Mad God (2022)

Thirty years in gestation, this monstrosity of a post apocalyptic, dystopian stop motion feature is the brainchild of special effects master Phil Tippett. Tippett has masterminded many a creature feature, working with Paul Verhoeven on Starship Troopers (1997) and Robocop (1987) as well as lending a hand to the Jurassic Park and Star Wars franchises. If you had to, you would place Mad Dog on the spectrum nearer the Verhoeven features than the franchises mentioned, but that doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of this astonishing piece of work. Despite the fact that the film feels more like a mish-mash of ideas without a particularly coherent plot, the invention and intricacy is what draws the senses, drawing to mind everything from Peter Jackson’s Braindead (1992) to Alfonso Cuaron’s Children of Men (2006) to name but two. The vague through line concerns a spy, dressed in what appears to be diving gear, being lowered into the depths of a nightmare vision of a world to complete a mission involving a bomb. Mad God is about the visual and sensual experience, Tippett throws you into his brain and you remain there, bathing in the filth and dirt of this hellhole of a world. I haven’t seen a planet so caked in filth since Aleksei German’s Hard To Be God (2013); a Tarkovsky influenced science fiction film essentially taking place in a futuristic middle age. Mad God is firmly set in the future, and the disgusting look and feel of it ensure that it’s impossible to tear your eyes from; around every corner there’s something that lurks that’s worse than what you’ve seen so far. Tippett’s vision is something that needs to be seen to be believed, and you can currently do so on Shudder.

7.8/10