'Mad God' by Phil Tippett Review: Stunning stop-motion animation, utterly horrifying ideas

I am definitely not a big fan of stop-motion animation. While I admire the sheer craft of it, it is generally something I avoid. The truth is, stop-motion animation always gives me a very weird feeling. Something about these productions often feels rather nightmarish, even when it's actually trying to tell a regular narrative far from the genres of thriller and horror. Thinking about it, I can't seem to name many films in this manner; perhaps two films by Wes Anderson, and Wallace and Gromit. I can't say I have ever really enjoyed either of those. Though, the other day I came across a title suddenly and decided to keep the tab open to look deeper into it another time. It has some interesting art for the poster: Mad God. I saw a short part of a trailer for the production, to see that it was indeed a stop-motion title, of the horror genre. This film was highly acclaimed by critics, and from what I had briefly seen, the art and techniques truly seemed phenomenal.

I cast aside those prior judgements I typically felt towards stop-motion, and funnily this was a horror film. The whole idea of stop-motion and its janky style should be seen as a positive given the general approach this film would have. By putting aside my typical judgements, I actually went into the film quite excited to figure out what it could be about. After all, the style seemed rather impressive. And a brief synopsis claimed that the film would be an assassin that descends deep into the underground of complete chaos and death. As if to roam the world of nightmares itself. At a glance, this seems very unique, and certainly very appealing. Particularly for a style of animation in which the world of dreams should be much easier to replicate with time; rather than special effects and big budgets that plague the genres of fantasy live action.

However, this is absolutely not a film for everyone, and even I could feel myself getting filtered by it as it progressed. And I suspect I'm far from alone here due to how odd a film this can be, while ultimately void of structure in any real narrative capacity.

Some may recognise the name of Phil Tippett for his work on major films throughout the years: Jurassic Park and Star Wars. His works are famous for his passion on stop-motion and animation. One of the first things to notice here with Mad God is the sheer attention to detail in what is a very small film. The environments, the minor details on the characters, and the objects they use are absolutely incredible. What's more surprising is how well the lighting is alongside all of this. Getting beautiful lighting down to such a small scale must've been quite a challenge, yet it works tremendously in setting an atmosphere. This is done alongside a heavy use of various colours. Yellows, reds, blues, greens, all of them play a huge part in the world of horror, and Mad God utilises them all incredibly well. Primarily, the introduction to this film is full of detail, showing us the complexity of it all as our main character descends in a capsule over a lengthy scene. At first this will produce plenty of questions as you take in the movement and details, to which unfortunately much of the film seems a bit void.

Once this introduction ends, the film takes on a weird approach, it throws into the face of the audience a series of odd creatures and events within environments that seem heavily industrial and void of order. Death plagues this environment, it is clearly a very sick place that one could describe as hellish. With this comes more questions: what is this place? What is the character doing here? But these questions are never really answered. The film continued to throw strange creatures at me, to which I admit they are masterfully designed, giving me some sort of concept art feeling that you often find on the likes of ArtStation. These designs were very cool, sometimes taking moments to expand upon specific traits they may have, but again all this really does is display a land of suffering. I would have liked to have seen a more defined narrative that could explain this world a bit more, giving us perspective and information on who our protagonist is and what they're doing there. It never really felt like it did want to expand upon these ideas more, and as the film continued, I couldn't help but feel a bit tired of it.

The nightmarish aesthetic is certainly, well, nightmarish. The film feels as if you've taken a hallucinogen on Halloween after watching horror films on what also happens to be the worst night of your life. It's incredibly unsettling and more so due to the lack of structure in the narrative. Perhaps this was intentional to add to the depth of this environment that relies on the lack of order and the promotion of chaos. But I just couldn't find myself enjoying it as it continued. Here and there I could admire the characters, the settings, and the cinematography and lighting even, but these moments grew thin and less impressive. After a few times, I just wanted to get a bit of story. It never actually came. As I mentioned a moment ago, I admit this may have been an intentional decision as to continue with the atmosphere it wanted to convey, so I don't really consider it a major fault, but perhaps acknowledge that the film and its seemingly more experimental style may have missed its mark with me.

I do think the use of stop-motion animation really worked in is favour to display a horror setting. The movements of its horrible characters feel less human and unnatural as a result. This definitely was a strength! And I found myself appreciating this aspect of it despite not usually being a fan of the style. However, the film started to distance itself from the stop-motion and use live action in parts, using actual actors here and there in blatantly edited environments. Sometimes using close-up perspectives of certain objects to try to mask the difference a little. It didn't always work as sometimes we would get wider shots of these characters interacting with the world. I did see other people mentioning this aspect online, and I have to agree with them that perhaps mixing both wasn't the best idea. Commitment to stop-motion would have been more preferable. I'm not sure what the decision for this was, and there's a chance it could be purely artistic.

I think this is a film I can't say I know whether I enjoyed it or not. It was highly uncomfortable to sit through. Odd to try to understand. Void of narrative and full of disgusting chaos. These are not necessarily negatives. I can admit they worked well, just that it wasn't entirely for me. I'm sure for others the same would be said. The lack of narrative will be the hardest part to accept, which makes the film feel like it has dragged on for too long when it could've been a short to say the same thing. I do not one bit make any claims that the art of animation was bad; these were incredible and showed such a passion and clear experience in creating such miniature worlds. There was an art to this that I had not seen elsewhere. With the closest thing I could compare the film to being some 2D indie games. Themes of various periods, and deep fantasy mixed with the spiritual and magical.

I think to go into this, you already need to be aware of what it is. To go into it knowing you are to appreciate the designs and not expect a story from it. To take pleasure purely in the craftsmanship and filmmaking. Even then, you're in for one hell of a weird ride. Mad God, I guess, is a certainly fitting title for such a production. After all, I guess it does indeed give you the perspective of a series of creations from a God gone utterly mad. To create a horrific world full of torture, mess, and fear.