Video nasty number 30 comes with a good pedigree attached. Director Ovidio G. Assonitis, in the decade before Madhouse hit, had his hands in some genuine horror classics like Who Saw Her Die?, The Man From Deep River, Beyond The Door and the absolutely batshit crazy The Visitor. It's soundtrack was scored by Riz Ortolani, the composer behind Cannibal Holocaust, The Hunting Party and dozens of giallo and poliziottesco films in the 60's and 70's. Then to top it off it ends with an onscreen quote from none other than George Bernard Shaw.
Does Madhouse live up to those standards though?
Yeah, it actually kind of does. It's much better than you'd remember.
In the opening two minutes you'll see why it attracted the attention of the British Board of Film Censors back in 1983. Two young girls are in a dark room, one in a rocking chair and the other rocking the chair. The girl standing takes a stone and over the course of a very graphic 20 seconds starts to bash in the face of the other. It's a poor special effect but the scene itself is quite jarring, especially so early in the film and because it involves kids it was always going to get up the BBFC's nose. But it's not the only moment that annoyed them.
We cut to years after the initial scene. A woman named Julia is haunted by her childhood and only her job as a teacher in a school for deaf children is keeping her sane. As a child her sister tortured her and finally, as shown in the first scene, Julia snapped. Now her sister, still somehow alive, is calling for her from her bed in the psychiatric hospital where she's spent most of her life. Julia visits her, the meeting goes badly wrong and it's just the beginning of a new nightmare for her. And all who know her.
This is one of the best nasties by far, and a film that really doesn't deserve its place on the infamous list. Yeah, it's quite brutal in places but it's a solid psychological thriller that mostly enshews gore, instead going for and succeeding in creating a creepy atmosphere of pervasive dread. One dinner table moment is without a doubt ripped off from a similar scene in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre but it's done without that film's camp melodrama and it's genuinely chilling as a result. Especially when we find out who's behind it. It even finds time for an affecting moment or two, especially the ones involving the kids in Julia's school. I have to say, scenes like this are a rarity in the horrible world of the nasties. None of the sordid and seedy sexual violence the nasties are known for is rolled out either. But it's a shocker near the end that caused all it's trouble really.
The killer (not a spoiler because there's always a killer in these films) uses a pet Rottweiler to do their nefarious bidding and said Rottweiler has a penchant for human flesh. Eventually it meets it's match when it's caught in a headlock and lobotomised with by a power drill right through the cranium. Like the first scene in the film it's a poorly done special effect (on an obviously fake dog) but the effect is once again very unsettling and because it, it landed a place on the director of public prosecution's desk and ended up being prosecuted under the obscene publications act. Only 21 years later did it finally see the light of day in this part of the world and it's one of the few nasties I'd recommend without caveats.
Next up - Mardi Gras Massacre. Oh dear lord. What an absolute dud. This will be fun.
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