MADMAN – You can tell it's going to be a bit strange right from the start. How many classic-era slashers start with a campfire a cappella? OK, maybe that's not massively weird in itself. But when that a cappella, which is cringeworthy by the way, pretty much covers the back-story of the 'madman' in question as bursts of grim prophecy concerning the fates of those blithely happy campers flash up on screen, you know the film you're watching isn't going to be standard fare. Although of course in many ways 'Madman' IS standard fare. It's about a bunch of kids in the woods, and there's a slasher around, and he pretty much kills them all, and that's about it – can't say squarer than that. 'Madman' rolls out in an odd way, however. It's an accumulation of things. There's an aspect of stylisation – the blue filtered interior of Madman Marz's cellar, the heavy handed juxtapositions which dominate the film's colour scheme, some of the cinematography, which is unusually impressive. There's awkward moments of pure clunk, like Gaylen Ross's hot tub hot love scene, soundtracked to perfection with plastic early eighties puke romance music. There are some actually tense scenes, nice backlit visuals and a good body pile up reveal at the end, but what stick in the mind more than anything are those arcane moments of silliness. That excalibur type thing with the axe – why? The bit where the campers line up head to head and finish other's faux philosophical sentences before one of them goes really weird with a knife but then it's all just a joke – why? I could go on, but I won't sleep tonight if I do. Apart from all this, 'Madman' just fumbles along, feeling a bit off with slightly wonky pacing and a vague general disjointedness. It's enough to give it a weird air, even though at base the most rigid slasher protocol is stringently observed. I've seen 'Madman' three times over the years, and it always catches me a bit unawares. I forget it's baffling nature, expecting just another slasher. Maybe I'm conning myself into seeing a (relative) richness which isn't really there – plenty of far more knowledgable horror fans than I see it as simply boring. It DOES sort of exemplify that whole 'walking around in the woods... again... for ages' thing. But before someone points out that I should try watching it when I'm sober, I haven't had any booze for three weeks, so for now I'll believe that the magic's there.
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