On the final night of summer camp, a group of counselors and campers accidentally summon legendary murderer Madman Marz.
Madman is a cult favorite amongst horror fans. I'd seen it before, but it had been a very long time and I could barely remember any of it. After this re-watch, I can partially see why.
The movie has a great opening scene. Counselors and campers are gathered around the camp fire telling scary stories. Max - the oldest counselor (mid-50's), played by Frederick Neumann - tells the story of local legend Madman Marz, and warns if you speak his name louder than a whisper, he'll come for you. Neumann's delivery of this monologue is excellent, and it creates great atmosphere early on.
Unfortunately, it's somewhat downhill from there. Madman has very slow pacing, and not much at all happens in the first 40 minutes (aside from the campfire scene). It's hard to explain, but there are a few scenes that feel like they last 30 seconds too long. The camera just kinda lingers.
Even when the movie gets going, it's still pretty slow; the characters aren't given a lot to do. One (very much alive, but very stupid) camper is missing, and the counselors - one by one - go looking for him, only to get killed. Otherwise, they don't do much, and there aren't really any subplots or character development. Max, the best character, isn't in most of the movie because he drives into town to play poker.
On the plus side of things, the kill scenes are pretty solid. One jump scare got me good (popcorn bowl flying in the air level) and it wasn't an unearned one. The most memorable scene is when one of the characters, while fleeing from the killer, decides to hide inside of a refrigerator; this was the scene I remembered from my previous viewing. Speaking of the killer, he's pretty cheesy looking; kinda like the Abominable Snowman.
I do think the atmosphere established early in the movie mostly holds up decently throughout the movie too. Even though it takes place at the end of summer camp, the movie was filmed in November and screams 'autumn'. Definitely a different feel than the Friday the 13th films.
There were some glaring technical issues in Madman, but I'll partially forgive those because I assume this movie was made for zero money. I couldn't find the budget anywhere, but I did find this was a non-SAG movie, which is why several of the actors used stage names in the credits (Dawn of the Dead's Gaylen Ross, who stars here in one of her only other film roles, is credited as 'Alexis Dubin'). This movie was written and director by Joe Giannone, and was his only credit before passing away in 2006. Though the movie is below average and flawed, I think he did a decent job all things considered.
