Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

There are some actually really good obscure slasher movies from the 80s. This is not one of them.As much as I love watching these films, this one didn't finish well for me. Which is a little odd because there were some good gory scenes, but I think what might've ruined it for me is the monster-like element in "Madman Marz". Every time he's in a scene you pretty much see his inhuman creature-like hands, and he makes stupid noises in his scenes. The acting also wasn't the best from some of the cast.This could totally just be me though. I mean, it wasn't terrible. While I won't recommend it, I totally say you can give it a try. I can't ignore that there were some good gore scenes to see.

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.

The movie begins around a campfire with an older man telling a scary story about Madman Marz, a psychopath who killed his family years ago in the area. Here's the kicker - he escaped capture and legend says if you call out his name in the woods, he'll hunt you down and kill you. Of course, one of the happy campers yells out "Madman Marz" and it isn't long before all hell breaks loose. After a camper goes missing, our main camp counsellor characters go out and search for him one after the other. And as per rules of slasher films, they are murdered when they go out in the woods leaving us with a remaining female counsellor.So the plot sounds a bit similar to Friday the 13th, and it is (except for the legend of Marz). Madman is an above average backwoods slasher, it's flaws are some unrealistic things such as why are their only ten kids at the camp...and why, after seeing shadows of a large creepy guy, would the characters go out into the woods and into Marz's creepy deserted house? And about those characters; They seemed so out of place for this movie. The counsellors looked to be in their thirties playing supposed twenty year olds and most of the campers were older teenagers who looked way too old for camp. The gore is decent, I may have watched a cut version though. We get some beheadings and some broken necks, but none of the gore is too over the top. What I liked about Madman was the use of shadows and the glimpses of Marz that were shown just before he'd attack. I thought that was done well. There was of course a big chase scene like in almost every horror movie. This one involved Marz chasing Ellie through the entire woods and back to the campgrounds where she hid in a refrigerator. I thought it was pretty cool. There were some awkward moments like the "jacuzzi sex scene", the cheesiest music ever used in a slasher, and some of the interactions between the counsellors and the campers. The acting wasn't good at all from pretty much everyone. But while it doesn't provide the higher quality of The Burning or Friday the 13th, Madman is an enjoyable camp slasher film that should be seen by every horror fan at least once.7/10

This time capsule from the Golden Age of slasher movies utilizes every single touchstone of the genre with such abandon that anyone who has seen a handful of offerings from the era can probably predict every step of the action before it unfolds. But thanks to a suitably intimidating killer and a generous dollop of gore, Madman has enough spunk to be a fairly entertaining diversion.The film opens with our future victims huddled around a campfire hearing the tale of the film's titular Madman, and while this exact same set-up appears in nearly every "teens in the woods" splatter movie from the period, it's worth noting that since Madman was released fairly early in the cycle (1982), this establishing scene had not yet been rendered cliché. For what it's worth, this is the only slasher film I've seen in which the killer's legend is actually SUNG by one the characters, so Madman certainly scores a few dubious points for originality there.Once the ball gets rolling, everything else pretty much runs by the book. The victims-to-be are a bevy of uninteresting counselors at a camp for "gifted children", and after we've been filled in on the baritone back-story, they pair off to have sex and/or pointless conversations before finding increasingly foolish reasons to wander off into the woods alone.Madman Marz is the hulking behemoth the hapless counselors encounter amidst the trees, and in terms of sheer size, he is certainly an imposing presence. Unfortunately, the glimpses we get of him seem to suggest a sasquatch on the loose instead of a deranged killer. His bloody handiwork is a bit more impressive than his furry jowls, however, so that aspect of the film ably delivers the goods.Along with the grue, the film also boasts some priceless moments of unintentional hilarity. A definite high-point is that one of the male counselors is named T.P., a moniker he's apparently so proud of that he has it printed on his belt buckle. This buckle is a prominent feature in the funniest scene in the movie, which features a lugubrious montage of him and his lover slowly disrobing for a dip in the jacuzzi, accompanied by the most atrocious soft-core porn music you've ever heard.Certainly, this wasn't the first or last slasher movie to feature an ensemble of overwhelmingly brain-dead characters, but the zeal with which this crew invites their own demises is often astounding here. The general train of thought which sets up most of the murders is essentially, "some people are missing, and now the people who went looking for the missing people are missing too, so we should split up and go search the pitch black woods for them by ourselves." Later in the film, an even sharper lad bumps into his hysterical girlfriend, who has just seen the mountainous Madman appraising the decapitated body of his latest victim. His brilliant and comforting solution is to have her take him to where the killer is so that he can see exactly what she saw and "make sure". You can probably guess how that turns out.But wait, there's more. The same hysterical girlfriend, while being chased later in the film by the rampaging murderer, finds the most novel and sensible place to hide that I've ever seen utilized in a horror film... inside a refrigerator. I already knew refrigerators were useful for many things, including keeping food fresh and protecting Indiana Jones from atomic explosions, but it never occurred to me that they also offered perfect safe havens from pursuing mass murderers. Even better, Marz is about ten feet away from his shrieking prey when she loudly removes the contents from the unit to make room for her, and despite his proximity and the scattered food strewn all over the ground, the Madman apparently doesn't think to look inside the fridge. Yes, locking herself inside a refrigerator actually SAVES her. This is a plot twist I never saw coming, especially in a film this paint-by-numbers, so kudos to Madman for offering at least one big surprise. Sure, she eventually catches an axe to the chest, but that's what she gets for leaving the safety of the oxygen-less icebox.To the film's credit, the stereotypical final confrontation between the killer and the lone female survivor doesn't adhere to the same stringent formula that the rest of the movie does. Though the last frames before the credits are decidedly silly, the very fact that the film-makers did things a bit different is certainly admirable.I know it sounds like I'm being hard on poor, monkey-faced Madman Marz, but since the movie is just a big slice of pure, dumb fun, it's only fitting to celebrate the more ludicrous aspects of it. The best part of many of the early '80s slasher pics was how rife they were with accidental humor, and Madman offers up a healthy dose which ultimately only makes it more entertaining. If you love that period of cinematic history as much as I do, this is definitely one you should add to your list.