Mad God (2021) Review by Phil Newton
Phil Tippett is an Academy Award-winning visual effects artist, best known for his work on Jurassic Park, RoboCop, Starship Troopers and several of the Star Wars films. Inspired by the late Ray Harryhausen, Tippett’s stop-motion work is regarded as some of the best within the industry. At the tail end of the ‘80s Tippett began work on his own project, filming six minutes on 35mm film stock… shelved for 20 years, Mad God was brought back to life in 2010 and after a successful crowdfunding campaign the film finally saw the light of day, 30 years after it was first started.
Even after watching, it’s hard to sum up the plot of Mad God very easily. Basically you have a character dubbed The Assassin who descends into this dark nightmarish underground world armed with a map and a suitcase full of dynamite. Inspired by the art of Hieronymus Bosch and the visionary poems of Dante and Milton, this is one man’s journey into Hell… A Hell where you will witness a monkey tied to a bed, huge industrial machines that create humanoid figures, a neon-coloured garden infested with maggots and a child that is taken by a giant spider.
It’s perhaps worth mentioning at this point that the film has no dialogue, just a rather good ambient and guitar score. As such, you’re fully focussed on the visuals which are quite eye-popping to say the least. Tippett and his team have painstakingly realised Mad God via stop-motion techniques with a little live action footage (including an appearance from Repo Man director Alex Cox) mixed together. In spite of this clearly being an experimental fantasy, you can’t help but admire this labour of love and get swept up in the myriad of nightmarish images. It really is quite an achievement, and something very different from the norm, animated or otherwise.
For those who’ve already experienced the film streaming on Shudder, this Blu-ray release offers plenty of bonus content to tempt fans. There are two commentary tracks (one featuring Guillermo del Toro), a number of featurettes about the making of the film, plus behind the scenes information. Whilst Mad God won’t appeal to all, it’s worth celebrating the craft involved and the originality of storytelling on display here, and Acorn Media International have done a great job with this home entertainment release.