Phil Tippett's wildly ambitious film Mad God has been turning heads, becoming Shudder's most-watched 2022 premiere. The supervisor behind some of Star Wars and Jurassic Park's most famous creatures conceived the movie while working on Robocop 2 in 1990, but gave up on the project after believing stop-motion to be extinct. After reviving the film in 2010, Tippett took to Kickstarter to fund it and completed production during the pandemic. Since its debut at several prestigious film festivals, critics have hailed Tippett's Mad God movie as beautiful, strange, and awe-inspiring.
One week after IFC Midnight's successful showing of the film at New York and Los Angeles theaters, Tippett's magnum opus appeared on specialty horror service Shudder, becoming the streamer's most-watched premiere of 2022. Shudder General Manager Craig Engler says, "Shudder is honored to be the exclusive home for [Phil Tippett's] cinematic masterpiece, and we're delighted to see Mad God enthusiastically embraced by our members." Tippett reciprocates Engler's remarks, calling the company the perfect partner for him and his film.
Early Mad God footage had a big part to play in the project's success, displaying the twisted genius behind the movie's grotesque stop-motion creatures and apocalyptic setting. After potential viewers and genre fans recognized the film as a three-decade-long endeavor and witnessed its depravity in the trailer, word of mouth carried it the rest of the way. Furthermore, critics have hailed Mad God as one of the best horror films of the year, boasting a 91% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, so its triumph at Shudder should come as no surprise.
Source: Shudder