Madhouse (1981) – DVD Review

Many times I’ve spoken about the giallo film, and how entertaining they can be to watch. Be it from Argento, Bava, Martino or any of the myriad of other directors who have entertained us fans through the years, there’s many things that tend to stand out in these sorts of films. The mystery, the motive, the unknown murderer and hot women are pretty much staples (though they’re not all always there), but, as with any genre, you’ll be sure to come across a few hybrids that try to mix outside styles with the staples of what works so well within the genres boundaries. Sometimes they’re horrible. Sometimes they’re very good. Madhouse, aka There Was a Little Girl, falls somewhere in the middle.

Rating:

The film opens with a credit sequence showing something just out of focus, but as the credits continue we realize that it’s two girls, one sitting, one standing. When the credits have just about finished the music changes, and the girl standing up starts smashing the other in the face with a rock (or what looks like one). Cut to the story. Julian Sullivan (Trish Everly) is a teacher for deaf children, and finds happiness helping the kids. But, the return of her deformed twin sister, Mary (Allison Biggers), brings with it a series of destructive incidents that force Julia to face her demons and risk losing the very people she loves. As friends and co-workers start to disappear Julia starts to suspect something’s very wrong, but no one will listen except her boyfriend (husband?) and Father James. But, will they be enough to help her?

OK. I need to get this out of the way, right now. This film has one of the funniest unintentional scenes I’ve ever witnessed in my life. It is so poorly pulled off, that I ended up laughing at deaf children. Honestly, it is that bad. But, I really need to set this up for full effect, so bear with me. As was stated earlier, Julia works with deaf children. Well, one of the kids is the adorable little tike, who’s parents have no problem letting him go out into a public park, by himself. Well, he ends up playing with a dog, throwing a frisbee and such. After a few throws, the disc flies behind a bush. The dog goes to get it, but gets scared off by something. Deaf kid goes to investigate. Apparently there’s an evil doggy that no one else has noticed chilling in front of the circular object. After a moment of growling the scene cuts to an ambulance and a sheet of paper covers up the kids body with some bloodstains on it (you know he got owned). So, now we jump to Julia going into class with all the deaf kids sitting in a circle (I’m laughing just thinking about this), and, in a really touching way, tries to explain to the kids that the dead kid will no longer be attending class anymore. She then asks them to remember the dead kid (I’m sorry, I’m still laughing). What follows will etch my name into the fiery embers of hell, because I was laughing at deaf kids. I don’t know if it’s just because the scene was so out of place, or Julia just looked so stupid signing how she felt while trying to be all serious, but I’ll be damned if I didn’t stop the movie to catch my breath (and call about twenty people to recount what I had just seen).

Of course, there’s other funny bits. One of the great things to look for in the film is the demon dog. He tends to change between a real dog and a puppet with each attack. On the topic of the dog, watch for the changes in the security guard he attacks. One minute the guy’s wearing a regular uniform, the next…POOF…he’s wearing protective gear so the dog can bite his arm. Awesome.

Ovidio G. Assonitis may have been a huge stealer of ideas (Behind the Door – The Exorcist, Tentacoli – Jaws) but he still had a pretty good sense of tension (even if the script left plenty to be desired, but more on that later). In one scene in particular, the victim is doing everything she can to get out of the apartment complex, while the murderer is following her. The killer walks slowly, singing songs and showing of the knife in hand, as the woman dashes from door to door, trying each knob in vein. The murderer even lets her escape to continue “the game” for a few more rounds. This chase sequence encapsulates the entire complex and has a few creepy scenarios with a sense of dread closing in on the audience as you can’t help but root for the victim,

The film looks great. I mean, this guy definitely took a page from Argento’s book. His use of lighting is spectacular, and he manages to make even the simplest shot of a staircase look like a work of art. One death in particular used a vibrant yellow sheet, covering half the victim and a large knife (made even larger by the shadows it cast). The payoff on that scene alone is worth checking out for any fan of the Italian cinema of old. Even the shots of the park, in broad daylight, leading up to the death of the young boy were ominous in nature and the drained colors seemed to scream danger.

Now, it may seem that this film is a blast, and it may be if you and your friends are getting drunk, but for a sober person sitting alone, watching this flick, the dialogue itself was horrendous enough to want to smack a child. For what it was, Madhouse should have moved much, much faster. This film could have been trimmed to a solid 80 minutes, and it probably would have been a pretty awesome little exploitation flick. As it stands it’s too long, and becomes very tedious between murder sequences. As for the ending, I get it, but I wasn’t a fan. I don’t want to be that guy, but…this film could have used a shot of nudity. Really. It would have helped.

DVD Extras:

Interview with the Director: In the short segment the crew interviews director, Ovidio G. Assonitis. The guy clearly has his goals in order, but he came across as a pretty pompous guy. He doesn’t really go into too much detail about the film itself, except for when he delves into the stunts involving the dog. As with the film itself, this part suffers from very low voice sound, and has a soundtrack that is too loud. Whenever it jumps to a shot from the film, the volume jumps up and you have to grab your remote and lower it, but, keep that remote handy, because when it cuts back to Ovidio you’ll have to crank it back up to hear him.

Gallery: Stills from the film. What more were you expecting?

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