Madman is a 1981 American slasher film written and directed by Joe Giannone and starring Gaylen Ross and Paul Ehlers. The plot focuses on an axe-wielding murderer named Madman Marz who, after accidentally being summoned by a group of campers during a campfire tale, begins to stalk and murder the young adults.
Originally based on the upstate New York urban legend of the Cropsey maniac, the film was conceived by Giannone and producer Gary Sales, both first-time feature filmmakers who had met in college. Their initial premise and main antagonist was changed last-minute due to conflicts with The Burning (1981), which featured the Cropsey villain and was in production at the same time.
Madman was given a regional platform release by Jensen Farley Pictures, opening in Albuquerque, New Mexico on October 30, 1981, and screening throughout the United States over the following two years. It received largely unfavorable reviews from critics, though it became a sleeper hit in the drive-in theater circuit in the United States. Though not prosecuted for obscenity nor officially listed as a video nasty, the film was seized by police forces in Hampshire, England during the video nasty panic.
In the years since its release, Madman has achieved a cult following. In 2017, it was named one of the greatest slasher films of all time by Complex magazine.
Plot
Near the end of camping season, a group of senior counselors and campers—including T.P., Betsy, Ellie, Dave, Stacy, Bill, Richie, and the middle-aged head counselor Max—are gathered around a campfire. Max tells them the legend of Madman Marz, who murdered his wife and children with an axe in a nearby abandoned house. He was lynched and scarred by angry villagers, but somehow escaped from his noose into the woods. When Max warns the campers that saying his name aloud will summon him, Richie mockingly shouts his name aloud and throws a rock through the window of Marz's old home, to Max's annoyance. After finishing the story, the counselors and campers all return to their campsite, except for Richie, who spots a figure in the trees and stays behind to follow him. Unknown to him, the figure is Marz, having been summoned by Richie's incitement. Richie enters Marz's home, but finds no trace of him.
Max leaves the campsite to get supplies and spend the night out on his own, leaving the others in charge. The campsite's drunken chef is killed by Marz while the other counselors relax. When Dave discovers Richie is missing, T.P. sets out into the woods to look for him, but is caught by Marz, who hangs him from a tree with a noose. Dave then sets out to look for both of them and is decapitated by Marz. Stacy, who has by now become suspicious, leaves Betsy to watch the children and warns Ellie and Bill. She then drives out into the woods and discovers Dave's body; in a panic, she tries to escape in her truck, but it stalls. When she exits the truck to fix it, Marz jumps onto the hood of the truck while she is still under it, decapitating her.
After Ellie discovers Marz taking Stacy's body away, she and Bill attempt to escape in the truck themselves, but Marz pulls Bill out of the truck and kills him. Ellie flees back to the campsite, but Marz stalks her through the cabins and eventually hits her in the chest with his axe. Meanwhile, having been lost in the woods for some time, Richie returns to Marz's home. He enters the basement and is horrified by what he sees there.
Betsy glimpses Ellie's bloodied body through the cabin window and phones Max to warn him. She arms herself with a double-barrel shotgun after seeing Marz running through the camp, but accidentally shoots and kills the wounded Ellie when Marz throws her against the window. The children are awoken by the gunshot, and Betsy immediately orders them onto the bus. Marz tries to board the bus, but Betsy fends him off. After ordering the bus driver to bring the children to safety, Betsy pursues Marz into his home, but he overpowers her and drags her into the basement where he has been keeping all the bodies of his victims, including those of his wife and children. Marz impales Betsy on a coat rack, but she manages to wound him with a hunting knife before dying, causing him to knock over a candle and start a fire. Marz escapes into the forest as the house burns down.
As Max is driving back to camp, he encounters a traumatized Richie on the road, who tells him that Madman Marz is real. Marz is then seen stalking through the forest, waiting to be summoned again.