Stop-motion WW1 horror animation is the coolest thing I’ve seen all week
Indie animation is — at the risk of overstating — really, really goddamn cool. It’s at the indie level of any medium where passion is guaranteed, because there sure as hell isn’t a monetary incentive.
Another uncontroversial statement: World War I really, really sucked. The bleak meat grinder that countless lives were fed into, for, in the grand scheme of things, not much reason at all, has been the subject of many books, movies, TV shows, and more. For my money, though, one of the better artistic pieces to spring from that tragedy is the recent indie animation ERSATZ.
The work of a single animator over more than a year, ERSATZ focuses on an alt-history Great War where no soldier is allowed to die — you’re just stitched back together from your constituent parts and whatever the infirmary has lying around and thrown back into the fray. Obvious metaphor for war’s uncaring consumption of human life and erosion of identity aside, the grimy, faux-stop-motion look and uncomfortably slimy body horror lend it all an uncanniness I found captivating.
I sincerely hope some indie animation network picks this up, because I need to see more of this world.
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