Review: Madhouse (1981)

Now, I know what you’re saying. “Wait a second, Forbis. Didn’t you just review a film called ‘Madhouse’?” Indeed I did, my eagle eyed friend. But that was an asylum horror picture released in 2004. Today’s unrelated “Madhouse” came out in 1981.

I raved about the 2004 version. How does the 80s entry compare?

Uh, not great.

The movie starts off strong, with a scene from the past of a rock wielding girl bashing in the face of her sister. We then cut to modern day and meet Julian, a teacher of deaf students. She has a twin, it turns out, who is dying of a face scarring disease in an institution*. Until she escapes that is, and then Julia has every reason to think her sister is coming for her.

*I came to suspect the disfigurement was just a way of getting around having to use the same actress for both roles.

The acting, dialogue and camera work were all good. The score sounded like someone randomly hitting sounding effects on a 1980s Casio keyboard. But the main problem was that the film just kind of… wanders, particularly in a scene where the antagonist takes forever to kill off Julia’s landlady. 

The pace perks ups at the two-thirds point with a nice twist.

A killer dog plays a big part in the film, leading to a lot scenes where people wrestle with either what is obviously a fake dog head, or a real dog who looks more like he’s playing than killing (because, doubtless, he is. He’s a very good boy.)

Mainly, there’s just not much that makes sense in this film. Character motivation  especially just floats in the ether.

There is one oddly haunting scene. After one of Julia’s students dies, she has the kids in the class recount in their unsteady voices what they liked about their friend. It had a “I shouldn’t watch and yet I cannot look away” vibe.

The movie was banned in Britain for its excessive gore. But I don’t think the Brits missed anything.

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