Slashers ruled the 1980s, and the best year by far for them was at the beginning of the decade in 1981. In a twelve-month span,horror fans receivedHalloween II,Friday the 13 Part 2,My Bloody Valentine,andThe Prowler, just to name a few. There was another slasher in 1981 that doesn’t get held up quite as high as those titles, but it should.Madman, written and directed byJoe Giannone, andstarringDawn of the Dead’sGaylen Ross, could have just been another guy in the woods killing teenagers flick. While it has many of those tropes,Madmanis also something more due to its terrifying villain, Madman Marz. In a different timeline, he could’ve become a slasher icon like Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees, butinstead, he has to settle for one movie.
There is also an interesting story behind the production ofMadman.It was originally meant to be about the urban legend of Cropsey, until the crew learned during the auditioning process that another movie, theHarvey Weinstein-produced and co-writtenThe Burning, already in production, had the same plot.It forcedMadmanto alter its script and create its own memorable monster.
If you’re a slasher fan, chances are you started on those aforementioned names, which all came out in one year. There are so many slasher films though that it’s hard to see them all or to be able to even find them all. In this writer’s case,Madmanwasn’t available at the video store when I was discovering my love for the genre, so it became the very first movie I ever rented on Netflix DVD. (Ah, remember those days?) The plot of a crazed, axe-wielding killer in the woods hunting teenagers has been done to death, but in 1981, it was still fresh. It wasn’t fresh enough for the creators ofMadman, because,during the early days of production, they accidentally discovered that they were ripping off another movie.As producer and co-writerGary Salesexplained it to80shorrormovies.net, “We built the legend ofMadmanscript around a campfire tale that I was told year after year at sleep away camp up in the Catskill Mountains of NY… At the time, the working title wasThe Legend Lives.”
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The campfire tale Sales and directorJoe Giannonewrote about wasthe legend of Cropsey, the story of a man with extreme burn injuries who may or may not have a hook for a hand who escapes from a mental hospital and kidnaps children to avenge the death of his own son. It was the perfect story for a horror movie, butin a 2015Madmancast reunion, Sales revealed the shock of the audition process, whereactors were coming in and saying that they’d read for another movie with a very similar plot. He added, “One girl came in one day and said, ‘You know, my boyfriend is working up in Buffalo right now on a movie and I helped him read for this to get him ready for the show, and I know I read a scene that was just like this, with a monster just like this. He’s doing it right now.'”
On hearing this, Sales made some calls, which led to him discovering that the Cropsey legend was being done by a film already in production calledThe Burning. The first movie Harvey Weinstein ever produced, it was co-written by his brotherBob WeinsteinandBrad Grayand directed byTony Maylam.The Burningis known for its stellar cast of then-unknown actors, includingJason AlexanderandFisher Stevens. It even has a brief glimpse of a youngHolly Hunterat the beginning of her career. Its story is of a janitor at a summer camp who is nearly burned to death in a prank gone wrong, and then returns years later to get his revenge.
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Not being able to keep the Cropsey legend, becauseThe Burningwas six weeks ahead and would come out first,Gary Sales said at the cast reunion that he and Joe Giannone quickly rewrote their script over a weekend, replacing Crospey with a legend of their own making, Madman Marz.Madman,likeFriday the 13th Part 2, wisely starts off with a campfire scene where our characters gather around to listen to the story of Madman Marz. This might be too exposition-heavy, but it’s done in a fun and creepy way. Madman Marz is described to be a man who used to live in an old, dilapidated house just beyond where they are now.
We’re instantly placed in the villain’s world, which immediately raises the threat. Marz was an evil, mean, ugly man who beat his wife and kids. He also had an extreme facial injury, having his nose bitten off during a bar fight. One night, on a night just like this one, of course,Marz went mad and killed his entire family with an axe. After that, he went to the bar and confessed, leading the townsfolk to drag him to a tree and hang him, while also burying the axe in his neck. They left Marz there to rot, but the next day his body and the bodies of his family were all gone.When the moon is full, Madman Marz is said to be out there in the night with an axe ready to chop down or hang his victims. And don’t you dare say his same out loud, because he will hear you and get you. Boo!
That’s a chilling story, but what nearly holdsMadmanback is everything beyond it.It’s an amateurish film, with odd choices that sometimes don’t make sense, such as a character rising from the campfire and chucking a rock through a window of Marz’s house. Wait, are they right next to the house, or is this guy able to throw a stone a couple hundred yards?! Almost every character is paper thin, a collection of tropes who are there to party, have sex, and wander off alone. They’re written to die,and even the final girl, Betsy (Ross), is not all that exciting, but instead goes through the paces, waiting for the eventual showdown. Just as perplexing is the age of the actors. They’re supposed to be teenagers, but they all look like older adults. For example, Gaylen Ross was 31 at the time of filming. Other slashers of the year had much better characters and final girls,butMadmanis saved by its big bad. Madman Marz is one ugly and scary dude.
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Madman Marz is played byPaul Ehlers, who got the gig in the most unusual of ways.In the documentaryThe Legend Still Lives: 30 Years of Madman, Ehler explains that he was brought in by Giannone and Sale because he was an artist. They wanted him to work on the poster art, but then they got a look at the giant of a man in front of them. When they found out this sizable guy had martial arts training, they asked him to play Marz and he accepted.
Marz is like an early version of Jason Voorhees, minus the mask, wherethe Camp Crystal Lake killer is portrayed as a hillbillycovered with scars and wounds. Madman Marz is a heavier man in overalls, with wild hair and a thick beard, who looks like a zombie hillbilly with his missing eye and bitten-off nose. Marz doesn’t speak but makes grunts when he’s near. The lack of a mask allows his face to emote, without making him so human that he loses some of the fear factor.Madmanknows what it is and makes the kills intense and gory. Marz swings his axe and gets it very bloody, but one scene also shows him decapitating a poor victim with a truck hood.
Madmanisn’t the best slasher of 1981, but it’s one of the more fun. The final girl trope has a twist, and the ending sets up what could have been a fun franchise. Few slashers of the era capture the feel of the subgenre and the decade so well. PutMadmanon, no matter the time of the year, and you can feel the air grow crisp as you reach for a blanket. Whatever you do, just don’t say his name.
