All language subtitles for The.Last.Drive-In.With.Joe.Bob.Briggs.S20E15.Mad.God.720p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-BFM_track3_[eng]

-♪ I've been thinking about... ♪
[Glass squeaking]

♪ And the way it used to sway ♪
[Glass clinks]

♪ When the mattress springs
were squealing ♪

[Thud]
♪ And the roaches ran away ♪

[Bottle cap pops]
♪ Gone to Memphis ♪

-Well, the good thing
is that modern science

has a medication
for any condition...

[Sniffs]
...except stupid.

[Glasses clink in distance]

♪♪

-♪ Hey, everybody,
have you heard the news? ♪

♪ Joe Bob is back in town ♪

♪ He's over at the drive-in,
hanging around ♪

♪ Watching crazy movies,
so come on down ♪

♪ To Joe Bob's
"Last Drive-In" show ♪

♪ Blood, beasties,
boobies, and more ♪

♪ Joe Bob's
"Last Drive-In" show ♪

♪ It's a spooky good time
with monsters and ghosts ♪

♪ Crazy, kooky fun with
the world's greatest host ♪

♪ Joe Bob's
"Last Drive-In" show ♪

♪ It's gonna be legendary ♪

♪ Joe Bob's
"Last Drive-In" show ♪

♪ It's gonna be very scary ♪

♪ Joe Bob's
"Last Drive-In" show ♪

♪ Let's go ♪

♪♪

[TV static]

-Darcy, I would like
to invite you

to go with me on a journey.

-I'm packed and ready to go.

-A journey into a universe
of dire despair

and random violence.

-I know.

-What do you know?
I have about 30 more adjectives

I'm gonna lay on you
before we do this.

-We're showing "Mad God"
tonight.

I know.
-You know, if you ask people

the question,
"What is 'Mad God' about?"

Well, I'm gonna ask you,
what is "Mad God" about?

-I know it took
30 years to make.

-Exactly.
That's what everybody says.

30 years in the making.
But what's it about?

-I honestly don't know.

-Well, if you ask this question
at a film festival,

there will be critics there
stretching for ways

to pigeonhole it, you know?

But none of their descriptions
make any sense, you know?

"Oh, yeah, Joe Bob,

it's a Kafkaesque,
biomechanical,

steampunk fever dream,
you know."

Fuck you.
-[Laughs]

-So it's just --
it's indescribable.

-Well, what's the -- all right,
what's the plot?

-It has no plot.

-It has a plot, it has a plot.

I think it's just a plot
you can't really follow...

-[Laughs]

-...because it changes
so quickly

and in such bizarre ways.

But, uh --
All right, I'll tell you what.

I'm gonna read some words
that have been used

by professional critics...
-Okay.

-...to describe "Mad God."

And you give me a yay or nay,

according to whether you agree
with these words or not.

-Let's do it.
-And by the way,

this is, um, animation night
on the "Last Drive-in."

We've never done this before,
and we're starting off

with the stop-motion animation
feature, "Mad God."

-You're welcome.
-How many feature-length movies

have there been that
are not just animated,

but stop-motion animated,
feature-length?

-Wow. Honestly, not that many.

I really love
"Nightmare Before Christmas."

-"Nightmare Before Christmas."

Supposedly that
Guillermo del Toro version

of "Pinocchio" is stop-motion.

But is it really?
Is that really pure stop motion?

-I don't think so.

I think it's a combo
of stop motion and CGI.

-So anyway, it's animation
night on the "Last Drive-in"

featuring Darcy the Mail Girl
as your conduit

and your sounding board
and your tutor

and your counselor here to field
any and all questions

about stop-motion animation.

And you know what?
Go ahead and put up a poll --

put up a poll on social.
-You love your polls, man.

-What's the greatest
stop-motion feature ever made?

Because I think there
are about 15 of them,

like "Wallace and Gromit."

That was real stop motion,
right?

-Yeah, I think it was.

Oh, and
"James and the Giant Peach."

My son used to watch that on --
on repeat like months at a time.

-Really?
-Yeah.

-And that was stop motion?
-Yeah, it is.

-"James and the Giant Peach"?
-Yeah.

-All right.
So send Darcy your e-mails,

your tweets, your Instas,
your stop-motion shorts

that you made in your attic
when you were 10 years old.

-Yes, please.
-And then our second movie

tonight is "Perfect Blue"...
-Yay!

-...the first film
of Satoshi Kon,

the Japanese animator
who many believe changed

the whole playing field
for animation

when he released
this film in 1997.

So we actually have tonight
two of what are considered

the most innovative
animation films

of the last half century,

and what do they have in common,
Darcy?

-I'm honestly not sure,

because one of them
has an actual story, so...

-I think horror is actually
what they have in common.

-Okay, fine. [Chuckles]
-But what they have in common

is that after watching
either of them,

you probably need a shower.
-Okay, fair.

-[Chuckles] So don't bother to
shower after watching "Mad God,"

'cause you're gonna need
to lather up

again after "Perfect Blue," so.

But for "Mad God",
we have something extra.

-Yes, we do.

-We have Phil Tippett --
is here.

-Yeah! Whoo!
-Phil Tippett is in the house.

The guy who did special effects
on the first three

"Star Wars" movies,

the guy who ran
the creatures crew

at Industrial Light and Magic
for many years,

the guy who did the dinosaurs
for "Jurassic Park."

-Amazing.
-How many Academy Awards

does Phil have?

-Two Oscars and six nominations.
-All right.

Pretty much the world's
leading authority on both --

actually on both
practical effects,

and he's
a practical effects guy,

but he's also an authority
on digital effects,

because he learned it.

And Phil is the guy who spent
30 years making "Mad God."

And so what we're gonna do

is we're gonna
bring him out here.

We're gonna strap him
to the chair,

and we're not
gonna let him go

until he tells us
the plot of "Mad God."

-Good plan.
-Okay.

Unfortunately,
there's no way to scare him,

because no matter
how you threaten him,

he can tell you something
grosser and more terrifying

than whatever you had in mind.
-[Chuckles]

-The guy creates, you know,
these vicious creatures

that if you put
one of these creatures

in a Chuck Norris movie,

every single kickboxer
in the film

would just say,
"Okay, that's it.

I quit. Run for the woods,"
you know, 'cause --

-It's true.

And if you see anything
resembling a hospital

or medical personnel,
prepare to be disgusted.

-That bothered even you,
those hospital scenes.

-Oh, no.
I love being disgusted.

-Oh. [Laughs]
-[Chuckles]

-As do many of our viewers.
-Yes.

-So, Darcy,
before I introduce the movie,

I still want to read some
of these words...

-Oh, yes.
-...that critics have used

to describe it,

and you tell me
if you disagree or not.

-All right, let's do it.

-Macabre.
-Yes.

-Grotesque.
-Definitely.

-Bizarre.

-Oh, yes, all of it's bizarre.

-Post-apocalyptic.

-Maybe? The movie is full
of apocalypses,

so I don't think you need
the "post" part of it.

-Okay, that's even better --
apocalyptic.

-There you go.

-A lawless world
of faceless drones

subjected to mindless cruelty.

-True, but it's definitely
more than that.

-A religion of nihilism?

-Yes.
-A purgatory full

of cosmic baby's dream logic

and hellish landscapes
populated with brutal killers.

-That's a good one, yes.

-A decimated world of
monstrous mutants ground up

by the machinery
of war and commerce.

-Well, yes, I guess. [Chuckles]

-A dystopian, apocalyptic,

alternate universe
of the infant sacrifice,

endless torture, and
sickening nastiness.

-Correct on all counts.

-A mesmerizing cornucopia
of madness.

-Maybe not mesmerizing, but yes.

-[Chuckles] Okay.
-[Chuckles]

-Um...

Dieselpunk
meets Eldritch Horror?

-I think so.

-I don't know what that means.
What does that mean?

-Well, Eldritch Horror
just means H.P. Lovecraft

and dieselpunk is like some
kind of sci-fi genre.

-So it means sci-fi
with old technology.

Is that...
-Maybe?

-...what they're going for?
All right.

Fuck you, dieselpunk.
-[Laughs]

-Phantasmagoric
abstract nightmare

with electrocuted brains
and totalitarian slave colonies

where gruesome creatures
mindlessly exterminate

Giacometti-like dwarf soldiers
made of human feces.

-Fuck you, dieselpunk.
-[Laughs]

Right?

Right? You know what I noticed
about all of these?

No verbs.
No verbs in their description.

It's just nouns so they can
tell you what things look like,

but not what happens.

That's why we have
a team of wranglers

ready to hog-tie Phil Tippett

until he tells us
what's going on.

So are you ready
to do this thing?

-Let the grossness begin.
-All right.

-The word "mad" in "Mad God"
has two meanings.

He's an angry god,
and he's a crazy god.

And I think what may be going
on here is that god is so insane

that somebody,
or maybe god himself,

sends an assassin down
to the depths of hell

to blow up everything
so the world can start over.

But meanwhile, a lot of stuff
happens in between,

and most of it is weird
and demented and violent

and complicated and nightmarish
and bleak

and gruesome and eerie.

And after a few minutes,

you actually forget
you're watching animation.

That's the good thing
about this.

-[Chuckles]
-You really do forget

you're watching animation.

But I think the best way
to describe it

is that it's the destruction
of the world,

followed by a descent into hell,

which looks a lot
like things we're familiar with.

And hell has no bottom.

It just goes deeper
and deeper and deeper

so that when the assassin
gets down

to where he thinks
he's at the bottom,

he gets killed and recycled --
doesn't he?

-Probably.
-I-I think.

-[Chuckles]
-And he gives birth, I think,

right, to a baby that gets
ground up by a holy surgeon

so he can create some kind
of cosmic transformation

of the universe.

And I should have
asked you in advance,

but what kind of popcorn
do you recommend, Darcy?

If you know what I mean.
-[Laughs]

-I think you do.
-Shrooms.

-Mushrooms?
-Yes.

-Really? See,
I was thinking LSD.

Uh, thi-- this is that freaky.

-That could be
a little dangerous.

-Okay. As far as legal
mind-altering substances --

we do this sometimes --

we are recommending
Robbers Roost,

very light whiskey from Utah.

And in the progressive states,
we recommend a high CBD,

low THC strain, okay?

We're recommending Susie Q.

from Northern Roots Nursery
in Morrisville, Vermont.

So we think either choice
will bring your brain cells

into that perfect balance

where you still can't
understand what's going on,

but you will believe that
you understand what's going on.

All right?

One thing I can say
for sure about "Mad God"

is that it's not like
any other movie.

It's its own genre.

And it might be the most
brilliant work of art

since Picasso painted
"Weeping Woman" in 1937.

And then again, it might be
clinical insanity

at 24 frames a second.

So you'll see what I mean as I
go through the drive-in totals.

We have 138 dead bodies,
one Tower of Babel destruction,

Leviticus deity cursing,
two eyeball closeups,

one giant cervix,

one eye poked out,

multiple shit-shoveling,

space-cannon violence,

canyon of stone idols,

calcified worms, hell...

[Laughter]

...pond of radioactive waste,
frozen stalactite people,

legless mummy-head
crawling creature,

groaning simian monster,

twitching behemoth
electrocution,

bloodsucking, fluidsucking,

organsucking,
deformed vicious salamander,

masturbating pocked
roadside-woman,

horned wolf-creatures,
skinny hypnotized

undead machine-people,

skeletal-creature chain gang

getting Nazi-style
brain injections.

Slave-zombie altar building,
electronic-eye satellite,

giant-penis assembly line,

pit of fire, predatory-dinosaur

weakling stomping,

skeletal zombies,

mutant-animal electrocution,

bullwhip-wielding
Lash LaRue mutants

slicing zombies in half,

monster-baby totalitarianism,

one spaceship-adventuring
gas-mask-wearing assassin

with a diving bell,

audience participation surgery,

bloody body-slicing,

chest cavity ripping
with organ extraction,

giant-shovel-creature brawling
with boil-faced dwarf

brain electrocution
and aneurysm vomit...

-Wow.
-...body-part spewing,

sea of skulls on crosses,

laser-blast warzone
with mushroom cloud,

intestine extraction,
stabbing, boot crushing,

worm slithering,

baling-wire humanoids
having tea,

plump nekkid stag-reel porn,

body-part sweeping,
baby eating,

skull drilling,

ceremonial baby-smashing
with a giant waffle iron,

microscopic virus
made of glowing jelly,

painful handjob
on a minotaur,

rusty motorcycle-chase through
the land of broken temples,

ruined deserts,
s-steaming craters,

baby-guts gold-dust explosion

causing mountains
to move, meteors to explode,

and flying saucers to take off
over a deep inferno

where amoebas and floating
bubbles and pools of liquid

and single-celled organisms
and galaxies of stars

and fetuses and golden bubbles

cause giant skyscrapers
to be quickly built,

with radio antennas on top
of the tallest building...

-Wow.
-...graveyard skeletons

run through with sticks,

weird birds in thunderstorms,

zombie-capping fluid creature,
military wall-battering,

graffiti-artist sniper fire,

skeleton-head debris rain,

bubbles gurgling
on the surface of a planet

that may be the face of a fetus
inside a test tube,

causing clocks to run backward
in a toy garden,

followed by a cuckoo
announcing the end of the world

and the establishment
of a new totalitarian cult --

I think...
[Laughter]

...gnarled-crone weaving,

gratuitous orchestral fanfare,
random ruins,

leg-stump clever fu,

parchment map fu,
giant hacksaw fu,

steamroller fu,

primeval forest fu,
intravenous fu,

malpractice fu,

Nosferatu fu,

tarantula fu,

"Drive-in" Academy Award
nominations for --

Alex Cox,

as the man with insanely
long fingernails and toenails

who reminds us that at least
one human being is still alive,

and Phil Tippett,
the writer, director

and mad man behind "Mad God."

Four stars.
Joe Bob says, "Check it out."

-Wow. Dear.
-Okay.

-Yes, please clap.
That was amazing.

-Weirdest "Drive-in" totals
ever.

-You did an amazing job
on that.

-Well, you gotta try, right?

'Cause we're in the business
of describing things,

analyzing how they work.

You have to make an attempt.

You know how bad it got, though.

I'm reading all these reviews
of the movie

from when it premiered
at the Locarno Film Festival

in Switzerland,

and there were not one but two
words in the descriptions

that I had never heard
before in my life.

You know, I'm an English major,
I'm a writer.

I've got somewhat
of a vocabulary.

[Laughter]
Here are these words

that make me feel like
I'm in fourth grade.

I'm looking up new words in
the "Merriam-Webster," you know?

So anyway,

one of the words I should --
should have known this word.

One of the words was "spolia."

And spolia is where you take
the stones from a building

that's been torn down and you
use it for a new building.

So that's a great word
in two senses,

'cause first of all, the movie
is constantly doing that.

Things are being ripped apart

and then they're being reborn
in some new form.

And secondly, it's what
Phil Tippett is doing.

He's taking old technology,
meaning stop-motion animation,

and he's creating something
entirely new out of it.

So we're about to watch
some cool spolia.

And then the second word
was, um,

caliginous.

Caliginous.

I had to go to the OED
for that one,

because the normal dictionaries
just say "misty,"

"dim," "obscure," "dark."

So it's got to be
more than that.

I mean, when you have a word
that rare and that specific,

it means you're -- you're --
you're going to that word,

'cause misty, dim,
obscure, dark --

they don't quite cut it, right?

So the OED cites
seven usages of "caliginous"

since -- since the year 1550.

And if you put them all together

and you figure out
what they're all aiming at,

it's the atmosphere of a cave.

You're going into a cave

where it's damp and slippery
and the light is bad,

and there's something
new around every corner.

And it's a little strange
and a little mysterious

and a little scary --
it's caliginous.

So this movie
is caliginous as fuck.

Is that too much information?

Now... [Laughs]

-What? [Laughs]

-Caliginous should not
be confused with "callipygous",

because the first --
the first time I typed it in --

you know,
the OED is online now --

so the first time I typed it in,

I guess I got a letter wrong
or something.

So the definition
of callipygous came up,

and I got confused
for a minute,

because that definition
is having beautiful buttocks.

-[Laughs]
-So really specific word...

-Yes.
-...you know what I mean?

It's a useful word.

Not a whole lot of chances
to use it in one lifetime.

But, you know, in fact, I missed
my chance to say callipygous

when you wore
the applause panties

on the Elvira show.
-Aw.

-I could have said, "You're such
a callipygous mail girl,"

you know?
-[Laughs]

-But see, now it's too late,

'cause now
that would be obnoxious

sexual harassment if I said
to you...

-Aw, you can still say it.

-And still say it, really?

Very fucking callipygous, Darcy.

-Thank you.
-Callipygous as fuck.

-One time's probably good.

-Okay, yeah.

♪♪

[TV static]

♪♪

[Crowd cheering in distance]

♪♪

♪♪

[Thunder rumbling]

♪♪

[Crowd cheering and thunder
rumbling continues]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Choir singing]

♪♪

♪♪

[Choir singing continues]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Choir singing continues]

♪♪

♪♪

[Zapping]

[Thunder rumbling in distance]

♪♪

[Siren blaring in distance]

♪♪

♪♪

[Clunking]

[Whirring]

[Beep]

[Clanking]

[Blaring continues]

[Whirring]

♪♪

[Whirring]

[Blaring continues]

♪♪

[Firing]

[Whirring and firing continue]

[Explosions]

[Gas gushes]

[Buttons click]

[Rotating knobs]

[Cage rattling in distance]

[Explosions]

[Siren blaring in background]

[Thunder rumbles]

[Lever squeaks, sparks]

[Thunder rumbling]

[Siren blaring in distance ]

♪♪

♪♪

[Shrieking in distance]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Bird chirping]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Mud falling]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Thud]

[Door squeaks]

♪♪

[Footfalls]

[Indistinct conversation
in distance]

♪♪

[Indistinct conversation
continues]

♪♪

[Dwarves scream]

[Rustling]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Fire crackling]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Goggles click]

[Piano playing, knife stabbing]

[Woman chuckling and groaning]

[Playing piano]

[Stabbing continues]

[Woman groaning and laughing]

[Bell ringing]

[Grunting]

[Ringing continues]

[Chittering in distance]

♪♪

[Creature shrieking]

[Thud]

[Shrieking continues]

[Growling in distance]

[Growling]

[Footfalls]

♪♪

-[Sighs]

[Creature growls]

[Man grunting]

[Monster growling]

[Clattering]

[Vocalizing, monster growling]

[Thud]

♪♪

[Monster roars]

[Man shrieks,
monster growls, roars]

[Cleaver thudding,
monster growling]

[Cleaver thuds]

[Rustling]

♪♪

[Rocks shift]

[Glove squeaks]

[Rocks shift]

[Rocks clattering]

[Thud]

♪♪

[Whirring]

[Footfalls]

[Creaking]

-[Grunting, gargling]

[Water rippling]

[Chittering, tapping]

[Clacking]

[Arm creaking]

[Head creaks]

[Monkey grunting in background]

[Shrieks, door shuts]

♪♪

[Thunder rumbling]

[Fire crackling in background]

♪♪

[Footfalls]

♪♪

[Door creaks]

[Electric zapping,
liquid sloshing in background]

♪♪

[Zapping and sloshing continues]

♪♪

[Zapping and sloshing continues]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Buzzer rings]

[Whirring]

[Splashing]

♪♪

♪♪

[Machinery pumping]

♪♪

[Inflating]

[Whirring]

[Inflating continues]

[Pumping continues]

[Inflating]

♪♪

[Pumping continues]

[Machinery hissing and thumping]

♪♪

[Whirring and clanking in
background]

[Pumping continues]

[Machinery clanking, whirring]

♪♪

[Machinery hissing, clanking,
whirring]

♪♪

[Machine squealing in distance]

♪♪

[Squealing and thudding]

[Whirring]

[Metal clinking]

[Whirring]

♪♪

[Whirring]

♪♪

[Train chugging]

[Clanking]

[Sizzling]

[Thump]

[Sizzling]

[Thump]

[Man screams]

[Whirring and squeaking]

[Rakes clattering,
bodies squishing]

[Object dragging in distance]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Rocking]

[Indistinct speech]

[Squeaks, whirring]

[Machine whirring,
pulsating tone]

[Whooshing]

♪♪

[Pulley squeaking]

[Machinery whirring]

♪♪

[Splashing]

[Whirring, squeaking continue]

[Sploshing, plop]

[Whirring]

[Clunk]

[Rocking]

♪♪

[Thumping]

[Thud]

[Dust rustling]

♪♪

[Whirring and squeaking
in distance]

♪♪

♪♪

[Chugging]

♪♪

♪♪

[Spears slashing]

[Board creaking]

[Growling]

[Whirring]

[Train chugging in distance]

[Thumping]

[Chugging]

[Fire roaring]

♪♪

[Thump]

[Whooshing]

[Thump]

[Whirring in distance]

[Hatch creaking]

[Splattering]

[Growling]

[Splishing]

[Whirring]

[Baby babbling on speaker]

[Baby giggling on speaker]

[Whirring]

[Baby babbling on speaker]

[Growling]

[Whip cracking]

[Baby babbling on speaker in
background]

[Growling]

[Whip cracking]

[Baby babbling on speaker]

[Growling]

[Baby babbling on speaker in
background]

[Thump]

[Baby babbling on speaker in
background]

[Zapping]

[Baby babbling on speaker in
background]

[Fire crackling]

[Babbling]

♪♪

[Babbling continues]

♪♪

♪♪

[Baby blowing a raspberry on
speaker]

[Baby babbling on speaker in
background]

[Rustling]

[Baby babbling on speaker in
background]

[Hatch creaking]

[Baby babbling on speaker in
background]

♪♪

[Monster grunting in distance]

[Baby babbling on speaker in
background]

[Growling]

[Thudding]

[Baby babbling on speaker in
background]

[Growling]

[Stomping in distance]

[Hatch creaking]

[TV static]

-Okay, well, I guess
they won't be featuring

this movie on a double feature
with "Snow White"

at this year's
animation festival.

But the sounds, by the way,

those squishies
when the cute little gnomes

get mindlessly stomped
into extinction,

or the monotonous sounds
from the demonic factory

where all
the identical, faceless,

brainless workers
get electrocuted

or ground into dust,
the clanking of the chains,

the machinery,
the weird baby sounds,

the atmosphere of that world
is courtesy

of one of the greatest
sound designers in the business,

Richard Beggs, who won
the Academy Award

for "Apocalypse Now,"

still does all
of Sofia Coppola's movies.

Um, but the images themselves,
the creatures,

the hellish world
under the Earth,

those all belong to the mind
of Phil Tippett,

who was the king
of special effects

back in the golden age
of special effects,

working on the first
three "Star Wars" movies,

designing things like
the battling creature chess game

played by Chewbacca and R2-D2
and the cantina scene.

And then he designed and
animated the robots in "RoboCop"

and the dinosaurs
in "Jurassic Park"

and the aliens
and "Starship Troopers"

and many other movies
during the years

when he ran the show at, uh,
Industrial Light and Magic.

And all that time,
little did we know,

Phil was dreaming of a world
where god causes everyone to eat

the flesh
of their sons and daughters

and have their carcasses
heaped upon lifeless idols

in a desolate, ruined land.

So I can't do this alone,
because I only have a vague idea

of everything that's going on
in this movie.

So let's bring out the man
now to explain it for us,

the special effects legend,
the number-one guy under Lucas.

How are you doing, Phil?
-Good. Good evening.

[Crowd cheering]
-Uh...

You were the number-one guy
under Lucas,

number-one guy
under Spielberg,

then the number-one guy
under Verhoeven.

And you say you learned
the most from Verhoeven?

-We were most sympathetic
in that we both

more come from,
like, a fine-art perspective

as opposed to, you know,
George and Steven

are very commercial, you know,

they're -- they're very careful
of their empires

and being able to build,
you know, uh, momentum,

you know, financially, so, uh.

But Paul doesn't like that
kind of, uh, baggage.

-So he's more a "What the fuck,
let's do this" guy?

-I mean, you ask Paul,
you know,

"Who do you make
your movies for?"

And he says,
"I make them for me,

you know,
and fuck everybody else."

-Yeah.
-But, you know, he hopes

they make money.

-Yeah.
-But, um, uh...

-Well, he's done okay
with that, actually.

-Yeah, sometimes.
I mean, "Starship" tanked,

you know, so it was like --
and producer Jon Davison said,

"Yeah, well, we made
an R-rated movie for kids, so."

[Laughs]
-Well, I mean, it developed

a good reputation later.

-It does, yeah.
-I mean, it is definitely

one of the favorites
of our audience, so --

-Yeah, I was at a dinner thing

that Daniel Ellsberg happened
to be there

and he said, "Phil,
that's the best political film

I've seen in the last 10 years."
-Really?

Daniel Ellsberg?
-Yeah.

-That's great.

You must love
the Dutch people, though,

because besides Paul Verhoeven,
you -- I've heard you say

that the biggest influence
on "Mad God"

is Hieronymus Bosch,

who was, of course the Dutch
painter who was the greatest --

I guess he was
the greatest creature builder

of the 15th century, right?

How did --
H-How did that happen?

-Uh, well, my dad was an artist,
and he had a library of books.

And he saw -- I mean,
since I was 5 years old,

I started drawing weird shit,

you know,
monsters and spaceships

and a lot of red Crayola
for blood, you know?

-Yeah.
-And, uh --

-At 5, you were
drawing the blood.

-I started doing that, you know.

-Yeah, okay.

-Crayolas at 5 or whatever,
and never stopped.

But he saw I was into
the monster thing and said,

"Maybe I'll take a look
at this."

And it was, like, probably
when I was around 10 years old,

you know, and my boi-oi-oing
eyes popped out of my head,

"You know, one day
if I ever make a movie,

I'm gonna do that," you know?

And I have a lot
of those, like, tropes.

-And so you had Hieronymus Bosch
in the back of your head

all that time?
-Yeah, absolutely.

-Did you notice, Phil,
that the triptychs

that Hieronymus Bosch
does are not just hell,

he also painted heaven in

"The Garden of Earthly
Delights."

You seem focused on hell.
-Uh...

Yeah. You know, and that's --
that's a weird thing.

You know, I'm not
a depressed guy.

You know, I --

-You're not a pessimist
about human nature?

I can see how you could
watch this movie and think so.

-I am misanthropic
definitely, you know.

But, you know,
you always have hope.

-I mean, I would say
Lucas and Spielberg

would say their movies
are uplifting

or they try to be uplifting.

I'm not sure about Verhoeven,
but this film,

"Mad God" is -- is grim.

It's grim.
-Really?

-You don't think it's grim?

-I -- I thought it was funny.
-[Laughs]

Well, it's funny --
it's funny-grim, you know, so --

-Yeah, it is.
I am not an intellectual.

I, you know, I generally
don't think very much.

You know, I let whatever come in

and process it through
my unconscious,

which was really my guide
for "Mad God."

And, uh...
-Okay.

-And during that 12-year period,

I dreamt prolifically.
I mean, like every single day,

I have these big binders
like that

and sometimes either like
eight or 10 pages

and, like, uh...
-And you remember

your whole dream
when you wake up?

-Yeah.
-Like a movie, you know,

I could see it.
-Yeah.

-And -- And then what happens
is you transcribe these things,

so you're interpreting
your dream.

And by the nature of,
you know, the interpretation,

it's different.

But i-it's the best
I could possibly do.

Every 10 or 12 dreams
I would go through,

there is, like, um, a statement
at the beginning

and then there's, like, kind of
a gray area in the middle.

And at the end there's --
there's some kind of

a resolution to the beginning.

-And it's --
-You had -- You had

three-act dreams.

-Exactly. You know --

-And then you turn the dream
into a sculpture or a character?

-No, I just left it alone.

And when the film ended,
so did my dreams.

-Whoa.
-They just -- It was only

for that finite period.
-Whoa.

-And, you know, other artists

have -- have had
a very similar experience

when they, like,
immerse themselves, like...

-Now, you're not talking
30 years, are you...

-No, no, no.
-...of having those dreams?

-No, it was --
-You're talking about

from the time
you started intensely

working on the film.
-Yeah. Yeah.

-You fell in love
with stop-motion animation

at a very young age, right?
-Yeah.

-The first --
The first time you saw it?

-Yeah, when I was 5,

you know, they were --
"King Kong" on TV.

That's my first memory on
a little black-and-white screen.

-Yeah, and you -- and you said,
"I want to do that"?

-No, I didn't know
what I was looking at.

You know, I just had no idea,
but that, you know,

kind of I spurned my interest
in dinosaurs as a kid.

And so I did a lot of research,

and it was really kind of
an amateur paleontologist.

I made some short films later
on after "Return of the Jedi,"

I took a year off

and made a couple
of dinosaur stop-motion films.

And so that -- that --
all that kind of made me,

"Oh, there's a filmmaker out
there that knows dinosaurs,

so maybe we'll hire you for
'Jurassic Park,'" you know, so.

-But you had actually
been mentored

by Ray Harryhausen, right?

-No, no, no. Ray, you know,

Ray was very secretive,
you know,

and if you asked him
how he did stuff, he was like --

But what was cool about him

was he had the persona
of a magician, you know,

And it's like, "I'm not gonna
tell you how I do the magic.

That's, you know,
you don't need to know that."

-So did he go to his grave

with nobody knowing
how he did his --

-Well, he wrote these books.

-Yeah.
-And if you asked him,

um, you know, a-a question,

he'd say, you know,
"It's in the book," you know.

And occasionally,
you'd ask him something,

"Well, how did you do it?"
And he'd go like,

"Hmm, I don't remember."
[Laughs]

-All right, all right.

Well, we'll get back to your
outside influences in a minute,

but right now I'm gonna take
a-a -- I'm gonna take a crack

at what's happening in the first
24 minutes of "Mad God."

Um, god is pissed.

Uh, he destroys the biggest
architectural project

of all time,
the Tower of Babel,

'cause he's an asshole,
and, um, he sends an assassin

down to the underworld
to blow everything up.

And on the assassin's journey,
he sees all kinds of monsters

and deformed creatures
mindlessly killing one another

and worshiping false idols.
And -- And by the way,

the only reason
I know he's an assassin, though,

is that he's called
the Assassin.

-Well, hold on there.
-Oh, you have a place where --

-Well, you know,
god is a metaphorical god.

-Yeah.
-And so it's not a he.

It's an it.
-Okay.

-It's a force, it's a thing.

And the assassin --

I never thought about
it having a sex at all.

I mean, for all I know, it could
have been filled with hot air.

You know, it's just a thing.

It's a guide.

It's -- It's my Virgil

that takes the audience,

you know, Dante into hell.

-But the Assassin, though,
is sent by god, right?

The -- The -- The it god.
-You know what?

I don't know jack shit.
-You don't know?

-No.
-You don't know

why the assassin --
-If I do know, I'm not saying.

But I-I-I literally --
-You don't know why the Assassin

is an assassin.

-Uh, I needed a name.
-Oh, okay.

-I mean, everything has a name.
-Okay.

-You know, I mean, I kept
everything kind of an oblique --

in an oblique area
of my mind, you know,

And, to me,
what the film was about --

-But he's definitely
carrying weapons,

and he's gonna
blow something up.

-He's got a -- you know --

-Did you know
he was carrying weapons

when you sent him down there?
-Uh...

-Did you know it was carrying
weapons when you sent it down?

-That's...yeah.

Well, you know,
when I shot it on 35,

you know, 30 years ago,
the first couple of shots,

I did the scene, uh, where,
you know, he goes into that lab

and there's the -- the monkey

and, you know,
some other things.

And there's a shot
that you see him

when when he comes down,
and it's a wide shot

and the camera's pulling back,
and he doesn't have a suitcase.

And I-I didn't see that until,
like, when we started

putting the thing together
later, I was like,

"Oh, God, I guess I --"

it wasn't
an idea yet, you know?

-Oh, okay.
-You know, I guess

I just figured
in the next shot, you know,

"This thing needs a prop.

What's the prop?"

Well, you know,
and then it could do --

it could function in a few ways.

You know, one puts them
on a mission.

Um, what -- what mission?

And you assume it's gonna be
to blow something up.

What's he gonna blow up?
Who -- Who knows, you know?

And then -- but then it also --

when he goes into
this land of suitcases,

it evokes, you know,
the Holocaust, you know,

and just, you know, people's
stuff that was just taken away

and thrown, like,
in the garbage.

So there were things like that
where I was looking for,

you know, images that evoked
something else,

maybe, kind of, sort of.
-Right.

Well, if you think anything
in the first 24 minutes

was disgusting, or if perhaps
you actually vomited

because of any image
in the first 24 minutes,

you should probably not watch
the rest of the movie,

because it gets worse, right,
Phil?

-Yeah. When I when we premiered
it at Locarno,

I sat at the back of the theater
with the composer, Dan Wool,

because we wanted to see
how many people walked out.

And we sat -- sat next
to this mother and father

and their two little
blond-haired boys, like 8

and 6, whatever, years old.

And, you know,
I told the mom, "You know,

I -- I wouldn't bring my kids
to see this movie."

And -- And they made it,
like, you know,

less than a minute into it.

And they got up
and were walking out.

Because it's animation,

they thought,
"Oh, it's gonna be Pixar."

And, um, and she was walking out
and she said, "You were right."

And then I said what
you said, "It gets worse."

[Laughter]

-Okay, roll the movie.

Um...

Back to Hades we go.

Is it Hades?
Are we in Hades?

-No, I don't -- I don't know.

-All right.
[Laughter]

You know, mad can be taken
in two ways.

Is he crazy mad or angry mad?

-A good point.

-You don't know. [Laughs]

All right. You're not Catholic?

-Well, no, no. [Scoffs]
-No, okay.

-I'm nothing.
-All right,

because I don't think they'd be
happy with you.

-I definitely wanted it to play

either way as a question,
you know.

-But there's so much
visual information

that that's why I'm asking you

these questions,
because it's like --

it's like -- it's overwhelming.

It -- It --
It overwhelms your senses.

-Yeah, well, that's,
you know, I'm --

I'm overwhelmed by life,

you know, there's no way
of getting around it.

-Okay. All right, well,
we're gonna figure it out.

♪♪

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[Squealing]

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distance]

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distance]

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[Man taking deep breaths]

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[Choking]

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[Thwack]

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[Baby crying continues]

[Ticking]

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[TV static]

-So, Phil, do you have

some nasty medical malpractice
suit in your past? [Laughs]

-No, but, you know,

when you're
in the doctor's office

and you're waiting for,
like, the cancer diagnosis,

and there's the clock
on the wall, it's hell.

-Yeah.
-That is really hell for me.

I mean --
-Oh, that makes a lot of sense.

You know, any time your story
goes anywhere near a hospital,

a clinic,
a surgical theater, and --

and -- and -- and I do mean
surgical theater.

You actually have a theater
where you have a studio audience

applauding as the Assassin's
skull is ripped open with saws.

-Yeah. And I call
that the rape scene.

-That's the rape scene?

-Yeah.
-Um...

And -- And -- And this is after
he gives birth.

He gives birth, right?

Does he give birth?

-No, he's raped first,
and then he's anesthetized

and then he's on the table.

-Okay. I've noticed
that the only time

anybody laughs or smiles
anywhere in the movie

is when they're watching intense
pain inflicted on somebody.

-Yeah. Yeah, uh, that's --
that's horrible to me.

-It is horrible.
-You know.

-It's your movie, Phil.
-Yeah.

Yeah. You know, it's just,
you know, God awful.

But on the other -- you know,

I have a very dark
sense of humor.

And -- And to me, i-it's like,
right on that line,

you know, like, when
the audience is laughing,

you -- there's this, you know,

kind of impetus
to -- to laugh along, you know?

I mean, it didn't exactly
work out that way.

-Okay.

So you started shooting
this movie in 1987.

-Yeah.
-What were you thinking

at the moment you shot
the first six minutes

of "Mad God"?

Why did you want to put
that six minutes on film?

-Uh, well, I had -- the idea
kind of came to me as a vision,

and that's pretty much
how I -- I work.

Like I was saying,
I just transcribe things.

I mean, I just saw
this thing and, um -- and --

and there's really no script.

There's -- There's, like,
a tome.

There's like 12 or 15 pages
of a tome that isn't the movie.

But it also describes this --
this descent.

The way I visualize it is like
there was --

there's, like, a-a kernel

or, like, you know,
a sperm and an egg

or something like that

or, like, uh, a piece of iron
and -- or a magnet.

And there's, like,
all these iron filaments

that are out here.

And then slowly, as I began
to understand the --

the, you know, process,

you know, the -- the iron
is drawn in and,

you know, th-the thought becomes
more complete, uh, to an extent.

Uh, but, you know, I-I actually,
like a lot of artists,

don't really know what I'm doing
until years later.

You know, I can -- I can look --
-And I'm trying to find

this story.
-Yeah.

-And it's like, you know,
Picasso,

you know, was asked
in an interview, you know,

wh-what he's looking for
in his paintings,

and he said, "I do not seek.

I find," you know,
and, like, a lot of art --

I mean, it's very different
from -- from a, you know,

conventional narrative film

that has -- that has the clear
beginning, middle, and an end.

Although this has a --
has a, you know, narrative

through-line in it,

but, um, it doesn't really
have nar-- you know.

-Well, you know, in -- in 1987,

you were already
a very successful guy.

You'd done some fabulous work
on the "Star Wars" movies.

You were the --
You were the big cheese

at Industrial Light and Magic,

and you did a couple
of "RoboCop" movies.

So what makes you think,
"Okay, here's my next move"?

Were you thinking,

"Here's what I would really
rather be doing, or, like,

here's my next move"?

-I'm always looking
for the next thing,

the next thing,
the next thing.

It's like, "Okay,
I'm sick of space aliens.

You know, I hope I don't
have to do that anymore.

What's next? It was like, "Oh, a
robot. Cool."

You know, a robot who's like --
Oh, enough robots already.

You know, I wonder
what I'm gonna do now?

Oh, a dinosaur," you know?

And then it's,
"Oh, you know, bugs."

You know, so I've been very
lucky that way, you know,

in my professional life,

you know, working
for other directors.

Um, and --
-But what was that like?

I mean, well, you're
gonna work every day

at Industrial Light and Magic.

Y-Y-You had to go
into an office, right?

At -- No?
-Well...

-You worked at home?
-No, no, no.

There's a-a place.

But it was like a stage,
or, you know,

I had a room
where I would build stuff

and then go shoot it
on the stage.

Um...
-Yeah.

-But, you know,
back in the day,

you know,
there wasn't anybody

that was doing
this kind of stuff, really.

So I didn't -- I'm --
I was always a gig worker.

I was never, you know, like,
when the job was done at ILM,

it was like, "Sayonara, suckers.

You know, I'm gonna --
I'm going away."

-Okay.
-"You just give me a call."

And so I didn't stress at all.

I just like it gave me the time

to work on my own stuff,
whatever that was.

I'll go and make
a dinosaur movie

and take, you know, six,
eight months off, whatever,

and wait for the phone to ring.

So, you know, it was
an ideal job to that extent.

-Okay. But you were known
for, uh, sculpting

and puppeteering and stop motion

and all these practical effects
forms of, uh, movie magic.

And then "Jurassic Park"
comes along.

You're the dinosaur guy.

But that's right at the moment
when the world is going to CGI,

right?
-Yeah.

-How did you make
that transition?

Because you were the
dinosaur guy on "Jurassic Park."

-My response was over-emotional.

You know, I just felt like --

because a lot of the CG guys
kind of treated you --

it was like the old
gunslinger thing, you know,

And they wanted to, you know,

kill the old gunslinger,
and "We're cool.

And we got --" you know,
it was like...

[Mumbling]
[Laughter]

It was like,
"That ain't no job for man."

-So when you say you were
over-emotional,

you mean you felt --

-Well, I felt like --
I felt like

the bomb bay doors
had opened, you know, and, um --

-You felt like
you were obsolete.

-Y-Yeah. Yeah, for, you know,
a few --

Well, I actually
got really sick.

I got pneumonia and had to be
in bed for a few weeks.

And, yeah, I-I-I took it
really hard, and...

-Wow.
-But then, you know,

Spielberg's a very, very
sweet guy,

you know, and he said,

"No, we really want you
on the show, you know,

because you know stuff."

So I was able to help him
and David kept going,

you know, like, "Eh, you don't
want to do that, you know.

What if you did this?
And here's a better dinosaur."

Crichton didn't know what
he was talking about, really.

-Why are the dinosaurs
in "Jurassic Park One"

better than the dinosaurs
in the sequels?

-So we are old-school,
you know,

and -- and we were able to bring
a lot of practical knowledge

to, you know, um, the movie.

And, you know, to use the --
the gunslinger metaphor I use

is like the, you know,
CG guys who's like,

you know, they go like, "Draw,"

and they go like...
[Imitating guns]

You know, like,
"Well, can you shoot?"

And they're like, "Well,
we don't have any bullets."

[Laughter]

-You know...

Well, anyway, they always say
that -- that "Mad God" --

while you're doing
"Jurassic Park,"

"Mad God's" still in your head,
you know?

So they always say "Mad God"
was, um, 30 years in the making.

But, I mean, it wasn't
really 30 years, was it?

I mean, it was on hold.
-Yeah.

I counted it as 30 years.

-You counted it as 30 years.
-Yeah. There was a --

-Was it on hold for 20 years
'cause you were so busy?

-It never went on hold.

And I, for the life of me,

cannot understand how -- this
thing haunted me, you know.

And so I would,
in the evenings, go home

and draw storyboards
or do designs.

You know, when I was on
location, if there was a break,

you know, I'd take the time off,
and I just kept doing this.

-But at some point, though,
you have to really start up

and gear up
and start making the movie.

And so what caused that?
Wa-W-Was there a moment?

-I started in earnest,
you know,

making it around
12 or 13 years ago, uh,

and I don't think I could have
made that movie

until, like, I was
really around 60 years old.

You know, I-I had to be old.
I had to be experienced.

-Because you did so much
reading and so much study.

-Yeah. No, I-I had -- well,
my -- my wife was

in the editorial department
of, um, "Amadeus,"

and so we'd go out to dinner
with Milos Forman and whatnot.

And there's a young --
-It was Milos Forman?

-Yeah.
-Yeah.

-And as a young filmmaker,

I'd ask him, you know,
for advice,

and he gave me the best advice
I ever got,

which was, you know,
the -- the license for me to do

"Mad God," which was -- "If you
want to take a good shit,

you have to eat well."
[Laughter]

-That was Milos Forman's motto?
-Yeah.

-It was like, the more time
you put into development,

you know, the better,
you know --

and then you soak it in.

I mean, as long as you can soak
the thing into your unconscious

so it becomes a part of you,
you know,

then you just know, you feel.

It's like having,

you know, a-a navigation,
an on-board navigation center.

-So all this time that you're
doing "Jurassic Park"

and "Starship Troopers"
and other projects,

it's -- it's always percolating
in your brain.

-Mm-hmm. Yeah.
-Okay.

Well, I want to ask you more
about your brain

at the next break.

But right now,
let's see where this goes,

because apparently
the Assassin, um...

he's toast at this point
in the movie.

His -- His -- His part
of the story --

-Eh, he's not done.
-No, he's not done?

-No, he carries on.
-It looks like he's --

-He carries on to the end
of the movie.

-Okay.
-You know,

and that's where
I was saying it's --

the movie, to me,
is about process, you know.

And, uh, although I got
this great line,

you know, when asked, you know,
what "Mad God's" about,

I got it from the producer,
Jon Davison.

And when asked, you know,
what's the movie about?

He would say, "Well, I would say
it's about 82 minutes."

[Laughter]

-Okay, roll the film. Go.

-The reboot -- so, uh, you know,
the period of the 12 years

when it got started up again.
I was archiving it at my studio

and, uh, some of the guys
that had grown up

watching the making
of "Star Wars" or "RoboCop"

and stuff like that, they wanted
to work with practical stuff.

You know, they wanted
to work with models.

-These are people in your studio
who want to do practical stuff?

-Yeah, but that ship had sailed.

And, uh, so they --
they had no choice

but to become computer artists.

And, you know, and so they were
looking over my shoulder

and going,
"What the...is that?"

And they thought it was
some kind of,

like, 1940s
Czechoslovakian thing.

-Your first six minutes?
-Yeah.

-They're looking
at your first six minutes,

and they're saying
it's a 1940 Czechoslovakian --

-They didn't know what it was.
And I said,

"Well, was this project that,
you know, I failed on,

and I had to put it to bed,"
you know.

And so a few of the guys
went like,

"Oh, can I, you know --
can we do a shot?"

And I had this --
the Assassin puppet, you know,

left over, 20 years old.

So I did some rebuilding on that
and gave it to them

and showed them, you know,
here's how you build a set

and here's how you light it
and blah, blah, blah.

And, uh, it's just like,
"Can we do another shot?

Can we do another shot?"

And then some other people
came on and like,

you know, it's like Tom Sawyer
and the picket fence thing,

you know?

And -- And then
I would give talks locally,

like at the
Pacific Film Archives,

and I'd get college students
and -- and high-school students,

you know.

"Oh, hey, can I work on
this thing?"

And I go, "Sure."

And so what I would do
during the week

was I would figure out
processes, you know, for them.

First you do this,
then you do that,

then you do this,
and then you show them.

And on the weekends, you know,
I could get like, you know,

10, 12, 15, you know, people to
do a lot of the heavy lifting,

because there was no way that
movie was gonna get done,

you know, because, well,
the way I wanted to get it done

without a lot of man hours
attached to it.

And there was one -- one scene
where the Assassin

is driving through these
mountains o-of dead people.

And that took like I think
there were four women on that,

three or four women
on Saturdays,

you know,
for like six, eight hours.

It took three years
to -- to build that set.

-Wow. To do how
many seconds of footage?

-One 1,000,
two 1,000, three, 1,000,

four, yeah.
-Four seconds of footage?

-Yeah, yeah.
-It took three years?

-Yeah.
-Wow. That's like --

So obviously you're not moving
the thing one --

one frame at a time yourself.
You've got to, uh, you know --

-Uh, no, well, I was --

-You gotta have
an army to do this film.

-[Scoffs] Nah.

Uh.
-Well, I mean, the --

the skilled people
were from my studio,

and there were no more
than half a dozen or eight,

you know, that would
put in the weekends

and sometimes after work.

And -- And the -- the, uh,
new recruits was kind of

like, eh, giving razor blades
to 4-year-olds,

you know, because we have
like tools that can kill you.

-These are like local
art students and --

-Not even art students,
you know.

-Just people that wanted
to be involved with the film?

-Yeah, Yeah. They'd never, you
know, worked on a movie before.

-So you could
just show up and say,

"I want to work on it,"
and they say, "Okay, well,

the dead people's --
the four second

dead people set is over there."?
-Yeah, yeah. And --

-Your job is putting one more --
-And so, the way I paid them

was there's
a Mexican restaurant,

Juan's, that we always go to.

It's kind of an institution.

So I buy lunch, you know,
every Saturday,

and that's how I pay them.
-Okay.

[Wind howling]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Vocalizing]

[Ululating]

[Vocalization continues]

[Ululating]

[Vocalization continues
in background]

[Footfalls]

[Rattling]

[Man humming]

[Man grunting]

[Sliding]

[Grunts]

[Rattling]

[Sliding]

-[Grunts]

[Grunting]

[Beads clinking]
Hmm.

[Grunting]

Uh. Ah!

[Hanger rattling]

[Man humming]

Huh?

[Rustling]

Huh.

Uh-huh.

[Rustling]

[Slurping]

[Rustling]

[Rings]

[Rustling]

Mm-mm!

Ah!

[Inhales deeply]

Ah!

Uh, uh, uh, uh.

Uh, eh, eh, eh, uh.

Eh, eh, uh.

Uh.

Eh.

Hmm!

[Inhales deeply, exhales]

[Popping]

[Humming]

[Popping continues]

[Humming continues]

♪♪

♪♪

[Bang]

[Creaking]

[Grunts]

[Whirring]

[Splashing]

[Buzzing]

[Squeaking]

[Door creaking open]

[Grunts]
[Door slams shut]

[Button clicks]
[Zapping]

[Buzzing]

[Grunts]
[Buzzing stops]

[Knobs rotating]

[Whirring]

[Sighing]

[Knobs rotating]

Mm.

[Device creaking]

[Grunting]

Hmm?

[Beeping and clicking]

Huh.

[Beeping and clicking]

[Grunting]

[Wind howling]

[Rattling]

-[Indistinct recorded voice
memo on oscillator]

-Hmm?

[Whirring]

[Morse S.O.S. beeping]

[Tapping]
-Uh.

Eh. Uh, uh, uh.
[Grunts]

[Morse S.O.S. beeping
continues ]

[Tapping]

[Inhales deeply]

[Wind howling]
[Man humming]

♪♪

♪♪

[Man sighing]

[Whirring]

[Thud]

[Squeaking]

[Hissing]
[Creaking]

[Thumping]

[Radar beeping in background]

[Rustling]

[Thumping]

[Clunking]

[Clattering]

[Slams]
[Hissing]

[Whirring]

[Footfalls]

♪♪

[Footfalls continue]

♪♪

[Squishing]

[Thuds]

♪♪

[Zapping, screaming]

[Whirring]

[Clunking]

[Tapping]

[Kicking]

[Engine stalling]

[Engine whirring]

♪♪

[Engine whirring continues]

♪♪

[Creature growling]

[Motorcycle engine whirring]

[Creatures squawking, moaning]

[Bellowing]

[Engine revving]

[Sputtering]

[Inhales deeply]

[Rotating handlebar]

[Banging]

[Rattling in distance]

[Click]

[Thwack]

[Thump]

[Door slams]

[Rustling]

[Tapping]

[Rustling]

[Key clicking in ignition]

[Sparking, engine sputtering]

[Engine starting]

[Channels changing on radio]

[Instrumental music
plays on radio]

[Banging]
[Radio goes silent]

[Clunk]

[Whirring]
[Thudding]

[Clunking]

[Engine whirring]

♪♪

♪♪

[Whirring continues]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Instrumental music
playing on radio]

[Brakes screeching]

[Banging]

[Engine whirring]

♪♪

♪♪

[Dragon squawking]
[Thunder rumbling]

[Dragon screeching]

[Dragon screeches]
[Thunder rumbling]

[Thunder crackling]

[Dragon squawking in distance]

[Engine whirring]

♪♪

[Vehicle thumping]

♪♪

[Whirring continues]

♪♪

[Tinkling]

[Engine whirring]

[Vehicle thuds]

[Brakes screeching]

[Crash!]

[Breathing heavily]

♪♪

♪♪

[Engine whirring]

[Insects chirping in distance]

[Whirring continues]

[Explosion in distance]

[Explosions]

[Weapons firing]

[Explosions and firing]

[Engine whirring]

[Explosions and firing continue]

[Tires screeching]
[Explosions]

[Firing and explosions]

[Metal creaking]

[Thwack!]

[Firing]

[Explosion]

[Clunking]

[Firing and explosions]

[Engine whirring]

[Firing and explosions continue]

[Squeaking]

♪♪

[Engine whirring]

[Explosions]

[Firing and explosions]

♪♪

♪♪

[Engine whirring]

♪♪

[Explosions in distance]

♪♪

[Engine whirring]

♪♪

♪♪

[Whirring continues]

♪♪

♪♪

[Squawking in distance]

[Explosions in distance]

[Brakes screech]

[Ticking]

[Engine whirring]

[Brakes screech]
[Vehicle thuds]

[Channels overlapping on radio]

[Banging]
[Radio goes silent]

[Finger sliding
across the fabric]

[Engine whirring]

[Screeching]

♪♪

♪♪

[Loose stones crunching]

♪♪

[Thunder rumbling]

[Engine whirring continues]

♪♪

[Loose stones crunching]

♪♪

[Zapping]

♪♪

♪♪

[Indistinct chatter on radio]

♪♪

♪♪

[Static]

-Okay, so, Phil, we just saw
the death of the assassin

right after he gave birth
to a slime baby, or --

But now we have all these guys
who look exactly like him.

I guess the part
of an assassin family

or something, that somehow
down here in the part of hell,

that's not
the worst part of hell

because we're about to go down
several more levels.

So... And I'm not going
to try to describe it,

you know, beyond that.

But we just saw the only
human actor in the movie,

Alex Cox, as the Last Man.

And the only reason I know
he's the Last Man

is that I saw him
in the credits.

He was listed as the Last Man.
Otherwise, I wouldn't know that.

But why is he the last man?

-I just wanted to change
the tone and, you know,

insert a live human
into that section.

Why? I don't know. Honestly.

You know, it's --

You know, a lot of it
is to change things up.

You find, like,
when you're working on

a normal theatrical movie,

you have all this stuff
planned out.

But, you know, you get out,

say, like on "Troopers,"
out on a location

and you, like, shoot
the first scene and okay,

now you're going to go on
to the next scene.

It was like,

"You know, we've already done
[Laughs] this scene,

you know, with the bugs.

What can we do differently?"

You know, and to just --
And it's a composition.

The whole thing is a composition
that I'm finding along the way.

And it just occurred to me,
well, I had set this up already

because when The Assassin
goes in with the suitcase,

then you see all these
other suitcases surrounding him.

It's like, "What is that?"

And it was like, "Well, here's
the back story of it.

There's a lot of these guys
that Alex Cox sends down."

-Right. Alex Cox is the director
of "Repo Man," and --

-"Sid and Nancy".
-..."Sid and Nancy".

-Oh, he's worked on
a number of films.

In fact, you know,
last year he went down

and did something
in Mexico, and --

-Okay. How'd you get Alex
to do this? Is he a friend?

-We're friends, you know,
we go back --

Jon Davison, who was
the producer of "RoboCop"

and "Starship Troopers",
introduced us,

[Sniffles] and together,
we developed "Mars Attacks!"

And, you know,
Jon got the rights

to the bubble gum cards,

and the studio
didn't like it.

You know, they didn't think
it was funny,

and, you know, we did.

You know, it was --

The [Sniffles] Martians
were capitalists

and came down to earth
'cause Alex is a communist,

and came down to earth

and just started to,
you know, mine the earth

and got the earthlings
just to buy their shit.

Tons of shit that, you know...
-[Laughs]

-Yeah.
-Yeah. That would probably work.

-And so the studio went,
"We don't like it."

And so Jon was able to get
Martin Amis on it,

and -- the English writer.

And so Martin did a script,
and the studio didn't like that.

So [Sniffles] you know,
that went to hell,

and then Burton got it
and made that,

you know,
stupid thing, you know?

-[Chuckles] Okay.

Alex Cox seems to be
channeling Nosferatu --

-Well, that was interesting
to me, you know,

because my directorial style is,

you know, I try and keep it,
like, very hands off,

you know, for everything.
[Sniffles]

And it's like, you know,
"Well, this shot is, like --

kind of like this,
and that's what I like to have,

two monsters hitting
each other with shovels

and, you know, see you later."

And --
-[Laughter]

-And so we started shooting.

All of Alex's stuff
was green screen,

and I wanted to give him
something else,

so I was very careful
about his costume.

He starts off with,
like, you know,

I forget what it's called,

but, like, kind of
a Middle East terrorist thing.

He takes that off,
and then he has a yarmulke on.

So it's, like, the Palestinians
and the Jews. He changes.

[Sniffles] And so he's got
these long fingernails.

And so we start shooting,
and...

you know, I was like,
"Okay, whatever.

Okay, walk left to right.

Okay, fine.
You know, that's okay."

[Sniffles] And then, you know,
within a few shots,

he would start to do this thing,
and it was like Nosferatu.

And he goes,
"Yeah, you're right."

And so, yeah,
that's what he did.

You're right. Yeah. He played --
-Okay.

So at the last break,
we were talking about

how this movie sat idle
for 20 years.

I mean, it didn't
sit idle with you,

but you didn't have, like,
you know,

people coming on the weekends
and working on it.

So, I mean, you're dealing
with heaven and hell, right?

And both the outward
heaven and hell

and the inward heaven and hell,
whatever that is.

So, for example,
I know you read a work

that all English majors
love to hate,

and that's John Milton.
[Laughs]

-Yeah, I hated it, too.
-[Laughs] Okay.

-And then I got the,
you know, the thing on tape

and it was -- I hated
that as well, you know.

So, I don't know --
it was some place,

you know, I found, you know,
"The Inferno" for dummies,

or, like, a
"Classics Illustrated"

[Laughs] comic book,
you know, it's like --

-That's the works that all
Italian majors love to hate --

Dante.
-Yeah.

So you read that, too?
-Well, yeah, I --

Well, [Blows raspberry]
I read some of it,

and it was like,
"What the fuck?" You know?

-[Laughs] And so then
you did this deep dive

into Sigmund Freud,
and then you went deep, deep --

More -- More --
More Jung, really.

-The -- Carl Jung,
the psychiatrist,

anthropologist.

He was all the things
that you like --

archeologist, religious
studies scholar Carl Jung.

And in fact,
the Carl Jung work

that you became most enamored
of was "The Red Book",

which is the weirdest book.

I mean, the one --
-It really is.

-It's the one that Jung said
would make people think

he was crazy, and I think
the family kind of

protected the book for a while.
-Well, yeah, for years.

And he worked on that
for something like 16 years,

pretty much in private,
didn't really tell anybody.

And it was -- it was identical
to the process,

for me personally, on "Mad God"

because it's the classic
Joseph Campbell,

you know, thing where the hero
goes on this mystical journey

and goes down a path
that leads to a door.

And then there's,
like, the, you know,

talking wolf that goes, like,
"Hey, go that way."

And he goes that way
and then climbs over a wall

and has to fight a monster.

And then the talking crow goes,
"Yeah, go that way."

And so, you're moving
through all these stations

and experiencing life,

and it comes to the point
where the hero dies,

one way or the other,
and has to be reborn.

And so, that's the classic
Joseph Campbell kind of thing

that Jung figured out, you know,
years before Campbell,

intuitively.

And so, that's pretty much
what happened to me.

Like Jung -- Jung went nuts
doing "The Red Book", you know,

and it was his family
that pulled it back.

And I like to --
I like to think

that they [Chuckles]
sent him to a psychiatrist,

which I think
would be hilarious.

-What psychiatrist
would take him, you know?

It's like, you know --

But you became so obsessed
that you kind of had

a "Red book" experience
yourself, right?

-Yeah. No, I did.
I went deep,

and I didn't know I was getting
sucked into this thing,

[Sniffles] but I was working,
like, you know,

every single day,
at least six days a week,

and then on the seventh day,
I would, like,

plan things, [Sniffles]
you know, so it --

I was, you know, living
and breathing this thing, and --

-But did you actually
go to the hospital?

-I went to the psych ward.
-Really?

-Yeah. Yeah, for a few days.
And then I was in recovery.

Well, what happened was,
you know,

I didn't realize
this until later.

You know, my friends would --
told me that, you know, I --

my clothes were all ripped up.

There was paint and plaster
on everything.

-And that's from working
on the movie?

-Yeah, I let myself go,
and my hair was long

and beard was long,
and it was, like, all matted,

and I didn't shave, and I looked
like a homeless person.

And it was just --
I was just living

in this alternate universe,
and then I discovered

after I had gone
through the psych ward

and the recovery thing,
I went back to work on "Mad God"

and I was working on some stuff,
and I went, like,

"Hey, you know what?
You know, I've been told

I'm weird all my life,
but you know what?

I think I am weird."

And it was like,
I started studying

my behavior and my work,

and it was like,
then I consulted a psychiatrist

and I said, "You know,
I think maybe I'm bipolar."

And she, you know,
asked me some questions

and talks about,
you know, experience.

And she goes,
"Yeah, yeah, you are."

So, you know, what would happen

is with that,
that was my secret weapon.

-But you were able
to self-diagnose.

But in those manic periods,
you were --

-Crazy.
-You were crazy,

but you were
creating this movie.

-Yeah, and it would compound,
you know, as, you know,

the manic side,
as things went on,

it just became more and more
and more and more.

And, you know, sometimes
I'd work like 12,

15 hours a day on the thing
and then be exhausted

and come home and was just,
like, "Uhhh,"

but my mind wouldn't stop
working, you know?

And so I drank a lot,
you know, and --

which was not a good thing.

And just to stop my mind,
I was self-medicating, you know?

And now I have medication,
so it's like, "Oh, thank God."

And --
-It doesn't sound like

manic depressive so much
as just manic, manic, manic.

-Yeah, well, I was diagnosed
as unipolar,

so I don't get depressed unless
my dog gets run over by a car,

or I'm not accepted
to the Berlin Film Festival.

[Laughter]

And that was the first two.

Yeah, it was, like,
the Berlin Festival

and the Sundance --
-You mean when there

was a brand new movie
and you wanted to --

-Yeah, the first two.
-...take it to festival.

-I got rejected by those two.

And that sent me into
a really deep depression

because it was like,
"Okay, here we go." [Laughs]

-30 years, and you can't
get into a film festival.

Oh, well, you and your legion
of student assistants

worked on it for at least
10 years, right?

-12.
-12 years. Okay.

Now, how did you know
when it was finished?

-When the producer told me.
[Laughter]

You know, at the very end,

there was a post-production,
you know, producer on it,

Lisa Cook, because by that time,
Shudder had seen it.

But for me and Richard Beggs,
it was never done.

And it was like, "No, we got
to do this thing, we gotta --

You know, no, let's do --
Oh, hey, you know --"

-Are you telling me
Shudder made you stop?

-No, but there was a commitment,
and so the --

-You had a deadline
with Shudder?

-The people that ran
my studio --

-This is funny. [Laughs]

When it was, like,
my wife, you know,

was the CEO of the thing,
you know, it was like,

you know, she gave the producer,
Lisa Cook, you know, the job.

"You got to reel this guy in
'cause it's got to be done."

-Well, we have an assassin
in a rickety jeep

going down, down, down
to yet another level of hell.

And this movie --
this movie always goes down.

It's a journey to --
-Yes, it was one direction.

-...journey to the center
of the earth.

So let's go back to it.
Let's roll it. Go.

Do you think brutal dictators
and serial killers

and evil doctors,
like Dr. Mengele and --

Do you think -- do you think
they eventually get punished?

-You mean go to hell?
-Yeah.

-Nah.
-No?

-I don't think so.

I mean, they, you know,
they do live in their own hell.

You know, they're always,
you know, getting comeuppance.

You know, so,
you know, that's --

-You think that people
that spend their lives

making mindless Hallmark
movies get punished?

-No, they go to purgatory.
-[Laughs] Okay.

I like to think they burn
in eternal fire, actually.

[Laughter]

[Quick footfalls in distance]

♪♪

[Baby crying]

[Baby wailing]

♪♪

[Crying continues]

♪♪

[Zapping]

[Baby crying in distance]

[Whirring]

[Shutter bangs]

[Baby cooing]

-[Whispering
in foreign language]

-[Grunting]

-[Whispering in foreign
language continues]

-[Grunts]

[Baby coos]

-[Creature speaking
in foreign language]

[Baby fussing]

[Creature speaking
in foreign language continues]

[Baby fussing continues]

[Baby gurgling]

[Baby screaming]

[Creature speaking
in foreign language]

[Shutter whirring, thuds]

[Zapping]

[Rustling]

[Breathing heavily]

[Baby screaming in distance]

[Baby crying in distance]

[Stone door sliding]

[Crying continues]

♪♪

[Stone grinds]

[Baby crying in distance]

♪♪

♪♪

[Stone thudding]

[Crying continues]

♪♪

♪♪

[Stone doors sliding, thudding]

[Baby wailing]

♪♪

[Wailing continues]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Creature bellows]

[Stone grinding]

[Creature bellows]

[Chains clatter, door thuds]

[Creature huffs]

[Baby crying continues]

[Creature huffing continues]

[Creature bellowing]

[Creature huffs]

[Door creaks, whirs]

[Creature grunts]

[Baby wailing]

♪♪

[Wailing continues]

♪♪

♪♪

[Bird chirping]

[Bird squawking]

♪♪

[Baby crying]

♪♪

[Squelching]

[Creature calling out]

[Crying continues]

[Calling out continues]

♪♪

♪♪

[Baby wailing]

♪♪

[Wailing fades]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Stone grinding]

♪♪

[Door creaking]

[Squishes]

[Clicking]
[Footfalls]

[Growling in distance]

[Bat wings fluttering]

[Creatures growling]

[Creature wails]
[Thwack!]

[Creature groans]

[Creature squawking]

[Creatures growling]

♪♪

[Creature wails]

♪♪

[Thwack!]

[Creature groaning]

[Creature shouting]

[Creature screeches]

[Creature growling]

[Clunking, groaning]

♪♪

[Creature squawks]
[Clunking in background]

[Bell rings]

[Creatures growling]

♪♪

[Creature shouts]

♪♪

[Zapping]
[Creature shrieking]

[Lever cranks]

[Zapping, shrieking continues]

[Lever cranks]

[Zapping, shrieking intensifies]

[Lever cranks]

[Creatures groan,
breathe heavily]

[Zap, creature shrieks]

[Zapping, creature shrieking]

[Creature groans]

[Puking, groaning]

[Creature squawking]

[Creatures grunting]

[Squelching, scraping]

[Creatures grunting]

[Squelching]

♪♪

♪♪

[Creatures breathing deeply]

[Burbling]
[Sploshing]

[Creatures groaning]

[Creature Shrieking]

[Static]

-So, Phil, was that
two creatures

brawling with giant
shit shovels, you know,

with a little dwarf referee
electrocuting their brains?

'Cause that was an awesome,
like, little interlude there

that we just watched.

-Being, like,
a Ray Harryhausen fan,

and all, I'm like,
well, two monsters

beating the shit
out of each other, you know?

And so, it was really
a no-brainer.

So I gave them shovels.
That was, you know --

-Well, Ray Harryhausen
would be proud of that scene,

[Laughs] I think.

And when you finish
the film in --

I think you finished
in 2021, right?

-Yeah, that sounds right.
-You finished the film.

You send it off
to film festivals.

As you pointed out,
you didn't have a good reaction.

-No.
-You sent it to Berlin.

Where else did you send it?
Sundance?

-Sundance, yeah.
-Rejected?

-First two rejected, yeah.

And, you know,
I showed it to, like,

other, you know,
filmmaking friends,

and the feedback was,
"You know, Phil,

this is not a movie
for everyone." [Laughs]

-[Laughs] No, it's not.
-No, I know.

-Well, no movie is for everyone,
but, you know...

-So I was kind of on pins
and needles about,

you know, about that.

But, you know, I did have
confidence to the extent

that what I want to see is stuff
that I've never seen before.

And so I thought that
on that level,

that I --
there are people out there,

I know, that are sick
of the shit

that they're fed, you know,
in terms of media

and that there -- I was pretty
confident there would be a --

-Well you win on the
"never seen it before" scale,

definitely, and then --
But describe opening night

when you finally, you know,
culmination of 30 years work,

and finally, at the Locarno
Film Festival,

which is in Switzerland,
you have that opening night,

and was that --
Did you feel a sense of

completion at that time?
-Yeah.

Well, like the composer
and I sat at the back

and watched, you know,

and then only,
like, eight people

walked out of, like --
The place was full, and --

and then word of mouth went out,
and they did another screening,

and then they did
another screening,

and then they did
another screening.

And that's kind of how it worked
in all the other film festivals.

One of the guys
at Locarno came up and --

'cause Locarno is right
on the Italian border --

and came up and said,

"You know that alchemist
character, he was --

was he speaking,
you know, Italian?"

And I went like, "Yeah."

And so, what I would do as
I'm collecting stuff in my life,

you know, there was,
like, the poet's lament

in Fellini Satyricon,

and I always liked that scene
and that voiceover.

And so I stole it, you know,
I just recorded it off the TV

and, you know --
-Oh, is that what that is?

-Yeah.
-Oh, okay.

So now that you've done hell,

shouldn't you go back
to Hieronymus Bosch

and do the Garden of Eden

and the Garden
of Earthly Delights?

Wouldn't Bosch demand a trilogy?
-[Stammers]

-You know? Yeah.

No, that's how I felt,
because I would never --

Well, for one thing, you know,

don't have enough
of my life left [Laughs]

to do another "Mad God."
-That's only 60 more years --

one for the Garden
of Earthly Delights

and one for --
130-year period for the --

-No, the next thing
I've developed is --

is totally different,

and it really is my antidote
for "Mad God."

But, you know, like they say,
the canary sings one song.

So, there's, like, plenty
of "Mad God" kind of stuff,

but from a different
perspective, but I --

-So, you have a project going?

-No, but I have, you know...

I have all the characters, you
know, worked out and sculpted.

I -- Over COVID, I sculpted
all the characters.

There's like 30 characters.

And I did a bunch of key art

where I shot the characters
against blue screen

and comped them against
different backgrounds.

And I did 800 storyboards

and wrote the thing.
-Wow.

-So, it's all ready to go.

And, you know, I think
once everything kind of --

dust settles from "Mad God,"

then we'll go out
towards the end of the year

and see if we can talk people
out of money

to do that.
-Okay.

Well, we have a lot of
filmmakers who watch this show

and we especially have a lot
of special effects devotees

who watch this show.

So, I know they're gonna
want to know

the answer to one question,
and that is --

if you're
a 19-year-old kid today

who loves monsters
and loves creatures

and loves effects

the way you did
when you were a kid,

what should you learn
to do today?

And where do you go
to learn that today?

-Ah, well, I mean, it depends
on what you want to do.

I mean, there's kind
of a resurgence

in stop-motion animation.

-There is a resurgence. Yeah.
-Now.

And so if you want
to go that route...

And you've got to practice.

[Laughs] You know,
it's like anything else.

You know?

And, uh, I would do what,
you know, sports people do.

I think -- and it's what I did
as a kid.

You visualize
being in that place.

You know, you visualize
winning the race.

You see yourself, you know,
every single step, more or less.

And so I really
dedicated myself to it.

You know, I just -- that's
what I did all the time.

You know, I just drew and drew
and learned how to sculpt

and learned how to do
all these different processes.

In high school,
I never had a girlfriend.

I didn't particularly
like anybody, you know,

'cause nobody
was into cinema.

I was friendly and all,
would eat lunch with people,

but it was like I'd check out
at the end of the day

and just go home
and work on my stuff.

And -- and that's --
that's what I did.

I just lived
and breathed this stuff.

-Well, just so people
don't think

you went straight
to "Star Wars,"

you kind of apprenticed
on commercials, right?

You -- the Pillsbury --
Pillsbury Doughboy.

You animated him, right?
-Yeah.

-And the Jolly Green Giant.
You animated him?

-Well, he wasn't animated,
but I built a bunch of sets --

-Okay.
-...for that.

Yeah, I mean, that -- that
really was my graduate school,

'cause things turn over
really quick,

and it was working with
some really great guys.

And Tex Avery was there, and --

-Tex Avery was there
where you were working

on the Pillsbury Doughboy?
-Yeah!

And so, I'd hang out with Tex

outside the stage,
and we'd smoke cigarettes.

And, you know, I asked him --

'cause, you know,
I was young then --

how to how to work
a dummy sheet,

you know, for animation.

And he goes,
"Yeah, okay, I'll show you."

And he -- so, he does
these key poses of Bugs Bunny.

And then he goes like,
"Hey, what's up, doc?"

And breaks down that.
Then he does the frames.

It's like, da-da-da.

And I was like,

"Oh, great.
Well, thanks, you know?

And will you -- will you
sign it for me?"

He goes, "Sure!"

And so he goes like, "To my
good friend Phil, Tex Avery."

And I framed that.
I still have it.

-Really?
-Yeah.

-Where he -- it was an instant
Bugs Bunny planning sheet?

Is that what it was?
-Well, no, it was just a...

It was just a mimeographed or
xeroxed dummy sheet, you know,

that has, like, all these lines.

And then, you know, animators...

I never used
one of those things.

But, you know,
it's a typical thing

that they use for animation.

The director will do that
and do the key poses

and, you know, figure out
when the thing is talking

and then hand it over
to the in-betweener.

-So, your main advice
is just get out there

and do it
wherever you can, right?

-Well, either you have,
you know,

like, an innate, um,

talent, you know,
for this stuff or, um --

like I did not, you know --

you just have to practice
and practice and practice.

But, you know, I learned.
-You're saying you did not have

an innate talent?
-I don't think so.

I could not perceive it,
because if I did,

it happened at the same time
that I was doing stuff.

Because whenever
you start stuff,

you're not like, you know,
Michelangelo or Mozart.

You know, it's --
everything looks like shit.

And then, you know,
it's like,

oh, it's a little bit better and
a little bit better, you know?

-Okay.

Well, we're gonna watch
the, not surprisingly,

excessively weird conclusion
to "Mad God" now.

I was gonna ask you,

it seemed like you had
a sliver of hope there

and like, like, a little bit
of optimism

for the future of humankind.

-Yeah.
-It's there, right?

-Yeah.
No, definitely. Yeah.

-Okay. Well, we like
to see that and hear that.

[Laughter]
And, uh...

-But I saved it for the end.

-Okay. All right.

Roll the movie.

-You know, one thing
I wanted to mention was, um,

you know,
through Alex Cox, you know,

I was introduced
to Richard Beggs

and the composer Dan Wool,
'cause Dan had done --

-Dan Wool, who lives
in San Francisco, right?

-Yeah, and he did a number
of Alex's scores, and Alex

was making a few Westerns
and was a big Morricone fan,

so Dan did Morricone-esque,
you know, music.

And so, I asked him
if he would be interested in,

you know, working on "Mad God."
And it was like,

"Ehh, I wonder
if he can do something

different than Morricone."
[Laughter]

And one of the things I do is,

you know,
or was around that time,

I made these, like, little
sketchbooks that -- on Hi8.

And they were very abstract.

You know, they were just,

you know, different things
with different sounds.

You know, like,
for instance, a radio

where the dial is turning
and it's just going through,

you know, from, like, Perry Como
to, you know, punk rock

and then the news or whatever.

And that's where, you know,
Dan and I hooked up,

'cause he -- we both have the
same, you know, art education,

which I didn't know.

And he does, like, ambient
music, which I didn't know.

And -- and so, he saw this thing
and realized

that our minds were, you know,
working on the same level.

And what I did not want to do
was get into this trap,

you know, that I witnessed
with a lot of filmmakers

where they would have
the temp score.

You know, the -- the music
is always put on

on the very end
of the movie.

And it's, the score is like done
to, like, rhythmically,

like, Carmina Burana or
Beethoven's Fifth or whatever.

And it structures
the movie rhythmically,

and -- and then the composer
comes in and does his thing.

And I didn't want that.

So, I wanted to build the music.

I wanted the music
to influence the movie

as much as the picture
influenced the -- the music.

And, um...

And so, uh, Dan saw this.

You know, I showed him
the six minutes,

and so he composed
something for that.

And as we built
the first chapter,

which was about 12 minutes long,
the editor, Ken Rogerson,

and I would take
that six minutes

and then chop it up

and reverse it
or slow it down or whatever.

But I was, you know,
kind of channeling Dan's --

the tone of Dan's music,
and that's what I wanted to do.

I wanted those things to work
in tandem with each other.

-It's more like sound design

than a traditional, um, score.

-Yeah, it is.
And there's...

Dan did a lot
of sound stuff in it,

and I was really lucky.

He and Richard Beggs
had worked together a lot,

and so they worked
back and forth.

You know, all the time,

Dan was always going over
to Richard's place

and they were making sure that
their stuff, you know, jibed.

'Cause a lot of times there'll
be a war, like Ben Burtt had

with George
on the speeder bike chase

in "Return of the Jedi."

And George wanted wall-to-wall
music on everything.

And Ben was going,
"Oh, no, no, no.

Let me just have this as sound."

"No, I want to put, you know"...

And then, you know, um...

You know, Ben won the thing.

George went, "Okay, whatever."

And, uh, but, you know,
there's, um...

there's always
that battle, too,

between, you know,
where you bring the music up

and where you suppress
the sound.

So, I was really lucky.

-You hear a lot of babies
crying on the score.

-Mm, yeah. Yeah.

Well, and then, you know,

I mean, there was a baby in it.
-Right.

-You know, and I wanted --

I wanted that baby to be
really annoying

and wanted it --
-It is.

-Yeah, and wanted it
to go on for a long time

so that when the -- when
the thing gets crushed,

you have absolutely no sympathy
for the thing.

[Laughter]
At all.

You know, you just
want to turn it off.

-[Laughs]
-But, but the other thing was,

for the projections
of the big mouths, um,

I think I had something
that was like,

you know,
what you would expect --

you know, like Hitler's voice
running backwards

or something like that,
blaring it out.

And so, you know,
Richard would do his thing,

and then we'd go over
and we look at the movie

with the sound and the music,
and he had this baby crying.

It was like, "Holy shit,
that's great."

You know, that totally works
for this moronic world,

you know, to have...
-Right, right.

-If that's the Mad God --
-That's the dictator.

-...you know,
to have, like, an infant.

-Thank you, Phil.
-Sure. My pleasure.

[Cheers and applause]

♪♪

[Shrieking]

[Whirring in distance]

♪♪

♪♪

[Door squeaking in distance]

♪♪

[Door shutting in distance]

[Footsteps]

♪♪

[Squawks]

[Scraping]

[Squawks]

[Sprinkling]

♪♪

♪♪

[Slithering]

♪♪

♪♪

[Slurping]

♪♪

[Squawking]

[Zapping]

[Whirring]

[Creaks]

[Rustling]

♪♪

[Zapping]

[Whirring]

[Rustling]

♪♪

[Growling]

♪♪

[Scampering]

[Growling]

[Shrieking]

♪♪

[Slurps]
[Cups clinking]

[Creature shrieking]

♪♪

-Oh, no!

[Young creature shrieking
in distance]

[Snickering]

[Whirring]

[Footsteps]

[Ticking]

♪♪

♪♪

[Footsteps]

[Rustling]

♪♪

♪♪

[Wiping]

♪♪

♪♪

[Debris clinking]

♪♪

[Rattling]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Footsteps]

♪♪

♪♪

[Rustling]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Baby screams]

[Baby crying]

♪♪

[Baby crying continues]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Rattling]

[Grunting]

♪♪

♪♪

[Baby crying]

[Rustling]

♪♪

[Baby coughing]

[Crying continues]

♪♪

[Baby cooing]

♪♪

[Sputtering]

[Squeaking]

[Whirring]

[Baby gurgling]

[Churning]

[Shrieks]

[Squelching]

♪♪

[Liquid flowing, bubbling]

♪♪

[Whirring]

[Rattles]

[Crackling]

[Gas hissing]

[Flaring]

♪♪

[Clinking]

♪♪

[Sizzling]

[Squeaking]

[Rattling]

♪♪

[Clunk]

[Clinking]

♪♪

[Clunking]

[Rattling]

♪♪

[Clinking]

♪♪

[High-pitched ringing]

♪♪

♪♪

[Whirring]

[Metal groaning]

♪♪

[Howling]

♪♪

[Squawking]

[Creaking]

♪♪

[Shattering]

[Explosion]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Explosions]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Beeping]

♪♪

[Sirens blaring]

♪♪

[Clock ticking]

[Alarm buzzing]

[Firing]

[Explosions]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Ticking]

♪♪

[Liquid trickling]

♪♪

♪♪

[Ticking]

♪♪

♪♪

[Ticking continues]

♪♪

♪♪

[Ticking speeds up]

♪♪

♪♪

[Whirring]

♪♪

♪♪

[Clock dinging, cuckoo singing]

[Sounds echo, fade]

[Chorus singing]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Singing fades]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Thunder rumbling]

-So, yeah, um...

Just when you think
you're starting to understand

the movie -- like, you know,
the bawling baby creature

is gonna create
something new --

Phil Tippett
fucks with us again!

[Laughter]

You know, the baby bashing

and then a cuckoo clock,

and then what's going on
there at the end?

Does Joel Osteen become the king
of the world or something?

Damn.
I mean, thanks again

to Academy Award-winner
Phil Tippett

for spending his evening
with us,

but he didn't really
explain the plot to you.

I mean, is this
the first time, though,

that we've had an actual
Oscar winner on the show?

-I think it has to be.
-I think it is. Right?

And an Emmy winner --
he has two Emmys as well,

for "Dinosaur!"

and for "The Ewok Adventure."
-Nice.

-And he also did
visual effects for "Willow,"

which was -- he was nominated
for the Oscar for that one.

And also nominations for
"Return of the Jedi,"

"Dragonslayer,"
"Dragonheart,"

and "Starship Troopers."

He actually directed
"Starship Troopers 2."

But he never fully
embraced CGI,

even though he was
the first expert on CGI.

He did the effects in, um,

"Honey, I Shrunk the Kids."
-Aww.

-You know, the sequel
to "Mad God" could be

"Honey, I Pissed Off God Again,"
you know?

[Laughter]

So, what do you think of it,
Darcy?

-Well, it is beautifully done.

-But...
-[Laughs]

No, I admire the artistry.

It's like "Fantasia"
for metal heads.

-But did you like it?

-Uh, I might have, you know,
toked up a little bit

and just kind of soaked up
the atmosphere.

-Alright.

I think Phil would approve
of that, actually, because...

[Laughter]

-Phil says that after he
finished "Return of the Jedi,"

he went home
and took eight LSD capsules.

And he says he went
to the center of the Earth

for a billion years
with his cat.

-Wow. Did he really say that?

-He said that. He did.

And the cat liked it, too,
he said.

Anyway, this was a guy
who at the age of 16

was hanging around
the Ackermansion

and schmoozing
with Ray Bradbury.

So, he was obviously destined
to be a guy who would,

you know, dream up scenes
of a minotaur getting a hand-job

from skinless, naked women
with bird heads, so...

-I mean, that sounds good to me.

-Yeah, he talks about it like
it was just a bunch of students

who came over on weekends.

But "A," you know,
the way he told that --

"A," they were the best students
at the Academy of Art University

in San Francisco,
and "B,"

people like Johnny McLeod
from "Star Wars"

would come in on the days
that the students were there

and teach everybody
how to do,

you know, explosions with
miniatures and things like that.

But, Darcy, we are not
finished with animation.

This is Animation Night.

And coming up next
is "Perfect Blue."

-Yay! I love "Perfect Blue."

But first, we have mail.

-Alright, hit me. Hit me up.

-This is an e-mail
from Josh Hitchens.

-Okay, Josh.

"Dear Joe Bob, I'm a long-time
fan and wanted to finally write

and thank you
for all of the joy

your work as a writer
and horror host

has brought me
throughout my life.

I first discovered you while you
were doing Monstervision

on TNT
back in the '90s.

I was in high school then
and had a very difficult time

as a gay teen in a small town
in southern Delaware,

where it was not okay
to be who I knew I was.

I often considered
ending my life back then,

but watching you
on Monstervision,

as the horror junkie
I already was then

and still am today,

was literally
what helped keep me alive

during those difficult years.

The time you hosted movies
every week,

month after month,
and year after year"...

It was month after month,
year after year.

..."gave me something wonderful
to look forward to every week

when I really needed it.

When you came back to horror
hosting on Shudder,

it was also exactly
what I needed.

I was getting divorced
from the person

I had been with for 15 years
and whom I had married.

After it all went wrong
and the divorce happened,

there you were hosting
'The Last Drive-In' on Shudder

with Darcy.
Again, looking forward

to what you both
were going to do each week

saved me and gave me
immense comfort

during one of the most
difficult times in my life.

It helped me find
so much happiness,

and it still does.

Every time 'The Last Drive-In'
is on Shudder,

I mark my calendar around it.

It is my happy place.

I have a wonderful partner now
for five years and counting,

and for my birthday
he got both of us tickets

to see you and Darcy
at the Mahoning Drive-in."

We were there in, um...
summer of two years ago --

-'21.
-...2021, for the Jamboree.

You know?

"I really hope

Shudder releases the footage
of that taping of

'Night of the Demons'
and 'Torso,'

because that was
an amazing experience."

-Yes.
-I hope they do, too.

-I do, too. It was super fun.

-"I didn't get the chance
to get an autograph with you

or to meet you and Darcy
personally on that day,

but I did get to have a photo
taken with you,

both with me and my partner,
and I treasure that.

From the closeted, afraid,
horror-loving gay kid I was

watching you
on Monstervision to --

in order to stay alive
another week,

to be the proud and happy
horror-loving person I am now

and to be in a photo
with both you and Darcy

with the love of my life,

it meant everything to me --
and I truly mean everything.

After that photo was taken,
I walked away with my partner

and I burst into tears
because I was so happy."

-Aww.

-"Thank you, thank you,
thank you.

And thank you to Darcy, too,
because she's incredible

and the best mail girl
co-host ever.

Keep doing your great work.
Thank you. Thank you both.

The true spirit of the drive-in
will never die. Josh."

All right.
And here's that...

Have we got it up.

Here's the picture of Josh
and his partner

and you and me and our camping
setup at the Mahoning.

We didn't have camping last year
at the Memphis Jamboree,

but we are allowing
camping this October

at the third jamboree
in Las Vegas.

So, anyway.
-Yeah!

-I'm glad you got it
all figured out, Josh,

and I'm glad you're part
of the mutant fam.

And I know
a lot of gay and trans people

who were struggling in the '90s,

especially, where it was
probably harder than today --

they watched Monstervision.

Something about the monsters
was comforting.

-Something about you
was comforting.

-Well, I was kind of...

I was actually kind of
a flamethrower in those days.

I don't think
I was too comforting.

I was kind of a...

-I think a lot of people
identify

with the flamethrower part.

It's like we felt like outsiders

and we became insiders
when we watched your show.

-Oh, well,
that's totally news to me.

But I'm glad that
we all found one another.

And we have -- we do have
an amazing set of fans.

They are fans so loyal they will
sit through "Mad God,"

which is...
-[Laughing] True dat.

-And now we need to move on
to our second endurance test --

I mean, our second, uh, --
-What?!

-...animated classic
of the evening.

[Laughs]

-"Perfect Blue" is fun.

-Alright, well, we'll let
the mutant fam be judges

of whether it's fun or not.

I'm Joe Bob Briggs signing off
with Darcy the Mail Girl,

and reminding you that here
at "The Last Drive-In,"

if we tell you
a chicken dips snuff,

you better look under his wing
for the can.

And the drive-in will never die.

-What? What?!
[Laughter]

That's "Mad God"-level.
-Well, if you didn't like...

-Do you like
Little Johnny jokes?

-I don't know what that is,

but I have a feeling
you're going to tell me, so...

-Well, nobody tells
Little Johnny jokes anymore.

Little Johnny is a smartass kid

who refuses to obey the rules.
-Okay.

-That's all you have to know
about Little Johnny, okay?

So, the teacher
is teaching a math class,

and she sees Johnny
isn't paying attention,

so she asks him,
"If there are three ducks

sitting on a fence and you
shoot one, how many are left?"

And Johnny says, "None."

And she says,
"Why do you say that?"

And Johnny says,

"'Cause the shot
scared 'em all off."

And the teacher says,
"No, the correct answer is two,

but I like how you're thinking."

So, Johnny says to the teacher,
"Well, I have one for you.

If you see three women
walking out of an ice cream shop

and one is licking her ice cream
and one is sucking her ice cream

and one is biting her ice cream,

which one is married?"

And the teacher says,
"The one sucking her ice cream."

And Johnny says, "No,
the correct answer is

the one with the wedding ring,
but I like how you're thinking."

[Laughter]

-I like that one.
It was cute.

-Really? Okay.

Good.

[Laughter]