Madman remains one of my favorite Slasher films of the 1980’s, a gritty low budget production with a dope synth theme song, woodsy atmosphere enhanced by a nicely utilized urban legend, and a savage backwoods grunting maniac who can easily crush your skull with his bare hands.Madman begins atmospherically around a campfire (which has now become one of my favorite opening scenes in the genre) and from there we are treated to a slew of memorably fun moments —a creepy silhouette of Madman Marz illuminated by the night sky, a real dingwhopper of a hot tub scene, one of my favorite decapitations involving a car, and by far one of the best uses of a refrigerator in cinema. (Eat your heart out Crystal Skull)Listen, it’s not perfect—it won’t win any awards for originality and the pacing may not work for people accustomed to slightly more polished pictures, but I could care less about any of that… I admire the simple fun that this heaping brute slasher jam has to offer and Madman has definitely earned its horror cult classic moniker as far as I’m concerned.
