Verdict
Summary
Icky by any standards, even by those set by Italian exploitation filmmakers of the era, Madness has a slimy, uncomfortable quality that fans of films such as Last House on the Left and I Spit on Your Grave will appreciate, but all others should be warned that the movie is unpleasant and has a bloody, shocking ending.
Plot:
An escaped convict terrorizes a couple and their guest at a cottage that might be the hiding place for a huge stash of cash.
Review:
Escaping from prison, violent convict Joe (Joe Dellesandro) straightaway murders two farmers, steals their car, and makes a beeline for a cottage where he socked away hundreds of thousands in cash. When he gets there, he scopes it out and finds a playful couple – Sergio (Gianni Macchia) and Liliana (Patrizia Behn) – and Liliana’s promiscuous sister Paola (Lorraine De Selle) who is along for the weekend. As Joe spies them all, he quickly realizes that Sergio is cheating on his wife with Paola, who traipses around the house and outside completely in the nude, which is more than a temptation for Joe, who waits until Sergio and Liliana go out for the day, leaving Paola defenseless. He rapes her (and she likes it, which is a weird, but predictable Italian exploitation touch), and then forces her to dig for his cash, but when Sergio and Liliana return, Joe doesn’t need his shotgun to intimidate the couple, whom he degrades and humiliates by forcing Liliana to watch Sergio have sex with her sister, and then Joe has Liliana for himself in front of Sergio. It gets very serious when Joe leaves his shotgun unattended for a moment, and suddenly the cottage is alight with gunfire, screaming, and tragedy.
Icky by any standards, even by those set by Italian exploitation filmmakers of the era, Madness has a slimy, uncomfortable quality that fans of films such as Last House on the Left and I Spit on Your Grave will appreciate, but all others should be warned that the movie is unpleasant and has a bloody, shocking ending. Dellasandro perfectly personifies the scum character he plays, and co-star De Selle spends almost the entire movie completely in the nude which is fantastic, but considering what happens to her in the movie and how it’s all handled, it’s not erotic or pleasant in any way. Director Fernando Di Leo does a commendable job with the sordid material, but the film becomes exhausting even at 89 minutes because it’s just not the sort of movie I’m particularly fond of watching. That said, exploitation fans will likely enjoy it if they’re in the right (or wrong) frame of mind.
Raro Video and Kino Lorber’s new Blu-ray release of Madness comes in a nice high definition transfer, and the disc includes a new audio commentary by film historian Troy Howarth, and the trailer.
