I had a brief visit there back in the early 80's too when I saw this film for the first time as it was one of the nastiest I could rent at a local vid store with this cover artwork:
I remember it as being quite good, but haven't seen it since, so now for my re-visit nurses force feed me tranquilizer's as doctors, and shrinks strap me down to the electric chair to fry my brain...bzzzzzzzzzzz @ the Madhouse.
Plot:
No time wasted as we kick it off right away with one demented little girl hitting her sister with a rock 'til she looks like this:
Aaaw, sisterly love, how cute. Fast fwd. to their adulthood when one's living a normal life, and the other's at the psych ward in a hospital locked up for life....til she escapes!
From there it's the story of the crazy sister with her companion, a blood thirsty, savage Rottweiler, terrorizing the other sister, killing several others along the way, but what sister's the killer? The one who got hit by the rock, the one with the rock, or someone else?
What's Good:
This is an American style Italian horror flick as the director, Ovidio Assonatis, and the composer, Riz Ortolani are Italian. Riz has done countless great scores, but is perhaps best known for Cannibal Holocaust, and the Madhouse score sounds a lot like CH.
Extremely dark, sinister feel makes this visit to the Madhouse quite creepy, and the tech stuff's well done too, so way above average video nasty standards here.
Some brutal, bloody violent scenes with the rottweiler, and psycho havin' fun.
Some twisted twists that I won't spoil for you, and an unexpected final jump scare.
What's Bad:
I hate repeating myself but this one's also a bit of a slow burn. Not so much that one falls asleep though as maniac, and rottweiler makes sure of that.
Most of the dog attack scenes are so dark, and messy that I had big problems getting good screenshots of them, as you can see here:
The maniac's a little too crazy so it becomes funny in a comedy type way sometimes.
The Madhouse title is misleading as there's none of that in it at all, so the original title, There Was A Little Girl, or better yet the US title Scared To Death would be better choices, but I guess Madhouse was more marketable.
The Verdict:
Some people have problems seeing why this became a video nasty as there were films with a lot nastier scenes than Madhouse that didn't become one, but I guess it had to do with the opening, and reputedly the harsh treatment of the poor rottweiler is said to have actually happened for real, but it's still argued whether or not that was true, or a publicity stunt.
In general a solid pro made horror film that will appeal to the horror fiends, no less, no more, but a slow burn most of the time, and not quite as good as I thought back in the day, but I guess I was easier to impress back then, so it's a...
Rating:
4/6
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