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[tab title="Movie Review"]
Just try to blow out these birthday candles, bitches!
Madhouse (aka And When She Was Bad and There Was a Little Girl) is for those horror b-movie junkies who want their cake and eat it, too. Its sticky sweetness and gory giving nature never ends. Directed by one of the few men brave enough to stand up to James Cameron and give him the boot (Piranha II: The Spawning), this b-grade picture gets an A++ for its use of atmosphere as it weaves a tale of psychotic revenge on what should be one of the happiest of days for its main character.
Freakishly violent, the film and its use of power tools is … unforgettable to say the least. Which is one of the many reasons why people keep returning to the Madhouse.
“It’s not the dead that scare me. It’s the living,” says Julia Sullivan (Trish Everly) on the eve of her 25th birthday. She has good reason to feel that way, too. Welcome to Madhouse, a charmingly gothic place where insanity rules the nest and one hot teacher of the deaf (along with her even hotter roommate) wind up face to face with the past, thanks to Julia’s demented twin sister and her nasty Rottweiler.
Directed by Italian exploitation maestro Ovidio G. Assonitis (Beyond the Door) and filmed, ironically enough, in the southern state of Georgia, Madhouse was released overseas during the wave of censorshit attitudes that crested upon British authorities due to the 1984 Video Recordings Act. With one too many dog lobotomies via power drill, the film was quickly deemed a VIDEO NASTY and condemned by Parliament and banned.
Ignoring what works best about this Italian/American production, its critics gutted the film of everything that splattered, bubbled, or oozed. They were wrong. This is more than simple knock-off material; it's quite clever. The release went nowhere quickly, yet a cult following emerged for this b-movie in the wake of its critical smackdown. Thankfully, all our years of tracking bootlegged copies of this flick have paid off as Assonitis’ flick is now making its debut on blu-ray, thanks to an exclusive 2K restoration from Arrow Video.
Written by a whole team of scribes (including Assonitis), Madhouse is rich in atmosphere, even if it "borrows" from Carpenter's Halloween and adds to it the flowing gore of Cunningham's Friday the 13th. It wants to be American and yet – with cinematographer Roberto D’Ettorre Piazzoli behind the lens – the horror as Julia’s birthday “party” unfolds can’t help but be oh so very European in its execution.
When Julia is beckoned by her uncle, Father James (Dennis Robertson) to go check on her mentally unstable sister, her guilt takes hold of her common sense. Her deformed sister, Mary (Alison Biggers), hates her and has spent most of her life torturing poor Julia, but Julia goes anyway. It is a truly nightmarish scene, surreal in its execution as Julia enters a hospital room and it suddenly becomes an elongated hall with shadows and hidden depths. And her sister? Holy fucking hell!!!
It is not too long after her visit that Julia learns of her sister’s escape. And then there are all the murders…by canine. Throats ripped out. One after another, all of Julia’s favorite things are destroyed. This includes her students. But what is it that Mary is planning for her sister? And who can stop her?
Forge the party hats, folks. And shove the kazoos right up your ass. For Julia, Madhouse is the birthday party from HELL.
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[tab title="Details"]
MPAA Rating: R.
Runtime: 92 mins
Director: Ovidio G. Assonitis
Writer: Ovidio G. Assonitis, Stephen Blakely
Cast: Trish Everly, Michael MacRae, Dennis Robertson
Genre: Horror
Tagline: Many People Visit... Few Ever Leave.
Memorable Movie Quote: "Help me get out of here. We can start over."
Theatrical Distributor: Megastar Films
Official Site:
Release Date: August 19, 1983
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date: June 13, 2017
Synopsis: Julia, a teacher in a school for the deaf, has a hideously deformed and deranged twin sister that resides in the local looney bin. She escapes to gate-crash a surprise birthday party for Julia.
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[tab title="Blu-ray Review"]
Blu-ray Details:
Home Video Distributor: Arrow Films
Available on Blu-ray - June 13, 2017
Screen Formats: 2.35:1
Subtitles: English SDH
Audio: English: LPCM 2.0 (48kHz, 16-bit); English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Discs: Blu-ray Disc; Two-disc set (1 BD-50, 1 DVD); DVD copy
Region Encoding: Region A
Arrow Video’s 2K restoration of Madhouse has been minted from a scan of the original 35mm camera negative. The colors are accurate and intense and the black levels are solid. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, and scratches have been scrubbed from the print and repaired digitally. Skin tones are refined and details in the backgrounds are solid. Even the location is accurately presented with leafy greens and solid browns. It is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and the 4-track stereo mix has been transferred to either 5.1 DTS and 2.0 Dolby Digital.
Supplements:
Commentary:
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The Hysteria Continues provides an engaging commentary for this twisted slasher. Fans will be thrilled with this addition.
Special Features:
Loaded with brand new interviews from the cast and the crew, Arrow Video’s blu-ray/DVD combo release of Madhouse is sure to please its many fans. We also get Alternate opening titles, a theatrical trailer in HD, and reversible original and newly commissioned artwork by Marc Schoenbach. The first pressing of the movie also contains a 23-page booklet with an essay by John Martin that covers the history of the movie.
- Running the Madhouse: Interview with actress Edith Ivey
- Framing the Madhouse: Interview with cinematographer Roberto D’Ettorre Piazzoli
- Ovidio Nasty: Interview with director Ovidio Assonitis
- Alternate Opening Titles
- Original Theatrical Trailer
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[tab title="Trailer"]
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[tab title="Art"]
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