Madhouse

As co-written and directed by Ovidio Assonitis ("Beyond the Door", "Tentacles"), "There Was a Little Girl" (a.k.a. "Madhouse") is a mostly tedious affair running through the standard slasher paces adequately but without any real style. For its first two thirds, it actually plays more like a drama with some horror moments than an out and out horror film. It's too bad it got labelled as a Video Nasty, as it's never really that gory, at least not until the end. The good thing is that the performances are better than expected, and things do get marginally more interesting in the final third, with a plot development that some horror fans may see coming and some may not.

Trish Everly stars as Julia, a teacher in a school for deaf children whose birthday is nearing. In the days leading up to it, her deformed, demented twin sister Mary (Allison Biggers) escapes from the hospital. It seems that Mary had dominated and terrorized the meek Julia during their childhood, and now Julia is more than a little concerned. Mary had had a spooky canine companion when the two women were young, and now there's a bloodthirsty dog adding to the weirdness.

For around an hour or so, this is just a little too dull, although Assonitis succeeds in building some atmosphere. But the story becomes more fun upon its one true big reveal. Eventually, this bears some strong resemblances to the Canadian slasher "Happy Birthday to Me", although it's hard to say whether one movie ripped off the other or not. The beautiful Everly does an okay job in the lead, the equally lovely Morgan Most is fine as her friend, and Michael MacRae is acceptable as Julias' psychiatrist / lover, but the person who steals the show is Dennis Robertson as the friendly Father James. The animal work is good; trainer Joe Camp plays the ill-fated hospital guard. However, during the finale, when the crazed dog comes through a door, a special effect is employed, and it's laughably horrible.

Overall, a decent shocker redeemed to a degree by its last act.

Five out of 10.

Madhouse (1981)

** (out of 4)

Julia (Trish Everly) suffers from various mental issues due to the abuse that she suffered from her twin sister. Years later the sister is deformed with a skin virus but before their birthday someone shows up at Julia's school and begins killing her friends.

Director Ovidio G. Assonitis will always be remembered for THE EXORCIST rip-off BEYOND THE DOOR as well as TENTACLES and to a lesser extent for firing James Cameron on PIRANHA PART TWO. Before he fired Cameron he was directing this film, a bizarre mix of American slasher and Italian giallo. I must admit that I wasn't overly familiar with the picture until Arrow Video announced its release and afterwards I'm a bit confused about what I watched.

For the most part if you're a horror fan you'll want to check this film out, although it falls well short of what I'd consider a good movie. I'm really not sure what the film was trying to do other than to show off some gory death scenes every fifteen-minutes or so. The story itself is, I think, supposed to be some sort of mystery but it's pretty easy to figure out what the twist is going to be. With knowing the twist, that pretty much takes away any suspense or mystery. Another problem with the picture is the fact that the death scenes are so spread apart. It's too bad there either wasn't much more of a story or perhaps the body count jacked up.

I thought Assonitis managed to create a nice setting and there's some nice cinematography as well. The film kept me mildly entertained through the first hour but things just really started to drag during the finale. I won't spoil who the killer is but I must say the murder of the killer is quite excellent. It's too bad the rest of the film wasn't as good. I did also enjoy the subplot dealing with the murderous dog. CUJO didn't have anything on this mutt! Again, MADHOUSE isn't a great movie or even a good one but there are enough interesting moments to make it worth sitting through.

Ovidio G.Assontis "Madhouse" is a pretty good shocker which offers plenty of mood and bloody violence.This obscure little gem appeared on the infamous 'video nasties' list,but personally I don't know why.The film features some really gruesome moments,but nothing too shocking or memorable.The killings are actually pretty tame,but the power-drill scene is quite nasty.The finale is very gory and should satisfy fans of splatter.The score by Riz Ortolani of "Cannibal Holocaust" fame is decent as it provides some chills.The film is pretty tough to find,but if you like Italian horror give it a look.8 out of 10.

This is a fun 80s horror movie. It's a bit unpredictable because it doesn't make sense. But it has such a zany energy that it's forgivable imo. Dennis Robertson's performance stands out as being memorable. I will reiterate - you'll have to turn your brain off to enjoy this one. It's creepy and well-made. And it will not answer the questions it raises. It doesn't care about logic.

Madhouse stars Trish Everly as Julia Sullivan, a teacher at a school for the deaf, whose hideously disfigured and sadistic twin sister, Mary, resides in a nearby mental hospital. Four days before Trish's birthday, Mary escapes in order to arrange a special party for her unsuspecting sister...

In the United Kingdom in the 1980s, movies released on home video became the target of a hate campaign led by Britain's über-vigilant defenders of moral decency: the press, bored housewives, and Conservative politicians. As a result, a list was compiled of the films they deemed to be most offensive; these titles became known as 'Video Nasties' and were seized from shops before they had a chance to work their evil influence on an unsuspecting public.

Ovidio G. Assonitis's Madhouse was one such 'nasty'.

Featuring a bloodthirsty rottweiler, a frenzied axe attack that reduces the victim's back to a bloody pulp, and a messy canine lobotomy by electric drill, it quickly found itself added to the list of titles most likely to corrupt and deprave. It didn't matter much to the moral crusaders that the film was also a well-crafted psychological chiller that delivered plenty of atmosphere, memorable performances, and some lovely cinematography; no... this film featured a dog receiving a drill-bit between the eyes, and we can't have people watching that kind of stuff, can we?

Two decades on, and Madhouse is now available uncut on DVD; it seems that the people of the UK have since developed to a stage where they are able to handle such horror without it turning them into murderous lunatics (either that, or the authorities have actually realised they were wrong and the film was never that disturbing in the first place). Oh well, better late than never, I suppose...

Ironically, Assonitis's film is perhaps a little too slow and lacking in gore for today's casual horror viewer, but for seasoned fans of the genre, it offers plenty to enjoy: there's the mystery of the identity of a second killer (not too hard to guess, but fun nevertheless); a great OTT performance from Dennis Robertson as Father James, Trish's nursery-rhyme singing uncle; a likable heroine; a brief performance from Morgan Hart as very tasty, blonde rottweiler fodder, Helen; and a ghoulish final scene that is remarkably similar to that of a Canadian slasher, Happy Birthday To Me (who stole from whom is debatable, since both films were released in the same year).