I have just finished watching this and struggle to work out exactly what I thought of it.
The first 3/4 of this movie is sooooooooooo slow and dull, I found it very hard to maintain an interest. As with a previous movie, it felt like some of the scenes were actually never going to end. The ending of the movie however does kind of make up for the dragging nature of the rest of the movie.
The basic premis here is a woman who has an identical twin who she hasn't seen since childhood and doesn't particularly want to due to the abusive nature of the relationship. The uncle of these women try to bring them both together again by bringing our main leading lady (your typical lovely lady who couldn't be any nicer....even works with deaf children) to hospital to visit her twin (nasty bitch... nothing much else needs to be said) as she is very ill and is suffering from terrible facial deformity. She typically learns nothing much has changed when she relents and visits her sister to find her as evil and twisted as she ever was.
SPOILERS FOLLOW.
This is where things started to draaaaaaaag. There was no pace about the movie at all and you wondered where it was all going most of the time. To be honest I thought I had it worked out in that I assumed there wasn't actually a sister at all and there were 2 sides to the same womans personality. There we go I thought! Got this one figured out. Rookie mistake, I was actually wrong!
So lots of people ended up getting killed all over the place, there doesn't seem to be any rules in that respect. We got women, different ethnicities, women, a deaf child, animals..... In fact the animal deaths in these are hilarious! (and that's coming from someone who HATES any kind of depiction of animal cruelty or death on screen). They are just too bad to be in any way offensive or believable. The rottweiler surely regrets his attempt at a 'Heeeeeeeeeeeeeres Johnny' re-inactment.
As we approach the ending to the movie (maybe last 15-20 minutes) it got a little bit interesting. The 'uncle' who I did think was a bit odd and creepy (a bit like someone you imagine probably interferes with children...) turns out to be the murderer, knocking everybody off throughout the movie, but he is in cohoots with the evil twin, who is actually the best thing about the movie in my book - complete space cadet! There is one scene early in the movie where she pops up and stabs someone and I was convinced it was a mannequin such was her stilted and weird movements, which made it a bit creepy. Her facial expression was completely manic too. I think after seeing that particular scene I expected a bit more from the movie.
Anyways, I deviate. The last 15 minutes are actually quite good and if about half of the movie had been redone, I would have thoroughly enjoyed it, as the start was ok, the ending was good, but the crap inbetween was hard work! Shame, it did have all the elements for a pretty creepy movie.
A special mention has to go to the axe job on nasty uncles back. Niiiiice!
So in conclusion, you probably could so much worse than watch this one. It is one of the better ones on the list in my humble opinion, but there is a massive lack of pace to most of the movie and I assure you that you will end up thinking, 'Why couldn't the rest of the movie have been like the last 15 minutes'. Its not quite good enough to achieve a 'recommends' in my book, but I wouldn't say avoid like the plague.
Please use the comments bellow only to comment on this post - to write your own review, please comment on the main post for this movie.
Showing posts with label Madhouse. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Madhouse. Show all posts
9 Jun 2012
Madhouse - Wills Review
Right off the bat I'm going to tell you I enjoyed this one. It's a slasher, which puts me on 'home turf' as were, so I may be a little biased, but I really enjoyed it.
Don't get me wrong, it can drag a little in the first two acts, but once things start to unfold... The last 20 mins is more than worth the price of admission; not because of any over the top gore (worst luck) but what it lacks in the red stuff in more than makes up for in batshit insanity!
And it has a really bad glove puppet dog in it too!
The trouble is that the good stuff all happens after a twist at around the hour mark, so if you read any further you're going to have it spoiled.
Go away right now, and don't come back until you've seen the film!
Oh, and make sure it's the one from 1981 - there are about a million (well, 6) completely unrelated films all called "Madhouse".
GO!
Still here? Good, So you've seen the film and don't need a synopsis.
I dug the twist, and I really dug that they set up a false twist. Between Julia's account of her sisters abuse ("It was almost like I was doing it to myself") and the fact that we never saw the killers face I was convinced it was her... but no!
Then her uncle turned out to be the killer, and I was positive the sister was already dead - but now, she was (one of the) killer(s), and they are working together!
Then the uncle kills her too - Genius!
I can even forgive the dog killing, because the dog" that got killed was more like Spit than a real Rottweiler! (Did anyone else notice that the dog was clearly really friendly, and had clips holding his mouth in a fake snarl?), and the Cat (presumably) got killed off screen.
Don't get me wrong, it can drag a little in the first two acts, but once things start to unfold... The last 20 mins is more than worth the price of admission; not because of any over the top gore (worst luck) but what it lacks in the red stuff in more than makes up for in batshit insanity!
And it has a really bad glove puppet dog in it too!
The trouble is that the good stuff all happens after a twist at around the hour mark, so if you read any further you're going to have it spoiled.
Go away right now, and don't come back until you've seen the film!
Oh, and make sure it's the one from 1981 - there are about a million (well, 6) completely unrelated films all called "Madhouse".
GO!
Still here? Good, So you've seen the film and don't need a synopsis.
I dug the twist, and I really dug that they set up a false twist. Between Julia's account of her sisters abuse ("It was almost like I was doing it to myself") and the fact that we never saw the killers face I was convinced it was her... but no!
Then her uncle turned out to be the killer, and I was positive the sister was already dead - but now, she was (one of the) killer(s), and they are working together!
Then the uncle kills her too - Genius!
I can even forgive the dog killing, because the dog" that got killed was more like Spit than a real Rottweiler! (Did anyone else notice that the dog was clearly really friendly, and had clips holding his mouth in a fake snarl?), and the Cat (presumably) got killed off screen.
So yes, It could have been a bit better paced, and yes it would have been nice to see some gore, but I loved the insane uncle so much that I'm giving this one my seal of approval.
Body Count: 6
Boob Count: 0
Animal Body Count: 2
Please use the comments bellow only to comment on this post - to write your own review, please comment on the main post for this movie.
Please use the comments bellow only to comment on this post - to write your own review, please comment on the main post for this movie.
3 Jun 2012
WEEK 55: Madhouse
Alternate Titles : There Was a Little Girl, And When She Was Bad, Flesh and the Beast, Scared to Death
Year: 1981
Reviews / Author Comments due: 09/06/2012
Feel free to use the comments section of this post to add your own reviews and thoughts about this movie.
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