Mad Max
Many movies ripped offMad Max , but few of the immediate payment - ins were anywhere virtually as imaginative as the truly surrealHell Comes To Frogtown . loose in 1979,Mad Maxwas an almost unprecedented success for star Mel Gibson and co - author / conductor George Miller . Costing almost nothing to produce , the sparse and brutal Australian using movie made millions at the global box office .
Soon , Mad Maxreceived a subsequence in the anatomy of 1981’sThe Road Warrior , a more challenging ( although still low - budget ) action movie that featured far more world - building and traditional knowledge than its herald . The originalMad Maxwas only set in the futureto relieve on production cost , as Miller could not afford crowded placement fill up with extras and expensive shooting permits , so , therefore , co - author a story define in an under - populated , desolate setting . However , The Road Warriortook this premiss and ran with it , crafting an total fictional society defined by tribal struggle to apportion precious resources like oil and urine after the apocalypse .
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LikeStar WarsandAlienbefore it , theMad Maxseries was incisively the sort of visionary enfranchisement that inevitably spawned myriad imitators of alter calibre . However , theMad Maxfilms were always a piffling queer and offbeat , making the movies that pull them off particularly crazy . Ripping off a more mainstreamblockbuster likeTop Gundid not needfully produce bizarre movies , but assay to outdo characters like Lord Humunugus gave rise to truly unusual excursion such as 1988’sHell come To Frogtown . Best remembered for his storied wrestling calling and surprisingly solid lead performance in John Carpenter’sThey Live , Rowdy Roddy Piper starred in this cult pip that ripped off theMad Maxmovies but took the material in a far stranger and even more outrageous instruction . That allege , the oddment did also — against all odds — manage to featured a plot similar to that of 2015’sFury Road , albeit with more nudity and mutated frog people .
Mad Max’s Success Made Rip-offs Inevitable
Not only was the 1979Mad Maxthe most profitable film ever made at the time , butThe Road Warriorintroduced a dust-covered dystopian aesthetic that proved so influential it is still the go - to style for filmmakers shooting a post - apocalyptical activeness movie . As a result , Hell Comes To Frogtownwas only one of many movies that attempted to recreateMad Max ’s collection , but its brainsick assumption meant it was well the most audacious of these John Cash grab . bagpiper plays a role who , like Max , stumbles into an endangered community and helps them out despite being a vagabond roamer — but his reasons for doing so and the threat they face is not like anything from Max ’s adventures .
Hell Comes To Frogtown’s Wild Story
Hell fare To Frogtownfollows Piper ’s nomadic drifter who , just likethe immortal Mad Max , becomes embroiled in a political battle as he passes through a desolate wasteland . Unlike Max , Piper ’s Sam Hell is stuck negotiating a truce between warrior nanny and the mutated frogmen who have nobble many of them . It ’s a plot of land not entirely unlikeFury route , economize for the fact the villains are six - foot - tall amphibians and the only reason Hell is unforced to operate with these nurses is that they affix a gadget to his privates that acts as a cushion collar if he attempts to run away .
While Hell does seek to escape legion times regardless , this machine means he is mostly at the mercy of the warrior nurses and is impel to help oneself them go back their kidnapped colleagues . Lest it seems like the movie is taking itself too in earnest , Piper’sFuriosa - esque love interestinforms him that he was sought out by her tribe to help repopulate the group and they followed a trail of meaning woman to track him across the barren . So begins a surreal dangerous undertaking wherein Piper and his capturer fall for each other , save the captives , and eventually live ( in this movie ’s surreal mise en scene , at least ) happily ever after .
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Hell Comes To Frogtown’s Surprising Mad Max Connection
Despite the evident silliness of the story , 1988’sHell come To Frogtownshares a surprising amount of thematic resonance withMad Max : Fury Road . For one matter , the women warrior are depicted as comparatively heroic where the mutated misogynistic villain view them only as cover stock , an estimation revisited far more seriously inFury Road ’s Immortan Joe and the War Boys , who keep their leader ’s harem of “ wives ” as sex slaves . For another , the primary villain turn out to be a corrupt military superior general taste to maximize his power and influence by arming the villains in interchange for their dedication , whichFury Roadfans will recall is Immortan Joe ’s canon backstory depicted in the comedian .
There are crucial differences — Hell Comes To Frogtown ’s villainous Count Sodom is not revealed to be the duplicitous Captain Devlin until a previous twist , whereas Immortan Joe never conceals his origins . However , even this revelation is not unlike a twist that was cut from theearly draft ofThe Road Warrior . That continuation ’s villainous Lord Humungus was originally revealed to be the former pic ’s heroic police force officer Goose , driven to become malefic after being savagely burn by a biker gang and left for all in .
Hell Comes To Frogtown’s Legacy
Although largely forgotten ( intelligibly , as the movie is a low-spirited - budget , action - horror - sci - fi - comedy),Hell Comes To Frogtowndid earn not one , but two belated , even humiliated budget sequels and exalt an episode ofFamily Guy ’s deed in “ Hell add up To Quahog . ' Despite its obscure position , the freaky movie remains lovingly remembered by many fans of Piper ’s as one of his better B - movie efforts , and a truly original outing that has more to offer than mostMad Maxknock - offs of the prison term . Only time will tell whetherFuriosa ’s coming whirl - offalso borrows from theHell Comes To Frogtownmythos when constructing its post - apocalyptical milieu . However , whether unintentional or not , the Roddy Piper moving-picture show can at least proudly say that thanks toFury Road , it influenced theMad Maxmovies much like they influencedHell come To Frogtown .
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