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Madhouse
R1 - America - Dark Sky Films Review written by and copyright: Jeremiah Chin (27th December 2008). |
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The Film
 Britian’s label of ‘Video Nasty’ in the early 1980’s bred a certain kind of awareness about the genre in my mind that drew me closer and closer to it through works of gory genius like “Cannibal Holocaust” (1980) and the birth of the career of the man, the legend, the chin: Bruce Campbell in “Evil Dead” (1981). Though I don’t believe in banning movies, there are definitely moments of gore that I can see why these movies would get banned, but there are some that I just can’t particularly see at all, like “Madhouse” (1981). Originally titled “There Was a Little Girl,” the film follows Julia (Trish Everly), a teacher at a school for the deaf who has an identical twin sister, Mary (Allison Biggers). Years ago when they were children, Mary would torture Julia psychologically through intimidation, making her do things and scaring her with her dog, becoming all the more potent when it came to their birthday. Now that Julia has gotten older, she has grown understandably distant from her sister who now is in the asylum for being a severely deformed psycho. Their uncle, Father James (Dennis Robertson), keeps pressing for the two women to reconcile their differences, but Julia still remembers and fears what Mary did to her as a child and will have nothing to do with it. Of course, 5 days before their birthday Mary mysteriously escapes and people start dying around Julia’s house. I didn’t expect the plot to be anything special, and it really isn’t. If anything it’s a good representation of the post-“Halloween” (1978) slasher trend that would grow in the 1980’s, but it follows the same kind of plot and formula. Ovidio G. Assonitis’ directing has a few good shots but doesn’t really try to build a lot of tension and doesn’t have fun with the gore effects that he tries to put on display in the film. Of course the acting is terrible, frequently over acted and over played, almost like they’re putting on a play for an empty amphitheater; trying to make sure that everyone can see and hear what they’re doing even though they can hear their voice echo back, which makes them more nervous and awkward. The gore really doesn’t hold up to the video nasty label that “Madhouse” was given. Sure, there are killings; people are stabbed, hit in the face with rocks, attacked by dogs and so on. But none of it is really shown; you get a few quick cuts but nothing terribly bad. Though the quality mannequins used could have influenced that choice since any longer than a few seconds glance and they look about as realistic as the mannequins in a department store with ketchup on them. However there is one good scene involving a door, a dog and a power drill that really amps up the intensity near the end but goes nowhere with it afterwards; a hollow victory considering how tame and fairly uninteresting the rest of the film is. Overall, “Madhouse” doesn’t really meet the needs of those looking for another good video nasty as it’s plot isn’t quite laughable enough to be fun and just starts to drift and meander through the hour and a half with very little intensity and a soundtrack that sounds like a game of “Space Invaders.” However, Dark Sky does a good job of showing the film and really helps to give it that grind house/exploitation feel with the screen pops and cigarette burns that could make it good for a double feature if you really need a second film, but only if you’re desperate.
Video
Like I mentioned earlier, the film’s 2.35:1 widescreen anamoprphic aspect ratio is well used and the quality of the film is kept where it should be, with some pops, dirt and cigarette burns left in to add to the experience; in my mind the definition of a good transfer for the exploitation style and tone. Everything shows up nicely in the transfer, other than the poor lighting or construction of the original film which leaves some scenes unintentionally under lit when there’s no thematic need.
Audio
Much like the Video, the English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo keeps to more original, lower quality feel that the movie gives off. In the 2.0 stereo the film sounds fine, there’s not a lot of dropouts in the audio but the balance between background and dialogue feels off, and the music used in the film can get on your nerves as it tries to hard to mimic the electronic feel of a John Carpenter soundtrack without the quality feel. Optional English subtitles are also available.
Extras
Only a couple of extras on the disc, including an interview featurette and a photo gallery. First is the “Interview with Director/Writer/Producer Ovidio G. Assonitis” featurette which runs for 13 minutes and 39 seconds. Assonitis talks about his role as a producer and how he actually started directing because he couldn’t find a director he wanted for some of his films. He goes more in to depth about the characters and actors cast for the film, talking about their backgrounds and histories coming in to the film, with a heavy use of clips from the movie throughout. A nice interview and interesting to hear from Assonitis, serving as a fine addendum to the film; though a little too dependant on clips from the film to really extend the length of the interview. The photo gallery consists of alternate angles, posters and behind the scenes shots mostly in black and white, with 31 images in total.
Overall
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