Mad God (2021) a (mildly) belated review

I enjoy a whole host of films in almost all genres.

Not all these films, to be sure, I come away actually liking, but if I find something to grab onto and am entertained, I can tolerate an awful lot.

There are films that are presented with the bare minimum of plot. You, as a viewer, watch the proceedings and, like the classic Rorschach test, you can figure out -or not!- what the film was about and whether it worked for you or not.

Years ago when I saw the David Lynch film Mulholland Drive, I spent a good hour or so wondering just what the heck I was watching and just where the heck was this film going. Then came a certain scene (no big SPOILERS here, but it was the audition scene) and suddenly it hit me and I understood exactly what Lynch was up to and the film became one of my favorites of his, equal parts hilarious, scary, and heartbreaking.

Mad God one could say, is somewhat in this same general area. We’re given the barest elements of a plot and… is there eventually a point where it all comes together?

Stay tuned.

Directed by legendary special effects artist Phil Tippett (Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Robocop, Willow, Jurassic Park, etc. etc.), this film took many, many years to complete. In fact, work started on this film all the way back in 1987 and completed in 2020…!!!!!!

That, my friends, is some dedication.

Employing stop motion, the film is a lush though often dark and grotesque (in the best way, trust me) journey though some bizarre hellscape.

The movie starts with some kind of craft being lowered into this hellscape. The odd creatures on the surface of whatever place this craft is being lowered toward try to shoot it down but fail to do so.

Once on the “ground” the thing within the capsule emerges. He (she?) looks like something from World War I, a draped soldier with a gas mask.

S/He is, for most of the film, our protagonist. S/He carries a map which leads him/her deeper and deeper into this odd world where s/he films plenty of grotesque creatures and scenery.

…but…

We never really know why s/he’s going down there. We never really know, either, where exactly this place is. I suppose one could assume its some kind of hell and, later in the film when s/he reaches a certain point in the trip and brings out an explosive device, I assumed they were there to either destroy this place (which makes sense given how s/he was being shot at when they were being lowered to it at the film’s start) or destroy whoever was in charge of it.

Then, other stuff happens and… I just don’t know, man.

The film is more of a collection of sequences, some quite brilliant, but very little coherent story. Again, it wasn’t until towards the later stages of the film that I even had a hunch as to what our protagonist was up to. But I’m not even sure that’s the case as we go through several more bits and pieces of business and effectively lose our protagonist for a while in some bizarre stuff that I can’t even pretend to understand.

This is a very tough film to grade.

On the one hand, the visuals are mostly quite stunning. This is easily the most accomplished use of stop motion animation I’ve ever seen… even if most of it is dark and grim looking. There is no bright scene(s) offered to counter the hellish landscape we’re immersed in!

On the other hand, the story is…

…I’m going to come out and say it: Non-existent. I’m sorry, but there’s almost nothing here except for a character journeying deeper and deeper into this bizarre hellworld and as a viewer I had no clue what pretty much all of it meant.

Would I recommend the film?

I think anyone who enjoys seeing well done special effects absolutely should give Mad God a whirl. Again, you don’t see such top notch effects every day and these, my friends, are TOP NOTCH effects.

But just be forewarned: There isn’t all that much that ultimately makes sense and there feels like there’s little story told.

Those who want that more than want to appreciate a master effects artist showing off his stuff may want to spend a few minutes with the film and then let it go.