Review of the film ‘The Spine of Night’ (2021)

The Spine of Night is a Fantasy animation film, belonging to the Swords & Sorcery sub-genre. The story revolves around the magical powers of Blue Lotus flowers, and how they will empower tyranny when they fall into the wrong hands.

The story spans along three different eras: it begins in a vaguely medieval age, then jumps forward to another age, then gets to a vaguely modern age. In all of them, the power of the Blue Lotus attracts greed and causes havoc. The story is for adults: there are gruesome and bloody deaths, and also nudity. The dialogues are outstanding.

The animation is created through the rotoscoping technique – a technique that was in its prime forty years ago, but is currently in disuse. Uncredited actors were shot acting, then the images were painted over one by one in a process that took several years, and finally professional actors voiced the characters while lip-syncing to the original acting. The result is a very realistic animation, but artistically poor: the flat colours make it feel really outdated. The music, with an otherworldly quality, is good and adequate.

The voice acting is great. The king is okay. Good are The Guardian, Tzod, and the Mercenary. Excellent the Scholar leader. Brilliant Ghal-Sur.

The Spine of Night is mostly an excellent film, but there is a hindrance that prevents it from reaching excellence. The plot is interesting, the dialogues are outstanding, the voice acting is great and the music is good – but still, there is no way to ignore the flat colours on the screen. All in all, an entertaining film. 3 out of 5.

Title:	The Spine of Night
Genre:	Fantasy
Year:	2021
Nationality:	United States
Colour:	Colour
Director:	Philip Gelatt, Morgan Galen King
Writer:	Philip Gelatt, Morgan Galen King
Cast:	Richard E. Grant, Lucy Lawless, Patton Oswalt, Betty Gabriel, Joe Manganiello, Patrick Breen, Larry Fessenden, Jason Gore, Maggie Lakis, Tom Lipinski, Nina Lisandrello, Rob McClure, Malcolm Mills, Abigail Savage, Jordan Douglas Smith
Producer:	Will Battersby, Philip Gelatt, Jean Rattle
Music:	Ice Dragons, Peter Scartabello, Guild of Lore, Francis Roberts, Gnoll, Kinit Her
Running time:	93 minutes
Language:	English