User reviews

"Madman" is essentially an early '80s retread of the summer camp slasher (done exponentially better by "Friday the 13th" and "The Burning" before it, and "Sleepaway Camp" after it). In the beginning of the film, a group of camp counselors and preteens are around a campfire— it's the week before Thanksgiving (who goes to camp in November?), and since the camp is shutting down, the counselors decide to tell the story of a local farmer named Madman Marz who hacked his family to death with an axe. One of the counselors decides it would be a good idea to call out his name to the surrounding woods, and lo and behold, when they come a'calling, he comes a'killin'.

Hailed as a cult film by many fans, I'm halfway baffled as to why so many consider "Madman" to be as extraordinary as they do. It's not that the film suffers from being routine — that's expected from an '80s slasher epic— but there are a lot of other issues with it that leave something to be desired. The script, for one, is beyond hokey, and the villain himself is about the least scariest maniac I can recall on film— an ogreish redneck in overalls with a clearly prosthetic face? It just ain't scary, folks. Lackluster performances and truly indistinguishable characters don't help much either.

The film does feature some really great photography at times, especially during the nighttime sequences in the woods, which make up the bulk of the film, but incredibly dodgy editing and an abrasive synth score detract from the moodiness of the proceedings. Even the darkness of the upstate New York forest and the musty cabins of the camp fail to establish a solid sense of atmosphere here, and the film suffers for it. There are a couple of gruesome killings, but by and large even the murder sequences are anticlimactic. Perhaps the film's most indubitable sin, however, is that it flashes the murder sequences of each character across the screen in the opening campfire scene. I mean, obviously we know that most of them are going to die anyway, but why strip any potential surprise from a virtually incredulous film?

It's not that I have a bias to the summer camp/backwoods slasher either, nor did I want to dislike this film. There are dozens of films that follow this thread which I am a fan of: "The Burning," "Friday the 13th," "Just Before Dawn," "The Final Terror"— the difference with those films though is that, despite their formalities, they excel in other areas and are able to distinguish themselves because of it. "Madman" doesn't do that; the most it has to offer is some neat nighttime cinematography, a ridiculous hot tub sex scene, and perhaps the most absurd theme song in film history. Highlights: the eerie silhouette of Madman in the tree (as depicted on the 2003 Anchor Bay cover art), and the downbeat ending. 4/10.

Madman is nowhere near as good as some would have you believe, but it does have a slow, creepy atmosphere. The one bit that I will always remember is when you see Madman's silhouette in the trees. That one shot of him alone saves this from being just a regular boring slasher film. It creeps you out enough so that the rest of the film seems ever more creepier as he stalks around the woods killing everyone off. There are plenty of dull moments including a love scene used for padding, and a lot of the time you will be waiting for something to happen. There is a hilarious scene where one of the girls hides herself inside a refrigerator. The ending somewhat spoils the creepiness that had been built up throughout, as we get to see Madman in full light and he just looks like a regular person in a rubber mask. It just goes to show how it's better to leave such things to the imagination.

This is an essential film for any slasher fan, but beware, it's only for those able to tolerate a slower paced slasher.

A slick attempt at a slasher with very impressive night photography.

Madman Marz, the film's killer, is a local legend made flesh who kills a bunch of wimpy teens and their counselors.

Joe Giannone's direction of the suspense sequences and ground level camerawork is a cut above. The storyline is serviceable but predictable. The acting ain't worth more than a line.

But do check out the film's night photography. Usually I hate night scenes because they're so poorly illuminated. Not so here. Some very stylish set-ups and artful compositions.

Memorable, thumpy score, too.

I think that a complete guide of the slasher subgenre it's almost impossible to write: because of its very simple&cheap formula, a lot of movie have been produced since the beginning of the 80s.

Among these, one of the earliest and most appreciable is MADMAN by Giannone, which is a very honest low-budget flick with some variations from the original (Cunningham's) model and a more fairy-tale oriented atmosphere (the nominal villain really looks like an ogre). Of course, as many other similar features, it has its flaws - acting, for example - but that's not what you seek from such kind of movies. The special effects are pretty well done and they're obtained with very simple solutions. Giannone's style is good, especially in the use of deep focus and the cinematography is genuinely inventive (the green painted leaves!). Eventually, it's better than many others.

Some surprisingly old camp counselors anger legendary ax-murderer, so he makes a successful come-back.

Obvious Friday the 13th knock-off, but hey, it manages to be worth a few laughs. As low-budget as this film is, it does well with what it has, making a fairly good villain and possessing an atmospheric spookiness. Gore-seekers will find plenty of blood flying in this one, the gore FX are pretty nicely done for a low-budgeter. The locations are decent and the electronic music score ain't bad. Dig that clunky theme song!

The films biggest flaw is in its casting. While leads Alexis Dublin (better known as Gaylen Ross) and Tony Fish are OK, the supporting cast are completely awful in their wooden performances. I suppose we're not watching this movie for the acting though.

Still, Madman is an enjoyable tongue-in-cheek slasher movie.

** 1/2 out of ****

It's another one of those teenagers going camping in the woods movies with really stupid dialogue, bad acting and loud scary music coming in at the appropriate time. The characters are as shallow as their names (Richie, T.P., Betsy...). The music is atrociously bad at some points (especially in the not even full of useless nudity, jacuzzi scene). At some points, the lighting effects are quite nice, but totally irrelevant, why should the wood scenes be lighted in blue ? So imagine a bunch of teenagers : the over dramatic intellectual, the sentimental blonde, the overachieving jock, the curious clown, the feminist and the mustache guy. Now tell me you aren't looking forward to see them get mutilated by the Madman Marz, a legendary farmer who killed his family for no apparent reason. The story is more than predictable, ever so much due to the fact that we see the death of the characters during the first scene as a previews of the gore end. It is redundant, boring, common and badly done. I don't recommend it, it's not even a source of much laughs.

The Plot = It's the final night for the season at a summer camp, and all of the counsellors and children have gathered around the campfire to tell ghost stories. The old man who runs the camp tells the story of Madman Marz, a deranged man who killed his family with an axe, not far away from the camp. Naturally one of the kids make fun of the story, but what no one realizes is that the legend is real, and that Madman Marz is still lurking around in the woods by the camp...

I think Madman is definitely one of the best backwoods/camp slasher films to come out of the 1980's, It's got a big, bad villain with a huge axe, it's got a semi attractive cast and it's got a decent amount of gore. Most surprisingly however is the cinematography. While most slashers from this era were pretty low-budget, Madman looks incredibly good. The use of dark blue colours works great and really manages to create a good atmosphere.

Even though it's pretty obvious who's going to die and who's not, this movie tends to drag out on it to keep the suspense level high, and it really does work. The story may not be original but it still packs a punch but it's still a movie to be watched more than once.

All in all Madman is definitely underrated and doesn't deserve to be forgotten.

MADMAN is a pretty anemic horror film that copies everything from Friday THE 13th except for suspense and believability. Even if it takes place in a forested area, the movie is extremely claustrophobic. It almost feels like it was shot in a forest that was built inside a studio. The camera is always in tight close-ups. The whole film occurs at night. We never get to see the natural splendors of the area. The forest just serves as a backdrop to the extremely derivative action. So, the camera never sweeps around the area to give us an idea of the place. The camera is very static and dull. MADMAN almost feels like it was shot on video even if it wasn't. The actors are all forgettable, as are the killings. Nothing really works here. There's one word to describe MADMAN: clunky!

Even the killer, who was sorta formidable looking from a distance during the first part of the movie, becomes ludicrous when we finally see him up close. He looks like a Morlock from THE TIME MACHINE movie starring Rod Taylor. When the camera remains more than one second on the killer's face we can clearly see the haphazard makeup effects. All in all, MADMAN is pretty much terrible and dull. The only good thing is the title and the original movie poster.

This is my kind of movie. This is a perfect slasher, and its hard to find slashers worth watching. It has blood, gore, crunching of bones, all the elements of a slasher. Beautiful. It only lacks some nudity, but I don't care about that. I like the kind of slashers that can give me a rush from the deaths (I know this sounds freaky), but this is one. This movie was ahead of its time in the slasher history.

A low-grade ripoff of "Friday the 13th", (would that make it Friday the 12th?) starring the most aesthetically unappealing cast in movie history. On the last night at a cottage for gifted kids, Max the proprietor of the place, tells a story about Madman Marz, a local farmer that killed his own family and was properly hung by the locals for this crime. Supposedly he did not stay dead which is very rude and if anyone says his name out loud well, you ain't gonna like it. This is the cue for one of the counselors to immediately say his name. Not too bright. Marz returns to his house which seems located conveniently by the cottage and picks up where he left off. Surprisingly he does not go to a family crisis counselor and talk about his pent up feelings. The cycle of violence continues.

There is nothing here to suggest that this is a cult classic rather than a cult wishing this was a classic. This is far and away the most ugly cast of actors I have ever watched. From pointed noses, to oddly spaced eyes, to terrible hair and bad mustaches it leaves little wonder why most of these actors never appeared on film again. If ever there was a movie to be broadcast in braille this is the one.

The cottage is home for gifted children, all six of them, and must be an experiment as they are saddled with a bunch of functional retards as counselors. Every character in this movie makes the most boneheaded decisions that ultimately leads to his or her own death. The formula gets old quick. One person goes into the woods. Gets killed. Another person follows. Repeat until you're bored to tears. One imbecile actually tries to flee Madman Marz by hiding in a refrigerator. When the final counselor left rises above her monkey intellect and realizes what is happening, does she call the cops? No! She calls Max the old man storyteller that went out to the bar that night. Simply brilliant. Most of the acting gives the forest a run for its money as far as wooden performances go and the kills are lackluster at best. Still, it was amusing when one of the counselors stumbles upon a headless corpse only to query, "Are you alright?". This movie IS the ugly tree!

Sorry guys, not feelin' this one. Story: Freak in the woods will come and kill you if you say his name too loud. Pretty f**king retarded concept if you ask me, but hey, not all horror movies have to have a TITANIC plot, right? Even so, MADMAN is dull and derivative and has nothing new to bring to the "slasher-in-the-woods" genre. The film plods along dully, the kill scenes are fast and relatively un-bloody and the few requisite sets of tits that you do see (as is required by these types of films...) are from a couple of scrappy sea-donkeys. Avoid this one unless there is NOTHING else in the horror section at your local video store. Check out "THE BURNING","MANIAC", hell, even "FRIDAY THE 13TH" just to name a very few superior slasher/psycho films. A VERY generous 3/10 for the head-in-the-hood decapitation

The last night of Summer Camp finds a group of badly-dressed pubescent teens and over-sexed counselors deep in the woods telling ghost stories by the fireside. A story is told about a local farmer (Marz) who decided it was rather appropriate to hack his family to pieces while they slept in their beds. After discovering this, the locals hung Marz from a tree-branch and left him for dead. However, his body disappeared and now it is said that when his name is uttered, he appears and randomly hacks around for a while.

From here, a story emerges about a psycho killer, aptly named Madman Marz who likes wielding various sharp, heavy implements - chiefly an axe. You always know when madman's about to hack into someone because you hear the creepy bars of music that closely resembles "dow dow dow...eheheheheheh".

The film is straight from the teen horror text book and features the obligatory hot tub scene (featuring a man with a rather strange belly button and a buxom blonde ripe for a horror film hacking). Despite some inane killing, Marz shows true compassion when saving characters with a bad 70s/80s 'do from additional shame and embarrassment by mashing their head right into a car's engine and jamming the bonnet down on their shaggy mess of hair (that's one shonky sounding starter motor).

While it won't win any awards for originality, you have to admire the simple fun that Madman offers. Whether it be watching the "special" campers get separated and randomly massacred in the woods or the screaming blonde try to hide in a refrigerator, there is no doubt that Madman is a very under-stated horror classic.

Just think what Carpenter's HALLOWEEN hath wrought in the years since its release. MADMAN is just such a movie. Shot in New York in 1982, it tells about a bunch of summer campers and their counselors being mowed down by a killer farmer who starts by hacking up his family. I'm not sure, but I think a couple of the counselors were played by porn actors/actresses, especially one horse-faced blonde with a decided lisp or hearing problem. Some of the killings are appropriately nasty but the film ultimately is an unbelievable bore. It's mostly these summer people yakking on and on, until they each get theirs. And the farmer is no Jason, believe you me.

I first saw this in the early 90s on a vhs.

Revisited it recently.

Well, most will agree that this is a rip off of FT13 n The Burning but this one has some moments of lol.

The film is tedious, there is zero nudity inspite of a lousy sex scene in a hot tub.

The moustachioed guy's girlfriend acted terrible n her chase was more lengthier than the final girl.

Some hilarious description bah our killer : face wise he is more like the blind chap from Rituals (1977).

He runs like a kid but walks limping and the best part is the way he hides for his prey. (While waiting for the moustachioed guy's girlfriend).

Watch out for his sharp long nails by which he tears a female's cheek. By the way his dungaree n strength inspired Victor Crowley.

There is a character Richie who stalks the mad serial killer and he disappears from the screen at 28th min and later appears aft 60th min and within that screen disappearance time, many murders happen n he is still alive stalking the killer. He again disappears from the screen and again mayhem ensues n voila, he reappears just before the end credits.

The editing is horrendous as scenes keep cutting abruptly.

After the success of movies like Friday the 13th and Halloween, there followed thousands of slasher film imitators throughout the late seventies and early eighties. I was around 10-13 when these type of films were coming out by the hundreds and I saw alot of them. No matter how cheesy, cheap and lousy they were, they never failed to scare the pants off of me, because lets face it, I was a young coward. However, now that I am an adult and watching these type of films all over again, I look at them and ask myself: "What was I so frightened of?" I just cannot believe that such lousy films scared me back then. However, I just got my hands on a very used videotape copy of "Madman". I haven't seen this film since it originally came out in the movie theaters back in 1981. Watching it after all these years, I was surprised and delighted to find that "Madman" still carries a terrifically scary punch! Unfortunately, because this came out alongside so many lousy Friday the 13th imitators, to this day it is treated as such. This horror film deserves better. Plot: The owner of a children's camp, the campers and the camp counselors are sitting around a campfire as the camp owner tells them the legend of "Madman Marz", a local farmer who lived in a farmhouse right next to the camp. One day he went insane and hacked his family with an axe as they slept. The farmer escaped into the woods and was never caught by authorities. Now, according to the camp owner, if you spoke his name out loud above a whisper, he would come for you. One of the counselors, thinking this is just a dumb legend, then stands up and challenges Madman, out loud, to come get him and then throws a rock at the old farmers house which crashes through one of the windows. BIG mistake!

Basically Madman is a rip-off of Friday the 13th, although the story and acting are far inferior. More of a bad comedy than a horror. A movie for Horror fanatics only.