MADMAN

US, 1982, 88 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Joe Giannone.

Madman is yet another Halloween derivative. It resembles very closely Friday the 13th which set a pattern of the terrorising of a group of youngsters, especially at a holiday camp in charge of children. The most blatant imitation
was Tony Maylem's The Burning. Madman resembles The Burning very closely, even in plot details. However, it begins better with eerie stories told around the campfire in a type of chanting style and the film fulfilling the story. The characters are somewhat better delineated than in the usual Friday the 13th imitation. However, the madman is presented as a monster, the victims are most gorily despatched and, in this film, without mercy. The films of the early 1980s imitating Friday the 13th seem either exploitative ghastly entertainment or exercises in film techniques and special effects by student filmmakers - or both.