The Spine of Night (2021) User Reviews

There shall be blood in this fantasy tale of magic and malevolence...

[paul_haakonsen · 6/10 · 17 May 2022]

I stumbled upon the 2021 animated adventure back in 2021, but I didn't sit down to watch it back then, as I must admit that I just didn't find any appeal in the art style used to bring the tale alive on the screen. Then I stumbled upon it again in 2022, and I opted to sit down and watch it this time.

And I will say that "The Spine of Night" was interesting. It was a rather nicely well-written tale of magic and malevolence. And it certainly is something that will find some appeal with fans of the fantasy and adventure genres, especially so if you are familiar with role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons and such.

The storyline, as written by Philip Gelatt and Morgan Galen King, was actually enthralling and had lots of interesting contents to it. Keep in mind, though, that this is not an animated movie for a younger audience. The contents of the storyline is rather mature, and contains lots of explicit violence and bloodshed, and also nudity.

"The Spine of Night" has a good ensemble of voice actors, with the likes of Lucy Lawless, Richard E. Grant, Patton Oswalt and Larry Fessenden among many others. I especially liked the fact that they had Lucy Lawless to voice the leading role of Tzod, that was just nice.

Visually and in terms of the art style, then "The Spine of Night" does leave for something to be wanted. I mean, the art style and animation is good, but I found it to be a bit crude and could have used with a more artistic touch.

If you enjoy the fantasy genre, then you should give "The Spine of Night" a chance, should you have the opportunity to watch it. I was actually pleasantly surprised with the storyline.

My rating of "The Spine of Night" lands on a six out of ten stars.

Spellbinding animation

[kelvynchin · 7/10 · 1 November 2021]

Morgan Galen King and Philip Gelatt's animated film is strictly for fans of fantasy epics and barbarian flicks, with a strong Conan the Barbarian vibe throughout - an epic tale of magic, bloodshed and tragedy as a cosmic flower of enlightenment from ancient Gods is used instead by tyrannical and megalomaniacal forces. Cue a centuries spanning saga of bloodcurdling violence, with witches, titans, kings and gods and all sorts of unworldly terrors and slaughter. The animators opt for rotoscoping for the human characters, and while some may find this jarring, I actually thought if fits very well with the story being told.

It's great, but only if this kind of tale is your cup of tea to begin with. Absolutely not for kids.

For fans of Heavy Metal (1981)

[siderite · 7/10 · 13 January 2022]

This is an rotoscoped animation film containing several stories, all connected by a common thread. The stories are interesting, if not very original, while the drawing is inspired and very violent. However there is one thing that I could not understand: the movements of the characters, especially during fight scenes, were really slow. It took away from the experience. Surely with all technology we have this could have been addressed somehow.

If you watched Heavy Metal you probably will get similar vibes from this movie. It is 40 years later, though, and Spine of Night doesn't bring too much new to the table.

Bottom line: dark fantasy film which will keep you entertained, but not something really memorable.

Ignore the haters

[wilza76 · 7/10 · 3 November 2021]

This was good. Relentless pacing throughout. Original story and great voice acting. Violence with substance. Enjoyable watch and a gem amongst the void of useless rubbish put out nowadays. Glad I found it.

Fire and Ice of the Night

[kosmasp · 7/10 · 13 February 2022]

I reckon as others surely already have noted (no I am not calling you Shirley), the movie feels like it is a spiritual successor to Fire and Ice. So if you liked that adult piece of animation, you surely will dig this one too. A lot of violence, blood and gore make this fantastical journey quite the interesting experience.

There is also quite a lot of nudity. Yes everything is drawn, so I am not sure how much all that makes you feel (uncomfortable, nauseous or plain sick). If you can suspend your disbelief - and do not have issues with animated movies for grown ups - well I think you can figure out the rest. Also you should be into fantasy, which I think I covered with the Fire and Ice reference - although you may not know what that is. And you do not have to watch that to see this. Although if you are thinking of watching it, maybe it would make sense to watch that before you watch this one. Just technologically speaking - not story wise. Anyway, go ahead give it a shot ... or any other sliced body part you feel comfortable with.

Such potential but ultimately a waste of time

[jollymanproductions · 6/10 · 6 November 2021]

I really enjoyed the animation style and the story could have been great if it wasn't told in such a boring way. Perhaps this would have been a great 40 minute short film. Unfortunately, there are long stretches of this film that are simply dull. I hope they try again with a better story because I REALY did liked the animation style.

disapointing and un-involving characters

[surfisfun · 4/10 · 14 January 2022]

Sound track and mix a minus.

Voice overs uninspired.

No nostalgia for me, i want a conan the barbarian epic storytelling and this feel not .

A miss.

Fire and Ice 2

[BillyOceansBlues · 9/10 · 13 November 2021]

Heck yeah! Very cool very brutal, old school violent dark fantasy stuff here. If you dug Fire and Ice this is your jam, bc these people clearly did. Looks and sounds great. Would have benefited from slightly peppier pace, but overall a very satisfying watch.

Unwatchable

[VenVes · 15 January 2022]

If you're well versed in good storytelling and animation, it won't take you long to shut this one off.

Despite what some of the others on here are saying, this doesn't hold a candle to some of the older classics (much less do most other movies that come out these days).

I am not alone in saying I would LOVE a good homage to (or rejuvenation of) the animated (or otherwise) films of yore, where people actually put due diligence into the product they put out.

rotoscoping animation

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 2 April 2022]

A swamp community is attacked. The villagers are massacred and their priestess Tzod (Lucy Lawless) is taken captive. It's a fantasy world of magic, god, and wild action.

This uses rotoscoping animation from real life actors. Along with the fantasy elements and adult subject matters, this so much reminds me of those 70's animated films. I love the look and the style of it all. The story is messy and the story telling is confused. I like following Tzod in the first part but then the movie decides to follow other characters. It loses the thread of the compelling narrative. This has a promising start but ultimately is a bit disappointing.

It wants to be Fire and Ice, but it's not.

[boe_dye · 4/10 · 13 April 2022]

While a good homage is often a delightful journey to the shoulders of giants in which you stand, this film unfortunately does not get off the ground.

Fire and Ice, as well as Heavy Metal (which are incomparable to each other) are both classics in animation. Both told stories, and both overcame the odds to win the day, and both had a whole lot of sex appeal (not necessarily coital, but sexiness in general).

The men were often strong and defined, the woman were voluptuous and empowered.

This film takes the styling well enough (albeit a bit sloppy), and it has the action... but it is action and violence for the sake of action and violence. The Flower is little more than the Locknar, Tzod is an offbrand Teegra or Taarna, and Ghal-Sur is more or less offbrand Necron.

The biggest problem with the film is that it really doesn't resolve anything, and like a lot of post modern story telling, things happen, more things happen, and then it's over. No actual resolution, no actual anything other than the cycle begins again, defeating the whole purpose.

And the worst, if not the most distracting part was the serious lack of sexiness. Many of the characters looked like they were based off of a comic convention, and Tzod (Lucy Lawless) was not at all drawn in any way that struck myself or my wife as strong or empowering -- she was basically naked for the sake of being naked, and stuck out amongst all the generally strong and defined characters of the film.

At least with Teegra and Taarna you could see that they were drawn in a way that cared about how a epic real woman ought look Tzod more or less reminds me of how Druuna runs around naked for no real reason other than she just loses her clothes... and well... yea...

If you are looking for borish, violence for the sake of violence along with poorly drawn bewbs and muff, and a potentially good story-line with no real resolution, here you go. Also, I wouldn't exactly call it "Ultra-Violent", either. There are a dozen or so Anime's that come to mind that are far more gristly and visceral than this, most of them made in the 80's and 90's back when animation was interesting, and story's were actually told.

Def not worth the $7 Rental on iTunes, either.

The best western adult animated movie since Heavy Metal 1981

[Der_Merovingian · 8/10 · 31 October 2021]

I have seen my fair share of animated movies - effortlessly more than 98% of casual viewers. To those who have worked on this movie - if you are reading this - bravo. The story is intriguing. The music spot on. This is obviously a work of passion and homage, but it already feels like one couldn't reliably date it, were it given to someone without telling them when it was produced. This movie will be found and enjoyed by those lucky and inquisitive enough for decades to come!

Going on a tangent: The warring Olympian-Titan myth in this movie is a gem. "The greater the sin, the greater the mercy: the deeper the death and the brighter the rebirth"

And a further side note: Sure, everyone reading this would have seen better animation and have heard a more memorable soundtrack - give me Hans Zimmer and the Ghibli Team and you'd get both. I can think of plenty of movies where the violence (animated or not) is "cool". There's nothing of the sort here.

Must Watch!

[halfxbreed23 · 7/10 · 21 April 2022]

Its all in the title. You must watch this film. Its simple story is filled with such beauty and darkness. It must be enjoyed by as many people as possible.

Very poor animation

[Kremer-Thomas · 2/10 · 30 October 2021]

Okay, it seems they tried something like the old Lord of the Rings animation from. Ralph Bakshi, made in 1978, or Fire and Ice, or the Heavy Metal animation from 1981.

But they failed on full length.

The animation of the characters is just bad. The story that connects the individual parts is hair-raising and incoherent. The voice actors deliver their usual quality, but that doesn't save this mess.

About 40 years ago this film would have been hailed as state of the art, today you wonder how they found animators willing to voluntarily produce such rubbish and lend their name to it.

It's a real pity, I had hoped for a successful realisation.

Tries to capture the Heavy Metal style art. Needs an update.

[frankblack-79961 · 6/10 · 4 August 2022]

While the story is great, the animation style has already been worn out for decades. If this had been produced with more refinement, it could have been epic. Again, it's a wonderful tale and it does the Heavy Metal nostalgia quite well. For me, it just a worn out style of animation. Still worth a watch though.

Animation isn't Great But the V/O and Sound Design are Pretty Good

[jjenk911 · 7/10 · 10 April 2022]

From what I've read from IMDb, it took a group of 4 animators 7 years to complete the animated film. In those 7 years, you would have gotten retroscoping to a science. However, the animation isn't great; everything else from the sound design and voice acting are pretty good. I can't complain there. It's reminiscent of Heavy Metal. If you liked Heavy Metal, you'll probably like this film.

Equal parts beautiful and horrifying, The Spine of Night's rotoscoped journey through surreal high fantasy won't be soon forgotten.

[IonicBreezeMachine · 7/10 · 12 June 2022]

On a strange world of fantasy and magic, a resurrected swamp witch Tzod (Lucy Lawless) travels to the last refuge of a magical plant called The Bloom under protection by The Guardian (Richard E. Grant). As the two discuss the future of the world and The Bloom, Tzod tells The Guardian of The Bloom's impact on the world that leads to a century spanning fight against the rise of an evil tyrannical God-King Ghal-Sur.

The Spine of Night written and directed by Philip Gelatt and Morgan Galen King was a passion project seven years in the making spurred by Gelatt and King's mutual appreciation for the rotoscoped fantasy epics of the 70s and 80s such as Ralph Bakshi's Lord of the Rings and Fire & Ice and enduring cult favorite Heavy Metal which served as a strong influence on the structure of Spine of Night's story. The movie was released in October 2021 on Shudder, and it's a very passionate film that oozes personality in every frame.

While the animation was done on computers instead of traditionally, Gelatt and King recreated the same process of rotoscoped animation seen in the likes of Fire & Ice and only ever having a animation team that was at most four people. The end result does a solid job of emulating the style of Ralph Bakshi or Heavy Metal and the visual aesthetics alone make this movie well worth viewing especially for fans of those types of films that have become a rarity in this day and age.

The story like Heavy Metal is very much an anthology as we follow different eras of this world dealing with the fallout and effects of The Bloom, but unlike Heavy Metal where the Loc-Nar was used as a "one size fits all" plot device whose characteristics changed from story to story and only in the last 10 minutes tried to tack on a connecting thread that was tenuous at best, the stories seen in Spine of Night feel like the lead into each other despite the gaps of centuries between them. Spine of Night tells a story of power disparity and the lust for acquiring more power leading to fallout that generations of the future are forced to fend off and it serves as an environmental subtext beneath the beautifully rendered nudity and gore that evokes the style of Frank Frazetta or Heavy Metal.

The movie isn't flawless as there are instances where the character motions can feel slightly choppy or stilted and some of the voice acting doesn't completely fit with the characters designed, but those are relatively minor shortcomings in the grand scheme of things and the movie delivers on creating a world of captivating beauty and shocking brutality.

The Spine of Night will be a welcome throwback to fans of films like Fire & Ice or Heavy Metal as its 7 years in the making animation feels its years of effort in every frame capturing that gritty aesthetic that made those films so endearing to their cult audiences. The thematic subtext adds some extra meat to the proceedings beyond the nudity and viscera, but some technical limitations and shaky voice acting are noticeable. Solid recommendation to any animation or fantasy fans.

A Disapointing Waste of Time

[elmagicman · 1/10 · 29 October 2021]

I had high hopes for this film. The animation is just simply terrible. They attempted to make something similar in vain to Fire and Ice and failed completely. This movie falls flat on it's face right from the beginning.

Voice acting was ok but maybe I was so distracted by the abysmal animation that I couldn't judge it properly. The background art was of good quality. I only wish they had found better animators.

The film is a good lesson in how not to pay homage to the style of the 1970's fantasy animation genre. This is the most disappointed I have ever been in an animated movie.

A fresh and original dark fantasy adult animated feature that is worth a watch.

[Spartan_1_1_7 · 8/10 · 8 November 2021]

The Spine of Night is an adult animated fantasy film and is a tale about a mysterious force, its influence over the ages and the ones who opposed it. Created in rotoscope style animation harkening back to classics such as The Lord of The Rings animated feature, I was both intrigued because of experiencing something different and worried because of the style of animation it is using as I'm not a fan but as it turns out, I don't mind it and got used to it fairly early on as the story and the world sank its teeth into me.

At about only 90 mins long, there is a lot in the plot in terms of thematical material whether its spirituality, Gods, the infinite spiral of existence, Death, cycles of humanity, the pursuit of knowledge and the ego and pride that can arise, and such that can make you ruminate all seamlessly embued into the story that is being told by a shaman/witch/sorcerer and in an entertaining fashion. It also felt fresh, something original amongst the sea of sameness and is what made me love this film.

Since it is an adult animated feature, it doesn't shy away from nudity and violence/gore, especially the latter of which there is an abundance, all well animated and gives a proper kick to the dark fantasy nature of the experience. Speaking of animation, the environment and objects were actually rendered beautifully and even though the character design and movement isn't something I'd considered attractive, it works and has its own fluid charm to it that comes with rotoscope animation.

The film boasts a talented voice acting cast although I certainly did not realize any one of them whether it's Lucy Lawless or Patton Oswalt or Richard E. Grant etc during watching it. It's not amazing but it is apt for the tone and style of the film and does its job i.e it's still good.

I'd wish it was slightly longer and delve a bit deeper into its characters since you hardly connect to most of them strongly as there isn't enough screentime for the majority, but still, overall, it was a great watch. Phillip Gelatt and Morgan Galen King along with the entire team did a wonderful job with this and I'd highly recommend it provided you're fine with the animation style and the adult nature of it. And if i were to rate it, I'd give it an 8/10.

Weird, gross, and interesting

[Blazehgehg · 6/10 · 24 August 2022]

Would it be too reductive to call this "Heavy Metal: Game of Thrones Edition"? Maybe. But it's a similar idea: using animation to tell a story with lots of violence and nudity, about an otherworldly power that sows corruption and misery across generations.

Here, we have less sex than Heavy Metal, more nudity, and way, way more gore. Combined with the rotoscoped animation, it's pretty strange and uncomfortable.

It's not necessarily hard to follow, but it is difficult to find much of a narrative here outside of watching people get eviscerated in different ways over thousands of years. A mile wide but an inch deep.

Still, the visuals are at least interesting, and I wasn't offended or anything. Just sort of disturbed and fascinated. There's value in that, I guess.

Cheap Heavy Metal rip-off

[darkodomo · 2/10 · 7 December 2021]

It's just a cheap rip-off of Heavy Metal. Without the awesome soundtrack.

The animations are for the most part atrocious. But the backgrounds are decent.

Cheap, trashy and forgettable.

A Bloody Gem

[voyou-703-655350 · 8/10 · 1 November 2021]

Terrific story... Terrific character design.... Terrific backgrounds... Terrific voice-overs...

Those who tell of poor animation are mistaken: the rotoscoping is great. Only of low quality is the uniform, shadeless colouring of bodies. If a stylistic choice, it fails; looks cheap; detracts from perfection.

The unpredictable, sharp, perfectly paced story makes this film better than its inspirations from the 80s. Remember, those were beautiful, but had mediocre writing at best.

A Take On Lovecraft Cosmicism via Grim Dark Fantasy

[fraser-simons · 7/10 · 18 September 2022]

I actually thought this was much better than expected. It looks like it would be pretty edgelord, but has eschewed all those factors in favour of decent storytelling and dialogue; well delivered by good actors, even. It is certainly soft worldbuilding, where this god-like power that, of course, one man takes for his own in a blatant move for power under the guise of knowledge, is not codified. It just makes magic stuff happen, pretty much, which is the impetus for the destruction and humanity loss through war and bloodshed and the like.

It also has a neat creation myth for the power that roots it in something like Lovecraft's Cosmicism, but decidedly different in its conclusion, which was nice to see-again subverting expectations.

Admittedly, the animation is fairly uneven and there is a particular sweet spot in the narrative near the middle where the before and after are lacklustre in comparison. And it kind of has to lead to the resolution that it does. But it's still quite a bit different than traditional, highly puritanical, moving instead to a more interesting abstraction to contemplate morality and ego. I think it's worth a watch.

Kill the scholars

[nogodnomasters · 4/10 · 2 April 2022]

This is a medieval fantasy tale that centers on a Tzod, a swamp witch and her quest to stop a scholar who has stolen the power of the bloom from her and is using it for evil. The film has animated nudity which brings flashbacks to Heavy Metal, but doesn't have a soundtrack that comes close. I found the tale on the boring side and nodded off once. Too much talking and explaining the plot.

Immensely disappointed

[tikitaco-00221 · 4/10 · 26 November 2021]

The animation is absolutely amazing and the backgrounds are beautiful. I saw Gorgonaut's EXORDIUM animation 7 years prior to the release of this film and absolutely loved it. However, the terrible voice acting, poorly written dialouge, and god awful sound track were forgivable in that eight minute animation.

This film is an absolute slog of eye-rollingly awful dialouge, worse than porn quality voice acting, laughable choreagraphy, and a juvenile stereotypical plot. The low budget shows and it is shameful. I was immensely excited for this film and ended up really regretting buying and viewing it. The animator is so talented and I wish that they had a massive budget to support the making of this film because there was so much potential for this to be great, and yet the hour and a half I spent watching it felt like quintuple that amount of time because this was so painful to sit through.

There are also incredibly jarring art style choices that felt very strange. There are steam punk and almost sci-fi aspects later on in the movie that feel very out of place. Some of the weapons are comically oversized or oddly shaped for no apparent reason. Very often there will be characters who are fully nude in environments where they would die within an hour due to hypothermia and things such as.

I would recommend that you watch EXORDIUM before purchasing or veiwing this film. If you enjoy it then imagine EXORDIUM but everything about it is ten times worse except for the animation and it is twelve times the length of EXORDIUM, that is what this movie is.

I wish the animator the best but all of the actors excluding Richard E. Grant ruined this movie.