JustWatch

The Spine of Night

2021 Directed by Philip Gelatt, Morgan Galen King

In this 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.

Richard E. Grant Lucy Lawless Patton Oswalt Betty Gabriel Joe Manganiello Larry Fessenden Malcolm Mills Jordan Douglas Smith Patrick Breen Abigail Savage Nina Lisandrello Tom Lipinski Rob McClure Maggie Lakis

Alternative Titles

夜脊戰記, วิญญาณหฤหรรษ์ ศึกมหัศจรรย์ อาถรรพ์พลังใบ

Genres

horror animation fantasy action

Themes

Epic heroes Monsters, aliens, sci-fi and the apocalypse swords, adventure, battle, fantasy or fighting cannibals, gory, gruesome, graphic or shock horror, creepy, eerie, blood or gothic future, sci-fi, technology, action or technological martial arts, kung fu, choreography, cool or action-packed Show All…

93 mins More at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Dyrnott ★★★

A story that was kinda hit an miss at first but became more interesting later on. An animated movie not for kids that is extremely violent in nature with a lot of male and female nudity. Some of the voices provided are Richard E. Grant, Lucy Lawless and Joe Manganiello. Written and directed by Philip Gelatt and Morgan Galen King. Philip known for writing many episodes of Love, Death and Robots. It was entertaining but not great. You can check it out on Shudder
Review by davidehrlich ★★★

An ultra-violent throwback to the halcyon days of hard fantasy, Morgan Galen King and Philip Gelatt’s “The Spine of Night” is nothing less than an orgiastic ode to Ralph Bakshi, Gerald Potterton, and the other god-kings of rotoscope animation whose adult cartoons glistened from behind the beaded doorways of America’s video stores like forbidden relics that would melt the faces of anyone who dared to gaze upon their taboo wonders. It’s nothing more than that, either, but there’s only so much you can ask of a movie in which Lucy Lawless voices a naked swamp witch who wears a human skull as a headdress and shouts things like “tremble before the immensity of the night!”
Even if “The Spine of…
Review by 20oldboy03 ★★★½ 12

English Version below

Hoch oben über Baumesgrenzen, die prallen von Mutter Natur modellierten Brüste schwingend stapfender und Löcher in die Schneedecke stanzenden Schritte, dort kämpft sich Tzod, Schamanin vom Volke des Sumpfes nie erlebter Wintereinbrüche zum verhüllten The Guardian, dem Wächter verborgenen Gutes um dessen Geschichten um das todbringende Artefakt als die eingefangene Zeit selbst mit ihren Findern als deren Opfern im vergossenen Blute zu hunderten und tausenden.

Wie die Geschichte selbst aufgreifend wiedergegebener Zeit im Jenseits der verstrichenen Jahre und Jahrzehnte, erzählt das Regieduo Philip Gelatt und Morgan Galen King eine heute so selten gesehene Geschichte im Gewand einer vermeintlich kindlichen Aufmachung – im geschulten Auge des Filmfreundes, deren völligen Abkehr.
Gleich nach ihrem Urvater Ralph Bakshi, entwerfen die…
Review by Justin LaLiberty ★★★★ 1

a feature length stoner metal movie with Larry Fesenden voicing a character named Prophet of Doom, an always naked swamp witch voiced by Lucy Lawless, menacing librarians and probably the most animated gore I’ve ever seen - would have loved this when I was 12 (love it now too)
Review by Joe Lynch ★★★ 1

Stunning old-school rotoscoping animation with an older-school homage to Ralph Bashki (FIRE AND ICE) and HEAVY METAL’s animated feature.
Gory good fun.
Review by SwordCandleBell ★★★★★ 1

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

Now that the dust has settled a bit from the premiere, I wanted to make a note about the structure of the film. While it very much is aesthetically drawing on Frazetta and Bakshi's Fire and Ice and the classic Heavy Metal (the Taarna segment, especially), the structure is a bit more akin to elliptical literary genre works (Walter M. Miller Jr.'s A Canticle for Leibowitz and Gene Wolfe's Shadow of the Torturer are touchstones) in ways that esoteric Horror sometimes does, and which 'sword & sorcery' Fantasy, at least on film, very rarely attempts (I could make the argument for Milius's Conan, or maybe Oshii's Angel's Egg, or the fragmented memories that make up the Dark Souls narrative). It's also…
Review by Mister Cap ★★★½

ENGLISH below
„The Spine of Night“ ist eine liebevolle Hommage an die Zeichentrickfilme und den Stil von Ralph Bakshis aus den Siebzigern.
Eine Welt voller Korruption, Machtgier, Verrat Wahnsinn, Rebellion, aufopferungsvoller Helden, blutiger Schlachten, grauenvoller Massaker und unbeherrschbarer Magie. Das waren noch Zeiten als düstere, liebevoll und handgezeichnete Epen für Erwachsene das Fantasy-Genre prägten.
Nun lassen die Macher dieses Films diesen ganz besonderen Stil auferstehen, nackte Körper und abgetrennte Gliedmassen natürlich inklusive.
In „The Spine of Night“ sucht Sumpfhexe Tzod nach einer blauen Zauberblüte, die unendliche Macht verheißt. Doch der Wächter der Blüte warnt die Hexe. Tod und Verderben erwarten die die sich der unbeherrschbaren Magie hingeben.
„Fire and Ice“ oder „Heavy Metal“ waren gewalttätige Geschichten von Barbaren und inspiriert…
Review by claira curtis ★ 6

Okay, so, I’ve not the foggiest idea what was happening at even a single moment in The Spine of Night’s entire runtime but the animation was really well done! And I’ll always take the time to give new adult animation projects a try whenever I can!
SXSW Watch #12
2021 Ranked
Review by Austin Burke ★★★ 6

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

👌🏻62%
SXSW Movies Ranked - Click HERE
Ultra-violent, epic fantasy set in a land of magic follows heroes from a different eras and cultures battling against a malevolent force.
That’s right, I’m still logging SXSW movies. This one was exciting, as I love this style of animation, but the epic nature of it all didn’t quite translate as well from a story perspective. It is more so one I can appreciate due to its top-notch style as opposed to its messy story that keeps it from flourishing. The voice cast is outstanding, and the filmmakers hold nothing back. These raw moments (featuring violence and nudity) that some may have to recover from are a big part of why the experience does…
Review by sirvived ★★★★★ 2

The coolest thing I've seen this year! I actually wanted to wait until it hit Shudder next year but I was craving for animated films and I had a feeling this would be great. And my god it fucking rules! It is a fantasy horror adventure following a young man who steals forbidden knowledge from a magical flower. He falls to its darker temptations and unleashes ages of suffering onto mankind and as his power grows over the years, it falls to people of different eras and cultures to attempt to stop him. There's a lot to love in here. It's wildly original, creative, and just so much fun to watch. The film immediately pulls you in with its insanely…
Review by Zay ★★★★ 3

The visuals, the bloody violence, and the slick animation were all great. So much death and destruction! There was also a sliver of hope, buckets of gore, and lots of magic. Dug the voice cast as well. This felt like it came from that 80s Era of dark animated films for adults. I loved it!
Definitely has some Fire and Ice vibes.
Review by Matt Neglia ★★★

If you enjoy fantasy epics packed with violence & dark magic (which I do) then THE SPINE OF NIGHT is for you. Decent looking rotoscope animation with a game voice cast & a sometimes inaccessible narrative that won’t be for everyone (wasn’t for me)...unless you’re on edibles! Then it’ll be even more bonkers! (It was!)