I, Madman Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		3.5

I, Madman Blu-ray Movie Review

Stop making a reader today.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 21, 2015

The Purple Rose of Cairo posited movie characters who just popped off the screen and began interacting with Depression Era audiences. Ruby Sparks offered a novelist whose writer’s block is broken when the titular character, a creation of his, shows up in the flesh one day. Cool World trafficked in somewhat the same concept, albeit this time in the world of cartoons, and with a fictional character who had a “motive” for interacting with her creator. In all of these aforementioned films, while the line between fantasy and reality was unavoidably blurred, it was still there, and indeed the “crossing over” between the two realms was part of what gave each of the properties its particular allure. That line between fantasy and reality, such as it is, is virtually nonexistent in I, Madman, a 1989 horror outing that came at the tail end of the eighties slasher craze and which stuffs a rather unexpectedly wide array of influences into its tale of an avid pulp fiction reader who begins to think her reading material is springing to life, with disastrously murderous results. Writer David Chaskin and director Tibor Takács throw the viewer for a series of loops throughout I, Madman by only revealing after the fact whether certain scenes are simply depictions of what’s being read. That gambit will keep some audience members guessing, at least in the early going, but I, Madman has a few more tricks up its mad scientist sleeve before the mayhem is supposedly vanquished.

Virginia (Jenny Wright, Near Dark) works at a funky bookstore and has become enamored by the pulp horror offerings of long forgotten author Malcolm Brand (Randall William Cook, special effects maestro who created the outstanding makeup for the film). One of Brand’s tomes is called I, Madman and details the exploits of a mad doctor (of course) named Kessler (also played by Cook in the interstitial “reading” sequences) who, in a kind of mash up of The Phantom of the Opera and The Silence of the Lambs, has taken to slicing and dicing various victims’ faces in order to create a new visage for his own badly scarred cranium.

Unfortunately for Virginia, every time she opens the book, bad things start happening—or do they? That’s the game that I, Madman plays at least in its early going, where the cutting back and forth between the “fantasy” elements of Virginia’s interior reading mind and the exterior world creates a bit of confusion as to what is actually going on, and what is simply the product of Virginia’s overheated imagination. When it becomes at least relatively apparent that maybe she isn’t stark raving bonkers, things slowly turn into more standard damsel in distress territory, albeit with a few weird surprises along the way.

If I, Madman eventually ends up trading some of its initial appealing ambiguity for more traditional (and predictable) genre tropes, the film is really goofily enjoyable on a number of levels, not the least of which is its inclusion of stop motion animation for one very special “character”. While the film exploits unsurprising gambits like the heroine’s cop boyfriend Richard (Clayton Rohner) thinking she’s nuts until it’s almost too late, or a best friend named Mona (Stephanie Hodge) who provides acerbic commentary, I, Madman plays against genre conventions to an extent that few horror films of this era try to. If Chaskin and Takács can’t quite sustain their multi-dimensional ingenuity for the entire duration of the film, there’s a fun sense of playfulness in I, Madman that suggests life imitating art equals death.

I, Madman Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

I, Madman is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Scream Factory (an imprint of Shout! Factory) with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Elements utilized for this transfer have fairly regular instances of both white and black speckling, along with occasional minor scratches and other age related wear and tear. Colors have made it through the gauntlet of time relatively well, though some minor fading affects the pop of ruddier tones like skin (either attached or not). There's a heavy grain field throughout this presentation, one which fluctuates during the stop motion sequences. While the grain is extremely thick at times, I noticed none of the splotchy yellow compression issues that have afflicted some other Scream and Shout! releases. The grain tends to keep detail at bay in midrange shots, though close-ups often reveal appealing fine detail in elements like the wonderful makeup or the fabrics of some of the costumes.

I, Madman Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

I, Madman features lossless DTS-HD Master Audio tracks in both 2.0 and 5.1. Both give excellent accountings of dialogue, effects and score, but the 5.1 tracks adds significant depth to Michael Hoenig's music and some of the patently goofy source cues. Dialogue is cleanly rendered and well prioritized. Fidelity is excellent throughout, and dynamic range wide (especially in 5.1).

I, Madman Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Ripped from the Pages - The Making of I, Madman (1080p; 33:23) is a typically excellent featurette from Scream Factory and Red Shirt Productions, with some great interviews with the cast and crew.


• Behind the Scenes Footage with Commentary by Randall William Cook (1080i; 11:07) is a really interesting compilation of (VHS) footage shot by Cook himself as rehearsals and planning were underway.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080i; 2:11)


• Video Trailer (1080i; 1:16)


• Still Gallery with Commentary by Randall William Cook (1080p; 6:47)


• Audio Commentary with Tibor Takács and Randall William Cook is hosted by Rob Galluzzo from Icons of Fright. This is a very fun and often funny track which reunites Cook and Takács, who are obviously having a ball relating anecdotes about their history and the film's shoot.

I, Madman Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I, Madman starts out like gangbusters with a couple of patently bizarre sequences which will throw many viewers for a loop as they attempt to navigate the story's interweaving of "read" and "real" elements. This tantalizing insecurity about what's going on would seem to be the film's major calling card, but ultimately a more traditional eighties ambience finally takes hold, somewhat undercutting (no pun intended) the really inventive elements which are presented so winningly in the film's opening scenes. Performances are very good in I, Madman, with Cook really showing that he knows what to do after the makeup is applied. Once again Scream Factory has gone above and beyond for genre enthusiasts by providing a nicely enjoyable supplemental package, and with solid technical merits, I, Madman comes Recommended.