Mad GodCruelty is inherent to power. This is the overarching message in Phil Tippett's stop-motion animated horror film, Mad God, that a "god" is really just an unfeeling creator and destroyer for the sake of its own horrible amusement. Made over an extreme period of time--thirty years--Mad God is a testament to the patience requisite to the craft, i.e. stop-motion animation, and of its creator. Decidedly not for children, Mad God is a violent and intentionally disgusting depiction of a world given to evil and depravity, with the cynical message that such a thing is ultimately an inevitability.
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Mad God is clearly a labor of "love"...that is, it is a technically accomplished film that showcases the amazing talent of Tippett Studio, which has contributed special effects to many films throughout the last several decades, such as RoboCop and Willow. For animation buffs, Mad God is a treat to watch, so long as you are willing to put aside the movie's incoherent narrative. The film is not "pure" stop-motion animation, due to the inclusion of a few actors in a few scenes. Ironically, these actors portray characters who are largely in positions of power (although they are not the exclusive occupiers of this role). Because of the disjointed and abstract narrative, it is next to impossible to describe the plot with any assurance or even name a true "protagonist". Much of Mad God is like a hallucinatory nightmare made manifest on the screen, which lets an audience with an open mind apply their own interpretations and values to the imagery. The film opens with a depiction of the Tower of Babel being engulfed in darkness, and it's followed by some scribbled verses ostensibly from the Book of Leviticus, describing God's wrath. This suggests that the "god" of Mad God is the Judeo-Christian God, but the rest of the film departs from this interpretation. The only literary similarity to Christianity might be that the journey through Hell found in Dante's "Inferno" is similar to the one in Mad God, though this "Hell" is more akin to the kind of dystopian nightmare found in movies like Terry Gilliam's 12 Monkeys taken to the nth degree. Following the preamble, Mad God follows--at least for its first act--an unnamed person in a full body protective suit wearing a gas mask (referred to as "The Assassin", owing to a bomb he intends to detonate in the heart of this hellscape) being lowered via a diving bell into a world consumed by war and monsters. As The Assassin descends further and further, he bears witness to strange and hideous creatures who smash and consume lesser beings that are vaguely humanoid but appear to be composed of dust and dirt. These "drones" exist solely to be prey to these harsher "demons" that run rampant and enslave them. There is an overt message here about the dehumanization that comes from industry and war, notably pointing the finger of shame at leaders who exploit their positions of power to make everyone serving them feel inferior and/or expendable.
Whatever motives The Assassin may have in destroying this underworld are ambiguous at first, but a series of briefcases he sees prior to reaching his detonation point suggests that he is far from the first to make the attempt. This becomes tragically clear after his bomb fails to explode and he is captured by a biomechanical guard creature. He is subjected to cruel and gory surgery, which has the surgeon ripping out his guts, pulling out organs and jewelry, all before extracting a hideous, worm-like creature that screams like a baby. The nurse on duty sneaks off with the "baby" and offers it up to some shadowy, mumbling giant, who in turn makes it a sacrifice by way of a dwarfish engineer, who is described as an "alchemist". The deformed baby is truly disgusting, yet represents life, which is snuffed out to apparently craft some other universe. Whether this new universe was intended to rectify the fate of the one in which these characters dwell or merely become yet another perverse playground is unclear; what is clear is that there is a deliberate connection being drawn between the destruction of life merely to satisfy the whims of something "bigger". This baby is uncannily reminiscent of the grotesque infant from David Lynch's own experimental and surreal labor of love, Eraserhead, while The Assassin's journey through an unfriendly and alien landscape mirror's Henry's (from the same movie) to some extent. And like with many experimental films, Mad God looks like the kind of movie that one might find on auto-play at some Museum of Modern Art; this is something of a complement and a criticism. Despite copious scenes of gross and disturbing imagery, Mad God is art, and the best art--the only real "art", if you ask me--is something which is not produced for mass consumption. It is something unique and distinct, and isn't interested in appeasing anyone's delicate sensibilities. So yes, art can be "grotesque" and "provocative", and still be art on its own merits. But the problem comes from whether Mad God is a movie that has a "story" or if it is predominantly a collection of sounds and images mashed together into something resembling a story instead. As mentioned, much of the joy in movies that do not pander to formulaic storytelling is in enticing the audience's imagination to "fill in the blanks", which is what Mad God does. Alternately, Mad God is unquestionably a horror movie, and a really gory one at that, which often seems gratuitous in its depiction of a world under the thumb of its eponymous "Mad God". Is it gross just for shock value? Its exclusive availability on the Shudder horror streaming service supports this to some degree. Regardless of who the intended audience is for Mad God, the film is an explicit condemnation of cruel tyrants and of the power they exploit.
Recommended for: Fans of a masterpiece in stop-motion animation who are also on board with a film that is gory and gross on a level equal to or greater than the likes of The Evil Dead. Animated though this movie may be, don't take the kids; not just for the graphic content, but because of the complex themes that it explores which may be lost to viewers not receptive to the way by which it examines them.
Whatever motives The Assassin may have in destroying this underworld are ambiguous at first, but a series of briefcases he sees prior to reaching his detonation point suggests that he is far from the first to make the attempt. This becomes tragically clear after his bomb fails to explode and he is captured by a biomechanical guard creature. He is subjected to cruel and gory surgery, which has the surgeon ripping out his guts, pulling out organs and jewelry, all before extracting a hideous, worm-like creature that screams like a baby. The nurse on duty sneaks off with the "baby" and offers it up to some shadowy, mumbling giant, who in turn makes it a sacrifice by way of a dwarfish engineer, who is described as an "alchemist". The deformed baby is truly disgusting, yet represents life, which is snuffed out to apparently craft some other universe. Whether this new universe was intended to rectify the fate of the one in which these characters dwell or merely become yet another perverse playground is unclear; what is clear is that there is a deliberate connection being drawn between the destruction of life merely to satisfy the whims of something "bigger". This baby is uncannily reminiscent of the grotesque infant from David Lynch's own experimental and surreal labor of love, Eraserhead, while The Assassin's journey through an unfriendly and alien landscape mirror's Henry's (from the same movie) to some extent. And like with many experimental films, Mad God looks like the kind of movie that one might find on auto-play at some Museum of Modern Art; this is something of a complement and a criticism. Despite copious scenes of gross and disturbing imagery, Mad God is art, and the best art--the only real "art", if you ask me--is something which is not produced for mass consumption. It is something unique and distinct, and isn't interested in appeasing anyone's delicate sensibilities. So yes, art can be "grotesque" and "provocative", and still be art on its own merits. But the problem comes from whether Mad God is a movie that has a "story" or if it is predominantly a collection of sounds and images mashed together into something resembling a story instead. As mentioned, much of the joy in movies that do not pander to formulaic storytelling is in enticing the audience's imagination to "fill in the blanks", which is what Mad God does. Alternately, Mad God is unquestionably a horror movie, and a really gory one at that, which often seems gratuitous in its depiction of a world under the thumb of its eponymous "Mad God". Is it gross just for shock value? Its exclusive availability on the Shudder horror streaming service supports this to some degree. Regardless of who the intended audience is for Mad God, the film is an explicit condemnation of cruel tyrants and of the power they exploit.
Recommended for: Fans of a masterpiece in stop-motion animation who are also on board with a film that is gory and gross on a level equal to or greater than the likes of The Evil Dead. Animated though this movie may be, don't take the kids; not just for the graphic content, but because of the complex themes that it explores which may be lost to viewers not receptive to the way by which it examines them.