History WebVideo / MadGod

%%
%% Image selected per Image Pickin thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=16839335220.87221600
%% Please don't change or remove without starting a new thread.
%%
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mad_god_7.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''Prayers are futile.'']]

->''The final form of ''MAD GOD'' isn't the film itself, but the memory after you watch it. It's bringing you to that moment just after waking up from a dream, frozen, exploring fragments of your feral mind before they fade back into the shadows. That's the moment. ''MAD GOD'' is just a way to get you there.''
-->'''-- Phil Tippett'''\\\

''[[http://watch.madgodmovie.com/ Mad God]]'' is a horror film that began life as an ongoing series of online videos, hence being categorized as a "Web Video" here. It was created by Phil Tippett, a StopMotion animator who has worked on ''Film/JurassicPark'', the original ''Franchise/StarWars'' trilogy, and ''{{Film/RoboCop|1987}}'', among many others. It tells the story(?) of a mysterious [[GasMaskLongcoat gas-masked, coated]] figure, called The Assassin [[AllThereInTheManual in the paratext]], traveling through a nightmarish underworld.

Tippett began design and concept work on ''Mad God'' back in 1990, but for budgetary reasons, it didn't get off the ground until 2010, with a successful Kickstarter campaign launched by Creator/TippettStudio. The first episode went online in 2013, and since then, two more episodes have been made. Each episode could be downloaded from the website at a small fee.

It was eventually made into a feature length film using the first 3 episodes and 60% new footage, which was given a limited festival and theatrical release in 2021. In 2022, it was released to streaming on the platform Shudder. Later that same year, it had a [=BluRay=] release, featuring a [[DVDCommentary commentary track]] from Tippett and Creator/GuillermoDelToro.
----
!!Tropes:
* AfterTheEnd: The world is post-apocalyptic, with the Assassin journeying through ruined cityscapes inhabited by tormented mutants and seeing the remnants of ancient wars and conflicts.
* AlienGeometries: During a surgery of [[spoiler:The Assassin]], the doctor reaches his arms further into his exposed chest cavity than should be physically possible. Chalk it up to more of this movie's surreal-ness.
* AmbiguouslyHuman: The Assassin looks human at first glance, but when he is vivisected, he turns out to be anything ''but'' human; he has no organs in him, just objects like [[NoodleImplements coins, pearl necklaces, books,]] and a worm-like larva, possibly indicating "he" is just a sort of WetwareBody or MeatPuppet piloted by the larva. [[spoiler:We then find out that he is just one of many [[ReplacementMooks others of his kind]] sent down to this mad world by a man referred to as The Last Man. Notably, each Assassin completely ''towers'' over The Last Man, with a map almost the size of his body being easily held with one hand by an Assassin.]]
* AmbiguousSituation: Literally everything is up to interpretation. Why is the Assassin tasked with carrying [[spoiler:a bomb]] behind enemy lines? Why does [[spoiler:the Last Man]] keep sending [[spoiler:Assassins]] to do that? What happened to this world to make it like [[WorldGoneMad this]]?
* ArtisticLicensePalaeontology: At the beginning, the Assassin descends past some inexplicably-huge fossils of a Triceratops and what seems to be an ammonite the size of a skyscraper.
** Some ''Rhamphorynchus''-like creatures appear later on, which avert the common mistakes in most portrayals of pterosaurs, although they are still very weird and stylized, with jagged, elongated beaks that almost resemble a mosquito's proboscis, and feet that look like tree roots.
* AsTheGoodBookSays / EpiGraph: The feature opens with a scrolling passage from Leviticus.
* BehemothBattle: The Alchemist and his assistant force two masked giants to beat each other with clubs.
* BodyHorror: All over the place. Practically every creature we meet is a bizarrely deformed, hideously mutated beast that you wouldn't want to even ''dream'' of existing. [[spoiler:And then there's what's inside the Assassin's body.]]
* CosmicHorrorStory: Goes on step further towards the end of the film when [[spoiler:we see that the entire universe of the film has been meddled with at the start by a black hole in space is sending monoliths to come down and ruin worlds]].
* CrapsackWorld: Sometimes literally; see ElectricTorture below. The setting of ''Mad God'' is an unholy, post-apocalyptic WorldGoneMad that has no logic or reason to it. [[spoiler:Transforms into a Crapsack ''Universe'' when we see in a montage on some strange, all consuming black hole sending ''2001''-esque monoliths to multiple planets and each one causing some sort of unholy destruction/chaos wherever they go]].
* DerangedAnimation: Emphasis on "Deranged".
* DieselPunk / UsedFuture: A lot of the technology has the bulky look of the early 20th Century, especially the machinery of the two World Wars, and is caked with the rust and dirt of war.
* DownerEnding: [[spoiler: This universe is beyond saving, and when a new one is created towards the end, it shares a similar fate.]]
* ElectricTorture: A group of giants are strapped into enormous electric chairs which are always turned on, forcing them to convulse and constantly void their bowels. The excrement is processed by a nightmarish biomechanical complex below and used to form the Shit-Men.
* EternalRecurrence: [[spoiler:Assassins keep being created by the Last Man and sent into the ruined world with bombs apparently intended to destroy it, but each one fails and gets vivisected, at which point the next Assassin is created and the cycle begins all over again.]]
* FanDisservice: There's exposed breasts with nipples in this movie... belonging to an obese, horrifying creature with a hideous face.
* FatBastard: The inhabitants of one city are disgusting flabby monsters that do nothing but eat and shit all day. Supplementary material refers to them as "Butt Sergeants".
* ForeverWar: The post-apocalyptic world the Assassin journeys through is one endless warfare on every level of "society" (if it can be called that) fought seemingly just for its own sake, with all the horror that comes with it.
* GasMaskLongcoat: The Assassin dresses like this. [[spoiler:''All'' of the Assassins do.]]
* {{Gorn}}: Many examples. [[spoiler: Especially The Assassin's surgery]].
* {{Hell}}: A popular interpretation of where this movie is set, and backed up by Tippett crediting medieval artist Creator/HieronymusBosch as his biggest influence. If it's not the literal Hell, it's certainly a lot ''like'' Hell.
* HereWeGoAgain: [[spoiler: The film ends with the Last Man sending yet another Assassin down in a diving bell.]]
* TheHeroDies: The Assassin is captured, killed, and vivisected by the enemy right at the end of his journey. [[spoiler:So the Last Man makes a new one… just like he has countless times before.]]
* TheIgor: The Alchemist in the BlackCloak has a hunchbacked assistant.
* ImAHumanitarian / MonstrousCannibalism: Early on, [[OurOgresAreHungrier a sort of ogre-like creature]] that [[LarynxDissonance sounds like a bear]] kills another creature and eats it. Neither could really be called human, but both seem more or less sentient.
* IndustrializedEvil: The world is just one gigantic industrialized hellscape.
* MadGod: Implied by the title. Tippett's explanation in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlemDMFWNbQ this interview]] is that the Mad God is the ideas that drive the project, and that he is the "abbot" of the god.
* MedicalHorror: The larva inside the Assassin is taken through a nightmare version of a maternity ward, ending with it [[spoiler:being offered to an Alchemist in a BlackCloak and an old plague doctor mask, who grinds it into dust for some inscrutable purpose]].
* MindScrew: Phil made this series specifically because he wanted a break from conventional narrative cinema, and having to squeeze his ideas into a coherent narrative. Since this project is so much more freeform, he can really go wherever his ideas take him. That's the MadGod of the title.
* {{Minimalism}}: There's no real structure to the plot, no dialogue, no explicit exposition. It's just a march through a nightmarish world. All {{Worldbuilding}} and characterization is purely visual. All interpretations of what is happening are your own.
* TheMovie: On the commentary track, Tippett says his goal was to create the Creator/HieronymusBosch movie.
* NoAntagonist: It's a world of horrific monsters, but few of them really pay the "protagonist" any mind and most are just trying to get by in a ruined world. Even the twisted scientists who capture the Assassin can be interpreted as a NecessarilyEvil since [[spoiler:they harvest his remains to create new universes.]]
* NoNameGiven: Everybody, since there's no dialogue. Supplementary material [[EverybodyCallsHimBarkeep refers to them only by titles]], such as the protagonist being named the Assassin.
* OffTheShelfFX: Some of the sets are made of miniature buildings that Phil buys at his local hardware store. Others are old leftover props from movies he's worked on, being re-purposed for use here. See ShoutOut below.
* OurMonstersAreWeird: Most of the creatures in it are very hard to describe.
* PetTheDog: Very short-lived, [[spoiler: The "Mad Nurse" handles the baby delicately enough to calm the crying worm-baby, and she protectively steps back when the Alchemist first approaches her to take it. It resumes crying as soon as it leaves the Nurse's arms.]]
* PinballProtagonist: The Assassin is on his mission to deliver [[spoiler:the bomb]] behind enemy lines, that's it. He makes no effort to impact the strange, ruined world he passes through.
* PlagueDoctor: The Alchemist is a humanoid figure in a black plague doctor mask, robe, and hat.
* PunchClockVillain: The "Mad Nurse" doesn't seem comfortable with her macabre work. She's clearly reluctant to hand over the crying baby worm to the Alchemist.
* RogerRabbitEffect: Although StopMotion is the preferred medium of the series, there's a bit of live action here and there, such as a pair of tiny gnomes in Part 1 and the terrified nurse in Part 3. In the feature film version, we are introduced to The Last Man (played by Creator/AlexCox!) and 2 long haired blonde anarchists.
* SceneryGorn: All throughout. Every piece of destroyed landscape, buildings, worlds, lands and such have been lovingly crafted and created in exquisite detail.
* ServantRace: The "Shit-Men" are small golems created out of well...shit, whose only purpose is to toil endlessly at a monstrous factory with no regard for their own well-being.
* ShoutOut:
** A statue of the {{cyclops}} from ''Film/The7thVoyageOfSinbad'' appears in the first episode, along with what seems to be [=ED-209=] from ''Film/RoboCop1987''. The latter may be more of a CreatorThumbprint, since ED was very much Tippett's own creation, while the cyclops is more of a conventional homage to stop motion legend Creator/RayHarryhausen. On the audio commentary, Tippett talks about seeing that cyclops as one of the defining moments of his life.
** The black monoliths are straight out of ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey''.
* SilenceIsGolden: There is no dialogue in the entire film, [[spoiler: except for one instance where a mushroom-like creature shouts "Oh No!"]]
* SoundtrackDissonance: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VMtQT8zJag This is what plays]] in the end credits. Sounds pretty cheery after something so horrific huh?
* TheStinger: [[spoiler:A series of explosions are seen and heard by the Assassin as he closes his eyes in peace]].
* SurrealHorror: Often characterized as such, although Tippett is insistent that it doesn't quite fit the definition of surrealism, since it does tell a contiguous story - albeit a very opaque one.
* TalkingPoo: Well, not talking, but one sequence features a city where all the labour is done by what appear to be {{golem}}s made out of poop. [[AllThereInTheManual Supplementary material]] refers to them as "Shit-Men".
* TowerOfBabel: The film opens with the tower being engulfed and destroyed by a divine storm.
* UnseenEvil: The ''thing'' that runs the Shit-Men's factory. All we see are close-ups of it's scaly features on several screens, babbling orders in a nonsensical language that sounds like baby-talk.
* UnspecifiedApocalypse: The world is clearly post-apocalyptic, what could ''possibly'' render a world like this is as unexplained as everything else.
* TheWeirdSisters: The Last Man consults three crones who appear to share one eye, receiving the maps that guide the Assassins.
* WarIsHell: A possible interpretation of what the hell is going on; it's all representative of the hellish, self-perpetuating, pointless, industrialized, and dehumanizing nature of war and all of its myriad of aspects. As described by one reviewer, "In its abstract madness it presents the nightmare of what war does. Nobody is human. Only monsters exist".
----

It was eventually made into a feature length film using the first 3 episodes and 60% new footage, released in 2021 in film festivals. In 2022, it was released to streaming on the platform Shudder. Later that same year, it had a [=BluRay=] release, featuring a [[DVDCommentary commentary track]] from Tippett and Creator/GuillermoDelToro.

* WarIsHell: A possible interpretation of what the hell is going on; it's all representative of the hellish, self-perpetuating, pointless, industrialized, and dehumanizing nature of war, and all it's myriad aspects. As described by one reviewer, "In its abstract madness it presents the nightmare of what war does. Nobody is human. Only monsters exist".

** Some ''Rhamphorynchus''-like creatures appear later on, which avert [[PteroSoarer the common mistakes in most portrayals of pterosaurs]], although they are still very weird and stylized, with jagged, elongated beaks that almost resemble a mosquito's proboscis, and feet that look like tree roots.

* {{Gorn}} Many examples. [[spoiler: Especially The Assassin's surgery]].

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/madgod_9.jpg]]

** A statue of the {{cyclops}} from ''Film/The7thVoyageOfSinbad'' appears in the first episode, along with what seems to be [=ED-209=] from ''Film/RoboCop''. The latter may be more of a CreatorThumbprint, since ED was very much Tippett's own creation, while the cyclops is more of a conventional homage to stop motion legend Creator/RayHarryhausen. On the audio commentary, Tippett talks about seeing that cyclops as one of the defining moments of his life.

* NoAntagonist: It's a world of horrific monsters, but few of them really pay the "protagonist" any mind and most are just trying to get by in a ruined world. Even the twisted scientists who capture the Assassin can be interpreted as a NecessaryEvil since [[spoiler:they harvest his remains to create new universes.]]

* RogerRabbitEffect: Although StopMotion is the preferred medium of the series, there's a bit of live action here and there, such as a pair of tiny gnomes in Part 1 and the terrified nurse in Part 3. In the feature film version, we are introduced to The Last Man and 2 long haired blonde anarchists.

It was eventually made into a feature length film using the first 3 episodes and 60% new footage, released in 2021 in film festivals. In 2022, it was release to streaming on the platform Shudder. Later that same year, it had a [=BluRay=] release, featuring a [[DVDCommentary commentary track]] from Tippett and Creator/GuillermoDelToro.

''[[http://watch.madgodmovie.com/ Mad God]]'' is a horror film that began life as an ongoing series of online videos, hence being categorized as a "Web Video" here. It was created by Phil Tippett, a StopMotion animator who has worked on ''Film/JurassicPark'', the original ''Franchise/StarWars'' trilogy, and ''Film/RoboCop'', among many others. It tells the story(?) of a mysterious [[GasMaskLongcoat gas-masked, coated]] figure, called The Assassin [[AllThereInTheManual in the paratext]], traveling through a nightmarish underworld.

* TheMovie: On the commentary track, Tippett says his goal was to create the Creator/HieronymusBosch movie.

* ShoutOut: A statue of the {{cyclops}} from ''Film/The7thVoyageOfSinbad'' appears in the first episode, along with what seems to be [=ED-209=] from ''Film/RoboCop''. The latter may be more of a CreatorThumbprint, since ED was very much Tippett's own creation, while the cyclops is more of a conventional homage to stop motion legend Creator/RayHarryhausen. On the audio commentary, Tippett talks about seeing that cyclops as one of the defining moments of his life.

It was eventually made into a feature length film using the first 3 episodes and 60% new footage, released in the 2021 in film festivals. In 2022, it was release to streaming on the platform Shudder. Later that same year, it had a [=BluRay=] release, featuring a [[DVDCommentary commentary track]] from Tippett and Creator/GuillermoDelToro.

* PlagueDoctor: The Alchemist is a humanoid figure in a black Plague doctor mask, robe, and hat.