Even the title The Spine of Night sends a shiver up your spine. The adult animated fantasy from Philip Gelatt and Morgan Galen King is a twisted concoction of Bakshi-inspired visuals Heavy Metal-style fantasy. Only, as you’ll see in this new trailer for the SXSW film, it might be best served on your favorite hallucinogenic.
Lucy Lawless leads the voice cast as Tzod, a warrior mage who is just one of many to try and stop the spread of “The Bloom”, a magical blue flower with incredible powers. When it falls into the wrong hands, ages of suffering are unleashed on the world. The cast also includes Richard E. Grant, Betty Gabriel, Patton Oswalt, and Joe Manganiello.
Gelatt and King spent years developing the rotoscoping animation used in the film. Their experience is vast and includes Netflix’s Love, Death & Robots which is similarly geared towards mature audiences.
I saw The Spine of Night at SXSW and really enjoyed it, commenting that it “is set apart by how its visual beauty works in symphony with the gruesome imagery on display.”
Look for the film to open in theaters, VOD, and digital on October 29th, followed by Shudder in 2022.
In ‘The Spine of Night,’ an ultra-violent fantasy epic, ancient dark magic falls into sinister hands and unleashes ages of suffering onto mankind. A group of heroes from different eras and cultures must band together in order to defeat it at all costs.
