Mad God

The film opens with a tall figure shrouded in a jacket and gas mask known only as The Assassin shrouded descending into a ruined, hellish world via a diving bell. In his possession The Assassin has a map of the world and a suitcase with a bomb which he has been tasked with detonating behind enemy lines within the desolate world, however the map slowly deteriorates along the way.

Continuing his trek through the ruins, traveling through mutant lands, The Assassin encounters captive electronic torture victims and other horrors. Eventually he comes to find a city behind enemy lines, which is home to an army of nameless, faceless drones ruled by a baby-babbling monstrosity with filthy teeth and seared flesh. The Assassin halts for a moment here, pondering whether or not to take an ally, before he decides to escape while he can and descends into the bowels of the city, leaving a drone to be killed for walking away from the others. The Assassin discovers a mountain of suitcases just like his own, beneath the city bowels. These contain bombs, which his own bomb will detonate. As the Assassin primes his bomb and prepares to set it off, sitting down to await his death along with presumably every other mutant and person behind enemy lines, the Assassin fails to notice the creeping presence of a mutant of technological design. The mutant then pounces on The Assassin, capturing him and dragging him away as the bomb fails to detonate.

The Assassin is put on public display, where he is stripped and tortured in from of a mass of spectators. Shackled to a table, The Assassin lies there for what appears to be many days and weeks. His bandages, which cover his entire body, are yellowed with age, and his one exposed eye is red with dryness, having not blinked for quite a while. The Surgeon, or the Torturer, appears with a Nurse, whom both begin a sadistic medical procedure upon the weakened Assassin. Systematically, and painfully, and ultimately fatally for the Assassin, the Surgeon cracks open The Assassin's chest, and begins rummaging through his chest cavity. Jewelry, and books, metaphors for useful secrets of war, are pulled and strewn about and read through - a particularly interesting book catches the Surgeon's eye, and he investigates, before throwing it away. Eventually, after a long period of rummaging and bloody searching, the Surgeon finds his goal; a precious, screaming child. The Surgeon hands it to the Nurse.

In the world above, the Last Man gives a map forged by witches to another Assassin and sends him down in another diving bell. Driving a motorcycle and then a jeep, the New Assassin follows the map through a munitions depot, a graveyard, and a war zone before descending down a spiral roadway. The nurse brings the baby to a floating creature who escorts the child to an alchemist’s lair. The alchemist grinds the baby into liquid, smelts the liquid into metal, and crushes the metal into crystals that he hands back to the creature.

The creature scatters the crystals into a fiery portal. A new universe forms that rapidly decays into another ruined world.

While working on Robocop 2, Tippett began filming what would become Mad God.[4] His work on Jurassic Park led him to believe the days of stop motion were over and the film was shelved.[4]

Twenty years later, with the encouragement of members of his studio, Tippett began working on the project again[5] utilizing crews of volunteers to assist him.[6]

So on the weekends I would get as many as 15 and 20 people coming round. They didn’t all have the talent or skill, but I’d figure out the processes during the week. I had them do all the heavy lifting.[3]

With aid from Kickstarter donations,[5] Tippett was able to create the first three sections which make up about half of the film.[1] Tippett released a behind-the-scenes footage on YouTube during production.[2]

Mad God premiered in 2021 at the 74th Locarno Film Festival.[3][4] Shudder acquired distribution rights to the film, planning a limited release in theaters and on AMC+ on June 16, 2022.[7]

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Mad God holds an approval rating of 93%, based on 28 reviews, and an average rating of 7.90/10. Its consensus reads, "A rich visual treat for film fans, Mad God proves that even in the age of CGI, the cinematic allure of stop-motion animation remains strong."[8]

John Defore of The Hollywood Reporter praised the film's animation, bleak atmosphere, and design, calling it "a tech achievement FX geeks will need to see", and "among the bleakest dystopias science fiction [films]".[9] Sight and Sound's John Bleasdale offered similar praise while also criticizing its bleak setting, summarizing that the film "has all the makings of an instant cult classic".[10] Scoring the film four out of five stars, Drew Tinnin from Dread Central praised the design, atmosphere and animation, as well as the film's soudtrack; calling it "sheer artistry coming to life".[11] Rafael Motamayor of IndieWire rated the film a score B, writing "Mad God a cacophony of savagery and cruelty– [offering] no hope, no respite from the awe-inspiring terror."[12] Nerdist's Kyle Anderson rated the film a score of 4.5 out of 5, offering similar praise to the film's atmosphere, visuals, bleak setting, and production design while noting the film's simplistic narrative.[13] Reviewing the film for Tilt Magazine, film critic Thomas O'Connor called the film "a deeply unsettling spectacle", highlighting the film as a technical achievement in stop-motion animation as well as praising the film's bleak atmosphere, and disturbing imagery.[14] Christopher Stewardson from Our Culture Magazine also rated the film four out of five stars; commending the animation, visual design, hellish atmosphere, and dream-like quality, writing "Mad God almost has an anti-war ring to it. In its abstract madness it presents the nightmare of what war does. Nobody is human. Only monsters exist".[15]

The film was not without its detractors. IGN's Kristy Puchko gave the film a score of five out of ten, commending the atmosphere and visuals, but criticized the film for what she felt was the 'lack of any real plot or substance'.[16]

Mad God won the Audience Award at the 27th L'Etrange Festival.[17]

• Mad God official website
• Mad God at IMDb
• Mad God at Rotten Tomatoes
• Mad God at Metacritic