| Madman (1981) Dir: Joe Giannone Cast: Gaylen Ross (credited as Alexis Dublin), Tony Fish, Harriet Bass, Seth Jones, Paul Ehlers Rated R, Approx: 88 minutes Anchor Bay Entertainment Video and DVD. |
| After the immediate success of Friday the 13th at the box office, it became very clear in the eyes of producers that the slasher film was a profitable product, and even the lowest of budgets could reap some sort of profit. It is of this philosophy, that films like 1981's Madman were surely born. |
| Made during the big slasher boom, Madman tells of the twisted campfire tale of Madman Marz, a local farmer to a summer camp who brutally butchered his family and fled into the forest one night evading the local police. Marz was never caught and the legend of the madman had begun. For years, the mention of Marz around the campfire invoked fear, until one night at the end of the camping season, a group of counselors gather around the fire for the retelling of the legend. It's revealed that the murderer will appear if his name is said above a whisper so naturally, it doesn't take long for one of the campers to call out to Marz in a mocking manner, nor does it take much time for the hulking killer to show up at camp with an axe to grind... |
| Madman is a good little slasher film that will surely please fans of this particular subgenre, it's not exactly perfect, and the unevenness of the whole thing tends to get a little frustrating, especially because some of the films best moments are very well executed. At one end, you have the typically cliched camp slasher film, with characters endlessly wandering around the woods in search of missing people, only to wind up at the wrong end of the killer's blade. When one teen dies, another goes out looking for him and so on. This takes up a ridiculous amount of time in the film, despite the effectively gory moments that tend to finish off these long scenes, they often turn quite droll and meandering, they certainly lack the much needed suspense director Giannone was perhaps attempting here. |
| When the film picks up, its scenes are often intense and even scary. In Madman's best scenes, the hulking killer chases female counselors through cabins, through the woods and even onto a school bus. These moments are where the film's main strengths lie, they should also delight gorehounds who are used to the best and goriest moments of slasher films beings excised by the all knowing MPAA, for Madman manages to sneak by with quite the bloody moments intact. |
| Madman may not be a great film, but in a subgenre that has been done to death, this one succeeds and stands out not only as one truly creepy campfire tale, but as a true testamate to 80's horror. When done right, the films of the 80's can outshine those timid 90's clones any old day of the week. |
| Matt's Rating: ***1/2 (out of 5) |
| Reviewed by Matt Serafini 1/21/02 |
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