Customer Reviews

Madman

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(17)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I'm not sure what attracted me to this movie, but whatever it was, I'm glad I checked it out. I've always been a fan of slasher flicks (maybe it has something to do with the fact that I was born in 1980, around the time the founding fathers of slasher flicks were releashed -- Halloween and Friday the 13th). The slasher genre is probably my favorite because there are so many films from which to work when reviewing a slasher.

Madman takes place at a camp, complete with kids, teenage camp counselors, and the old guy who's supposed to be making sure the teenagers are watching the kids and not having sex with one another all of the time. The old guy's name is Max (Carl Fredericks) and we start out listening to one of his "campside stories." The story he spins for everybody is that of Madman Marz. A number of years ago, Max tells us, a farmer butchered his entire family and then went to the tavern for a beer. Although the town hanged him for his crimes, Marz escaped into the woods and was never heard from again. Max warns his camp not to say the name Madman Marz above a whisper or else they'll piss Marz off and he'll come to get them. At this point, your classic punk stands up and starts mocking the whole story, screaming out "Madman Marz!"

The Max character is weird because he doesn't act like your typical old guy -- he doesn't mind the teens drinking beer, he doesn't mind scaring the hell out of the little kids, and he always seems to know more than he's letting on. I've wondered whether or not Max was actually Marz. By the end of the movie, I was still not convinced that he wasn't. Max and Marz were played by different actors, but could there be a secret in the storyline that link Max and Marz? There's also a few scenes that place Max too far away from camp to be Marz while all of the killings are taking place. You'll see this weirdness about Max that I'm talking about if you check this film out.

The gory scenes in this movie are quite good. The killer uses an axe as his murder weapon, but we also see one of the teens' heads chopped off under the hood of a pickup truck. Pretty unique, huh? There are obvious similarities beyond the gore to Friday the 13th and Halloween. The music used throughout the film is the most obvious. Others include the "woods" and "camp" themes common in nearly all of the Friday movies. These similarities do not make Madman a "ripoff" -- Madman certainly has qualities that make it standout. For example, in the beginning of the movie, Marz is introduced to us as someone very human -- Max tells us that Marz goes to the tavern and drinks a beer after slaughtering his family. Can you imagine Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees sitting down for a beer after one of their kills ... Exactly!

With all good slasher movies, there's the issue of the killer's face. In the beginning of the film, we see Marz in silhouette, revealing only his wild hair and large body. Eventually we see his face shot from several darkly lit and obscure angles. In fact, his face isn't "clearly" seen until near the end of the movie. And even then, it's shot from a moving camera looking up, a technique that has the tendency to conceal whatever it's filming.

Another commonality in slasher films is the sparing of at least one of the teens. This way, someone gets to tell their story to the cops or whoever ends up coming to rescue the camp when it's all over. My guess was that Betsy (Alexis Dubin) would be spared because of her savior-like role. I won't tell you if my assumption turned out to be true, you'll have to find out for yourself. The actress who portrayed Betsy was credited in this film as Alexis Dubin, but she previously appeared in the horror classic Dawn of the Dead as Gaylen Ross. She does an excellent job portraying the smart one of the bunch, even though she makes a few stupid decisions here and there. If I had to pick a smart one, though, it would definitely be her!

Without reservation I add Madman to my list of favorite 80's slasher movies. The DVD quality is excellent -- I only witnessed one scene in which the scream doesn't match up with the victim's mouth. This little error is forgivable considering the wonderful quality that's been preserved in this DVD. Check this one out, folks! Rating: 4 / 4.

SMITH TALKS: The Future of Movie Reviews ...

The first time I saw Madman was on a bad quality VHS release from a South African backdoor video store. It scared me then and it still scares me now, twenty years later. This is a sound horror flick with creative art direction and cinematography. From homage to direct creative theft, this motion picture is a best-of compilation with the most effective cinema tricks beautifully orchestrated to create a truely horrific motion picture. The down side is the "pornographic" acting and very weak dialogue. The characters all seem a little like clubbed seals and by the end of the flick, you are cheering the villain for putting them out of their misery. In parrallel to the cult classics, bad acting never seems to hamper a film's success or bottom line- especially in the Horror genre. This is a DVD any self-respecting horror fan should own. I would have preferred a better remaster and possibly more special features. The sound quality is fair as is the picture. Hopefully the studio can get it together for a more impressive 25th Anniversary edition.. I'll buy both.

Over the years I've seen Madman gain momentum and become a much more popular horror film. Not within the mainstream of course(Madman isn't a household name by any means), but in the horror community. Thanks to DVD and the internet. I remember reading about this movie in a horror film review guide in my early teens, and it took a few years until I finally came across a used VHS copy(as a cult/horror film fan, the only thing I miss about the old VHS days is the thrill of the hunt and the satisfaction of finally getting my hands on something "special"). I wasn't blown away, but I enjoyed the movie, and now I have found as the years pass that I like it more with each viewing.
Being part of the early 80s slasher boom, it's dismissed by critics and moviegoers as just another violent Friday the 13th clone. Though Madman and it's brethren owe their existence to Friday the 13th, most slasher films do indeed have their own styles and personalities. Madman, though it follows the typical slasher film slice-and-dice dynamic, has it's own unique touches and it's own character to seperate itself from the pack. Like FT13TH, it takes place at a summer camp, but where FT13TH's mayhem was before the camp's opening, Madman's is on the final night. The spooky campfire tale of Madman Marz and his legendary massacre soon become reality for the campers and counselors as the legend himself makes an appearance(thanks to an arrogant kid disobeying the Madman Marz rule of not speaking his name out loud). So with axe in hand, Marz takes out everyone in his path and stores their bodies in his farmhouse. Only Gaylen Ross seems to have the guts to stand up to the guy. One of the cool things here is that Madman Marz is more of a boogeyman rather than a psycho taking bloody revenge for some tragedy from years before. Though it never comes out and truly explains, we get the notion that Marz is in some sense supernatural, yet flesh and blood. The scenes showing Marz are very well done. He's shown in quick, shadowy cuts. Whether he's running through the woods or peering in windows, we get a good idea of what he looks like without the camera showing us too much of him, yet at the same time showing him frequently. This way he's never boring and never seems to wear out his welcome. One of the creepiest shots in the film(or in any slasher film for that matter), is a silhouetted shot of him in a tree, spying down on the campfire, with one of the campers noticing him. Pretty cool(but it certainly doesn't make sense why this one kid would see this, say nothing to anyone, break from the rest of the group and wander off to explore the Madman Marz farmhouse alone!).
It's really a well done and fun slasher film that thankfully is getting some recognition now(unfortunately after the director's death).
Code Red has given us a documentary on this anniversary edition, and the sucker is almost an hour and a half long! It covers a lot of bases and talks to cast members and numerous fans. Unfortunately it also informs us of a......you guessed it-Madman remake in.......you guessed it-3D!! Though this remake will be done by folks involved in the original film, it's still not very good news...to me anyway. I mean, am I the only one who thinks this whole remake and 3-D fad is the tackiest thing in film history?? But that's a rant for another time.
We also get a bonus feature that shows us music inspired by Madman. This ranges from variations on the Madman theme song to S.O.D-like tributes and such. Not bad, but not essential either. The documentary is the real gem and worth the moola to buy this one. I haven't listened to the commentary yet, but I'm sure that'll be interesting as well.
It's strange because years ago I thought I was hot poop for having that cruddy VHS tape, and I never thought it'd get better than that. Never thought of DVD, let alone an "anniversary" DVD. Hell, I thought the movie would fall into almost total obscurity! Well, praise to Code Red for making me eat my hat.

Ah yes, the early 1980's were a glorious time for cheesy unoriginal horror films that seemed to come out every other week, looking to cash in on the huge success of "Friday The 13th"

Enter "Madman". This is a must see for fans of late 70's and early 80's slasher flicks! It's got that lost in the woods camera work that's absent in so many of today's horror movies.

Considered by some to be an unsung slasher classic, Madman Marz follows six counselors at a summer camp for gifted children. After hearing the legend of Madman Marz, the local maniac who slaughtered his family, who will supposedly appear if someone calls his name loudly enough. A young camper, indeed decides to tempt fate by yelling his name. Soon afterward the counselors, one by one, become victim to the Madman!

"Madman" has all the elements of the great early 80's cheese that fans of the genre appreciate. The awful acting, dated clothing and cheesy special effects that is expected from a movie made in 1982. Not an awful movie but one you'll most likely forget afterwards. Worth an evening for the avid early 80's slasher filck fans.

On a side note, the actors and actresses in this movie were the ugliest people I've ever seen in an early 80's slasher flick.

Released in 1982 Madman was released at a time when the slasher film was all the rage, but even by 1982 these movies were starting to get a bit stale as the previous year 1981 saw the release of such movies as Friday the 13th Part II, The Burning, My Bloody Valentine and The Prowler. Due to the fact slasher movies aren't the most original all these movies start to become the same thing as past movies and again while still early into the slasher flick by 1982 things were getting stale.

But despite that Madman is one of the better of the 80s slasher flicks; the budget is quite low, but fairly well made at least by slasher movie standards and the gore is pretty decent and Madman actually has some pretty cool kill scenes. Despite the flaws of Madman I do think it's one of the better of the 80s slasher flicks and has a pretty good visual look and solid use of locations with some decent acting. Some are better than others, but overall the acting while yes weak overall is better than most films its kind.

The screenplay by Joe Giannone is surprisingly decent; most slasher flicks have some rather weak scripts, but that doesn't really matter since I doubt anyone goes into these movies expecting a well written movie. But Joe Giannone's screenplay isn't bad at all. The characters are weak again this is a slasher movie after all, but they aren't too bad. You'll probably be hard pressed to remember many of their names and you probably won't be sad to see them go, but the characters aren't too bad.

The concept is sort of like Friday the 13th Part II and The Burning, both those movies deal with an urban legend of sorts on their villains and Madman has the same idea with the legend of Madman Marz played by Paul Ehlers. Though this movie was released a year after Friday the 13th Part II and The Burning from what I've heard this was actually shot at the same time. All 3 movies were shot near each other so I suppose the makers could have gotten some ideas from those two, but odds are it's just a coincidence.

Besides writing, Joe Giannone also directs and delivers a mostly well made movie with some good pacing. The suspense and tension are mostly lacking, but what is lacks in those areas it does make up for in just being a fun flick that runs at a good pace. There are some slight pacing problems the biggest flaw is the very out of place love scene with some really lame music playing. Besides that though, Madman is well made and delivers on just being fun.

The gore is fairly decent, but don't expect a bloodbath, but what gore there is I thought was mostly good despite the low budget. The kill scenes are good with one decapitation by hood of a car. That was possibly the most memorable scene of the movie. It's not everyday you see a movie with a decapitation from a car hood.

My favorite scene though comes towards the end when one girl hides in a refrigerator; of all the slasher flicks and horror flicks for that matter I don't believe I've ever seen anything like that before. And how Madman Marz wasn't aware she was hiding in there is beyond me, but hey it's a slasher flick so I'll cut it some slack and the scene was really funny as well.

Overall Madman was quite enjoyable and like I said in my opinion one of the better slasher flicks from the 80s. While the suspense and tension might lack the movie works due to the fun level. There's also a nice twist with the final girl played by Alexis Dubin best known from George Romero's Dawn of the Dead. It's something most of these movies shy away from and it's good to see the formula shaken up a bit.

This movie is more of a 3-star review or maybe 3 1/2, but I decided to give it the 4 due to it being simply a fun movie. Madman is only for fans of 80s slasher flicks, the rest best to avoid.

In many ways, the ur-slasher movie was John Carpenter's "Halloween", released in 1978 to become the biggest grossing independent movie in history to that date. "Halloween" is a classic, with a strong plot and great characters, and a movie that does not depend on raw gore to hold the audience's interest. Essentially, "Halloween" is a well-made movie that happens to include some blood.

Two years later, in 1980, the makers of "Friday the 13th" decided that audiences, particularly teen audiences, wanted to see blood and breasts, and made a movie that stripped out such surplusage as plot and character. "Friday the 13th" also debuted the "spam in a cabin" genre that became so popular in the 80s.

Two years after that, "Madman" appeared on the scene. In many ways, "Madman" is simply a derivative take on "Friday the 13th", as an early spam-in-a-cabin knockoff. Some gifted kids are out at a campfire at a retreat. In November. And it's obvious they've been there forever. Huh. Usually kids are in school in early November. The retreat features a ratio of staff to kids of over 1:1, which isn't hard when there are 5 kids. Seriously, there are just 5 kids at this retreat. How it stays in business is one of the mysteries of the ages. The inexplicably-British guy in charge tells an overly-Shakespearian story about a bad man named Madman Marz who just so happened to live in an abandoned house a literal stone's throw from the campfire. He killed his family in a fit of pique or something years ago, so he got strung up by the townsmen. If you say his name, he shows up and commences to killin'. So, of course one of the counselors challenges ol' Madman Marz to come out, and throws a rock at the abandoned house, smashing a window. Nice example. Of course, Madman Marz somehow survived the whole hanging business, and comes after the counselors one by one. As my wife points out, you get super monster powers by being evil and being hanged by the locals how? But you just have to roll with it.

"Madman" is clearly derivative and unoriginal. However, it still retains the creepiness of some of the early slasher films, by treating its material straight. And the characters, while not drawn with great precision, avoid falling into the later stereotypes (Fat Guy! Dumb Guy! Slut! Smart Chick! Preppie!) that bedeviled these movies. In addition, "Madman" doesn't exploit the tired sex = death cliche of the slasher genre. All of the ladies of Madman like to get busy, but Marz does not single any of them out for punishment as a result.

Whatever the merits of "Nightmare on Elm Street," when that movie came along, it introduced the wisecracking killer and slapped a jokey facade on the entire horror genre, a facade that only now is starting to crack. It could be argued that by the time of "Nightmare on Elm Street," the slasher genre had already become such a self-parody that it could only be played for laughs. Still, the jokey slasher movie removed even the pretense of horror from these films. "Madman" occupies a position on the great slasher timeline when these pictures started to become derivative of one another, but before the horror was eschewed entirely in favor of fancy effects and jokes. It's at least worth a rent if you like horror/slasher movies.

The slasher-horror movie "Madman" is really somewhat of a diamond in the rough. Okay, I admit, the soundtrack/music is especially lame in the beginning and end of the movie, but at times, the "sound effects" of this movie are very effective in presenting the mood of the movie. It is only that little tune that is played every time the viewer sees Madman that is extremely annoying and does take away from the movie a little bit.

The plot is really simple yet very effective. You have some guidance counselors and campers out in the woods telling ghost stories and one old fellow tells the story of Madmanmarz who killed his entire family with an axe. It is clear from the story that Madmanmarz is extremely dangerous and not someone to mess with. The legend was that if you say his name above a whisper then he will hunt you down and kill you. Hence, some idiot does just that and screams Madmanmarz's name and makes fun of him thus provoking the "madman" to extreme anger. But, you might be surprised at what actually happens to the youngster who called out Madmanmarz's name...very interesting as he walks off and visits Madmanmarz's house.

Despite the negative aspects to the soundtrack, the movie really is quite effective in creating horror and harrowing moments throughout the movie. One of the really impressive characteristics of this movie is that it really becomes difficult to tell who and when someone is going to be killed by MadmanMarz...I was surprised by this aspect and I thought it was quite effective in creating horror in the movie. The movie can keep you on the edge of your seat as you think that someone is going to get killed and he/she does not and of course vice versa.

In fact, the order of murders is also very surprising and I think that is effective and I was really impressed and disappointed somewhat with the ending...the viewer certainly does not expect to see what actually happens. I think the movie does a really good job of deceiving the audience throughout the flick and that is what makes this movie so effective as a slasher film and horror movie.

As far as the negative for this movie, the acting is not very good at all, and this is where the critics of "Madman" have a solid point. However, the acting is not so bad to the point that you get disgusted as I get with so many of the horror movies nowadays. Sure, it's bad, but this movie does not need "great" acting to be effective, and the acting is actually decent for this type of flick if you really think about it. Besides, you can't expect too much in that area from a low budget 80s slasher anyway. In other words, I've seen much worse. Perhaps because the acting is not very good, the viewer really can't pick out a character and sympathize with that person for one reason or another, i.e. stupidity or just because that character is boring, insipid and basically undynamic. There is very little character development in this movie and that may very well take away from this movie as well to some extent, but I think the merits of this horror movie considerably outweighs the negatives.

The actor who plays Madmanmarz does a good job and I think this killer is convincing and in some ways very horrifying...there is no sympathy or remorse in Madmanmarz and it is clear that he is on a mission to kill. Indeed, Madmanmarz is just that, a madman in every sense of the word, living like an animal and completely lacking any sense of morality and conscience. He is not only a "madman" but he lives like an animal and is in essence a monster emblematic of tremendous hate, anger and evil. All and all, this is a somewhat on the low end of a 4 STAR flick in my opinion, but 4 STARS is 4 STARS and that is an excellent grade coming from me because I am a rather harsh critic when it comes to horror movies.

In short, the movie "Madman" really fits well into the slasher and horror movie genre with strong death scenes and providing a true sense of terror in the viewer which is rare for the 80s slasher flicks and that is why this movie grades so high, but the movie does have some minor flaws that bring it down and it certainly is no where near as good as "Halloween", but what is? That being said, "Madman" is very good in its own right and certainly much better than most slasher flicks, including most of the "Friday the 13th" and "Halloween" sequels. Quite frankly, the more I watch "Madman", the better it gets and the more I realize that this is one of the best slasher flicks the genre has to offer. In fact, "Madman" is just a damn good horror movie with some good death scenes, and enough good scares to keep the horror fan happy! Moreover, I think it is the ability of "Madman" to produce suspense, setting-induced atmospheric tension, some scares (and fear in the audience in general), and some good death scenes that distinguish it from most other slashers. There are a lot of slashers out there, and there are some really entertaining ones, but there are NOT many slashers that are also SCARY horror movies. Under the right circumstances, "Madman" can be just that, a scary slasher movie that is also a pure horror movie as well. If you like slasher movies like "Friday the 13th" and "The Burning", how can you not like "Madman"? That being said, like "The Burning", "Madman" is also a little bit different than the "Friday the 13th" movies enough so to distinguish itself with a charm all its own.

Without a doubt, "Madman" is a "must own" for any true horror movie fan, and you can quote The HorrorMan on that.

Length:: 4:55 Mins

The Count reviews Madman!

awesome slasher film they dont make them like this anymore i rented this movie on vhs back in the day now i've got it on dvd thank god it's in my collection i recomend this movie to all those horror fans who love wood-zy type campy movies thats all i can say if you want more info buy a copy of this movie you wont go wrong i promise you!

This edition of Madman is a gem for fans of early 1980's slasher films. The commentary is insightful and humorous and the featturette is a full-length documentary. The film plays like a wicked fairytale replete with a real monster in Madman Marz. This film isn't for everyone. If you're into the more sleek modern horror films, this may not be for you ... but if you like a good old-fashion gore fest with a simple plot and some suspenseful chase sequences, this definitely qualifies. It also includes a truly hilarious love scene in a hot tub that is sure to bring a smile.