By JASON R. WALLACH
Starring Alex Cox, Niketa Roman and Satish Ratakonda
Written and directed by Phil Tippett
Shudder
If you spliced the DNA of René Laloux, Jean Pierre Jeunet & Marc Caro, Terry Gilliam, David Lynch, H.P. Lovecraft, George Miller, Alejandro Jodorowski, Ray Harryhausen, Jim Henson, the Brothers Quay, George Orwell, H.R. Giger, Salvatore Dali, Francis Bacon, Frank Herbert, Lewis Carroll, Shinya Tsukamoto, Peter Greenaway, David Cronenberg, Skinny Puppy, Federico Fellini, Ingmar Bergman, Richard Adams, E. Elias Merhige, F.W. Murnau, Fritz Lang, Jan Švankmajer, Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean (to name a few), then beat whatever the resulting life form is with a copy of the Old Testament, you’d have something beautiful, disturbing, revolting, miraculous, abhorrent and astonishing. Ladies and gentlemen, this is MAD GOD!!!
I watch a lot of bizarre films. MAD GOD is one of the most bizarre and insanely beautiful pieces of cinematic art I have ever witnessed. Academy Award-winner Phil Tippett has given us his visual effects and stop-motion magic and mastery for over 40 with such films as Star Wars, Piranha, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and RoboCop to name just a few. Although I avoided trailers and spoilers, I knew full well I was in for a treat with MAD GOD. What I didn’t know is that my mind was about to be completely blown by what I was about to watch.
I watched in awe and wonderment, at times wondering what the hell I was witnessing. I related to various events, characters and environments along the way, but the film is a puzzle to be solved. Like a hungry grub preparing to cut its mandibles, MAD GOD is an otherworldly experience pulsating and writhing in the rotting husk of a world we are all quite familiar with. I found myself overwhelmed by the epic scope of this film. It is truly a masterwork. It floods the eyes and the mind with remnants of Earth giving way to a far less pleasant civilization. Much like the film’s protagonist, the Assassin, it travels deep beneath the surface to traverse terrain that is ruined and hostile. Surreal. Challenging. Thought-provoking. Fantastic. Mad God must be seen to be believed.
Phil Tippett’s MAD GOD is now playing exclusively on Shudder.
