Monster Road (2004)

User Rating:

7.7/10   

Director:

Brett Ingram

Genre:

Documentary

Plot:

Monster Road explores the wildly fantastic worlds of legendary underground clay animator Bruce Bickford...

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

George Bickford	...	Himself
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Bruce Bickford	...	Himself

Runtime:

USA:80 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Movie Connections:

Edited from The Amazing Mr. Bickford (1987)

Oh, my God what a horror show!

I was unfortunate enough to be exposed to this abomination at a film festival recently. I don't know who Bruce Bickford is, but somewhere, an asylum is missing an inmate. This guy's claymation art, while skillfully done and painstakingly detailed, is truly disturbing. The images are almost unbelievably violent and gory; little clay torture chambers, be-headings, disembowlings, and other atrocities are performed on the inhabitants of his claymation universe. God knows the stuff isn't suitable for kids, and even some adults would be turned off by the sheer enormity of his violent, surreal and grotesque work. On another level, the film is just plain, well, bad. A documentary is supposed to educate and inform; this film really does neither, and instead is a simple collection of "interviews" with Bickford in his home, expounding on matters metaphysical and real, all interspersed with snippets of his claymation films. I was left feeling that I knew little about Bruce Bickford, and didn't want to know more.