MADMAN (1981)
Label: Vinegar Syndrome
Region Code: Region-FREE
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 89 Minutes
Audio: English: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono with Optional English SDH Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Joe Giannone
Cast: Carl Fredricks, Jan Claire, Tony Fish, Gaylen Ross, Harriet Bass, Seth Jones, Paul Ehlers
Synopsis: Years ago, Madman Marz violently murdered his family only to escape into the woods before his execution could be completed. Legend has it that anyone who calls his name above a whisper can summon him back to continue his bloody rampage. But teenage Richie, away at camp, doesn’t believe the old legend and calls his name. As night falls, strange things start happening at camp and soon Madman Marz is back, axe in hand, to finish the killing spree he started decades ago. One of the true classics of 80’s slasher cinema, Vinegar Syndrome proudly presents Madman on Blu-ray for the first time, newly restored in 4K from the camera negative!
I love me some Madman, a pretty fantastic and simplistic camper-slasher from the vintage age slasher era. It all starts with a creepy and atmospheric campfire tale as crusty camp owner Max (Carl Fredricks) tells the story of a local legend, that of Madman Marz to a group of horny camp counselors and fresh-faced adolescent campers. As the story tells it Madman was a crazed lunatic who murdered his whole family with an ax in a house conveniently located right next to the campgrounds. Marz was captured and hung for his awful crimes but he slipped the noose and disappeared into the surrounding forest where it is said he still lurks waiting to murder anyone who would dare speak his name in anything louder than a hushed whisper. This is a great opening, and one of the better campfire tales in a slasher film, right away establishes not just an awesome origin story for the local legend but also setting up the story with some frightful campfire atmosphere, reminding me of when I was a young Boy Scout and the troop leader told us the tale of Three-Fingered Willie!
I love me some Madman, a pretty fantastic and simplistic camper-slasher from the vintage age slasher era. It all starts with a creepy and atmospheric campfire tale as crusty camp owner Max (Carl Fredricks) tells the story of a local legend, that of Madman Marz to a group of horny camp counselors and fresh-faced adolescent campers. As the story tells it Madman was a crazed lunatic who murdered his whole family with an ax in a house conveniently located right next to the campgrounds. Marz was captured and hung for his awful crimes but he slipped the noose and disappeared into the surrounding forest where it is said he still lurks waiting to murder anyone who would dare speak his name in anything louder than a hushed whisper. This is a great opening, and one of the better campfire tales in a slasher film, right away establishes not just an awesome origin story for the local legend but also setting up the story with some frightful campfire atmosphere, reminding me of when I was a young Boy Scout and the troop leader told us the tale of Three-Fingered Willie!
As the campers are about to return to their cabins for the night one of the more smart-ass campers named Richie mocks Madman by calling out his name into the night and throwing a stone through the abandoned home of the legendary killer, which strangely is only stones throw away from the campfire. Of course this blasphemy stirs the vengeance of madman and much slasher-riffic '80s awesomeness ensues. As the group depart from the campfire Richie looks up into the treeline and sees the outline of Madman silhouetted against the night sky among the branches, yet another creepy image right from the start.
Back at camp Max heads into town for supplies while the randy camp counselors settle in for a night on horny teenage naughtiness. Among the group are sweet counselor-couple Ellie (Jan Claire) and Bill (Alex Murphy) who run off for some nookie, while T.P. (Tony Fish) hopes to patch things up with Betsy (Gaylen Ross, Dawn of the Dead), realizing they're summer romance is losing steam. To that end they head off to the hot tub for a protracted and goody softcore courtship, which leads to a strange scene of the couple weirdly circling around each other in the hot tub in some oddball mating ritual. Strange and prolonged as the scene is it does pay off with Dawn of the Dead star Gaylen Ross dropping her top and baring her breasts, if you're into that sort of thing. Then there's Stacy (Harriet Bass) and Dave (Seth Jones), not sure if they're a couple, but Dave certainly seemed to be doing his level best to weasel his way onto her panties.
Back at camp Max heads into town for supplies while the randy camp counselors settle in for a night on horny teenage naughtiness. Among the group are sweet counselor-couple Ellie (Jan Claire) and Bill (Alex Murphy) who run off for some nookie, while T.P. (Tony Fish) hopes to patch things up with Betsy (Gaylen Ross, Dawn of the Dead), realizing they're summer romance is losing steam. To that end they head off to the hot tub for a protracted and goody softcore courtship, which leads to a strange scene of the couple weirdly circling around each other in the hot tub in some oddball mating ritual. Strange and prolonged as the scene is it does pay off with Dawn of the Dead star Gaylen Ross dropping her top and baring her breasts, if you're into that sort of thing. Then there's Stacy (Harriet Bass) and Dave (Seth Jones), not sure if they're a couple, but Dave certainly seemed to be doing his level best to weasel his way onto her panties.
There's a surprising amount of character development among the teen counselors, all getting a decent shake and some superficial build-up before the inevitable ax murdering begins. Of note is the aforementioned Gaylen Ross is not the most spunky character but damn do I love her eyes, she's got a spark, but her performance is a bit flat. Not awful mind you, but she seems to be half-hardheartedly channeling Amy Steel from Friday the 13th (1981) during her one-on-one scenes battling Madman Marz.
Madman's murder-spree is fun stuff even if the set-ups and kills themselves are pretty standard slasher fare, but they are well executed. Among them we have a throat slashing to start things off with, a pretty great hanging scene, and multiple decapitations including one fun scene with the hood of truck being used to lob someone's head clean-off. One of the young ladies gets an ax to the chest that is wonderfully bloody, and there's what appears to be a nod to Texas Chainsaw Massacre with a young woman getting a meat hook through the chest. Slasher fans will have very little to complain about, this is a very solid camper-slasher from start to finish with a healthy amount of gore.
Madman's murder-spree is fun stuff even if the set-ups and kills themselves are pretty standard slasher fare, but they are well executed. Among them we have a throat slashing to start things off with, a pretty great hanging scene, and multiple decapitations including one fun scene with the hood of truck being used to lob someone's head clean-off. One of the young ladies gets an ax to the chest that is wonderfully bloody, and there's what appears to be a nod to Texas Chainsaw Massacre with a young woman getting a meat hook through the chest. Slasher fans will have very little to complain about, this is a very solid camper-slasher from start to finish with a healthy amount of gore.
The character of Madman Marz is wonderfully realized as an unkempt backwoods lunatic portrayed by actor Paul Ehlers, a white-haired dungaree clad madman with an ax, proving to be a ferocious presence who seems damn near unstoppable. The simplicity of the design cheap and effective with a nasty scar running down his rough face and part of his nose missing. Watching this again I could not help but think that Madman was a huge influence on Victor Crowley from Adam Green's Hatchet series.
I love the 80s atmosphere, the wooded camp setting, the a bit too bright blue-tinted lighting and the synth score, this one is firing on all cylinders and while it's not all that original it does buck a few trends along the way, like when the expected final girl doesn't turn out to be the final girl at all, and that little shit Richie who set-off the Madman in the first pace doesn't even get his proper comeuppance, though he fully deserved a horrific death.
I love the 80s atmosphere, the wooded camp setting, the a bit too bright blue-tinted lighting and the synth score, this one is firing on all cylinders and while it's not all that original it does buck a few trends along the way, like when the expected final girl doesn't turn out to be the final girl at all, and that little shit Richie who set-off the Madman in the first pace doesn't even get his proper comeuppance, though he fully deserved a horrific death.
Audio/Video: Vinegar Syndrome serve up Madman with a brand new 4K restoration that gives us the best looking presentation of the filmyet, fan are gonna flip for this one. Sure, there's the inherent stylistic softness and an grainy film stock to deal with otherwise this is pretty fantastic. There are frames of print damage and we still have to contend with those annoying vertical red lines that pop up from time to time, but keep in mind that those are relics from the source material and no fault of the transfer from Vinegar Syndrome have done right by this '80s cult film. The English language DTS-HD MA Mono 1.0 audio sounds as good as the flat source material will allow, that said, the delicious '80s synth score sounds great and the dialogue and effects come through clean if not exactly crisp.
Onto the bonus content you will be pleased to know that Vinegar Syndrome carry-over all the extras from the Code Red DVD including the fantastic feature-length documentary The Legend Lives: 30 Years of Madman by Victor Bonacore, which is a must watch for fans.
New to this jam-packed edition are over 43-mins of interviews with producer Gary Sales, actors Paul Ehlers and Tom Candela all of whom seem genuinely fond to reminiscence about the making of the film over thirty years ago. There's also a new audio commentary track from The Hysteria Continues! Podcast with special guest Johnny Krueg of Krueger Nation Podcast. The crew also dedicated a podcast episode to the film a few years back that is worth checking out.
There's also a sleeve of reversible artwork on this release, designed by Madman himself, Paul Ehlers, which s pretty cool. This being a DVD/BD Combo there are 2 discs and each one features artwork from the two sleeve art options, which I love, because I hate ti when we have 2 disc releases and they have the same artwork.
Special Features:
- Scanned and restored in 4k from 35mm original camera negative
- Gary Sales Intro (1 Min)
- NEW! The Early Career of Gary Sales (14 Mins)
- NEW! Dead Pit Interviews Paul Ehlers ( 5 Mins)
- NEW! Dead Pit Interviews Gary Sales (3 Mins)
- The Legend Lives: 30 Years of Madman documentary by Victor Bonacore (92 Mins)
- NEW! Madman: Alive at 35 (21 Mins)
- NEW! Commentary track by The Hysteria Continues! Podcast with Special Guest Johnny Krueg of Krueger Nation Podcast
- Commentary track with Producer, Director and Cast.
- Music Inspired by Madman (13 Mins)
- In Memoriam (6 Mins)
- Vintage Still Gallery (7 Mins)
- TV Spots (2 Mins)
- Original Theatrical Trailer (2 Mins)
- English SDH Subtitles
- Reversible cover w/ original artwork (Designed by Madman himself, Paul Ehlers)
Vinegar Syndrome have put together quite a treat for the Madman fans, this is a top notch Blu-ray edition that features the best transfer of the film we are likely ever going to see and a bunch of great extras, this is the definitive edition of Madman, which is a pretty great classic 80s slasher film and hopefully it will ear legions of new fans with this fantastic Blu-ray.
New to this jam-packed edition are over 43-mins of interviews with producer Gary Sales, actors Paul Ehlers and Tom Candela all of whom seem genuinely fond to reminiscence about the making of the film over thirty years ago. There's also a new audio commentary track from The Hysteria Continues! Podcast with special guest Johnny Krueg of Krueger Nation Podcast. The crew also dedicated a podcast episode to the film a few years back that is worth checking out.
There's also a sleeve of reversible artwork on this release, designed by Madman himself, Paul Ehlers, which s pretty cool. This being a DVD/BD Combo there are 2 discs and each one features artwork from the two sleeve art options, which I love, because I hate ti when we have 2 disc releases and they have the same artwork.
Special Features:
- Scanned and restored in 4k from 35mm original camera negative
- Gary Sales Intro (1 Min)
- NEW! The Early Career of Gary Sales (14 Mins)
- NEW! Dead Pit Interviews Paul Ehlers ( 5 Mins)
- NEW! Dead Pit Interviews Gary Sales (3 Mins)
- The Legend Lives: 30 Years of Madman documentary by Victor Bonacore (92 Mins)
- NEW! Madman: Alive at 35 (21 Mins)
- NEW! Commentary track by The Hysteria Continues! Podcast with Special Guest Johnny Krueg of Krueger Nation Podcast
- Commentary track with Producer, Director and Cast.
- Music Inspired by Madman (13 Mins)
- In Memoriam (6 Mins)
- Vintage Still Gallery (7 Mins)
- TV Spots (2 Mins)
- Original Theatrical Trailer (2 Mins)
- English SDH Subtitles
- Reversible cover w/ original artwork (Designed by Madman himself, Paul Ehlers)
Vinegar Syndrome have put together quite a treat for the Madman fans, this is a top notch Blu-ray edition that features the best transfer of the film we are likely ever going to see and a bunch of great extras, this is the definitive edition of Madman, which is a pretty great classic 80s slasher film and hopefully it will ear legions of new fans with this fantastic Blu-ray.
