A notorious psychopath named Madman Marz murdered his family and was a horrible drunkard. Well, supposedly he survived a lynch hanging(..while also getting his face scarred with an ax to it)and his butchered family's bodies were never recovered. Over a campfire, the mythos of Marz is that if one calls his name(..the infamous home of Marz where the murders occurred, isn't too far from the campsite setting of the film)he will return to kill those in his path. So the plot, or of what little there is, is set up as counselors, over a camp for gifted kids, are being murdered one by one. The chain reaction(..or domino effect)begins when idiot kid Richie(Jimmy Steele), the dope responsible for crying out Marz's name, tossing a stone through the legendary psycho's window, doesn't return to camp with the rest of his brethren. He takes a hike to Marz's creepy, seemingly-abandoned home, out of curiosity, and doesn't return to camp. Why? I dunno. He watches from the bushes as Marz brings victims back to his lair. Meanwhile, counselors begin to go into the woods to find Richie, and each time another meets their maker.
Marz looks like some monstrous ghoul, a Sasquatch in hillbilly attire who grunts like an aggravated animal. His skin is pale and fingernails look as if they could use a good manicure. Not the best of hair-days, either. Anyway, like many psychopaths in the slasher genre, Madman Marz has superhuman strength and can pull one male victim with a rope over a strong branch that leaves him in a difficult position, with the result being a nasty neck snap with the eventual eyes rolling back into his head. There's this ax that has been buried in a log stump for sometime with no one able to remove it with force..of course, Marz does remove it with a little pull and some grunting. There are some off-screen beheadings(..one amusingly as a female victim is working on repairs under a hood Marz slams down on her)with the severed neck squirting blood. There are subtle scenes inside Marz's cellar where he keeps the murdered bodies and we hear a sharp thud in the background, later finding that he has a thing for hanging corpses on hooks. There's one howler of a scene where this dim-bulb female victim attempts to hide from Marz in a refrigerator. She gets it with an ax and an accidental shot-gun blast to the face(..nah, not as gruesomely staged as it sounds). Poor Gaylen Ross of "Dawn of the Dead" fame gets the "final girl" role, but it isn't much and she is served a grim fate. All in all, "Madman" is tame compared to the slashers lucky enough to have obtained the talents of make-up extraordinaire Tom Savini. There's a campfire scene akin to "Friday the 13th Part 2" and "The Burning". Marz is yet another Jason Voorhies clone. Nothing that inventive or terrifying here, folk. Some stylish touches in the woods where victims pursue a dumb kid, and the sad irony is that this boy makes it out unscathed, the very one responsible for the madness in the first place. I think this benefited from the DVD boom because Madman has a quality release..the use of campfire and fireplace light are exceptional, and the way Marz is shadowed works well enough. If this weren't so damned run-of-the-mill...
Marz looks like some monstrous ghoul, a Sasquatch in hillbilly attire who grunts like an aggravated animal. His skin is pale and fingernails look as if they could use a good manicure. Not the best of hair-days, either. Anyway, like many psychopaths in the slasher genre, Madman Marz has superhuman strength and can pull one male victim with a rope over a strong branch that leaves him in a difficult position, with the result being a nasty neck snap with the eventual eyes rolling back into his head. There's this ax that has been buried in a log stump for sometime with no one able to remove it with force..of course, Marz does remove it with a little pull and some grunting. There are some off-screen beheadings(..one amusingly as a female victim is working on repairs under a hood Marz slams down on her)with the severed neck squirting blood. There are subtle scenes inside Marz's cellar where he keeps the murdered bodies and we hear a sharp thud in the background, later finding that he has a thing for hanging corpses on hooks. There's one howler of a scene where this dim-bulb female victim attempts to hide from Marz in a refrigerator. She gets it with an ax and an accidental shot-gun blast to the face(..nah, not as gruesomely staged as it sounds). Poor Gaylen Ross of "Dawn of the Dead" fame gets the "final girl" role, but it isn't much and she is served a grim fate. All in all, "Madman" is tame compared to the slashers lucky enough to have obtained the talents of make-up extraordinaire Tom Savini. There's a campfire scene akin to "Friday the 13th Part 2" and "The Burning". Marz is yet another Jason Voorhies clone. Nothing that inventive or terrifying here, folk. Some stylish touches in the woods where victims pursue a dumb kid, and the sad irony is that this boy makes it out unscathed, the very one responsible for the madness in the first place. I think this benefited from the DVD boom because Madman has a quality release..the use of campfire and fireplace light are exceptional, and the way Marz is shadowed works well enough. If this weren't so damned run-of-the-mill...