Madman
I was just lamenting with my sister and her fiancé lately that there doesn’t seem to be a good slasher in cinemas. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with the good ol’ fashioned horror flick where the night plays with your mind sparking stories of ghosties, ghouls and monsters. But there comes a point where you are just sick of them. Sometimes, you want to get into the dark-side of humanity. You want some sick psycho killer hunting down nameless faces, all set to the poetry of torture porn splashing up the walls. And, let’s face it, we want a goddamn “I knew it” twist at the end of it.
What we’re saying is we want to go back to the eighties where the murderer was almost always a person, deranged enough to go slaughter an unsuspected group of horny teens. So, thanks to Arrow Films, they’ve recently released 1982 slasher film - Madman.
Centred on a camp in the middle of the woods, as per the norm, a group of thirty year old counsellors tell spooky stories around a fire. Max, the coifed moustachioed leader of the camp tells the story of a farmer named Madman Marz who killed his whole family, as hung for hs crimes, but broke three and disappeared into the woods. Anyone who says his name will awaken him and kill that person. Of course, cocky teenager Richie only goes and bloody screams it, causing Marz to awaken with slaughter on his mind…
Madman comes in an era where slasher movies were as much of a rage as the psychopaths at the centre of them. Unfortunately, it misses the mark and it’s especially dated. Certainly, it is a film so thick in B-movie sentiments that it ticks off every box. Is the acting bad? Yes. Is I scary? No. Is it based on an overused trope? Of course, Madman has it all but doesn’t have the decency to over-embellish it enough to be hilarious. So for a big chunk it just stagnates under perms and badly placed jazz tunes. There’s even the most non-erotic sex scene you’ll ever see.
I’m trying to think of anything more that I can say but it’s such a non-entity film that there is no point in saying that a lot more could’ve been done. More blood, more suspense and better acting skills could’ve balanced this romp in a daringness away from the films we’ve seen before. It’s not even so bad, it’s good. Because those are so terrifically terrible that you can wallow in the misguided hilarity and enjoy some earnestly bad flicks.
I can’t even think of a good reason other than, if you like horror, then you’ll probably be missing a placard to start M part of your collection. Also, if there is nothing that you want to watch, then this’ll do as it’s not so toe-curlingly awful. But it floats with an unsure element that can’t find it’s footing. No matter how hard it cries out in the woods…
Take us back ghosties, all is forgiven!