Tuesday 28 February 2023 at 7pm
Mad God, Phil Tippett, 2021, 84m
A tall figure shrouded in a jacket and gas mask descends into a ruined, hellish world via a diving bell. Travelling with a seemingly unknowable purpose, the Traveller encounters a writhing world carefully carved from the primordial horrors of a distinct subconscious. The debut from visual legend Phil Tippett—the last of the great analog effects specialists and whose distinctive touch is seen in films ranging from the original Star Wars trilogy and Robocop to Honey, I Shrunk the Kids—Mad God is a labour of love with every set, creature, and effigy having been hand-crafted and painstakingly animated using stop-motion techniques informed equally by the Quay Brothers as much as Harryhausen.
Mad God is an obsessive film. The Traveller’s ever continued journey into the film’s monstrous microcosm, finds its analogue in the sustained thirty-year effort from Tippet that has finally reached the surface. Each wiggle of a worm or step taken by the Traveller matched by an act of labour from Tippett himself. Ready your eyes.
MA15+
With thanks to Shudder, IFC Films, and in a much appreciated partnership with Netherworld and their Two Bit Movie Club.