I Madman [Blu-ray]

If you are a fan of creature features from the eighties then you will not be disappointed in this film. I saw it as a teenager and loved the stop-motion animation on the creature. I had to get it again as an adult to see if it stood the test of time and I still loved it the second time around. The story is unique, creepy, and a little dark. If you are a horror fan then this is a film you should have on your shelf. It feels like a low-budget film, an Indy, but somehow it transcends the banal. The fabulous Jenny Wright (who played the part of Mae in Oscar winner Kathyrn Bigelow's vampire pic Near Dark - Tangerine Dream's soundtrack was epic) elevates this film. There's something so fragile in her portrayal of Virginia in I,Madman, yet she manages to play her curiosity and 'geekness' with a sexiness that is compelling and a pleasure to watch. I wish we had more actresses like Jenny Wright!

This was one of the going out of print scream factory titles I had to grab before the price sky rockets. It's a fun cheesy little late 80's horror thriller. Not the most unique story line in the world but still manages to entertain. For fans of lower budget b off the radar horror films this is a solid purchase. And remember....snatch it up soon....before the scalpers hit ebay!!!!

Great classic horror movie. Get while it’s still affordable and the price skyrockets. At this point only a limited amount of copies were made and the price will rise to $100 or more. Good slasher movie. Quick delivery and product was in great condition.

I really enjoyed I madman and watch it frequently. I'm a big horror movie fan, but am selective as to their content. Has to have a good story line to it. Virginia is a big horror book fan and works in a book store that sells estate sale books and old, hard to find books. She unwittingly brings to life a character in the books that is actually the story of the author. He pursues her as he thinks she's the woman that he loved named Anna. I won't say anymore so you can see for yourself. Great find!

Growing up in the 70's and 80's I was constantly bombarded with television commercials that proclaimed `Reading is Fundamental', or RIF, for short...I suppose it was a concerted effort by some group of well meaning individuals to get us cartoon addicted youngins away from the magic box and into the library...but what they failed to mention is that, besides being fundamental, reading can also have serious detrimental effects to your health, possibly resulting in a slight case of death. Don't believe me? Then I would recommend watching I, Madman aka Hardcover (1989) for conclusive proof...you may be shocked at what you learn...directed by Tibor Takács (The Gate), the film stars Jenny Wright (The Wild Life, Near Dark), Clayton Rohner (Just One of the Guys, April Fool's Day), and Randall William Cook, who worked on all three of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films (not in the capacity of an actor, but as effects artist). Also appearing is Stephanie Hodge, whose face I recognized but couldn't place until I looked up her credits and learned she's not only a comedian, but also appeared on the Fox television show "Unhappily Ever After", along with the amply bosomed Nikki Cox, who does not appear in this film.Wright plays Virginia, a literate, attractive woman and aspiring actress who makes ends meet by working in a used bookstore, and has an affinity for seedy pulp fiction novels from the 50's, particularly ones penned by an author named Malcolm Brand. The trouble begins as Virginia notices that the horrific events in the novel start to translate into real life, as fiction becomes fact, and she's somehow centered in the middle of it...soon she starts seeing the villain from the story, a skulking, darkly garbed killer (Cook) who wears a mask over the lower part of his face (looking much like The Shadow), is a whiz with the straight edge razor, and seems to have the ability to appear from nowhere. The police are baffled by a recent spate of strange and unexplained murders, but Virginia notices the similarities between the events in the book and those in real life, and believes she can predict the killer's next move. She offers this information to her boyfriend Richard (Rohner), who's a police detective, but Richard and his colleagues are a little skeptical (okay, a lot skeptical) and think her like a Snickers bar, you know, a bit nutty. As the police investigation eventually goes nowhere, they become more inclined to listen to Virginia, but it may be already too late, as the killer's motives and intentions are revealed, along with a few interesting facts about the now deceased author Malcolm Brand.At a time when slasher films were run of the mill, I, Madman presented a clever and interesting story tinged with a bit of the gothic, but I think it ended up getting lost in the shuffle as the genre grew stale, as studios had bled it to the point of anemia (the lame trailer didn't help any). The movie has the slight feel of a Wes Craven (A Nightmare on Elm Street) film (the mixing of realities), but director Takács avoids Craven's style as a blueprint. He knows how to set up a scene and creates a level of tension and suspense that kept me drawn into the story throughout. I really liked how he handles the violence in the film, as it wasn't shown very often, but you always knew what was occurring. There is a good deal of violence in the film, but it is rarely shown on screen. An example of this is when Virginia is watching from her apartment window the killer stalking a victim in a building across the way. The killer draws the shades, but the silhouettes of him and his victim are clear, as is the subsequent actions, and the audience is left to fill in the rest in their imagination. There's another scene where a woman is getting attacked in her bathroom, and while we know what is going on, the violence is obscured as the scene is shot from behind the killer, but it's clear what's happening due to the killer's almost exaggerated movements. I really liked the use of color and atmospheric elements throughout the film, as they helped create a feel, a mood that other films in the genre lacked, or tried to develop but failed miserably. Also, his transitioning between time periods (the main character would often imagine herself as part of the stories she read) was flawless. I thought the actors all did very well, most all playing their roles within character, never really hamming it up or going overboard. The makeup on the killer (done by the person who played the role) was exceptional and quite gruesome, giving the character a realistic quality. Were the flaws in the film? There may have been, but I really didn't notice...I feel if the effort is there, and there's enough solid material and decent performances, I find myself willing to overlook certain superficial elements that may work against the movie. I suppose if I were to pick on something it might be the stop motion work. Most parts looked good, but there were one or two moments where it didn't feel entirely lifelike (given the probable limited budget of the film, picking on this would be an easy target). Takács usage of stop motion in his previous film, The Gate (1987), looked much the same as here, but since I liked that story as much as I did this one, it was easy to dismiss any perceived faults.My only disappointment of this film was in its' lackluster DVD release. Presented is only the fullscreen format. Why MGM couldn't have dug up the original wide screen format and included it also is beyond me. The picture quality is decent, and the vibrant colors come through most of the time. The only extra is the lame theatrical trailer.Cookieman108

This is a very good movie, a hidden gem if I might add. The demon at the beginning and end of the movie was made by the same dude that did the demons on "The Gate". It looks kinda cheesy but that's the 80's for you. The Madman himself looks terrific..the stuff nightmares are made of. It's cool how it comes to life when the main actress reads the book that's about him. To bad this is the only release of the film on dvd..there's really no extras.

I bought this as a replacement. I lost my original disc in a move. This disc was better than described, not a single scratch. Very happy!

Coming clean: I bought this movie because it stars Jenny Wright, who was great in "Near Dark"...and it was only four dollars here at Amazon. Sometimes we find treasure, and I liked this movie.Wright IS beautiful, and she makes this a much better picture by underplaying rather than going 'over the top'. Kudos to the director also, who knew how he wanted the picture to look/move.

Dvd is the 1989 original MGM Release that includes the original trailer. Which calls the Movie: HARDCOVER Not I Madman - weird or what??,Disc is a Cleaned Up Version that plays & Looks Great!! - Many Thanks Seller....

Excellent

Virginia is a clerk in a used bookstore and an aspiring actress, and one of her passions are old horror books. Virginia has recently discovered and liked a book called "Much of Madness, More of Sin". It was the first of only two novels wrote by Malcolm Brand, but she's having trouble trying to find his second book, "I, Madman". She needn't worry about trying to find the book, as the book pretty quickly finds her. Virginia begins reading and discovers that it's about an insane doctor called Alan Kessler, who is rejected by a beautiful actress called Anna. She is so physically repulsed by him, he decides to remove his facial features and graft on the features of those he butchers with his straight edged razor. Virginia soon starts seeing Kessler, and several mutilated bodies show up. Virginia must convince her boyfriend, Richard, who is a Detective, that Kessler has jumped from the pages and thinks Virginia is Anna.Jenny Wright puts in a pretty good performance, but she's not at her best here and at times she perhaps looks a little uninterested. She still manages to make her character likeable, appealing and vulnerable, but this doesn't come close to matching her performance in the excellent vampire film, Near Dark. I'm not sure what happened to Wright, she seemed to have a very promising career at one point. She had a small role in St. Elmo's Fire, then starred in Near Dark and I, Madman, and soon after she had roles in Young Guns II: Blaze of Glory and The Lawnmower Man. She then kind of disappeared, which is a shame. Clayton Rohner does his best as Richard, he's a very decent actor but I felt he was a little too young looking for his role as Richard. His character comes across as a weathered, seasoned Detective that's seen it all and has become a little jaded, but he barely looks thirty. That of course isn't his fault, and he does fine with what he had. Rohner starred in April Fool's Day a few years earlier, but has mostly done TV work ever since, though he has got a role in The Human Centipede III. Randall William Cook is genuinely creepy as Kessler/Brand, there's something extremely unsettling but also pathetic about a man who would slice off his facial features to impress a woman that really isn't interested, especially as he was ugly before and monstrous after. Cook did very little acting after I, Madman, but did go on to win three Academy Awards as part of the Visual effects team that worked on The Lord of the Rings movies.Tibor Takács directed I, Madman two years after the film he is best known for, The Gate. I really like The Gate and I think that film along with this one showed a lot of potential. I, Madman is well directed, it's suspenseful and creepy at times, the pace is really good and he never allowed it to slow down and get boring, he also allowed the film to be fun and a little silly at times which just adds to the overall enjoyment. Every time I watch the film, I'm always reminded of the Tales from the Crypt series. It has the same kind of fun story and almost comic book aesthetics that the show had, this really does feel like a gorier, extended episode. Takács soon followed up I, Madman with The Gate II: The Trespassers, it isn't actually that bad but it was the start of his decline. All he seems to do now are those really cheap, made for TV creature feature films, but I guess we all have rent to pay. In just the last few years he's directed Kraken: Tentacles of the Deep, Ice Spiders, Mega Snake and Spiders, all terrible, all a terrible waste of the obvious talent he had. The film was written by David Chaskin, the writer who wrote the extremely homoerotic sequel to A Nightmare on Elm Street and The Curse from '87 which is a pretty cool film. I think this is Chaskin's best screenplay, I love the idea that a killer in a thirty year old book can literally come off the page. The effects in the film are a little hit and miss, Kessler looks very realistic when we get to see his face with no nose or lips, and even though it's mostly obscured, the after effects of his victims is well done. What isn't quite as well done is the jackal boy creature from the book, it was done using Claymation and doesn't look very realistic at all. I actually liked the look of it, but some people may be completely taken out of the film because of it. I really liked the music score by Michael Hoenig, he's composed the music to a couple of other films that I really like such as The Wraith, The Gate, The Blob, Class of 1999 and the underrated '90s TV series, Dark Skies.The picture quality on the DVD is pretty good, it's a little soft but otherwise it's absolutely fine. There's no print damage, and the colours are nice and vibrant. Sadly the only extra is the theatrical trailer, which I've never really understood the need for. I've got the whole film, why do I need a trailer for the same film? There's three different subtitle options, English, Spanish and French. The DVD seems to have gone out of print, it's now quite pricey just to get a used copy. I, Madman isn't some sort of forgotten and hugely underrated masterpiece, but it is an extremely well paced and fun film that's very entertaining. If you go into the film with the right expectations, I'm sure you'll enjoy the film as much as I did.

This is a criminally underrated & overlooked horror flick. It was a blind buy & I only picked it up because it’s production run from Scream Factory was coming to an end. I am glad I bought it because it is very enjoyable & this is a nicely put together disc.

Strange beast this one, because if you consider just the 'horror' in the movie this is quite average. But I, Madman has many different layers entwined into it. Downtown LA, Jenny Wright's apartment, her workplace the dusty second hand book shop. The whole feel of the movie is incredibly rich and completely steals a moment in time from the late 80s. You just had to be there to understand the many different fragments of this movie.As for the plot it's an interesting one, especially in the face of slashers that were dominating the 80s alongside cheesy horror- I Madman has none of these traits. Sexy Jenny Wright loves her horror novels but keeps freaking herself out. Things take a turn when she believes that characters from the book she is reading are turning up in real life.The acting at times is below par as is the script but these fluctuate as the film goes on and this is an entertaining movie. We perhaps are not rewarded with the ending that we deserved and the stop motion for the demon really does look dated.I Madman is certainly worth checking out, its UK title was HARDCOVER.