Review: Spine of Night

After having written over 20 episodes of Netflix’s award-winning series Love, Death & Robots, writer/director Philip Gelatt opts to go way less sci-fi and instead leans more towards obvious influences from Heavy Metal and Ralph Bakshi. The result is a two-hour fantasy adult animated film drawn in rotoscope featuring a pretty wild cast that includes Lucy Lawless, Richard Grant, Patton Oswalt, Betty Gabriel, and Joe Manganiello, though the majority of the cast really comprises of maybe a total of 20 minutes of total screentime.

The rest follows an origin story about a great power that had swept over a kingdom and was used in it’s most tyrannical fashion. Baked in a plot rife with misandry, Spine of Night’s premise is quite simple, imagine if the opposite of Lord of the Rings happened, where one of the hobbits was somehow able to harness the great power of the ring, but then be able to also control the armies of Mordor as a result. That said, all of the whimsical mysticism that encompasses the film flows away and in it’s place is a very simple and underlying plot point that current millennial audiences only found on Twitter are really going to appreciate, that men with power are always terrible and women are far more compassionate.

If you’re like me and able to move past the “clickbait plot” what you do get is a smorgasbord of violence that is actually quite fun. The kills are gruesome, the plentiful brands of weaponry is a sight to behold, and even the different battles involving the magical abilities of our two lead characters should even be satisfying to those who enjoy shonen anime. The drab and dreary aesthetic has Fire and Ice pulsing through it’s veins, however, none of the characters are inherently interesting, so it’s almost better to watch the entirety of this film on mute because the dialogue is repulsive.

Adult animation’s footprint on film isn’t anywhere near the level that it should be, but Philip Gelatt takes his shot and does so with vigor and a valiant effort. That said, Adult Swim’s Primal is a far better example of being able to use gruesome violence as an effective centerpiece, but also have a story that isn’t a current cliche of most articles from Vice Magazine.