I, Madman
Director: Tibor Takács
Cast: Jenny Wright, Clayton Rohner, Randall William Cook
Reviewed by Brian M. Sammons
I’m afraid I might come off a little as a hipster douchebag in this review, because for years I have really liked this movie, and it seemed that no one else even knew about it. I would bring it up when talking to various horror fans, and nearly to a person, no one had seen or even heard of it. And now, like a hipster when their favorite indie band is about to “go mainstream” and hit the big time, I now have to share it with the rest of the world, and I, Madman was my movie, damn it. Oh well, at least I can play all-knowing and superior one last time and tell you about this flick before everyone sees it and realizes just how cool it is. So grab your favorite book and your trusty straight razor (if you were as cool as I am, you would so get that reference) and let’s have a look at I, Madman.
Jenny Wright plays Virginia who loves old pulp horror stories, specifically those by an author named Malcolm Brand. She has a quest to find the last book he ever wrote before dying under mysterious conditions. Eventually she finds the old tome, called I, Madman, and that’s when the horror begins. The book is about a madman who, one day out of love, cuts all the features off of his face because he thinks he is ugly. Off goes the hair, nose, lips, and ears, all thanks to the crazy man’s trusty straight razor. He then starts to replace what he hacked off with better looking specimens from other people. If all this wasn’t weird and gruesome enough, it soon becomes apparent that fiction has become fact, and the madman has crept off of the page and into the real world and life of Virginia.
I, Madman is a wonderful little film that blurs the line between reality and fiction. While this isn’t the first movie to do that, and others would come later and do the same thing, it pulls off that trick masterfully. It is well acted by all involved, especially Jenny Wright (whom genre fans will recognize from Near Dark) and Clayton Rohner (of Just One of the Guys and April Fool’s Day fame). The direction by Tibor Takács is more than competent, which isn’t all the surprising, as he was just coming off of the cool Canadian kiddie creeper, The Gate from 1987. There are fantasy elements in it, for fans of the weird and supernatural, as well as more than a few good, bloody kills that the gorehounds should get a kick out of. So if you want a movie that has a little bit of everything, and does everything very well, I, Madman will deliver all those goods.
So the movie is cool, but how are the extras? Well, I guess if this movie was going to sellout and go all mainstream, they couldn’t have picked a better company to do that with than Scream Factory, as this disc come nicely loaded with goodies. First there is an audio commentary with director Tibor Takács and actor Randall William Cook, who plays the faceless baddie, Malcolm Brand. There is 33 minute making of featurette and a collection of behind the scenes footage, also with commentary with Randall William Cook. Want more of Mr. Cook? Well there is also a still gallery that also has commentary from the actor. A theatrical trailer and a video trailer are the final chapters on this excellent collection of goodies for a film most people have either never seen, or at best, forgotten.
For too long I, Madman has been relegated to the status of cult film, and it really is better than that. Thankfully with the big bright spotlight that is Scream Factory, more people will get to enjoy this movie. If you have yet to see it, give it a watch because it looks great on this disc, comes with a lot of nice extras, and I’m betting you’ll like it. Consider it highly recommended.
This is a fantastic post to find in my feed today! I was almost certain that the DVD and Blu-Ray releases were created solely for me, as I’ve only met a single person who’s seen it independent of me showing it to them. I’m a longstanding fan and ardent defender of “I, Madman”, and I love that there’s at least one other “hipster douchebag” that enjoys it as much as I. This film brings back so many good memories…
As shocking as it may sound, it was quite difficult to find a decent selection of movies growing up in South Florida in the 1980’s. Although I didn’t know it at the time, I was destined to be a fan of all things foreign, horror, obscure, cult, and just plain weird. This still dormant obsession with the wayward forms of cinema was definitely tempered by not having access to the films I desired. Besides Creature Feature gracing my Saturday mornings with classic monster films, the first horror films I can vividly remember watching were The Dark Night of the Scarecrow playing a double bill with Terror Train on television. Even though the latter was heavily edited for broadcast (Dark Night being a Made for TV Movie), Terror Train scared me more than anything in my life had at that point. Hey, I was 5. Remember kids, there was no internet then and a VCR cost as much as a new television. My household wouldn’t be graced with such a novel device for many years. Unlike my friend Jason…
His parents bought a Betamax player. Yes, laugh if you must, but realize that Betamax actually had superior image quality than VHS. The first local video store around us had two walls of rentals. One side was VHS, the other Betamax. The pickings were slim in those days. On the Betamax side were choices like Tank (starring James Garner), The Smurfs and the Magic Flute (DRECK!), and Ghoulies. Oh Ghoulies, as children we couldn’t resist renting a movie with box art that featured an obvious puppet (made by someone’s 2nd grade brother) rising out of a toilet. If Terror Train and Dark Night of the Scarecrow turned me into a fan of horror films, then Ghoulies made me a fan of bad horror films.
Having only intermittent access to viewing films at home, I made friends with the owners of the local video store. For some reason they let me hang around and watch movies anytime I wanted. I saw the full run of Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, Mortuary, TerrorVision, Return of the Living Dead, Once Bitten, Cat’s Eye, The Stuff, et al. When we finally got a VHS player (a top-loader of course) I couldn’t be stopped. When stores (and my mother) began “policing” rentals on R-rated films I simply swapped the tape(s) I wanted into the case of a more benign film. My mother must have thought that The Smurfs and the Magic Flute was my favorite film because I rented it A LOT. Or so she thought…
1988 rolled around and that year I lived across the street (literally) from a movie theater. It’s waning years saw it transition into a $1 theater before it closed, it’s now renovated into a church or cult of some sort. But then, then it was the miscreant mecca. In an effort to increase their waning business, they held a costume contest on Halloween. Of course I dressed as Jason at his bloody best and my brother, well I can’t remember what he was. So, for the sake of this telling I’ll just say that he was costumed as Cheetara from the Thundercats. So my brother (Cheetara) and I showed up for the contest, and we’re the only two dumbasses who did. I of course looked like a badass in my costume, so good in fact that it overshadowed my brother being dressed as a female cartoon character. We were “awarded” 1st and 2nd prizes, a total of 75 free movie passes. Not having cable TV at home, whenever we were bored (always) we would walk over to the theater and watch whatever crap was playing. Who cared if it was any good? To preserve our precious passes, we’d theater-hop all day. Like I said, it was the miscreant mecca, the management could not have cared less.
Being able to watch any film currently in theaters whenever I wanted was great, but remember this was still South Florida. If it was a smaller run film, it didn’t get shipped anywhere near here. And then late that summer we moved away from my precious theater, never to use all of my precious Golden Tickets. A small loss all things considered, because I found another kindred soul with a taste for the bizarre. 6th grade had me changing schools, again. That year would’ve been an existential and physical hell if Pete hadn’t of been in my class. Not only did Pete introduce me to a slew of new movies, he also had a slick Apple IIgs and some astounding games for it. Perhaps most unbelievable of all, he had cable. His place was so much cooler than my house I don’t know where to begin. I spent the night as often as I could and we’d stay up until dawn playing games and watching a numbing amount of Sci-Fi and horror films.
Late one night, during a marathon game of Leisure Suit Larry, a film trailer caught our attention. HBO was playing in the background and it was previewing next month’s new films. Cute and nerdy Virginia worked in the king of all used book stores and she found a very obscure novel (Much of Madness, More of Sin) by author Malcolm Brand. Enthralled by the novel she tries to discover more of the author’s work, only to find that he only wrote one other book, “I, Madman”. Published as non-fiction it relates the tale of an obsessed and crazed physician who cuts off all of his facial features. He then begins killing and replacing parts of his face with those of his victims, to create a perfect face and please the woman that he desires. Once Virginia begins reading the book, crimes in her city begin to mirror the atrocities chronicled in “I, Madman”.
That trailer blew us away. In 90 seconds I was inundated with everything good in horror films and everything I had always wanted to see. This was the movie I’d been questing for, before I even knew it existed. A horror film with intelligence, atmosphere, purpose, and actual fear. I wanted to watch it and own it immediately. Of course Pete and I had to wait until next month. 30+ days of impatient anticipation lead to one of the ultimate movie nights. Did “I, Madman” live up to a month’s worth of idealized expectations? Well no, but in all honesty few films could’ve. I was in (almost) no way disappointed though. “I, Madman” was still one of the best horror films I had seen at that point and it remains a seriously overlooked cult gem. But that ending…
It’s just damn unfortunate that the film doesn’t end 30 seconds sooner. Everything is/was near perfect for this film until the end. Its entire premise is played very straight with strong conviction, then the ending comes and it chickens out. A single misstep in a film can either be overlooked or ruinous. Here it’s about in the middle, leaning a good bit away from ruinous thankfully. In retrospect I don’t give a shit about the ending anymore. “I, Madman” was the physical manifestation of a journey that I didn’t even know I was on. I found a damn good film in an area that shunned such frivolities and dalliances, and I got to experience it with someone who also enjoyed it. This film possibly more than any other, made me realize that I would have to actively look and search and hunt and beg for the kinds of movies that I enjoy. That search also made me watch films differently. I was no longer satisfied with treating watching a film as a passive experience, I needed to be a more involved and intelligent viewer. I felt cheated if I had to spend weeks, months, or years trying to track down a title only to have it pander to me. I’ve projected more onto “I, Madman” than it may deserve but it is a lot more than just a movie to me, it’s more of a beginning. If not for the confluence of circumstances that lead to my viewing of it, my tastes and perceptions of film would likely be very different but not “different enough”.
And as of checking my mail this morning I finally have it on Blu-Ray. 🙂
If you actually read this far I’ll let you borrow my copy.