Julia Sullivan (Trish Everly, aka Patricia Mickey), a school teacher, seems to have a pretty good life. This all changes, however, when her evil twin sister, Mary (Allison Biggers), escapes from a hospital and vows to make Julia pay for...something. Other than the fact that Mary has a disease that alters her appearance and Julia doesn't, and that Mary has been tormenting Julia since they were kids, this isn't really explained.
Over the years, there have been many movies titled Madhouse--this one is from 1981, and is probably most known for being on the UK video nasties list. While it probably earned its way onto that list, the movie is actually fairly tame compared to many others found there. That's not to say it is entirely without its shocking moments. The opening is a bit unsettling, though the victim is obviously a bloodied up dummy. Much more interesting are the attacks by the Rottweiler Mary uses to kill Julia's friends. The attacks are absolutely brutal, and look eerily realistic. Outside this, there's not a lot going for this movie. A lot of the action is dragged down by slow motion shots, and if there's ten things I hate in the world of film, one is unnecessary slow motion shots. The movie drags along, and seems much longer than it is. The movie also falls into many of the horror clichés we are used to; think Father James, a religious figure, is going to remain on the side of good?
The acting is rough, but it never gets too bad...until the final twenty minutes, which is precisely when you don't want the performances to tank. This is made worse when you consider how awesome these minutes could have been had the acting been better--unfortunately, Biggers drops the ball, and Dennis Robertson (the aforementioned Father James) kills the entire movie with his over-the-top overacting. While not a terrible film, Madhouse is not one that is especially good either.
On A Scale Of One To Ten: 5
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