Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Michael_Elliott Madhouse (1981) ** (out of 4) Julia (Trish Everly) suffers from various mental issues due to the abuse that she suffered from her twin sister. Years later the sister is deformed with a skin virus but before their birthday someone shows up at Julia's school and begins killing her friends.Director Ovidio G. Assonitis will always be remembered for THE EXORCIST rip-off BEYOND THE DOOR as well as TENTACLES and to a lesser extent for firing James Cameron on PIRANHA PART TWO. Before he fired Cameron he was directing this film, a bizarre mix of American slasher and Italian giallo. I must admit that I wasn't overly familiar with the picture until Arrow Video announced its release and afterwards I'm a bit confused about what I watched.For the most part if you're a horror fan you'll want to check this film out, although it falls well short of what I'd consider a good movie. I'm really not sure what the film was trying to do other than to show off some gory death scenes every fifteen-minutes or so. The story itself is, I think, supposed to be some sort of mystery but it's pretty easy to figure out what the twist is going to be. With knowing the twist, that pretty much takes away any suspense or mystery. Another problem with the picture is the fact that the death scenes are so spread apart. It's too bad there either wasn't much more of a story or perhaps the body count jacked up.I thought Assonitis managed to create a nice setting and there's some nice cinematography as well. The film kept me mildly entertained through the first hour but things just really started to drag during the finale. I won't spoil who the killer is but I must say the murder of the killer is quite excellent. It's too bad the rest of the film wasn't as good. I did also enjoy the subplot dealing with the murderous dog. CUJO didn't have anything on this mutt! Again, MADHOUSE isn't a great movie or even a good one but there are enough interesting moments to make it worth sitting through.

Stephen Abell This film is crying out for a remake and with today's special effects it could really make this as special as it should be. Though it's the story that writer and director Ovidio G Assonitis along with writers Stephen Blakely, Roberto Gandus, and Peter Shepherd crafted which needs better representation than this film was given, surprisingly enough from Assonitis, who's direction especially at the end turns this into a nearly unwatchable farce instead of a horrific psychological thriller.This is the tale of twin sisters, Julia who is played by Trish Everly (The Good Sister) and Mary Sullivan played by Allison Biggers (The Bad Sister). During their childhood, it was Mary who was the dominant sibling and tormented, teased, and tortured Julia whenever she could. This behaviour sent Mary to the psychiatric hospital where Julia chose to forget about her. After developing a severe skin disease Mary asks to see her twin and Julia grudgingly agrees, after some cajoling from their Uncle, Father James. The meeting goes as expected with Mary getting angry and attacking her sister while cursing her that she'll make her sorry. After she escapes the institution she and her faithful pet Doberman start to invite Julia's friends to their birthday party... by killing them.When the climax arrives and everything is revealed you will need to hold onto your sanity and accept the unbelievable in the incredulity of a twist which was only manufactured to shock. Though for spoiler reason's, I cannot say what this is, you won't and cannot miss it. If this twist had been written and filmed better than it would have made an otherwise okay and average movie better... and not worse, as it did.The acting is pretty standard and average until you get to the finale then you enter the lunatic and stupid, which I will put down to Assonitis' direction. Though I think Dennis Robertson as Father James should have won an Oscar for the "Most-Over-The-Top Acting Role In A Movie... EVER!" It is really gleefully bad.Assonitis also has trouble with pacing the film and this gives the work a disjointed feeling.However, the evil Doberman is the best thing in the film and some of the attack scenes are even better as they used a real dog as well as a prop set of jaws (which can look a little awful).I would only recommend this film to lovers of bad B-Movies but be warned you do need to stay to the finale to see the best scene.

Caroline Phillips Madhouse is thematically (and sometimes visually) similar to the Canadian slasher Happy Birthday To Me, but it goes about telling its story of sibling slashing in a very different way.Shot in Georgia, but using an Italian creative team, Madhouse has a strange sense of time and place. Where is this exactly? It it in the past? Is it now? It's one of those things you'll only get when you mix and match crews and locations like this.The acting from lead Trish Everly is quite good and she makes for a sympathetic heroine who just wants to be left alone by her sociopathic, deformed sister who just escaped from a loony bin and has brought her vicious dog with her.At this point, pretty much everyone in our heroine's life is fodder for her sister's knife blade and dog's sharp teeth, which leads to some very creepy moments of victims wandering around a spooky Georgia mansion and getting picked off one by one. It all culminates in the nastiest corpse birthday party since...well, Happy Birthday To Me. The ending even got a real jolt out of me.If I had any complaints, it would be that the reveal of a 2nd killer mid way through the film is accompanied by a lifeless, suspense-free chase scene that goes on far too long. It's also at that point that the film becomes a bit too campy due to both the killer and victim's performances.The visuals are stunning, the music score is super weird, and there's enough gore to satisfy gore hounds, but not turn off more sophisticated viewers. Definitely worth your time!

Toronto85 I watched "There Was a Little Girl" the other day under the title "Madhouse". It's about a school teacher named Julia who has a deranged and deformed twin sister Mary. When the two were younger, Mary used to torment and torture Julia with a huge rottweiler. Eventually Mary was committed to a psychiatric facility. Well, late one night, Mary escapes the hospital and heads straight for her sister Julia (along with a large rottweiler). Throughout the middle part of the film, a few people are murdered in the building where Julia lives culminating in a creepy yet unsatisfying finale.Madhouse is a frustrating 80's slasher flick because it's really creepy yet doesn't explain much by the end. Why is the sister crazy? What was with that opening scene of a girl smashing another's head in with a rock? And why is the second killer so deranged? Yes, there are two killers in this movie. By the conclusion, Madhouse never tell us why this second killer is insane and that is really my biggest problem with the movie. Acting is good all around, it surprised me that Trish Everly (Julia) hasn't done anything other than Madhouse because she was pretty good. The gore is well done, not too over the top (except one drill scene). I also liked the filming location of the dark house that Julia lives in. It works well during the stalking/murder scenes. Overall an above average slasher film that I would recommend. It's only flaw is that it leaves us wanting more.6/10