Expected more

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

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

This starts off as quite a well spun, psychological drama, until our oblivious innocents meet Burt and his deranged family. Reynolds really does a good job of playing the madman of a deranged family, still living in denial, of losing close loved ones, until Sara and daughter step into the picture, as familiar replacements, and becoming entrapped in the nutter's house. Dickerson, is very good as the deranged wife, overacting some notches. But they do give quite scary and trying performances in a dumb movie, that becomes more preposterous, as scenes become more preposterous, with some unbefitting music scores, excluding the major one I liked, the best thing about this film. The scene early on with husband, arguing with Sara's sister, not too fond of this guy, was just laughable, where you just can't take this one seriously as a scary thriller. It's just too dumb. The little girl of the nutters, equally nutty, gets on your nerves too. There were some moments, she actually made me uncomfortable. The pudgy cop, who sort of looks like Newman from Seinfeld, was the other plus, in a film, left better on the shelves. Stay away.

I decided to watch "The Maddening" because I was intrigued by the movie's promise of showcasing Burt Reynolds in a very atypical role, that being a bad guy. But I was sorely let down by the end results. Except for some good photography and lighting for what was a low budget production, the movie goes wrong in just about every way you can think of. The story has nothing really new - you'll be able to more or less predict what will happen next before it actually happens on the screen, save for some REALLY BIG continuity gaffs. As for Reynolds (who wears an especially bad hairpiece), although he has shown he can act in other movies, here he just seems to be badly miscast; at every moment he comes across as good ol' boy Burt Reynolds instead of someone who is scary and disturbed. One last thing: While the movie got slapped with an "R" rating, it really doesn't earn that harsh rating. If you ask me, the movie is more deserving of a PG-13 rating.

Burt Reynolds as a psycho... definitely had me interested when I came across this one on late- night cable TV. I should have known that like most of everything Burt Reynoolds has made in the last 20 years or so, this one is very high on camp and pretty low on quality. I was even more surprised to see that it was directed by Danny Huston, who has since gone on to do some excellent acting work in some very acclaimed films. I guess The Maddening was a low point for both him and Burt... check it out only if you dare. Kind of reminded me of the B-movie classic The Stepfather, except this one is even lower in production value.

I was a bit skeptical to see this film,mainly because Burt Reynolds plays a psycho killer!I was wrong-"The Maddening" is very good.Reynolds performance is just scary and flawless,and the film has its share of surprises.It's creepy,mildly disturbing at times,but still manages to be entertaining for horror/thriller fans!The acting is surprisingly good and there are some violent scenes like nasty throat slashing!Check it out-you won't be disappointed!8 out of 10.