ANIMATED NIGHTMARES- INTERVIEW WITH WITH ROBERT MORGAN

Robert Morgan is a multi award winning filmmaker.

He was raised in the cursed town of Yateley, England. At the tender age of three, he developed a passion for cinema when he saw Fiend Without A Face (1958) on an 8mm projector. As a result, he became a weird kid obsessed with monsters and the things that hide under rocks.

He recently finished making a new short film, and is now developing various feature length projects.

He lives in a haunted house in London. 

The event that you are hosting focuses on horror within animation: is there anything about the nature of animation that makes it a strong medium for horror stories?

I certainly think stop-motion animation lends itself to horror, in numerous ways. Other types of animation, I'm not so sure. But stop-motion is inherently an uncanny medium. It deals with bringing dead - or lifeless - things to life, but it brings them life in a strange, mechanical, uncanny way. Personally I've always found that it lends itself more to weird and disturbing stories than the comedy its mostly used for.

I believe (I read it on wikipedia, so I need to be careful...) that you studied fine art - what encouraged you to work in animation from this background?

Yes, that's correct. I guess what encouraged me was that animation seemed like a nice easy bridge between fine art and film. I always wanted to make films, but I didn't know how. However, I could draw and make things, so making those things move, frame by frame, seemed like an easier step than suddenly working with actors.

Is manipulate a good match for your work?
I've never been to manipulate before, but from what I know - i.e. that it is a celebration of puppetry - yes I think its a good match. I use puppets in my films all the time.

How do you feel animation is regarded, culturally - does it still retain the stigma of being 'cartoons for kids'?

There is still that view, yes. But that's mainly in the world of feature films, which is hopelessly out of touch with animation's potential for all kinds of stories. In the world of short films, I don't think there's as much of that stigma.

Do you regard your work within a particular horror tradition?
Not particularly. But if I had to align myself with anything, I'd say that it belongs more to a weirder, arthouse tradition in horror films exemplified by the likes of David Cronenberg, Polanski, Lynch, Svankmajer, or the weird fiction of people like Thomas Ligotti, or the weird art of people like Alfred Kubin. But that's a pretty rag-tag bunch. I think that's a pretty vague tradition, actually.