Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #77920 in DVD
• Released on: 2001-02-13
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 88 minutes

Amazon.com
One of the better body-count knockoffs in the wake of Friday the 13th's screaming success, Madman starts out in familiar territory: a summer camp. The legend of berserk farmer "Madman Marz" is told in a campfire prologue. "It is said if you say his name above a whisper in the woods, he will hear you... and he will come for you." Needless to say, some idiot cries his name out and a hulking killer in overalls and a wild fright wig arrives with mayhem on his mind. He hacks his way through the camp counselors, lynching, chopping, beheading, and in general making a meat market of the twentysomethings. Director Joe Giannone executes it all with a little style and creativity, borrowing ideas from better-known productions: the ghost-story spookiness of John Carpenter's The Fog, a minimalist synthesizer score reminiscent of Halloween, a few nods to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and plenty of Friday the 13th-inspired stalk and slash. The film's only real weaknesses are its competent-at-best performances, but the effects are fine and the clichés are tweaked just enough to keep the audience guessing.

The DVD features commentary by director Giannone, producer Gary Sales, and stars Tony Fish and Paul Ehlers, along with TV spots and a trailer. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews

More Good Early 80's Cheese!
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.

The forgotten cult classic
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.

Madman works!
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.

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