
Psychiatric intern Clark Stevens comes to Cunningham Hall, a mental-health facility administrated by Dr. Franks, for a training period before his graduation from medical school. He gets close to resident Sara and to Ben London, a dangerous patient lodged in cell 44 in the clinic's basement. He becomes intrigued with a boy who seems to be a ghost, then discovers that the patients receive no real medication. A further investigation shows hidden dark secrets in the clinic.... (Full plot summary below)
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Psychiatric intern Clark Stevens comes to Cunningham Hall, a mental-health facility administrated by Dr. Franks, for a training period before his graduation from medical school. He gets close to resident Sara and to Ben London, a dangerous patient lodged in cell 44 in the clinic's basement. He becomes intrigued with a boy who seems to be a ghost, then discovers that the patients receive no real medication. A further investigation shows hidden dark secrets in the clinic.
Leave your thoughts about Madhouse.
| User Reviewdelysid dwhat can be done when your sister is insane and out to get you on your birthday? but your real problem turns out to be that your uncle, who you thought to be a nice guy, is even more insane |
| User ReviewCarlos ICool little chiller. There's some pretty charming characters, and an interesting (if somewhat incoherent) storyline. The ending was not what I was expecting. |
| User ReviewBrian CA surprise birthday party by a caring uncle is marred by presence of several dead guests and a resentful deformed twin sister. I thought Trish Everly was pretty good in the lead, but never worked in film again. An original video nasty, I saw the edited Virgin video version. |
| User ReviewAl MThis is one of the more sophisticated video nasties - it makes all the rest seem very trashy. The acting is decent (especially the Priest), the story solid and the horror quite terrifying. In fact, the film is extremely creepy. There are one or two images that would most definitely have traumatized me as a child. Siblings be warned: you may not look at your sister quite the same way again. There's also one helluva nasty dog. Why was it banned? Perhaps it was the power drill jammed into the dog's skull. Or else the little girl smashing a rock repeatedly into her sister's face. Enough said. |
| User ReviewSean CJulia (Trish Everly) is a teacher for deaf children who has lived with the secret of a psychotic and abusive twin sister who has been hospitalized for several years. As their birthday draws near, Julia's sister escapes from the hospital and begins killing all of those closest to Julia, including the landlord, a deaf child (oh yeah, they go there), and some others. Julia's crazy sister isn't alone though; she's also got a rabid rottweiler doing most of the killing. Dare I say there may be a third killer involved? Dun Dun Duuuuun!! Anyways, There was a Little Girl (or Madhouse, the alternate title the movie was released under) was a decent surprise and effective slasher. That's not to say it had it's share of corny moments, such as the rottweiler clearly being a puppet in many scenes, not to mention the priest Uncle who does a little too much over-acting for this kind of movie. Still, this movie was fairly entertaining and worth the rental. I liked it. |
| User ReviewSam HStrange Italian-American hybid that takes place in Georgia where a beautiful teacher of the deaf, Julia, is having some fears about her birthday. Mainly because her psychotic and deformed sister, who owns an equally violent dog, is planning of paying her a visit. There are some undeiniably creepy moments in Madhouse, such as when one of Julia's friends encounters Julia's sister and her devilish dog in the apartment hallway, but it's not always peaches and cream. Even though most of the film is interesting, well shot, suspenseful, and surprisingly classy for an Italian slasher offering, a criminally overlong chase sequence involving Julia's landlady wears thin quickly with the actress overacting her way through the scene, screaming in a high pitch and whining to little effect. The macabre ending which features a demented birthday party full of corpses is more than a tad reminiscient of a similar scene in the wonderful Happy Birthday To Me, which was released the same year. Hmmmmm??? Despite a few minor flaws, Madhouse is an extremely watchable, mature, and refined slasher/thriller with some good performances and creepy moments. It's well worth a horror fans time! |
| User ReviewBill BThis movie has so many titles. I have a VHS copy and its title is "Madhouse". It was not all that great. It's a thriller, or at least tries to be one. It had one too many twists for its own good. It wants to be something, but there are just too many holes. |
| User ReviewSean NWhat weighs this down is the lack of direction right after the great, great opening. It just becomes too uninteresting and doesn't reach any of its full potential. |
| User ReviewShawn WNot as bad as some entries on the DPP list it has to be said, but I found it quite monotonous and boring. Nothing remotely horrific about it. |