Madman (1982)
Madman opens with a camp-fire scene. A spooky tale is told by way of song by T.P. (Tony Fish) to some rather lifeless kids who couldn't look more uninterested if they tried. In fact T.P's tune only appears to be of interest to the other camp counsellors. The song is rather awful introduction and doesn't bode well for what's to come, especially as there are clips hinting as the counsellors' fates cut into the scene. You have the urge to turn off there and then. You've seen what's coming so why endure more? After all there maybe more dire songs (and there are).
There's also another story to be blabbed out, this time courtesy of senior counsellor Max (Carl Fredericks). He recounts the urban legend of the aptly named Madman Marz (Paul Ehlers) a local guy who killed his whole family, even his kids! It just so happens that close to where our bunch are mindlessly recounting the guy's tale is Marz's home, now dilapidated. We learn that If you say his name out loud Marz will come and kill you and probably anyone else to hand too.
Max evidently believes in the legend and is not best pleased when younger counsellor Richie (Jimmy Steele) shouts out for the madman to come and get him. This feels contradictory, I mean, Max has just been saying Marz's name out loud in recounting the grisly malnourished tale and he KNOWS what happens when you say the name out loud - perhaps Max has a death wish? Or just didn't like the kids and their counsellors and wanted to get Marz to come and clobber them all. It would explain why Max buggers off for the remainder of the movie leaving the rest to fend for themselves as the killer runs amok. Or it could be because the main counsellor in the original Friday the 13th buggered off and left the younger counsellors to fend themselves and the writer here simply cribbed it. And that's pretty much it for the set up. What follows is the usual silly people doing silly things that lead to silly killings as they individually venture out to find the same idiot that kick-started the murder spree - Ritchie!
Like most genre flicks the main aim behind the making of the film was to make money rather than a quality product. With John Carpenter's Halloween raking in the money studios were naturally keen to cash in. They turned to the independents to see what horror produce they had that they could fling out into theatres quickly. And that's how Madman came about. Following its theatrical release in January 1982 Madman went on to be a sleeper hit on the US drive-in circuit before garnering a cult following on home video. In watching the disc's extras it would appear that the cast and crew are stunned to still be talking about the film so many years after its release. I would be too.
It looks like the good folk involved have been looking to produce a remake/reimaging now for some years. They reason that Jason, Michael and Freddie have had remakes and franchises but fail to recognise that the characters mentioned were all from much more successful movies hence why they were franchised and remade. Madman is a cult movie and remaking a cult movie doesn't really work. It has a limited appeal.
Madman is a perfect example of a film that is so bad that it's actually pretty good. It's hugely derivative and quite frankly awful. Madman constantly rips off far better slasher movies throughout often to its detriment. Madman plays like a greatest hits collection of horror clichés all covered by a lesser-known artists. There's the camp-fire tale that sets the scene (see also John Carpenter's The Fog, The Burning, Friday the 13th Part 2 amongst others), a hot tub scene (see also Halloween II amongst others) and, well you get the picture, even leading up to the ambiguous open ending screaming out for a sequel that, for this film, never comes. What Madman lacks in originality it more than makes up for with unintentional laughs and inventive, if poorly executed killings. The acting is awful but this adds to the fun.
You find yourself wondering why so many adults are employed for the supervision of a handful of 'gifted' children, so gifted they never utter a word, and why oh why are the police never called when it's apparent things have gone very wrong indeed. Watching a hysterical woman, a poor attempt at aping Jamie Lee Curtis, empty a fridge in haste to hide from Madman Marz is so absurd you need to replay the scene for it to sink in that it actually did happen. Madman is a guilty pleasure, absurd, annoying but thoroughly watchable in an awful kind of way. You shouldn't like it but you do.
This review and others feature on my site www.mybloodyreviews.com
Madman opens with a camp-fire scene. A spooky tale is told by way of song by T.P. (Tony Fish) to some rather lifeless kids who couldn't look more uninterested if they tried. In fact T.P's tune only appears to be of interest to the other camp counsellors. The song is rather awful introduction and doesn't bode well for what's to come, especially as there are clips hinting as the counsellors' fates cut into the scene. You have the urge to turn off there and then. You've seen what's coming so why endure more? After all there maybe more dire songs (and there are).
There's also another story to be blabbed out, this time courtesy of senior counsellor Max (Carl Fredericks). He recounts the urban legend of the aptly named Madman Marz (Paul Ehlers) a local guy who killed his whole family, even his kids! It just so happens that close to where our bunch are mindlessly recounting the guy's tale is Marz's home, now dilapidated. We learn that If you say his name out loud Marz will come and kill you and probably anyone else to hand too.
Max evidently believes in the legend and is not best pleased when younger counsellor Richie (Jimmy Steele) shouts out for the madman to come and get him. This feels contradictory, I mean, Max has just been saying Marz's name out loud in recounting the grisly malnourished tale and he KNOWS what happens when you say the name out loud - perhaps Max has a death wish? Or just didn't like the kids and their counsellors and wanted to get Marz to come and clobber them all. It would explain why Max buggers off for the remainder of the movie leaving the rest to fend for themselves as the killer runs amok. Or it could be because the main counsellor in the original Friday the 13th buggered off and left the younger counsellors to fend themselves and the writer here simply cribbed it. And that's pretty much it for the set up. What follows is the usual silly people doing silly things that lead to silly killings as they individually venture out to find the same idiot that kick-started the murder spree - Ritchie!
Like most genre flicks the main aim behind the making of the film was to make money rather than a quality product. With John Carpenter's Halloween raking in the money studios were naturally keen to cash in. They turned to the independents to see what horror produce they had that they could fling out into theatres quickly. And that's how Madman came about. Following its theatrical release in January 1982 Madman went on to be a sleeper hit on the US drive-in circuit before garnering a cult following on home video. In watching the disc's extras it would appear that the cast and crew are stunned to still be talking about the film so many years after its release. I would be too.
It looks like the good folk involved have been looking to produce a remake/reimaging now for some years. They reason that Jason, Michael and Freddie have had remakes and franchises but fail to recognise that the characters mentioned were all from much more successful movies hence why they were franchised and remade. Madman is a cult movie and remaking a cult movie doesn't really work. It has a limited appeal.
Madman is a perfect example of a film that is so bad that it's actually pretty good. It's hugely derivative and quite frankly awful. Madman constantly rips off far better slasher movies throughout often to its detriment. Madman plays like a greatest hits collection of horror clichés all covered by a lesser-known artists. There's the camp-fire tale that sets the scene (see also John Carpenter's The Fog, The Burning, Friday the 13th Part 2 amongst others), a hot tub scene (see also Halloween II amongst others) and, well you get the picture, even leading up to the ambiguous open ending screaming out for a sequel that, for this film, never comes. What Madman lacks in originality it more than makes up for with unintentional laughs and inventive, if poorly executed killings. The acting is awful but this adds to the fun.
You find yourself wondering why so many adults are employed for the supervision of a handful of 'gifted' children, so gifted they never utter a word, and why oh why are the police never called when it's apparent things have gone very wrong indeed. Watching a hysterical woman, a poor attempt at aping Jamie Lee Curtis, empty a fridge in haste to hide from Madman Marz is so absurd you need to replay the scene for it to sink in that it actually did happen. Madman is a guilty pleasure, absurd, annoying but thoroughly watchable in an awful kind of way. You shouldn't like it but you do.
This review and others feature on my site www.mybloodyreviews.com