The Spine of NightIf humanity is ruled by baser impulses, from where does this darkness originate? The Spine of Night is an animated dark fantasy movie about a mysterious alien plant called "the Bloom" and about the way that its bluish foliage grants superhuman power to those who employ it in assorted rituals. The Bloom--the film explains--grew from the corpse of a god slain by primeval mankind, and it is protected by a series of undead guardians because of its power. And yet, somehow, a cluster of these leaves escaped into the world, setting into motion a terrible tale of cruelty, greed, revenge, violence, and destruction.
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The Spine of Night is a deliberate callback to a style of animated film that even in the Seventies was considered niche; that is, rotoscoped animation. For the unfamiliar, it involves essentially tracing over live action footage to create animation, and gives films like The Spine of Night its distinct look. The technique has been around for much longer; for example, the classic "Superman" cartoons of the Forties did this. But the look and feel, not to mention the plot, of The Spine of Night more specifically pays homage to the films of animator Ralph Bakshi and other adult-focused animated features, like Heavy Metal. Even the plot and structure of this movie is eerily reminiscent of Heavy Metal, which is no coincidence because co-director/writer Philip Gelatt also wrote several episodes for the Netflix show, "Love, Death & Robots", which was originally conceived as an animated series based "Heavy Metal" magazine. Similarly, The Spine of Night is intended for mature audiences, due to its copious nudity, gore, language, and complex themes. And yet calling attention to this seems a bit hollow, since the real audience for this movie are those people who are already well acquainted with the works which inspired it, and those have been around for nigh a half of a century. The Spine of Night is clearly a labor of love, probably made on a (comparatively) small budget and evidently animated by computer in the fashion of rotoscoping, as opposed to being done by hand, which would have required much more time and labor. The voice acting cast is spearheaded by Richard E. Grant, who voices the last guardian of the Bloom, and by Lucy Lawless, who voices a "witch of the swamps" named Tzod. Yet other performers like Jordan Douglas Smith, who voices a scheming librarian turned evil demigod named Ghal-Sur, doesn't possess the same level of voice acting excellence as some of their counterparts, which--along with the stilted animation--unfortunately brings to the forefront that The Spine of Night also lacks the polish of bigger budget blockbusters. But in a way, it could be argued that this is a feature of the movie rather than a flaw, underscoring the "midnight/cult movie" charm of it, which is the domain of the movies that clearly inspired it from decades past.
Cruelty and malice is at the root of the story of The Spine of Night, beginning with Tzod's tale of when a corrupt ruler named Lord Pyrantin (Patton Oswalt) invaded (then burned down) her home in the swamp, while killing all of her clan for reasons that never seem to be born from anything but depraved evil. One of his lieutenants named Mongrel (Joe Manganiello) witnessed Tzod using some of the Bloom's leaves adorning her mantle to conjure spirits in a bonfire, and encourages Pyrantin to force Tzod to show him this power, which backfires spectacularly all over his face. Subsequently, Tzod and Ghal-Sur--at that time just an emissary from the elitist "library" which hoards all of this land's resources--are imprisoned. But even when Tzod breaks them out and slays Pyrantin, Ghal-Sur betrays her to lay claim to the Bloom mantle for himself. At almost no point is goodness or mercy rewarded in The Spine of Night; rather, Ghal-Sur's betrayal is emblematic of the darkness which pervades this world. As time passes, Ghal-Sur is imprisoned by his own library, which continues its relentless acquisition of knowledge, slaying anyone who resists their fanatical greed. There is what might be considered a sympathetic soldier in the library's service named Phae-Agura (Betty Gabriel), who brings her leader a rare tome which contains occult rituals which Ghal-Sur has been seeking. But even she fails to do anything about the atrocities the library commits against the common folk, nor does she question the evil that she serves, making her ineffectual at best. The Spine of Night continues to chronicle Ghal-Sur's ascension to a tyrannical superhuman being, laying waste to nations as he and his evil army march unchecked. Even a daring plan by a trio of birdlike soldiers near the end of the film only seems to tease the audience that Ghal-Sur might get his comeuppance for his horrible, self-serving agenda. Alas, The Spine of Night is a fundamentally cynical tale that almost never lets bravery or love shine for longer than a brief moment before it is snuffed out. Even a pair of lovers who manage to survive one of Ghal-Sur's assaults discover some leftover Bloom, and upon eating it experience the wonders of the universe...only to be slaughtered by a few patrolling soldiers in the midst of their reverie. If there is one message that The Spine of Night offers about humanity, it is that we must guard ourselves from temptation to evil, even if that means destroying our blessings if it prevents them from being perverted into something terrible.
Recommended for: Fans of a throwback dark fantasy animated feature overtly made for fans of the works of yesteryear that clearly inspired it. Despite its technical hiccups, The Spine of Night is a bold vision and rarity in today's cinema landscape that makes it a refreshing--if unorthodox and niche--addition to it.
Cruelty and malice is at the root of the story of The Spine of Night, beginning with Tzod's tale of when a corrupt ruler named Lord Pyrantin (Patton Oswalt) invaded (then burned down) her home in the swamp, while killing all of her clan for reasons that never seem to be born from anything but depraved evil. One of his lieutenants named Mongrel (Joe Manganiello) witnessed Tzod using some of the Bloom's leaves adorning her mantle to conjure spirits in a bonfire, and encourages Pyrantin to force Tzod to show him this power, which backfires spectacularly all over his face. Subsequently, Tzod and Ghal-Sur--at that time just an emissary from the elitist "library" which hoards all of this land's resources--are imprisoned. But even when Tzod breaks them out and slays Pyrantin, Ghal-Sur betrays her to lay claim to the Bloom mantle for himself. At almost no point is goodness or mercy rewarded in The Spine of Night; rather, Ghal-Sur's betrayal is emblematic of the darkness which pervades this world. As time passes, Ghal-Sur is imprisoned by his own library, which continues its relentless acquisition of knowledge, slaying anyone who resists their fanatical greed. There is what might be considered a sympathetic soldier in the library's service named Phae-Agura (Betty Gabriel), who brings her leader a rare tome which contains occult rituals which Ghal-Sur has been seeking. But even she fails to do anything about the atrocities the library commits against the common folk, nor does she question the evil that she serves, making her ineffectual at best. The Spine of Night continues to chronicle Ghal-Sur's ascension to a tyrannical superhuman being, laying waste to nations as he and his evil army march unchecked. Even a daring plan by a trio of birdlike soldiers near the end of the film only seems to tease the audience that Ghal-Sur might get his comeuppance for his horrible, self-serving agenda. Alas, The Spine of Night is a fundamentally cynical tale that almost never lets bravery or love shine for longer than a brief moment before it is snuffed out. Even a pair of lovers who manage to survive one of Ghal-Sur's assaults discover some leftover Bloom, and upon eating it experience the wonders of the universe...only to be slaughtered by a few patrolling soldiers in the midst of their reverie. If there is one message that The Spine of Night offers about humanity, it is that we must guard ourselves from temptation to evil, even if that means destroying our blessings if it prevents them from being perverted into something terrible.
Recommended for: Fans of a throwback dark fantasy animated feature overtly made for fans of the works of yesteryear that clearly inspired it. Despite its technical hiccups, The Spine of Night is a bold vision and rarity in today's cinema landscape that makes it a refreshing--if unorthodox and niche--addition to it.