Genre filmmaker Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth, Crimson Peak) made headlines last week when he announced via THR that he plans to soon focus exclusively on animated films.
“Animation to me is the purest form of art, and it’s been kidnapped by a bunch of hoodlums. We have to rescue it. [And] I think that we can Trojan-horse a lot of good shit into the animation world,” del Toro candidly told the outlet. He’s not wrong; a rich world of stunning animation exists beyond films targeting young audiences. That includes horror, of course.
This week’s streaming picks highlight the storytelling that animation can achieve and the various techniques and styles employed to capture them. These five animated horror movies vary in tone and style, from stop-motion to 2D traditional and beyond, finding haunting beauty in grim realities.
Here’s where you can stream them this week.
For more Stay Home, Watch Horror picks, click here.
Attack of the Demons – Plex, Prime Video, Screambox
Set around Halloween in 1994, Barrington, Colorado, is kicking off its annual music festival, drawing in attendees from out of town. After centuries of planning, a demonic cult uses the headlining band as ground zero to unleash a horde of mutating demons to destroy humankind. It’s up to a trio of non-demon hunters to thwart the demon apocalypse. Director Eric Power infuses many horror influences into a charming comedic tale told through his painstaking process of cut-paper stop-motion animation. The vibrant art style and light-hearted horror that wears its influences on its sleeves makes for a more accessible intro to animated horror.
Belladonna of Sadness – Kanopy
Directed and co-written by Eiichi Yamamoto and inspired by Jules Michelet’s 1862 non-fiction book La Sorcière, Belladonna straightaway shatters any expectations for an uplifting animated movie. It follows Jeanne, a village girl who’s raped on her wedding night by a tyrannical warlord, an event that causes a ripple effect on her and her husband Jean’s lives. As things grow worse, she makes a pact with the devil for the power to fight back against injustice. Belladonna offers a strange juxtaposition of soft, delicate artwork against the lurid, dark subject matter. Expect a psychedelic trip into madness, turning a straightforward narrative into something far more abstract and bizarre. A stunning masterwork that defies easy categorization and expectations.
Perfect Blue – AMC+, Shudder
For most horror fans, the psychologically twisted Perfect Blue ranks at the top of the list for animated horror geared toward adults. Based on the novel Perfect Blue: Complete Metamorphosis by Yoshikazu Takeuchi, Perfect Blue is an incredible directorial feature debut by Satoshi Kon. The story follows Mima Kirigoe, a J-pop idol who decides to go solo and instead finds herself struggling with identity, voyeurism, and an intense stalker. A visually lush depiction of a fractured mind in the wake of overwhelming pressures makes for a dizzying journey that unnerves.
Seoul Station – Film Rise, freevee, Kanopy, Night Flight, Tubi, Vudu
This prequel to the surprise hit Train to Busan takes a drastic unconventional aesthetic choice; it’s animated. From there, it leans heavily into genre tropes to make a social critique of how the homeless population is perceived and treated. What begins as a standard zombie outbreak story morphs into something far more brutal than anticipated. Writer/Director Yeon Sang-ho lulls viewers with familiar zombie tropes, then pulls the rug out with an unflinching portrayal of human darkness. In that sense, Seoul Station weaponizes zombie convention, giving viewers an equally emotional viewing experience as Train to Busan, just in a completely different, less sentimental way.
The Wolf House – Kanopy, Plex, Roku, Tubi
The feature directorial debut by Cristobal León & Joaquín Cociña is as mesmerizing as it is unsettling. Inspired by the Colonia Dignidad, The Wolf House plays like a nightmare fairy tale filled with haunting visuals and a sound design that gets under your skin. It follows a girl who escapes the Colony to avoid punishment and comes upon a house in the woods. The stop-motion animation imbues a textured, surreal quality, lending breathtaking artistry to the potent reminder of animation’s power. The swift 75-minute runtime makes it an easy selection to watch. If you need another reason, Ari Aster enlisted León and Cociña’s stop-motion animation expertise for an extended sequence in this year’s Beau is Afraid.
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