJE Films will release THE SPINE OF NIGHT In Theaters, On Demand and Digital platforms beginning October 29th, 2021.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Fandom: Merlin, Cadbury!Verse
Rating: Teen
Characters: Merlin Emrys, Gavin Noble, Arthur King, Bennie Ryan, Gwen Smith, Morgan King
Ships: Bevin
Word Count: 816/2096
Status: WIP (3/?)
“What about Bennie, then? Who’s Bennie going to take?”
“Who says Bennie’s even going?” Bennie scoffed. “Any obligation I had to humor that man went out the door when I turned eighteen.”
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Morgan - Wait, what are your sibs and friends doing to the cute coffee shop guy that would result in murder, accidental or otherwise? -- Babs
They’re all dressing up “King Arthur’s Court” for the Halloween party tonight. Arthur even tried to get me to agree to go as “a swamp witch” as he so kindly put it.
I don’t believe anyone has bothered to let Merlin know, however. Hence my concern.
Merlin (and anyone else who was at Hogwarts at any point), what was your favorite memory while you were at the castle? -- Babs
“There was a period of two or three months right after we opened the school where every week Rowena would complain about books from her personal library going missing. One day, Godric dragged me to his weapon stash—”
“Armory!” Bennie corrects. “It was an armory!”
Merlin rolls his eyes. “And he opens a cupboard in the back corner. I’ll give you five guesses what was in there.”
“You didn’t have to snitch,” Bennie grumbled. “She was furious for ages.”
“I’m sure you deserved it,” Morgan huffed. “And if Lance had his memories, I’m sure he’d agree.”
Bennie scowls and pokes Merlin. “What about that American girl from when you went back as a student?”
“Which one?”
“The one you told me about who’d jump off the staircases to avoid the Defense professor your last year.”
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Fandom: Merlin, Cadbury!Verse
Rating: Teen
Characters: Bennie Ryan, Morgan King
Ships: Arthur King/Gwen Smith
Word Count: 453/453
Status: WIP (1/?)
“And they’re all being ridiculous about it, of course. I mean, I can’t blame him obviously. Gwen’s amazing, even if she did choose Arthur.”
Bennie dropped their book. “What?!”
Morgan looked away from the mirror and rolled her eyes. “That’s all it took to get you to pay attention? Arthur and Gwen got together two weeks ago. I mean, the Lance thing is new, but seriously I’ve been trying to get you to put that book down for like two hours and I just have to bring up gossip?”
“I don’t think you’ve ever mentioned your friends’ names before.”
“Aw, Ben, sure I have. You just never listen. That’s why I rant to you and not our brother.”
