Judge Dredd: Superfiend or Why Death is Really Scary
Recently Adi Shankar, director of such films as The Grey, Lone Survivor and the cult hit Dredd has become known online for his Bootleg Universe productions on his Youtube channel. These smaller productions have taken well known characters and had him reinterpret them in various ways. His most recent effort is an ambitious six part animated series called Judge Dredd: Superfiend.
So I watched this series. When I was done I went through some old boxes, grabbed my childhood teddy bear and curled into a ball on the floor.
A few hours later I pulled myself together and started this review.
Shankar gives the intro that precedes this six part installment explaining how this is intended to be a reinterpretation of the Judge Dredd story, specifically focused on Judge Death and is a more satirical interpretation of that universe then fans are used to. He goes on to explain how it’s largely influenced by the MTV cartoons of the 1990s and their unique visual style. Judge Dredd: Superfiend is very much a successful attempt on both those points.
It is also legitimately horrifying and left me a weeping puddle of man.
This happens at 1:36 in the first Episode! Yeesh!
Holy cow, the first episode alone is some of the most powerful and legitimately terrifying work I’ve seen in a long time. The story starts with a Judge named Sydney, featured in the image above. Syndey is a disturbed judge who’s taken the job so that he can kill people legally. The first episode is, arguably, the most horrifying of the series and if viewers can make it through that, the rest of the series isn’t much worse.
The story features several villains from Dredd’s pantheon the infamous Angel gang (made popular in the Judge Dredd film) as well as his brother Rico. The key figure in this story is Judge Death and this is a story that strongly follows the origins of Dredd’s most iconic nemesis and his perspective through the story. It’s remarkably close to the comic origins of Judge Death but certain parts of it are missing for the purpose of this re-imagining.
The animation is quite fluid and liberally mixes in traditional cel animation with computer graphics, likely as part of the homage to 90s animation in turn. The musical score is spot on and the voice talent is quite solid. This is a very well made production.
The only thing one could argue that holds it back is that this is a remarkably dark production. Dredd’s world is one that is frankly horrifying to live in and Shankar offers it up to us in a way that is legitimately effective and powerful.
This is not a heroic face-off! These are two powerful forces at war: Death and THE LAW!
If you’re a fan of excessive violence and heavy satire then this is a show for you. Especially with the Halloween coming up. The squeamish, however, should look away and think twice before giving this show a try. It’s a heck of a series, but it will test your limits.
