Movies By the Mess Hall! Madman (1982) Well kids, it’s the end of your stay here at Camp Crankaway, and I got to say we had some rough patches. But with that great spirit of Wiskabahnaha, the spirit of blood, breasts & beasts, we’ve made it through. You’ve all mastered the art of basket weaving and can hit a bullseye at 30 feet; both skills will serve you well later in life, I’m sure of it. But the greatest lessons the counselors have tried to pass on to you here at camp are the ones we learned right here outside the mess hall. We all know now that if you find yourself being chased by a blood thirsty maniac, one of the best things you can do is NOT separate yourself 30 miles from the nearest shotgun. Also, camp romances can be fun and exciting, but make sure first that your sweetie isn’t packing matching tackle. You’ve also learned the importance of not transforming the camp into a Marxist Society. All of you have shown great progress in this last week so we wanted to reward you. So tonight we’re got something special to show you. It’s probably the best kept secret of all the campfire slasher movies. A little unknown picture called Madman! It’s right there in your face with the title so you know it’s got to be good. They started making it in 1980 right after the two titans of slashers came out; we are of course talking about Halloween & Friday the 13th. But audiences wouldn’t get to see this low budget, independent horror picture for two more years while the filmmakers tried to get it made & distributed. It was supposed to be based on the Cropsy legend originally, but before they could finish it The Burning had already come out and stole the spotlight. So they renamed him Madman Marz. Which is kind of a shame since this movie is a bit better than The Burning was. It’s also probably the closest copy to the Jason movies and manages to still be pretty good. Which makes me wonder why didn’t we get a whole franchise surrounding around Madman Marz? In fact, nobody got a career out of this movie. That itself is strange, because usually these small little productions are so tight knit that the people working on them stay friends for years. So if just one of them goes off and becomes famous, the rest become famous by association. The problem is that this movie didn’t launch any ones career. But I don't get that, I mean the acting isn’t any worse than Kevin Bacons’ in the first Friday the 13th and he had huge career. But what this movie has some great special effects and these actors can really play dead. In fact, Tony Fish, the guy who plays the male lead, he gets strung up a tree by his neck and in real life he would choke himself with a rubber band during each take. So when you see him dangling lifelessly there, remember that extremely pale look on his face isn’t makeup. That’s dedication, folks! And speaking of dedication, that’s Paul Ehlers in the Madman make-up and he had to wear these fake wild mountain man rubber slippers which were very slick. Then they'd make him go climb up 30 foot tall trees in the dark. His wife also went into labor while he was on set. So in full make-up and Psycho-Billy wardrobe he shows up to the delivery room to be with his wife. And one last thing I want to point out is that the guy who plays Max, the owner/head counselor guy was played by a fella named Carl Fredericks. Carl hadn’t done much before or after this flick, but I thought he was probably the most likeable character in the whole movie. And he does one heck of campfire exposition scene. I HATE exposition and that is hands down the best way to get through it painlessly. Just turn the back story into a spooky ghost story or an urban legend. Like I said Carl does a heckuva job in this role, but who they really wanted was Vincent Price. Kind of Like Donald Pleasance in Halloween and Betsy Palmer in Friday the 13th; no offense to Carl but I bet if they had it would have added a whole level of class to the flick we might have seen 7 sequels from this movie. Let’s get those Drive-In Totals: We Have: 11 Dead Bodies 2 Breasts 2 Motor Vehicle Chases with Crashes 1 Hatchet-Faced, No Nosed, Hillbilly Mutant with Nasty Fingernails Creepy Campfire Exposition Song Axe to the Face Throat Slitting with Mongoloid Claws Extremely Awkward Dinner Toast/Apology Choreographed Hot Tub Spinning Sex Scene Premature Finishing Line Crossing (If You Know What I Mean, & I Think You Do!) Dorky Pseudo-Psycho/Intellectual Monologue Followed By Group Tickle Fight Aardvarkus Interuptus Heads Roll Pickup Truck Hood Decapitation Dork Flinging Bimbo Chasing Hatchet to the Chest Shotgun to the Face Mutant Claws to the Face Hung On a Meat Hook From the Back and through the Chest Knife to the Back Multiple Hangman Multiple Baseball Bat Strikes to Bare Hillbilly Knuckles Mutant Hillbilly Farmhouse Lair with Corpse Decor Gratuitous Stalking Silhouette Hatchet Fu Drive-In Academy Awards Goes to Tony Fish for that Creepy Song Performed In the Lamest Way Possible. 5 Stars out of 5 Check it out! And tonight we also stocked the commissary with lots of candies and goodies, plus tons of fixins’ for s’mores, so eat up… This was a pretty good movie and it tears me up there’s no sequel. There were plans for one though according the movie’s writer/director Joe Giannone. The survivor boy, Richie, played by Jimmy Steele was supposed to get blamed for the killings. At the end they just find him wandering on the road with his mind just gone, and this way they’d have Madman Marz possibly still wandering the forest. It is however next in line for a crappy remake in 2012 instead. Is nothing sacred anymore? Back to the Flix! Roll it!! It all started during a campfire at North Sea Cottages, a special retreat for gifted children... Madman Trailer |
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