This early 80's horror junk is exactly what you expect it to be: completely unoriginal and it probably never would have existed if it weren't for the unexpected success of Sean S. Cunningham's "Friday the 13th". Writer/director Joe Giannone wanted to cash in on this "classic" horror film's earnings and quickly thought up a similar premise with the same amount of gruesomeness and sleaze. Yet, I feel no shame in saying that I really enjoyed watching "Madman" and I would even recommend it to other slasher-freaks as much as possible. There's something about this film that simply makes it irresistible... The movie starts with what perhaps is the biggest cliché in the genre but it sure works: a group of teenagers sitting around a campfire, attempting to scare each other with spooky tales. One of the tales revolves on a local legend and introduces "Madman Marz". An unstable farmer who butchered his family with an axe before vanishing into the dark woods. If one speaks his name – and I quote – "above a whisper", the legend states that Madman Marz comes for you. And of course there's some cocky teenager who immediately yells out his name over the campfire. So far the basic premise of this film that proves just how easy it was to come up with an horror screenplay in the early 80's. But what follows is a surprisingly suspenseful film with effective shocks and good cinematography (it's lovely to see how the camera moves through the woods at night). The sound-editing is great and the opening/end score is darn chilling! The maniac Marz is a reasonably scary horror icon and his vile acts are repulsive enough to make gorehounds' mouths water...The bloody highlights of Madman include multiple decapitations and a really ugly hanging! The acting performances are weak (what else did you expect) and the climax is rather disappointing, unfortunately. And sure there are many, many flaws to detect everywhere but why would you hate a slasher like "Madness" for its ineptness? Love it for what it is: a adrenalin-rushing gore flick!

Madman Marz isn't Freddy or Jason or Michael Meyers or even Leatherface or maybe even Chucky, but dammit he exists. He exists!

Originally based on the upstate New York urban legend of Cropsey, the film's premise and slasher were both changed at the last minute once the production team discovered that The Burning was filming at the very same.

It took eight months and hundreds of attempts to get an investor - plus a last-minute rewrite to make the movie more unique - but this non-union effort finally made it to the screen.

A group of senior counselors and campers - Gaylen Ross is the only one most people know, as she was in Dawn of the Dead, and plays Betsy under the stage name of Alexis Dubin - gather around a campfire to hear the head counselor Max - who the filmmakers wanted to cast as Vincent Price, which would have been bonkers - regale them with the tale of Madman Marz. He killed his family with an axe and then survived a lynching attempt before disappearing into these very woods.

Richie, one of the kids, throws a rock into Marz's home and shouts his name, learning no lessons at all from this urban legend. Richie soon sees Marz in the trees - ironically, the cast would see a mysterious person in the woods while they filmed this movie - and before you can say Pamela Vorhees, they're all getting killed one by one.

T.P. is set up to be the hero here or he at least gets to have hot tub spinning something with Betsy. Seriously, this whole scene is lunacy, as they roll around and have what seems to be the unsexiest sex I've ever seen. Betsy then becomes the heroine, but she ends up blasting one of the other counselor's brains out with a double-barrelled shotgun and narrowly helping the kids escape on a school bus before getting hung up on a hook and setting Marz's house on fire.

So yeah. The killer survives, the kids are traumatized and there's an awesome theme song, sung by Tony Fish, the same guy who plays T.P. There's also a scene where Max lectures about the right way to play the game of axe in the stump, which is kind of like the sword in the stone: "Losing, winning - what's the difference? Play the game with a fair heart, and you'll always be able to look yourself in the mirror. Play too hard to win, and you might not like what you become."

This movie is packed with parts that will make you scream in terror, laugh in utter glee and sing along like some demented maniac. In short, it's everything a slasher should be. It's also a reminder that even a non-legendary slasher is still a better movie in 2019 than the finest studio releases.

An unremarkable, by-the-numbers, Friday the 13th clone, Madman will prove to be of interest only to those wishing to catch up on every 80s slasher ever made (an arduous task for even the most seasoned of horror fans) or genre fans wanting to see Gaylen Ross in one of her two post-Dawn of the Dead horror roles (the other being that of Becky Vickers in Creepshow).

Ross, who is credited here as Alexis Dubin, plays Betsy, a counsellor at a summer camp which comes under attack from the legendary Madman Marz, a vicious disfigured killer who is particularly handy with a length of rope and an axe. Also working (and dying) at the camp are a bunch of fairly unlikeable characters, most of whom are quite unattractive (a definite no-no for an 80s body-count flick).

With nary a plot to get in the way of the killing, Madman should at least have been a mindless piece of relentlessly bloody fun, but it is, in fact, a tedious, badly directed yawn-fest that doesn't even serve up the basic ingredients expected from such a film—namely, a topless babe or two, and some decent gore.

As far as nudity is concerned, all we get is a laughable 'sex' scene, featuring Betsy and her boyfriend making a hot-tub 'whirlpool' (by walking round and round in the water) whilst a naff 80s song plays in the background, and a coy cuddle (inside a sleeping bag) between a shrew-faced woman with a nasty perm and her mustachioed lover (rather him than me!).

Gore-wise, the film is just as disappointing: there are a couple of headless corpses that involve the use of shop dummies splashed with blood, a reasonable hanging from a tree, a few dreadful axings, and an impalement on a hook. All of the effects are rather basic and unconvincing, and to make matters worse, the entire film is shot at night with poor lighting, making the action very difficult to see.

Madman is often referred to as one of the 'forgotten' slashers of the 80s; to be honest, it doesn't really deserve to be remembered.

*** Point of interest: This film is further proof that, when in danger, climbing inside a fridge is your best bet for survival. Whilst being hunted by Madman Marz, shrew-faced woman does what I now refer to as an 'Indiana Jones', and, despite the contents of the appliance being scattered all over the floor, the killer is duped. ***