tomgillespie2002 At a camp in the woods for gifted youngsters, a group of senior counsellors sit around a fire telling spooky stories. Max (Frederick Neumann), the eldest head counsellor, recalls the urban myth of Madman Marz, a notorious local drunk and brute, who butchered his family one night with an axe not too far from where the camp now lies. The locals hanged him from a tree and left his body for the crows, only to return the next day to find an empty noose. He will re-emerge if his name is spoken, and so cocky youngster Richie (Tom Candela) takes the bait and challenges Marz to show himself. As the various couples break off into the night in the hope of sex and fun, Richie notices a shadow in the woods and stays behind to investigate. Meanwhile, a hulk of a man starts to bump off the teens.The slasher genre produced a seemingly endless list of badly executed sex-and-murder-in-the-woods movies during the 1980s, all following a set formula, usually suffering from minimal cash injection and often made by directors never heard from again. As trashy as the majority of these movies tend to be, there's a morbid comfort to be had in their predictability, especially amongst horror fans. Just why I keep returning to the genre I know will ultimately disappoint is a question I asked myself at various points as I watched Joe Giannone's Madman, despite the film being one of the genre's better offerings, at least aesthetically speaking.Shadowy lighting and a subtle use of music to announce the arrival of Marz help the film drum up some atmospheric set-pieces, and a few gory moments offer the desired amount of blood and just a little in way of invention. But these highlights are too fleeting, and for the most part we are made to suffer through terrible dialogue, sex scenes filmed like soft-porn, and some utterly atrocious acting from its young cast. The main group of characters are even more annoying than those commonly found in these types of movies, especially T.P. (Tony Fish), a grating douchebag with a belt buckle displaying his nickname. In order to flesh out the running time, characters are forced to repeatedly make stupid decisions so they can wander endlessly through the woods in search of each other. For slasher enthusiasts only.

bournemouthbear 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

Christopher Risdal (chriscmrfilms) I'm not going to say that a film titled 'Madman' is a masterpiece or anything such as that, but a slasher film such as 'Madman' is harder to come by than some would think at first glance. While the usual staples are there: teens, woods, killer it still manages to stand out among so many others in the genre and show some strengths that most couldn't claim. For one thing, the antagonist Madman Marz is one of the most memorable slasher villains in the whole genre, with a strong but basic back story that you would see in the most famous of urban legends of days past, and its this 'urban legend' aspect that keeps the film going strong for its short running time.Where the film could use some improvements is mostly in the acting & mostly out of being spoiled by other films, I wish the Madman Marz makeup could've been so much better than it turned out to be. However, these are minor nitpicks & really I should stop expecting any of these characters to be memorable unless the film has 'Halloween' 'Nightmare' or 'Friday' in the title.Overall, 'Madman' is a wonderful little gem that I try to include in my horror fan friend's watch-lists. If you love slasher films or horror, don't pass up 'Madman'.

BaronBl00d I had always heard of this film but never had an opportunity to see it. Once I saw it - I confess I fell in love with it. It is in the tradition of Halloween and Friday the 13th and that whole slew of slasher films that littered the movie scene in the late 70's and more aptly the early 80s. While not on a par with Halloween(few films like it are) I thought Madman was MUCH better than Friday the 13th. It is undeniably cheaply made but really does not show. The film opens with a wonderful red drawing of two clutching, gnarled hands whilst the titles play and this loud yet engrossing theme plays. We then go to a campfire where we see an older-looking camp counselor singing some bizarre ballad about people getting killed as he goes from person to person(the counselors out-number the children). Then the leader of the camp, an older guy named Max, tells this terrifying tale of Madman Marz and how he butchered his family with an axe and then was strung up by a group of people but escaped from being hanged where he now waits to do the like to any one who says his name above a whisper. Well, his name is said above a whisper and you can imagine what follows: deaths - many of them. While this is a very formulaic film, it has style and I was truly impressed. None of the actors except the lead female - Gaylen Ross who was one of the leads in Romero's Dawn of the Dead and Creepshow - has had any career(hers as an actress preceded this film actually). None of them are embarrassing - in fact I though everyone was pretty good, BUT it is the tension of the film that carries it. The Madman looks scary as we really see little of him through the film. The deaths are scary - from a guy being strung up and almost freeing himself to a girl hiding in a fridge to, my favorite, the hot girl(Harriet Bass as Stacy) taking the lyrics to "Keep truckin" a little too seriously. The film is mostly separate killings until the end when Ross realizes what is happening. The ending takes place in Madman Marz's dilapidated house. The direction by Joe Giannone and the story by Gary Sales and company really are quite entertaining and I am surprised more did not come out of their careers. They have obvious talent. The print I saw was by Anchor bay and was PRISTINE. I also enjoyed much of the director/cast/crew commentary provided.