Madman (1981)

Waste of time

Beautiful, moving film.

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Let's just start off by saying sadly this movie hasn't aged the greatest. And the monster of the film is honestly just funny and laughable when you see him on screen. I don't go out of my way to laugh at it, as I respect makeup designers and the limitations that they have to work with. But this thing is just plain goofy.However everything else is all there, pretty decent body count, good amount of blood for early 80s, and nice summer camp atmosphere. Every kill is slowly built but it doesn't false scare you either, so it pays it's rewards for paying attention and looking for when the killer is going to strike. Let's not forget this really awesome synth soundtrack it has for when the killer strikes! The ending is kind of meh, a bit anticlimactic for a slasher movie, however I did enjoy my time with the film. It's a shame that this director only made one movie.

I had always heard of this film but never had an opportunity to see it. Once I saw it - I confess I fell in love with it. It is in the tradition of Halloween and Friday the 13th and that whole slew of slasher films that littered the movie scene in the late 70's and more aptly the early 80s. While not on a par with Halloween(few films like it are) I thought Madman was MUCH better than Friday the 13th. It is undeniably cheaply made but really does not show. The film opens with a wonderful red drawing of two clutching, gnarled hands whilst the titles play and this loud yet engrossing theme plays. We then go to a campfire where we see an older-looking camp counselor singing some bizarre ballad about people getting killed as he goes from person to person(the counselors out-number the children). Then the leader of the camp, an older guy named Max, tells this terrifying tale of Madman Marz and how he butchered his family with an axe and then was strung up by a group of people but escaped from being hanged where he now waits to do the like to any one who says his name above a whisper. Well, his name is said above a whisper and you can imagine what follows: deaths - many of them. While this is a very formulaic film, it has style and I was truly impressed. None of the actors except the lead female - Gaylen Ross who was one of the leads in Romero's Dawn of the Dead and Creepshow - has had any career(hers as an actress preceded this film actually). None of them are embarrassing - in fact I though everyone was pretty good, BUT it is the tension of the film that carries it. The Madman looks scary as we really see little of him through the film. The deaths are scary - from a guy being strung up and almost freeing himself to a girl hiding in a fridge to, my favorite, the hot girl(Harriet Bass as Stacy) taking the lyrics to "Keep truckin" a little too seriously. The film is mostly separate killings until the end when Ross realizes what is happening. The ending takes place in Madman Marz's dilapidated house. The direction by Joe Giannone and the story by Gary Sales and company really are quite entertaining and I am surprised more did not come out of their careers. They have obvious talent. The print I saw was by Anchor bay and was PRISTINE. I also enjoyed much of the director/cast/crew commentary provided.

This time capsule from the Golden Age of slasher movies utilizes every single touchstone of the genre with such abandon that anyone who has seen a handful of offerings from the era can probably predict every step of the action before it unfolds. But thanks to a suitably intimidating killer and a generous dollop of gore, Madman has enough spunk to be a fairly entertaining diversion.The film opens with our future victims huddled around a campfire hearing the tale of the film's titular Madman, and while this exact same set-up appears in nearly every "teens in the woods" splatter movie from the period, it's worth noting that since Madman was released fairly early in the cycle (1982), this establishing scene had not yet been rendered cliché. For what it's worth, this is the only slasher film I've seen in which the killer's legend is actually SUNG by one the characters, so Madman certainly scores a few dubious points for originality there.Once the ball gets rolling, everything else pretty much runs by the book. The victims-to-be are a bevy of uninteresting counselors at a camp for "gifted children", and after we've been filled in on the baritone back-story, they pair off to have sex and/or pointless conversations before finding increasingly foolish reasons to wander off into the woods alone.Madman Marz is the hulking behemoth the hapless counselors encounter amidst the trees, and in terms of sheer size, he is certainly an imposing presence. Unfortunately, the glimpses we get of him seem to suggest a sasquatch on the loose instead of a deranged killer. His bloody handiwork is a bit more impressive than his furry jowls, however, so that aspect of the film ably delivers the goods.Along with the grue, the film also boasts some priceless moments of unintentional hilarity. A definite high-point is that one of the male counselors is named T.P., a moniker he's apparently so proud of that he has it printed on his belt buckle. This buckle is a prominent feature in the funniest scene in the movie, which features a lugubrious montage of him and his lover slowly disrobing for a dip in the jacuzzi, accompanied by the most atrocious soft-core porn music you've ever heard.Certainly, this wasn't the first or last slasher movie to feature an ensemble of overwhelmingly brain-dead characters, but the zeal with which this crew invites their own demises is often astounding here. The general train of thought which sets up most of the murders is essentially, "some people are missing, and now the people who went looking for the missing people are missing too, so we should split up and go search the pitch black woods for them by ourselves." Later in the film, an even sharper lad bumps into his hysterical girlfriend, who has just seen the mountainous Madman appraising the decapitated body of his latest victim. His brilliant and comforting solution is to have her take him to where the killer is so that he can see exactly what she saw and "make sure". You can probably guess how that turns out.But wait, there's more. The same hysterical girlfriend, while being chased later in the film by the rampaging murderer, finds the most novel and sensible place to hide that I've ever seen utilized in a horror film... inside a refrigerator. I already knew refrigerators were useful for many things, including keeping food fresh and protecting Indiana Jones from atomic explosions, but it never occurred to me that they also offered perfect safe havens from pursuing mass murderers. Even better, Marz is about ten feet away from his shrieking prey when she loudly removes the contents from the unit to make room for her, and despite his proximity and the scattered food strewn all over the ground, the Madman apparently doesn't think to look inside the fridge. Yes, locking herself inside a refrigerator actually SAVES her. This is a plot twist I never saw coming, especially in a film this paint-by-numbers, so kudos to Madman for offering at least one big surprise. Sure, she eventually catches an axe to the chest, but that's what she gets for leaving the safety of the oxygen-less icebox.To the film's credit, the stereotypical final confrontation between the killer and the lone female survivor doesn't adhere to the same stringent formula that the rest of the movie does. Though the last frames before the credits are decidedly silly, the very fact that the film-makers did things a bit different is certainly admirable.I know it sounds like I'm being hard on poor, monkey-faced Madman Marz, but since the movie is just a big slice of pure, dumb fun, it's only fitting to celebrate the more ludicrous aspects of it. The best part of many of the early '80s slasher pics was how rife they were with accidental humor, and Madman offers up a healthy dose which ultimately only makes it more entertaining. If you love that period of cinematic history as much as I do, this is definitely one you should add to your list.

Exceptional cinematography (blue and black always works in backwoods slashers), raw death sequences (all about the NASTY hanging of T.P.!), cheesy moments (all about the kitsch romantic dance followed by sex inside a jacuzzi!), a creepy villain, a spooky song about the legend of Madman. Those are the principal elements that make this slasher a winner.Although cheesy and at some points slow-moving, "Madman" deserves a chance because it surely is a damn entertaining slasher. Sure, it steals plenty of moments from "Friday the 13th" but also delivers unique moments of madness. WTF? about the girl hiding in the fridge?! This moment can be ignored when Madman pays tribute to "Black Christmas" (you know, the "eye" scene).What about showing the demises of all the characters when a guy is singing the spooky song around a campfire?! Neat!I recommend this one for those who love slashers flicks. I can't say more.P.S. R.I.P. T.P.!