Retro Review: Madman (1981)

Joe Giannone's Madman is one of countless camp-based slasher pictures that flooded theatres and video stores in the wake of Friday the 13th. The premise was simple back then: a bunch of horny teens at a kids' campground are stalked by a nut in the woods. That's it, that's all.

Madman wears this premise with pride, attempting to be nothing more than an excuse for a poorly made up killer to, well, kill the counsellors in gruesome ways. And that he does, strangling them, lopping off their limbs and, at one point, decapitating one victim with a pick-up truck's hood.

If all this sounds like your pint of ale, then Madman is for you. Giannone gives the flick an almost dreamlike quality, shooting it in stark blue colours and deep shadows. There's not an ounce of daylight in the whole thing. It feels like a late-fall nightmare come to life.

Sure, the acting and dialogue are pretty lame. And the ending is rather ambiguous. And it looks like Madman was made on the cheap. But . . . it's still a fun watch, especially coming home after a night at the pub.

Madman is also a perfect time capsule of the early 80s horror genre. If you want to know what early 80s horror is all about, give it a watch. It's worth watching once, so it's a Bad, but still not a waste of time.

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