Very well executed

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Its a generic un-scary blend of Jason, Leatherface, Michael, The Prowler and all the early slashers. Its a lot more serious and better shot than later slashers, but not as entertaining or fresh. It starts strong but runs out of story midway. The strongest element is the cinematography. The sound is super cheap and the abrupt and cringey ending only works because its so bad that its funny.

At a camp in the woods for gifted youngsters, a group of senior counsellors sit around a fire telling spooky stories. Max (Frederick Neumann), the eldest head counsellor, recalls the urban myth of Madman Marz, a notorious local drunk and brute, who butchered his family one night with an axe not too far from where the camp now lies. The locals hanged him from a tree and left his body for the crows, only to return the next day to find an empty noose. He will re-emerge if his name is spoken, and so cocky youngster Richie (Tom Candela) takes the bait and challenges Marz to show himself. As the various couples break off into the night in the hope of sex and fun, Richie notices a shadow in the woods and stays behind to investigate. Meanwhile, a hulk of a man starts to bump off the teens.The slasher genre produced a seemingly endless list of badly executed sex-and-murder-in-the-woods movies during the 1980s, all following a set formula, usually suffering from minimal cash injection and often made by directors never heard from again. As trashy as the majority of these movies tend to be, there's a morbid comfort to be had in their predictability, especially amongst horror fans. Just why I keep returning to the genre I know will ultimately disappoint is a question I asked myself at various points as I watched Joe Giannone's Madman, despite the film being one of the genre's better offerings, at least aesthetically speaking.Shadowy lighting and a subtle use of music to announce the arrival of Marz help the film drum up some atmospheric set-pieces, and a few gory moments offer the desired amount of blood and just a little in way of invention. But these highlights are too fleeting, and for the most part we are made to suffer through terrible dialogue, sex scenes filmed like soft-porn, and some utterly atrocious acting from its young cast. The main group of characters are even more annoying than those commonly found in these types of movies, especially T.P. (Tony Fish), a grating douchebag with a belt buckle displaying his nickname. In order to flesh out the running time, characters are forced to repeatedly make stupid decisions so they can wander endlessly through the woods in search of each other. For slasher enthusiasts only.

This is a classic that is forgotten by some, but not me. I remember the preview when I was young. Now, I got the chance to see it, and figure out on what it is. Here, you got this story about a farmer who goes berserk. Grabs an axe, hacks up his wife and kids, goes to a tavern, confess to the people there. What do they do? Grab a rope, form a lynch mob, grab his axe, disfiguring him after he is hanged. Only to find out that he has escaped the next day. The maniac is known as "Madman Marz". This character is by chance more savage than supernatural. No mask, just one trademark weapon of choice: the axe. Unlike Jason, Madman Marz makes these sounds that would give him away. But he is also stealthy . The changes he went through, from an farmer wearing boots to a Sasquatch-like being with a scar. Sometimes it's best to let the legend be a legend, if you are alive long enough. Many people have been carried off by this inhuman monster, there were plenty of hacked off heads in that film. Under-appreciated, but not unrecognized, this movie is a lost gem. I liked it very much. 3 out of 5 stars.

Exceptional cinematography (blue and black always works in backwoods slashers), raw death sequences (all about the NASTY hanging of T.P.!), cheesy moments (all about the kitsch romantic dance followed by sex inside a jacuzzi!), a creepy villain, a spooky song about the legend of Madman. Those are the principal elements that make this slasher a winner.Although cheesy and at some points slow-moving, "Madman" deserves a chance because it surely is a damn entertaining slasher. Sure, it steals plenty of moments from "Friday the 13th" but also delivers unique moments of madness. WTF? about the girl hiding in the fridge?! This moment can be ignored when Madman pays tribute to "Black Christmas" (you know, the "eye" scene).What about showing the demises of all the characters when a guy is singing the spooky song around a campfire?! Neat!I recommend this one for those who love slashers flicks. I can't say more.P.S. R.I.P. T.P.!