Reviewed by Geno McGahee
“Madman…Marz…is real!” – Richie (Jimmy Steele)
In the 1980s, the slasher film became the most popular brand of horror. Masked men chasing their prey with some weapon was good fun and the people wanted more and they got more. Countless slashers were put out on the market and in the very early 1980s, three very similar themed movies were in production. We had FRIDAY THE 13TH, the most popular of the three by far that spawned sequel after sequel, leading to a remake. Next was THE BURNING, another man done wrong in the woods seeking revenge, carrying around hedge clippers to inflict the punishment, and lastly, we have MADMAN, my personal favorite of the three.
MADMAN is about a crazed farmer, played by Paul Ehlers, that one day went “stark raving mad,” according to Max (Carl Fredericks). In some of the best overdramatic delivery I’ve ever seen, Max tells the group of kids and counselors about an “evil man” that went to the tavern and put his bloody axe up on the bar and asked the bartender for a drink, after he killed his entire family.
They drag the poor Madman Marz out to the woods, beat him and then hang him, but the story doesn’t end there. This is a horror movie. You can’t end a horror movie where the bad guy is killed in the first five minutes. The next morning, the rope is broken and the Madman is nowhere in site, and now if you say his name “above a whisper” he will come and get you.
Richie (Jimmy Steele) is the one asshole in the group that is going to ruin it for everyone else. He doubts the legend and mocks Marz, throwing a rock through the poor guy’s window. “He’s young and foolish…we mean you no harm,” Max shouts at the house, but you get the sense that he doesn’t believe that the crazed farmer actually exists.
One of the coolest scenes of the film is when the kids are marching through the woods and Richie looks up and sees the silhouette of Marz in the tree, looking down. What a neat shot! The entire movie has this creepy blue tint and is shot very well.
You get the sense that Marz was waiting for somebody to call his name above a whisper. He seems to be having a bit too much fun running through the woods with noose in hand. In one of the cooler scenes in the film, he wraps that noose around the neck of TP (Tony Fish) and yanks him up the tree and then as he struggles to grab the branch to survive, he is violently pulled down by Marz and you hear his neck break. Great use of a sound effect…that’s for sure! I cringe every time I watch that scene.
Marz is more animal than man. I don’t know what happened to him and if he was like this directly after he killed his family. I tend to lean towards no. He asked for a beer at the bar, so he could talk. In his return, prompted by Richie, he only grunts. I don’t think he sees too many people. I also wonder how he survives the winters in that house with all the broken windows. He may have a winter home to avoid the New England winters.
The body count rises and the Madman finds new and innovative ways to kill his prey. At one point, he jumps down on the hood of a car while somebody is working on it and decapitates them. The character is just really neat. He reminds me of a yeti as he walks around and is just so animal like in his reactions. He kills in various ways but does seem to prefer the axe.
MADMAN is a fun slasher movie with a lot of charm and the demand from horror fans have brought the re-release on DVD with a documentary as a bonus that I was fortunate enough to be a part of. A 3-D Remake is the talk of the town right now and hopefully they will get it right and MADMAN can finally get his run at a franchise. There are so many things you can do with a Madman…just give him an axe and let him stir shit up! I highly recommend MADMAN. It is still one of my favorite slasher films.
Scared Stiff Rating: 7.5/10. Don’t read this review over a whisper!
