Madison County (2011)

Overrated and overhyped

One of my all time favorites.

Nice effects though.

Absolutely the worst movie.

Potential spoiler warning, even though I am not trying to.This movie started out with the typical theme, and morphed into an even more predictable scenario. Frustration stemmed from watching people react in the most unrealistic way, when threatened with bodily harm. It is agonizingly frustrating to watch someone not display any potential insight to self preservation. And I don't think it's really realistic to leave your friend out in the middle of the woods, while you relieve yourself. Let alone turn your back to the woods, where the unknown could appear.I duped myself into believing that this one would be as good as a few others I had watched over the last two weeks.I was wrong.

I personally love Slasher flicks, 70's and 80's jump to mind. This film tries to take itself seriously and makes you feel like you're watching another version of The Texas Chainsaw Massacrer. I liked the blurb on the back and the cover seemed promising, however it failed to do anything new. Five young adults in their early 20's go on a road trip to a town in the middle of nowhere called Madison County to interview an author who wrote a tell all book about a local Psychopath named Damien, who butchered and killed 33 people and the town covered up the murders. When they arrive, the locals are not too happy to see them. You can guess the rest. Madison County tires to emulate three of the major horror franchises. Firstly it tires to be a gritty and unsettling much like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, small town with generic red necks and a sweet old lady who turns out to be in on the kills herself. The camera is shaky most of the time with close up's of rusted chains or hidden behind beams of a barn house, seeing only the back of peoples heads and again using the shaky cam to show you how gritty it is trying to be. Secondly it tires to build suspense much like Halloween except you get tired of watching these typical young people wonder around for the first 45 minutes of the movie, unlike Halloween where Michael himself was toying with his prey. Finally it tries to have violent and in your face kills much like Friday the 13th none of which are original.Damien is the pigged masked killer who like to throw his arms up and wale along with his victims trying his hardest to be demented again trying to be Leather Face but more evil. He walks with a bummed foot. It comes off as trying way too hard to be a new Slasher franchise for us Horror hounds to get into and Damien is the new poster boy for us to love and cherish like we do Michael, Jason, Freddy and Leather Face. the only good thing I can say about this movie,is a small quick scene near the end where the survivors miss seeing each other by a near second.This could have been a decent Slasher flick with it's premise, but it relies on tired over used clichés to bring in an audience. Madison County had promise, probably the reason I am so hard on it. It could have been a welcome change to the slasher genre.

Wow lots of horrible reviews for this one so I had to weight in on it as the defendant. First of all backwoods and films about exorcism really have no chance to be great with those two dark ominous clouds hanging over their respectable heads in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Exorcist. You make a backwoods film like TCM and people say you ripped it off . You make one completely different than TCM and people complain. I feel Madison County was a great little addition to our backwoods sub-genre. Come on people what makes these films good is the usual formula. Kids meet.....kids stop at creepy gas station......kids meet creepy locals.......kids are warned to stay out of the woods......kids don't listen......mayhem ensues.... Simple as that and if the acting is descent you will have a good little picture. Now Madison County is no masterpiece but it does have a great looking villain that is creepy. The gore is mostly left to the imagination...Hello original TCM and it is tightly packed into 80 or so minutes so it doesn't overstay its welcome. Please if you haven't seen this, ignore the horrible reviews crack open a beer or cider sit back and enjoy......and remember this is a step son to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and not the real deal. I'm out....................

Madison County is a straight up slasher which doesn't bother to act like any other horror which has come out before or after. Yes, I do feel that it was quite tedious and boring and that it was like many other films I have seen, especially naming "The Friday the 13th" and "Wrong Turn" franchises since the majority of both series were set in the backwoods of an isolated area. This film was OK, but I was surprised that I didn't end up hating it by the end. I had seen many slasher films which came out in the same year as Madison County or films after it (naming this year). This specifically included "The Orphan Killer" and "Wrong Turn 5" since I was disappointed with those films.I don't have much to say about this film but I'll do the best I can: I thought the music score was average to decent but when the chasing scenes were presented the music lost it's momentum. The characters were pretty typical. I knew what decisions they were going to make, who was more sensible and then those who would sacrifice everything for the murders. Daminan actually looked good in the pig mask. Nice and creepy. I had imagined he was going to be a more bulkier, brutal looking Leatherface looka like, but instead the creators made it their own, so thumbs up for that. The kills to be honest, were actually good for once in a modern slasher film. This film knew it's limits when it came to showing how much violence and gore they would present. I seriously thought this would've been more violent. The whole aspect of the townsfolk not knowing anything was quite lame as I had seen this already in other films such as "The Wickerman!" Anyhow, it didn't annoy me too much. I also didn't like the conclusion to for this film - could've developed that so much more!Overall this film was boring/decent. It's not scary or memorable in any way but I'll admit, I thought the outcome of the entire film could have been worse. I seriously had no expectations, thinking it would be like "Seed" which I hated. Anyhow, it's an alright horror film which has it's decent and boring moments. I didn't have any high expectations for this film anyway. 6/10