Kids at Summer camp are told the legend of Madman Marz, the evil farmer who butchered his family long ago and may yet lurk near the old farmhouse, and that they must never say his name lest he hear it and show up to not harm a single hair on their little heads. He does however murder all the counselors.

Hey Maaad Maaaan, Maaad Maaan Marz, come get us Maad Maaan, I'm fooling with things beyond my controool here!

Holy crap that blonde chick has freaky eyeballs.

Sorry I mean hey it's Madman. Can it even get more old school classic than a Summer camp slasher from the 80s? This is early 80s too, like still kinda 70s looking 80s. No mullets or girls dressed like neon signs yet. Man this movie makes me feel old. I remember so clearly how excited I was as a kid when the calendar turned from '79 to '80. Seems like just yesterday, then I see this movie from '82 and it just looks ancient, almost as different from today as something from the 50s.

It's definitely got the nostalgia working. Dig the wonderful little title graphic and spooky Atari game theme. It's a well shot flick too, especially considering it's all night scenes. Nighttime Summer camp murders man, come on. And if you don't love a scary campfire story then I pity your cold empty heart.

The classic vibe probably makes it seem rather better than it is though. Madman Marz himself isn't quite a franchise player, as he capers about kind of goofy-like in pretty unfortunate fat old man prosthetics. He does a lot of Scooby Doo type schtick, reaching out menacingly from behind only to catch air when the victim moves away just in time. My brain can't help but make him shake his fist and say "DARN it! Almost got 'em!". And back then I guess it was still a big deal to kill teenagers, 'cause even that punk who started all the trouble was completely unharmed despite marching right into Madman's house. Mr. Marz didn't even so much as scare these kids. He wouldn't go near 'em. It was like he had some kind of child phobia.

Lot of padding here too. Shot after drawn out shot of people walking through the woods, walking through the lodge, walking through the farmhouse. Will Madman Marz ever get them? Worse though is a really yucky love scene in a hot tub, complete with male buttocks. I forgot movies used to do this back then. Nowadays they just stick a cable porn scene in every movie but at least they usually get it over with fast. Back in the 70s and 80s though you'd get these long loooove scenes, with lots of tender gazing into each other's eyes as a loooove song plays, and their bodies slowly come together to make loooove. Blech!

Eww I just realised that was probably the movie's cue for oily teenage boys to make their move at the drive-in. Poor girls.

But yeah they weren't afraid to put kind of weird looking chicks in movies back then. I think I prefer it to these perfect airbrushed models they use nowadays that you can only tell apart by their hair colour. I loved the mousey voiced girl in this movie; could never tell if she was terrified or had just won A NEW CAR on The Price Is Right.

Fun old movie though. Old movie. Damn.