MovieChat Forums > Madman (1983) Discussion > Why you simply have to love this movie. ...

Why you simply have to love this movie. *SPOILERS*


Okay...so we all know that Madman is not a great film. It's not even a particularly good film. It is this awfulness that makes Madman a classic. I personally think that there should be an entire genre of film composed of movies that you have to get drunk and make fun of. If there were such a genre, Madman would definatly be at the top of the list.

Think of all of the amazingly ridiculous elements to this film:

1. A group of students and councelors are away at a summer camp in the middle of November.

2. Said camp has almost a one on one ratio of councelors to campers.

3. They tell the story of Marz on a night "just like the night he murdered his entire family...in fact it was this exact night 12 years ago" Come on....I've read stories written by 3rd graders that are more original than that. No only that, but the house that it all happened in is quite literally a stone's throw away from the campfire.

4. The horrible (ghost story?) song that TP sings.

5. Ritchie sneaking around in the dark all night, completely unafraid. I don't know many adults, let alone a teenager, that would be brave enough to follow a large hairy man with an axe into an abandoned house.

6. The weird scene near the fire, where the councelor Doug asks them how they are so sure that he isn't a homicidal maniac. Creepy Doug.

7. The fact that Ellie has no upper lip and her boyfriend probably starred in a few gay porns. Gaylen Ross could be a stand in for a pug and TP has possibly the hairiest a*s I've ever seen.

8. The simian love scene in the hot tub. I now know what it looks like when a monkey gets turned on. And the corresponding music. Absolute Perfection!

9. The fact that each of the councelors goes into the woods, one by one, to search for the last councelor that went into the woods alone and never returned.

10. Interrupting two people that are having sex in a tent, and telling them not to "rush...but hurry." What the hell does that mean?

11. The same girl getting her head chopped off by the hood of a car. The amazing special effects.

12. The sound of the car that can't turn over because the same girl's head is stuck in the engine. Porn boyfriend telling no upper lip not to look. No upper lip looking and screaming like a b**tch.

13. The slow speed car crash that somehow manages to open up the passenger door of the car and eject no upper lip.

14. Hiding in a fridge is dangerous, you could suffocate. Not finding the person that has thrown the food from the fridge all over the floor in front of the fridge, priceless.

15. Gaylen Ross blowing no upper lip to pieces with a shotgun!

16. Abandoning a group of young kids while being stalked by a homicidal sasquatch, to go find your friends.

17. The fact that Marz looks less like a person and more like big foot.

18. The closing credits.

And the list could go on and on. Who else agrees, and what is your favorite thing to make fun of about Madman?

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I love your list as I, too, laughed non stop through this movie. It's easily one of my favorite worst movies ever. And I'm glad you noticed the hiding in the fridge bit. I laughed hardest at that, based simply on the fact that that bitch cleared that fridge out in less than two seconds and was in it. Bonus was seeing the eggs still in the door when they showed her hiding inside.

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According to the "Madman Marz" story, the bodies of Marz' family were never found. At the end of the movie, they turn out to be in the barn.

How hard did the townspeople really look?

On a side note, T.P. singing at the beginning priceless. I want the soundtrack.

"Watch your tongue boy, if you like this job!"

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A bit off the subject but it is something I couldn't help notice. Not one pretty girl in the lot. None. Zip. Not even one thats kinda cute. I usually dont knock people for their looks but I think movie stars are fair game.

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"A bit off the subject but it is something I couldn't help notice. Not one pretty girl in the lot. None. Zip. Not even one thats kinda cute. I usually dont knock people for their looks but I think movie stars are fair game."

If you want to see ugly you should try watching Don't Go In The Woods and Redneck Zombies, they make the women in Madman look like models.

My head hurts, my teeth itch, my feet stink, and I don't love Jesus.

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"1. A group of students and councelors are away at a summer camp in the middle of November. "

It also says it's a camp for gifted children, exactly what are they gifted at?

My head hurts, my teeth itch, my feet stink, and I don't love Jesus.

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Yea your right about Redneck Zombies, some real woofers there. I didn't see the other one yet.

I guess those kids are gifted in, I don't know, bad dialogue?

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You forgot the fact that it's better to call your boss rather than the police when a homicidal maniac is running around.

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Laughed at loud at your list... especially how you refer to her as "no upper lip." And the refrigerator scene killed me!! This is actually the first movie I ever saw on VHS as a kid (about 25 years ago) and I hadn't seen it since. When I saw IFC was playing it, I just has to watch it. As an adult... much less scary and more hilarious than I remember (obviously)

I could add a few...

19. The fact that even though a 400 pound sasquatch has decapitated her by slamming her head under the hood of the truck with all his weight, coupled with the fact that her head has gotten caught in the engine/fanbelt, her face looks perfectly fine when porn star opens the hood!

20. A 400 pound grunting smelly beastman can scale trees, tiptoe around in the dark without making a sound, and sneak up on his human prey in the woods with the stealth of a jaguar

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Equally funny to the movie is the ad text on the back cover of the Anchor Bay DVD: "Madman stood out from the pack of '80s body count films by delivering scary suspence, gruesome effects ands sheer nastiness" etc.

Ummm... Exactly what '80s body count horror didn't at least TRY to deliver aforementioned? And exactly how did Madman shine on these categories?

Honestly, I've seen worse and even more laughable stabs at this genre - and really (yes, really) liked the title song sung by the fire. (Sounded like folky version of an old skool Doom Metal to me!) But, well, if it looks like a turkey, sounds like a turkey and acts like a turkey, Hell yes, it sure is a turkey. The more you drink while watching, the better it gets.

"The horror... The horror."

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TP making the kids march in place.

TP and Max's faces when they're trying to pull the axe from the stump.

The lady turning around and giving the raspberry after climbing the hill.


I collect dead pigeons then I press them between the pages of a book.

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