Descend into a forbidding world of tortured souls, decrepit bunkers, and wretched monstrosities forged from the most primordial horrors of the subconscious mind. A film by Phil Tippett, starring Alex Cox, Niketa Roman, Satish Ratakonda, Arne Hain, Jake Freytag, David Lauer, Hans Brekke, Tom Gibbons, Brett Foxwell, Anthony Ruivivar, Harper Taylor, Brynn Taylor, Harper Gibbons, Tucker Gibbons, Chris Morley, Talal Selhami, and Alexandre Poncet.
MAD GOD
Phil Tippett
(2021)
The movie opens with the destruction of the Tower of Babel where the survivors of the Great Flood famously defied God’s will by joining forces to build a tower to the heavens.
This is immediately followed by a passage from the Book of Leviticus in the Hebrew Bible. Specifically, verses 26:27-33 are shown translated into English, detailing the brutal and agonizing punishments that await mankind for disobeying God.
If you disobey me and remain hostile to me, I will act against you in wrathful hostility. I, for my part, will discipline you sevenfold for your sins. You shall eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters. I will destroy your cult places and cut down your incense stands. And I will Heap your carcasses upon your lifeless idols. I will spurn you. I will lay your cities in ruin and make your sanctuaries desolate and I will not savor your pleasing odors. I will make the land desolate so that your enemies who settle it shall be appalled by it. And you I will scatter among the nations and I will unsheath the sword against you. Your land shall become a desolation and your cities a ruin. Leviticus 26: 27-33
The scene then cuts to a colossal fortress firing a barrage to intercept a descending elevator. As it plunges from above, the lift travels down through various levels filled with nightmarish landscapes.
Upon reaching its destination, a masked soldier emerges from the capsule. Unfolding a map, he charts the route to his objective. The journey forces him to evade numerous threats; he must navigate not only the terrifying environment, but also chance encounters with the bizarre creatures blocking his path. He bears witness to unspeakable acts of torture, yet he cannot stop to intervene, driven by an imperative mission he is bound to accomplish.
Unfortunately, he is captured and subjected to brutal torture. His body is dissected to uncover what is hidden inside him, which appears to be some kind of living embryo.
A terrifying device is brought down upon his nearly lifeless body, drilling into his skull to harvest his memories. The extracted visions reveal that he was sent by the last surviving human on Earth, guided by a witch’s prophecy, for a specific purpose yet unknown.
Epic stop-motion. 30 years in the making.
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A film by Phil Tippett, starring Alex Cox, Niketa Roman, Satish Ratakonda, Arne Hain, Jake Freytag, David Lauer, Hans Brekke, Tom Gibbons, Brett Foxwell, Anthony Ruivivar, Harper Taylor, Brynn Taylor, Harper Gibbons, Tucker Gibbons, Chris Morley, Talal Selhami, and Alexandre Poncet.
Written, directed, and produced by American filmmaker Phil Tippett, MAD GOD is a stop-motion epic set in a Miltonesque world of monsters, mad scientists, and war pigs.
Phil Tippett is an American visual effects artist, stop-motion animator, director, and filmmaker. He’s best known for pioneering creature animation and effects work in films like Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, RoboCop, Jurassic Park, and Starship Troopers. He’s especially associated with stop-motion and the “go-motion” technique, which helped bring more realistic movement to animated creatures.
Production began while he was doing visual effects for RoboCop 2 (1990), but was put on hold after his work on Jurassic Park (1993) led him to believe the stop-motion era was over. Over 20 years later, he finally had the chance to resume the project, supported by Kickstarter funding and a team of dedicated volunteers. The stop-motion film Mad God was 30 years in the making.
One of the most intriguing aspects of the film is its total absence of dialogue. Relying purely on visual storytelling, it invites viewers to interpret the surreal imagery through the lens of their own unique perspectives.
The art direction is absolutely mesmerizing. The film immerses viewers in a grotesque, dark fantasy world. It evokes the macabre depths of Kentaro Miura’s Berserk (三浦建太郎) blended with the nightmarish chaos of Hieronymus Bosch’s The Last Judgment. While its relentless horrors are not for the faint of heart, it has all the makings of an instant cult classic.
MAD GOD premiered at Locarno Film Festival on 5 August 2021. The film a limited theatrical release in the United States on 16 June 2022. The film was simultaneously made available on Shudder on the same day.
