Madman (1982)

"MADMAN MARZ!" "MADMAN MARZ!" "MADMAN MARZ!" This movie scared the shit out of me and my sister when we were kids. Both of us have vivid memories of scenes from this movie: she recalls Marz's boots on the hardwood floor when he kills his family. I remember the scene, shot from the upstairs window of the house, where Marz is running/shambling away full tilt. It terrified me because he's going out there somewhere (where, you don't know) and you're in the house. Suddenly you're essentially immobile, exposed, and he can move and attack from any direction without being seen. That's the best I can do to describe why it scared me. This scene, the one from Star Wars in which Luke sees the burned bodies of Owen and Peru, the evil (and hungry) tree in Poltergeist, and the beheading of Mrs. Voorhees in Friday the 13th are the four scenes from my childhood that remain burned in my brain. Those other three movies are some damn good company for Madman.

And what is impressive to me is that, some twenty years later, the film holds up and my memory of the scary scenes is actually quite close to reality. But there were some scary parts that I had forgotten. For example, it's pretty frightening when Richie sees Marz silhouetted in the tree. It makes for a damn scary shot and sets the tone for the whole movie because you never really get a good look at him. It's always momentary glimpses, silhouettes, or first-person shots from Marz’s point of view—much like Black Christmas, Friday the 13th, and Alien. Almost every time he's involved in a scene he's shadowy or only momentarily shown: in the background when T.P. leaves to find Richie, in the bushes when T.P.'s looking for Richie, chasing Ellie in the kitchen and dining room, and especially lurking in the background when Betsy's in the house. The last one was particularly well done. The scene where Dippy is killed is also pretty scary. We just see Marz for a flash and then off with Dippy's head! As scary as it is, I have to admit that I see some influence of Kirk's death scene in Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

But since this was an independent slasher flick made in the early 80s, it's going to have its share of problems. And it does. You could argue that the impetus for the entire killing spree is pretty lame. Some jackass kid taunting the legend of a madman? Sounds lame, but it's the general plotline of Candyman about a decade later, so it obviously still had some cachet then. Some of Madman's plot is unsatisfying, though. Camp for gifted students my ass! Richie should have gotten killed, the little bastard. He got everyone into this shit and he gets away with lifelong emotional scarring? Give me a break. It also relies on clichés to create one of the most ridiculous love scenes ever. I mean a hot tub? Think about it for one moment. It's totally unrealistic: making the beast with two backs in a hot tub seems like a great idea, but it's not easy, it requires an oil-based lubricant, it pretty much guarantees no one will want to use the Jacuzzi for a long time, and it's not nearly as much fun as in the movies. Combine the hot tub luvin' with the music and choreographed swimming as some sort of foreplay, and you get one exemplary 1980s love scene.

These are both nit-picky pet peeves, but perhaps the movie's two significant flaws are its acting and Marz's makeup job. As for the first area, the acting is terribly campy—poor dialog poorly delivered and just first-day acting school level performances in general. (For example, Richie wanders around with that Hardy Boys look on his face for the whole film, and Ellie screams a lot but never gets past "open eyes really wide" as an expression of fear). The other significant issue is the special effects/makeup. Since, as I noted earlier, Marz doesn't appear clearly, it's not a pervasive problem, but it does screw up two scenes. The first is when he pulls the axe out of the stump; we can tell by the way the "skin" twists and torques that it's latex makeup or a glove. The more egregious makeup sin is the supposed money shot at the end when the house catches on fire. I haven't seen a worse "scary" guy since…well, since ever.

To be fair, though, these guys were totally new to this experience, and the movie has more than enough good points to outweigh the bad. Like the truck hood beheading scene. It couldn't have been telegraphed any more or looked any faker, but I love when Ellie and either Bill or Dave (can't remember which) can't start the truck and find Stacy's head under the hood…"Well there’s your problem." Ellie, as it should have been, gets killed, but not only does she get axed in the chest by Marz, she also suffers the indignity of Betsy pulling a Dick Cheney and shooting her in the face. Perhaps my all-time favorite thing about this movie is that Betsy gets this I’m-about-to-kick-some-ass-because-I’m-the-pretty- blonde-and-I-can’t-die look, but Giannone, the director, subverts that cliché at the end. It's really too bad that more people aren't aware of this gem. It's not Friday the 13th (even though it admittedly shares a lot of elements with the franchise), and it's a shame that there apparently wasn't enough room for Jason Voorhees and Madman Marz to coexist—even though there was apparently enough room for four or five editions of the inferior Angela Baker (Sleepaway Camp).