MAD GOD (2022 batshit stop-motion horror movie)

[Mister Six]

MAD GOD!

Absolutely the most bonkers thing you'll see this year, MAD GOD is a grotesque descent into Hell courtesy of SFX supremo Phil Tippett (Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, RoboCop, Dragonslayer, Jurassic Park, Starship Troopers), who took 30 years to complete the film, during which time he underwent a mental breakdown.



The dialogue-free, mostly stop-motion story - which came to Tippett in dreams and images that he's likened to religious visions - follows a mysterious figure called The Assassin.

Clad in a bowler had and gas mask, and carrying a mysterious briefcase for initially unclear reasons, must voyage ever downwards into a nightmarish biomechanical, infernal-industrial Hellscape populated by sadistic monsters and violent grotesques.



The hideousness he experiences is intercut with live-action scenes starring Alex Cox who may be the titular Mad God, and has a masterplan of his own.

What actually happens is somewhat ambiguous, although I'm pretty convinced that I followed it (for the most part). But really, just letting the utterly bizarre visuals wash over you and infect your mind for 83 minutes is a totally fine way to watch it too.



Sadly, the available screenshots don't quite get across the deranged visions in the film, and the most arresting visuals come as sequences and scenes, not freeze-framed moments, but hopefully this little write-up will compel you to go check it out.

It's currently playing in select cinemas in the US, where it's also available on streaming horror service Shudder. Not sure how you can watch it elsewhere, but I think it's certainly worth making the effort.



There are plenty of moments in this film that I'm carrying around days later, and the attention to all of the ways the human soul can be degraded, brutalised and ground down reminds me of the similarly monstrous scenes of a digital Hell from Iain M. Banks's Surface Detail.

Hope that's got you all excited to see it!

[zomgmouse]

https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=88490.0

[Mister Six]

Last post was in October last year.

FUCK THAT THREAD.

LET'S GET THE CONVO GOING RIGHT HERE!

[willbo]

i want to see this

i keep meaning to get on that Shudder, crazy shit on there

that Psycho Goreman looks interesting too

[Stigdu]

looks interesting. Love Tippett's work, particularly Robocop. I only joined Shudder last month so I could see The Sadness. Was underwhelmed, so I cancelled the sub.

[The Mollusk]

Yeah I'm hyped as fuck for this

[madhair60]

DAD BOD

[Mister Six]

that Psycho Goreman looks interesting too

Mate I watched Mad God with says it's fantastic. I definitely want to watch it. Shudder seems to have a ton of good stuff, including a load of Giallo. Sadly no Hammer, from a cursory poke around. But I wasn't looking very hard (or maybe different locations have different films).

[Stigdu]

Mate I watched Mad God with says it's fantastic. I definitely want to watch it. Shudder seems to have a ton of good stuff, including a load of Giallo. Sadly no Hammer, from a cursory poke around. But I wasn't looking very hard (or maybe different locations have different films).

Sort of kinda on topic still, but the Arrow channel has more gialli than the Shudder channel.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Psycho Goreman is a very, very silly comedy horror, but it's one I loved a lot. Mad God is even better, though it's a completely different kind of movie and even though I didn't understand certain aspects I was captivated by it throughout.

[madhair60]

I really enjoyed Psycho Goreman also

[purlieu]

There's been another thread since my first one too. I have it on my computer but haven't got around to watching it yet. Hopefully soon.

[Dex Sawash]

Oooo shudder is packaged with AMC+ and I can watch this.

[Egyptian Feast]

It was absolutely the wrong film to watch last night, but my other choice (Raimi's Crimewave) was unplayable and it was still a fascinating watch, albeit one that has left a bunch of horrible imagery hanging around in my mind. Definitely recommend the experience.

[MojoJojo]

I might watch it - shudder offer a 7 day free trial.

[iamcoop]

I thought this was absolutely brilliant but I'll need to see it another couple of times to fully comprehend exactly what's going on.

It's very sad isn't it? A lot of scenes gave me an overwhelming feeling of melancholy, which I enjoyed.

[Mister Six]

Here's the story I pieced together while I watched it:

Spoiler alert

The bowler-hatted Assassin who enters Hell (as I'll be referring to it) is in the employ of Alex Cox's long-fingernailed madman, who has some kind of rival nation/state/dimension. Cox might be the Mad God of the title, but his place hardly looks like Heaven.

Anyway the Assassin is the latest of countless such soldiers, each of whom has been sent to the bottom of Hell to detonate an explosive that will destroy the place completely. Each time the path down there changes, so Alex Cox needs to use the three Fates of Greek mythology (the ladies who share a single eye) to produce a new map each time.

As before, The Assassin makes it to the lowest level and sets up the bomb before being captured. As before, time seems to stop before the bomb can detonate. However, this time Alex Cox has an additional plan.

The Assassin is taken to the operating theatre, where a surgeon burrows into his head and uses a viewscreen to see what happened to a previous assassin (the one last seen on a motorbike, going on a square spiral road into darkness). The surgeon also extracts what may be the Assassin's soul, which is given to the nurse to deliver to the plague doctor.

Alex Cox knew that the plague doctor wanted to perform some kind of ghastly experiment on the soul that would result in the creation and collapse of a miniature universe. Somehow, doing this (unbeknown to the plague doctor, but planned by Alex Cox) causes time to move forward in the bomb room, and the latest Assassin's case detonates, causing a chain reaction that completely destroys Hell while Alex Cox rejoices.

(It's possible that this was an incredibly long game and that Alex Cox has deliberately sent thousands of previous Assassins down individually to lull Hell into a false sense of security and allow a big enough stockpile of explosives to build up.)

[close]

That's just my theory, of course. The director says that much of it is just a channeling of his dreams and nightmares, so maybe trying to ascribe a definitive plot to it is foolish, but this one makes sense to me. Of course, it's more about the experience than any real narrative 8n any case.

[Dex Sawash]

Instant sleep when I turn this on, like 5 minutes tops.
Really like it but just puts me right out.

[Poobum]

Loved this. A Dante style decent through the levels of hell. Some of the sound design let it down, too much monkey shrieking when something as unworldly as the visual was needed, but the creativity in the pure disgusting horror was amazing. The figures shitting themselves to death on the electric chairs is gonna stay with me.

[Mister Six]

Aye, the electric chairs, and what's beneath them, are what I tell people about when I'm trying to describe the film. I don't think they're shitting themselves to death, though. I don't think they get that reprieve.

One of the things that it gets "right" in depicting Hell isn't just the torture and pain, but the pointlessness of it all. Horrific torture depicted to no end whatsoever. And the sheer petty awfulness of the characters, like the tumour-riddled alchemist thing and his vivarium.

[J Peasemould Gruntfuttock]

Watched it three times  now, and I still haven't spotted the womble.

[Edgar Balloon III]

For a film with such grotesque imagery, I have to say I found this remarkably dull. It reminded me of a 'walking simulator' game, where they have beautiful graphics and not a lot else. It felt like a series of great visual images that were linked together by very little.

[Mister Six]

DAD BOD

Every time I think about this reply I chuckle a bit.