Nightstream: Mad God (2021)

Nightstream Screening: MAD GOD (2021)

Dir: Phil Tippett

A master shot of the Tower of Babel, lightning crashes, and an army is covered in darkness. Verses from Leviticus 26:27-33 scroll on screen to provide you a blueprint for the next 83 minutes of madness. Here’s a paraphrasing of God’s punishment: if you are hostile toward me, then in my anger, I will be hostile toward you and will punish you for your sins. You will eat the flesh of your sons and daughters, destroy your high places, pile your dead bodies, and turn your cities into ruins. The only thing literal about Mad God is its title.

Phil Tippet directed Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation (2004), buy you would probably know him better for his visual effects work: Star Wars: A New Hope (1977), Piranha (1978), Howard The Duck (1986), House 2 (1987), Robocop (1987), and Jurassic Park (1993). It was during Robocop that Tippett first sparked the idea for Mad God. He began a film that would take him more than three decades to complete. Working on weekends and pulling college students to assist, every element was meticulously handmade. From melted soldiers to torrents of liquid sh*t being used to create moss-people slaves, every element is imbued with sweat and passion. It’s almost upsetting to have to write about Mad God. It means we were tasked to do more than experience the film’s grandeur. There are no words to express the infinite levels of nightmare fuel that Tippett’s film runs on. But words must be created, so here we go.

A tyrannical man-god figure / false idol desires to be the supreme ruler of all things. The ruler sends a soldier into the primordial ooze from which we are all created. His mission, to destroy God. We are witnesses on a journey through failed creation. A Dante’s Inferno of sorts, that continues deep into the bowels of the abyss. New soldiers take the place of the dead. The spine of a hero is used in an alchemist’s experiments. The glitter of man’s will is used as a weapon. We watch as a wrathful god destroys, rebirths the cosmos, and lays it to ruins again and again. All is reduced to nothing. God spews 2001: A Space Odyssey (1969) monoliths to breed his brand of chaos. All is meaningless and somehow there is hope within it.

Every piece of Mad God is up to your own interpretation which provides a universal appeal. The style of Tippett’s stop motion opus combines the look of Adam Jones’ Tool videos and The Brothers Quay with the genius of Ray Harryhausen. I highly suggest watching Mad God the way you would watch Koyaanisqatsi (1982), by letting the images wash over you. Although, I guess in the case of Mad God, you would bathe in its blood-drenched glory.