The Mad Death (1983) User Reviews

Not far enough in several ways

[Opaque · 7/10 · 27 August 2006]

It didn't go far enough in the portrayal of the rabies victims (although it does a fairly job for the first), but we don't get to see the effect on the child victim either. But my main problem is with the size, strength and back-up of the response to the outbreak. As we have seen with the Foot and Mouth outbreaks, even in the past, MAFF and other agencies had the policy of strict containment and kill and burn when necessary approach. Even back in the 60's this was the case so why was there so much pussyfooting around? The scene in the pub for example, he should have been able to call in the police and got those people arrested and the publican closed down for not reporting it. And he certainly should have been armed as well.

When the old woman released the dogs they should have gone straight to her house en-masse, arrested her and killed all her animals, instead one person turns up. Pathetic.

It was a very good film though in general although lacking in 'power'in terms of solutions. Even with the way they 'sorted it out' there would be no way of saying whether it had got out of the containment area, going by the time elapsed (2 weeks) a 12 mile area around the first outbreak is rather naive in the least.

Considering how easily rabies can be transmitted the danger was totally underestimated. A modern version of this would be interesting, at least in this film people could vaccinate their pets, I can't see that being the case these days.

A grimly realistic piece of social horror

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 3 June 2017]

THE MAD DEATH is one of those BBC TV series of yesteryear that left an impression on everybody who saw it, a bit like GHOSTWATCH did a decade later. This one's about a rabies epidemic in Britain, and for once the low budget works in the production's favour, making it a grimly realistic piece of social horror along the lines of THREADS, although not quite as dark as that (but then, what is?).

There are three episodes on offer and the first is by far the best, charting the plight of a man who gets attacked by a rabies-infected fox and who gradually succumbs to the disease. There are some startling hallucination scenes and a lot of grim stuff that make this really work. The next two episodes get bogged down a bit in endless animal-shooting (not what I really want to see) although there's a good shopping centre set-piece. A little too much is made of a human villain, a crazy cat lazy who contributes to the outbreak. The likes of Barbara Kellerman and Paul Brooke work well in their parts and the miniseries offers a neat snapshot of Britain during the era.

Good mini series, but ultimately disappointing

[brundleuk · 7/10 · 26 July 2020]

3 part mini series produced by BBC Scotland & broadcast in 1983

The first part of this series is probably the part viewers in the UK remember, it's genuinely chilling and really extremely good, I was surprised it was a 12 rating, there are some quite uncomfortable scenes, brilliantly acted by Ed Bishop and part one is 9/10.

Unfortunately, parts 2&3 descend into standard drama and by part 3 you have to remind yourself that Rabies is even the subject of the series.

This could easily have been a six part series, for all I know it could have been originally, it feels as though there are 2 or 3 episodes missing, and they could have explored a Rabies outbreak much further, especially given they wasted budget (IMO) on helicopter shots in part 3 that don't really add anything, it seems a wasted opportunity.

It feels as though the first part was written, but they ran out of ideas, who knows!?

Anyway, all in all, although I've been pretty negative, this is worth a revisit, it's not bad by any means, and at 3hrs a good evenings entertainment.

if you're of a certain age or even if it's new to you it's worth watching, especially for part 1

Pt1 9/10

Pt2 7/10

Pt3 6/10

7/10 overall

Unerving.

[kevinwelland · 20 January 2006]

This is a mini series I have never forgotten. Gave me nightmares. Tells the story of what might happen should a rabies outbreak occur in Britain. An American man is infected with this terrible virus at the start of the first episode. He contracts it from a fox that he picks up whilst out driving. He puts the animal in his garage, and then whilst preparing dinner, he cuts himself with a knife. Then not knowing that the fox is rabid, he strokes the animal with the cut finger. From then on, we are taken through the awful stages of the disease which gives him mad fits of terror, foaming at the mouth and dreadful hallucinations. It gives the viewer a terrifying insight into this terrible disease. From then on though the story in my opinion disintegrates. From starting very believable, it ends undramatically with guys going out into the countryside shooting animals at will. The final victim if I can remember is a sheep dog. Serious stuff. But worth a watch. Gives us an education about the most terrifying virus.

Top-class drama at its very best. A credit to the Beeb.

[sigrafeas · 7/10 · 4 September 2006]

Oh yes! I remember being hooked to the screen when this mini series first aired on BBC TV. I would have been around 30 at the time, living in England, and I know the thought of rabies horrified me, as it did most British people, because we had been a "rabies free" zone for so long. This was the first time I ever really saw the symptoms and progression of the disease, and it gave me some bad dreams, too.

I never saw a repeat of the series while I remained in Britain, but I thought it certainly deserved one. Going on memory, the acting was more than competent, and from the beginning - when the infected cat was smuggled into Britain on a private yacht - I was absolutely riveted.

This was an excellent series - I'd certainly buy it if it became available on DVD.

Mo

The Rabies Virus

[thehitman-84351 · 7/10 · 5 June 2020]

I just bought this on DVD and I'm watching it as I write this not a bad drama considering the BBC made it it's a bit short only having three episodes it could have been longer I assume it was mostly filmed in Scotland the acting isn't bad and the subject matter is interesting, a possible outbreak of rabies being spread by foxes, dogs and cats yet very few people seemed to contract the disease they should have expanded this concept to heighten the fear factor, dog lovers will probably hate this, I remember it well from the 80s and I recommend it

Sinister cult 80's classic

[geoffwright-47707 · 8/10 · 21 November 2022]

In the UK in the 80's, reminders of the threat of a rabies outbreak were everywhere. The iconic poster with the skull and the jagged writing was put up on the most unlikely of public buildings, public information films would jump out during teatime ad breaks, and newspapers would print the story of the occasional instance where someone resident in the UK would contract rabies abroad and die horribly having returned. Make no mistake, the paranoia was huge.

We're taken quickly through the sequence of events that causes rabies to establish in the UK. A French woman smuggles in her cat that's been infected by a fox, and brings it when attending a party amongst the gentry in the Scottish highlands. The cat gets loose, and having scratched the lovable collie owned by one of the attendees, is run over by a partygoer, its dying body being feasted on by a feral fox.

Enter Tom Siegler, an eccentric US expat played by UFO's Ed Bishop, who, when stopping to call his mistress from a phone box, notices a docile-looking fox lying by the road. For reasons only he would know, he decides the fox might make for a pet. Unbeknown to him, it is rabid, and ultimately causes his downfall.

The fox infects him in slightly implausible circumstances, and thereafter we see him decline until he progressively experiences the symptoms of rabies until he is hallucinating and convulsing in terrifying ways until his death is a merciful release. Unfortunately, he's also infected his mistress through a misplaced lovebite.

The second episode of this 3-part series examines the public reaction to the outbreak. The locals watch angrily as their pets are impounded, and we get to know Miss Stonecroft, a deranged old woman with nothing else in her life than to take in stray animals, who finds herself in conflict with the team tasked with combating the outbreak, vet Mike Hilliard and Dr Anne Maitland. Back stories include seeing the death of Siegler's mistress, and a rabid stray alsatian terorrising shoppers in East Kilbride shopping centre. A wordless season in which a group of seemingly inbred locals confront Hilliard in a pub is in its own way really unpleasant.

This episode brings one of the saddest scenes, as we see Siegler's mistress slip away in the same manner he did, in an oxygen tent in an isolation room. Just before she dies, unable to speak, she mouths the words to Dr Maitland asking if Siegler is there, Maitland's casual reply to say that he is not is borderline cruel.

The third and final episode ends in a bit of a bloodbath. Miss Stonecroft has released a number of impounded animals, which causes the infected area to increase. Hilliard coldly calls in the army to cull the escaped animals, and any bit of wildlife that gets in the way. We don't see anyone dying from rabies, but this still includes some harrowing scenes, including when Dr Maitland visits an increasingly unhinged Miss Stonecroft. Things calm down once the slaughter is over, and the series ends at Glasgow airport, where Hilliard is thanked by the DEFRA minister played brilliantly by Jimmy Logan, whilst the woman whose fault this was all along returns home to France. Everyone lives happily ever after. Or do they?

It's debatable if this fully communicates the real horror of rabies, but it still stands the test of time nearly 40 years later. The scenes in the first episode in particular are especially horrifying, with creative effects. It's basically every rabies public information film of the 70's and 80's rolled into a mini series. This is the risk if you smuggle an animal, this is how you die, these are the draconian measures that would be brought in to control it.

It's probably the second most scary 80's BBC drama to "Threads". The good bits speak for themselves. The surprising bits are how the best characters are the more peripheral ones. The jealous and controlling lord of the manor, the bumbling but likable PR man, and the magnificent cigar-munching minister.are examples.

The bad bits centre around the unnecessary love triangle between Hilliard, Maitland and the deeply unpleasant country gent, and that the parts which should have gone further don't, and the bits which go a little too far are left alone. . That being said, it was a bit of an own goal to set this series amongst the wealthy and the privileged in the Scottish highlands. It's too remote to bring home the message that this could happen in your neck of the woods, and to regular people.

That doesn't take away that this is a classic and genuinely disturbing piece of 80's cult television, which if you haven't checked out, you should.

Poorly executed drama

[Prof-Hieronymos-Grost · 4/10 · 21 September 2009]

A woman smuggles her cat into the UK, an illegal act, the ban on animals traveling having been put in place to retain the country's Rabies free status. The woman is unaware that her cat has just been in an altercation with a fox, but back in the UK it begins to act odd. After a series of scenes involving the passing of the deadly virus from animal to animal, an American businessman Tom Siegler (Ed Bishop) resident in the UK comes across a seemingly stunned fox at the side of the road. The fox appears docile and is amiable to being petted, so Siegler takes him home, but the fox soon turns on him, Bishop becomes infected and is the first to die. The authorities become aware and immediately set in place some restrictions in the area, a cordon is placed within a five mile radius of his house. Michael Hilliard is a veterinary expert who is persuaded to take charge of the investigation and straight away he sets out to find anyone who came in contact with the dead man before he died, his actions and restrictions don't go down well with local animal lovers and the press also make him out to be a bit of a loon. But as the virus spreads, he seems to be justified, but can he restrict the spread and make the country virus free again? In the 80's there was a real fear that rabies aka "The Mad Death", might spread to the UK, there were frightening TV advertisements to warn and scare the public away from smuggling animals into the country from the continent where Rabies was widespread. A frightening premise for a film? well sure the reality of it is scary, but to make it as a horror The Mad Death really needed to push home the fear, sadly it doesn't. The Fear element just isn't explored, The Mad Death is called that for a reason, its a terrible death, but these factors are just not explored well enough to either strike fear into the viewer or to deter would be smugglers. Little or no tension is built up, too much time is spent early on showing in a rather dull way, how it spreads from fox to cat to fox to dog to human and so on, that soon the viewer will be asking what all the fuss is about. I can also say that I have never seen animal lovers portrayed in such a bad light, every single one in the Mad Death, is played as crazy or with murderous intentions, they have no interest in stopping the spread of the virus, even the merest of actions like keeping your dog indoors is treated with apathy and anger, all in all not very believable. The acting is stilted beyond belief, with numerous silences and laboured pauses, actors staring into space and these aren't the ones that are infected. There's also a love triangle going on that is dull in the extreme. The restrictions set in place by police and Dept of Agriculture are also quite laughable in their laxness, if such an outbreak occurred in reality, the UK would be absolutely doomed. Now i realize some elements of plot have to be there to further the story, but here it is pushed to ridiculous extremes. So has the Mad Death got anything going for it? well, there are a few interesting set pieces, a rabid fox locked in a garage, a rabid Alsatian loose in a shopping mall, spring to mind, but even these are lazily handled. In a time when viruses are a real threat to humanity, its hard to get scared by a poodle and a Labrador running wild in a forest. If the filmmakers were out to scare the audience they failed miserably, if they were out to educate the public as to the risks, they also failed as its a little too preachy

Not Great, But Occasionally Effective

[TheExpatriate700 · 4/10 · 4 January 2010]

Having heard so much about it online, The Mad Death ultimately turned out to be a disappointment when I finally obtained it on DVD. The main highlights turned out to be its opening sequence and an eerie synthesizer score.

The main problem with the miniseries is that it is not particularly well written. Many of the characters are too dumb to care about, picking up animals that are clearly rabid even to an untrained eye, and not bothering to have animal bites checked out by a doctor. Furthermore, the film has a certain element of predictability about it, with many of the plot developments telegraphed in advance.

Moreover, there is a disturbing lack of violent animal attacks in the film. If one purchases a film called The Mad Death about a rabies epidemic, the least one would expect would be a good, violent mauling every fifteen minutes or so. Most of the violence here is directed toward the animals, mainly gunshots to the head.

Doesn't Go Far Enough

[Theo Robertson · 5/10 · 25 November 2012]

You want to know about rabies ? Try this: One time I was abroad and was unfortunate to be bitten by a stray cat . I didn't think too much of it at the time . I traveled back to the capital city to catch my plane back to Britain and I got into a conversation with the night porter at my hostel who had spent his national service as a medic and for some strange reason the conversation got round to rabies . " We don't have much of that here in cities , but there's a lot of it in the north of the country . Very terrible death , I'd much rather die of AIDS or cancer " he told me . Considering I'd just returned from the north of the country I felt the first pangs of worry . The porter then went into detail of footage he'd seen while in the medical corps " You can see in the victim's eyes that they're aware of what's going on despite their delusions...the throat contracts in spasms and that's what kills them , they effectively suffocate . Very nasty death " By now I was having a panic attack and didn't actually care if I got blown up by a terrorist bomb on my way back to the airport

Before I left the next day I popped into a cybercafe and looked up cases of rabies in the region . What I saw terrified me since the disease isn't exactly unknown where I was , several people had died there in the late 1990s . I then looked up symptoms of rabies on the internet and the night porter wasn't kidding , it's almost certainly the most terrible death known to mankind , it kills 40-50,000 people a year and worst of all even if you're receiving inoculations against the disease if you develop symptoms that's it - You're almost certainly going to suffer a lingering painful death . Few and far between are survivors of rabies and those who do survive are left with terrible brain damage making them little more than vegetables

As soon as I arrived back to in Britain I felt slightly dizzy and had a sore throat . I might have been the first symptoms of rabies or more likely it might have been the cold virus . I popped into my local health centre where I had an appointment with my doctor " Any foaming at the mouth ? If you'd been exposed to rabies you'd have contracted it by now " which is incorrect since it can take as much as several years for symptoms to develop though the average incubation is two to three months , I'd been bitten a couple of weeks earlier . The doctor ( Who seemed much better at asking questions rather than answering them ) managed to contact a hospital in Glasgow where I went the next day .

I love hospitals . Having all those young nurses fussing over you , so normally if a young , tall , slim , blond nurse took my blood pressure I'd be in flirting heaven but not this time . I let the nurse carry out the tests without any wise cracks . I was then seen by the doctor , she was in her early twenties , brunette , perhaps the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen . No cheeky comments , no flirting and most of all no false machismo to impress this definitive vision of beauty . To give you an impression of how serious I was after I'd had the first course of vaccinations , I thanked her and said " I hope to never see you again " and I meant it . The hospital sent the vaccine to my local hospital where I was successfully inoculated against the virus over a course of a month . I'm alive but for several weeks I couldn't even begin to describe the fear I felt . I couldn't even hear the word " Rabies " without breaking into a cold sweat . It was perhaps the most frightening experience of my life

That's the problem with THE MAD DEATH - It doesn't go far enough . I do remember the title sequence but alas I also remember a few unintentional funny scenes . A woman smuggles in her pet from the continent and it ends up on the menu for a fox which then attacks the star of UFO . If I remember correctly the most " shocking " scene involves Basil Brush being covered in shaving foam being slammed against Commander Stryker's car windscreen . Oh and Commander Stryker's been a naughty boy since he's been having an affair with his secetary and has given the rabies virus to her : Cut to Ms Secetary lying on a hospital bed dying of rabies . It looked like she was faking an orgasm while vomiting toothpaste ! You do get the impression that no one on the production has seen a rabies victim die . There's other images that stick out in the mind like the army going on a cull or the final ambiguous scene that implies it's all going to happen again but comes across as being cheesy .

If you really want to know about this terrible killer disease , go abroad and get bitten by a stray mammal then type in " Symptoms of rabies " in any search engine . Make sure you have plenty of toilet paper ready because you'll certainly need it

I have to see this one again

[claireryan_2003 · 14 November 2004]

I remember this film. It was a three part series on BBC1 if I remember rightly. Every time I was In church since and All Things Bright And Beautiful has been played, the theme of this film comes straight into my head (almost like a hollow whispering of the song). In fact as I sit here now I can hear that dog at the end of the film barking away in the car then going into an eerie whine. The plot was devastating to see what would happen if our country were to have the Rabies Virus - Quite Uncontrolable as you would imagine by all the OTT animal lovers in the programme, making it an impossible task to get hold of the carriers. Brilliant work. Come on BBC give us something for our money. This is one that does no need updating.

Not bad but let down by poor acting

[david-wooton · 5/10 · 3 October 2023]

The plot is good but it seems to jump around from scene to scene with some pretty poor acting between. So acting is solid but the script is very poor in parts. The ferret scene was ridiculous. The initial scene with cat attacking the dog also ridiculous. And you don't find out about the dog or its family. Also the cat goes from one scene in the house and the next scene its been run over by a visitor to the house and is being eaten by a fox. This whole part feels like it had scenes missing. This happens alot on the DVD. Bits seem like scenes are missing. If these issues were fixed the DVD would be alot better. But not bad.

Glad I've stumbled across another old gem!

[james-godwin · 3 April 2004]

I must have been 13 when this had just been broadcasted. Like another video gem -"don't look now",my old english teacher would have probably embraced the idea of giving his fellow pupils a visual lesson or two in the profoundly morbid,with this short tale of rabid pets (& humans).Set in the english countryside,a cat is locally imported & sparks an outbreak of rabies amongst the locals.I remember it being rather dramatic with a stylish ending.I can't remember much detail, so I'm now left with the task of PURCHASING IT (anybody?) watching it,& probably throwing up my next indian.Chien jalfrezi anybody?