Mad God (2021) is a unique animated gem that was recently added to Shudder. The storyline follows a man who descends into a lost city in ruins. When he gets there he fines an array of death, torture and monstrosities that are a result of this lifestyle. He will search the city for the source of its pain and agony...
There is a plot of sorts and plenty of grisly stop-motion violence, but Mad God is most impressive as a work of sheer atmosphere, a visual experience that is actually unlike any other.
Merging live action, stunning stop-motion animation and endearingly awkward puppetry, this bleak experiment from the visual-effects titan Phil Tippett is best viewed on a very large screen and after a very small meal. There's no real narrative or dialogue.
Mad God is a disturbing testament to why we love horror. It's honest, brutal, and unrelenting; it often depicts the underbelly of humanity and the world around us, practically begging us to look for hope in a mad, mad world.
There's also lots of themes and motifs you can pick out from all the insanity. Some of them might even feel profound to you personally. There's also plenty of unsettling moments. If you're ok with experimental films that don't necessarily have a point - Mad God is absolutely worth a watch.
The film opens with a passage promising vengeance for sin: “I will devastate the land, so that your enemies who come to settle in it shall be appalled at it” (Leviticus 26:32, NRSV). The land of Mad God has been devastated by the doings of its own inhabitants.
There is a surgery scene which is very bloody and graphic. Holes are punctured in a patient as well as organs being ripped out and blood splatter across the room. Very violent scene.
A blend of stop-motion puppetry and live action—though probably not in the ways you might expect—Mad God is a mostly-silent film set in a post-apocalyptic “atompunk” hellscape that may or may not be some actual version of Hell.
Mad God is a 2021 American stop-motion adult animated experimental horror film written, produced, and directed by Phil Tippett. Completed in 2021, it was produced over a period of 30 years. Mad God premiered at the Locarno Festival on August 5, 2021, and was released in the United States on June 16, 2022 by Shudder.
To me however, I think the entire film is a philosophical mediation on how we can account for and justify the concept of a god in the world we live in. I think the film states that it's in our nature and the nature of everything around us to decay. I think that man sending the assassins clearly is the "mad god".
The meticulous stop motion animation that is currently selling the film to contemporary audiences was something that Tippet believed he could not market to studios back in the 90s - a time when cutting-edge CGI was on the rise. As such, the project was shelved by Tippett for the better part of 30 years until recently.
Plague Doctor: The Alchemist is a humanoid figure in a black plague doctor mask, robe, and hat. Punch-Clock Villain: The "Mad Nurse" doesn't seem comfortable with her macabre work. She's clearly reluctant to hand over the crying baby worm to the Alchemist.
There is no dialogue in Mad God; however, baby sounds were incorporated into the sound design. “That was all Richard Beggs,” Tippett reveals. “I had no idea that he was going to do that.
However, out of the massive catalogue of horror films I've watched, Phil Tippett's 2021 film “Mad God” is one of the most memorable, macabre pieces I have ever seen. Phil Tippett, director of the film, is considered by most in the movie industry to be the greatest stop-motion animator of all time.
There is no dialogue, so events onscreen are propelled by imagery and sound alone and its not honestly always easy to keep up with what is happening and why. On top of that, much of the imagery and events are of the grotesque variety, so viewers of a more sensitive bent should be warned.
Content Guide. Violence/Scary Images: Extreme violence, gore, and body horror. Scenes of military violence—gruesome images. A scene of a woman being stabbed in the distance.
Ethnic and racial slurs are heard, as well as some profanity, including the "N" word. The movie also depicts Italian American culture in a sympathetic but crude and stereotypical light. Characters smoke cigarettes and drink wine, and there's brief nudity (female breasts) and a scene of clothed but audible sex.
On the surface, Mad God is a “what if” that imagines a world in which God has punished human arrogance. This is why the opening cites both the story of the Tower of Babel and Leviticus 26. We see this bleak and awful world that isn't simply abandoned by God but actively punished.
There are five instances recorded in the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) where Jesus got angry. He was angry at those who refused to help someone with a shriveled hand. He got angry at his disciples for believing that children were second-class citizens.
