Madhouse — Madhouse (Blu Ray)
Madhouse is a mid-70s UK/US co-production featuring two horror icons, Vincent Price and Peter Cushing. It regards a recent out-of-institution actor (Price) returning to play his classic role, Doctor Death, and people start dying for real. The film is a rather ahead-of-its-time picture, as it blends elements of slasher, post-modern horror, with a whodunit, and campy dark comedy. Here from Eureka is a new Blu-ray release of the picture, featuring an HD scan, a commentary track, an introduction and a few other extras.
Madhouse is from the year 1974. It was directed by Boston, Lincolnshire-born Jim Clark. He only has nine directorial credits to his name, bringing together both shorts & features- he’s most known as an editor for forty seven credits to his name- with notable titles such as The Marathon Man (1976), The Killing Fields (1984), and The Mission (1986).
The film opens with a pre-credits flashback- actor Paul Toombes ( Price) is having a decadent party showing off his latest film. We find out it’s the fifth film to feature his skull make-up, black-gloved, caped/ hatted serial killer character Doctor Death. Attending the party is his dear friend/ the screenwriter of the Doctor Death films, Herbert Flay (Cushing). Paul announces he’s going to marry a younger woman- before being told she was an adult film star in the past- he gets angry, and she runs upstairs. We see her doing her hair, with a skull-masked figure sneaking up. Next, Paul comes into the room- rushes to the beauty table- her head falls off, he screams- and he gets internationalised for some time.
As we move forward to the present day, we find out that Paul is just flying into London, as he’s going to play the Doctor Death character for the first time since his breakdown. He’s going to stay in a rather creepy house with Herbert, who is keen to see his friend play the role again.
Also in the plot, we have a pushy/ after the money producer played by Robert Quarry( Count Yorga films), his young assistant/ PR woman, Julia Wilson( Natasha Pyne), nosy / after an acting role actress Elizabeth (Hinda Hayden, and living in Herbert's basement with spiders Faye Carstairs Flay(Adrienne Corri), who worked on earlier Doctor Death films. And later on, bearded and pipe puffing Inspector Harper (John Garrie).
There’s a real keen sense of post-modernism blending with proto slasher- the kills move from a eerier dusk set garden stalking, running around a TV studio stalk( which very much brought to mind similar scenes in both Scream & Urban Legend franchise), and a few others.
Both Price and Cushing are great, working off each other well, but also having their own wonderful moments. As Price is the lead here, he shifts from cutting/ smug, sweaty/ troubled, deranged/ sure he’s losing his marbles, to darkly poetic/dramatic.
The pace of the film is a tad uneven in places, but it’s nothing major- as we pick up well after the lulls. But the most impressive is the blending of different genres here, which is done so well. I recall seeing stills of the film in the 80’s, but never got to see it until now- and I’d say Madhouse really is an underrated/ underappreciated gem.
The HD scan here looks well-defined, with great clarity of colours and depth in tones/ shadows. The dialogue and score are evenly balanced. All in all, a wonderful job.
On the new extras side, we have the following: Introduction to Madhouse by horror novelist Stephen Laws ( 8.38). He starts off talking about the novel the film was based on, 1969’s Devilday by Angus Hall- we find out the character in the book was called Doctor Diss. He chats about the film's cast, a few other things, and bemoans the film's title being very generic. Lights, Camera, Murder! (25.50) a visual horror and gothic scholar, Mary Going. She moves from talking about the film's gothic tropes, how it fits into the slasher genre, and more.
On the archive we have: Revenge Of Dr Death(10.56) a making of. Audio commentary by film historian David Del Valle, Stills Gallery, and an original theatrical trailer.
The finished release comes with a booklet featuring new writing on Madhouse by genre film expert Christopher Stewardson and an archival interview with director Jim Clark conducted by John Hamilton, originally published in The Dark Side.
In conclusion, Madhouse is a great horror film- blending the past and the( then) present of the genre in a creative manner. The new Eurkea scan looks wonderful, with a fair selection of extras.