SilentMadness

Silent Madness (1984)

This is another fun slasher movie from the 80s that I’ve only recently discovered. Here we have a dangerous mental patient named Howard Johns that is accidentally released from the mental hospital he has been incarcerated at since going on a killing spree at a local College. Obviously as soon as he is released he heads right back home to start killing again. Things are further complicated by the fact that the hospital is doing everything it can to cover up his release by claiming he is dead. Only a young doctor named Joan Gilmore is trying to find him and bring him back. But since the hospital claims he is dead the local cops won’t help her. In fact the hospital sends off a couple of brutal orderlies to fetch Johns and shut the doctor up. So not only is there a killer on the loose, but Gilmore has to worry about her colleagues from the hospital trying to kill her as well!

As I lead off my review with this really is a fun slasher movie. You have a great killer that gets right to business killing off a couple getting busy in a van. There is also nudity right from the start and pretty girls throughout. The killer has a great back-story that provides a fun twist towards the end of the movie. Really from start to finish Silent Madness knows what is expected from a slasher movie and delivers the goods. Is the movie inventive or breaking new ground? Hell no I can sit here and list the movies that they are lifting their plot and gimmicks from. In the end though if they deliver an entertaining movie who cares? The cast does a decent job with what the material asks from them, which isn’t much. I did think that Belinda Montgomery was pretty good as the psychiatrist in pursuit of the killer, though she is no Dr. Loomis she is still good.

The kills in Silent Madness aren’t really that gory with much of the good stuff happening off screen. But the kills are inventive and have a fun component to them. There is a bit with a workout room that I thought was a blast and we also learn a valuable lesson about trying to outrun a psycho killer with a hand axe! Again these kills are far from the “A” level stuff we see from the better slasher movies, but you can’t have everything and the budgets on a lot of these movies forced them to be more creative. The rest of the movie is really solid with camera work, sound, and lighting all well done. While there aren’t any jump scares the movie does build some atmosphere, especially during the last stalk/chase sequence, which is mostly due to the good camera work.

Is Silent Madness a classic of the slasher genre? Hell no, it isn’t even close to being that good. But it is a solid movie that had me entertained and interested for a couple of hours. In the end you can’t really ask for more than that. The movie isn’t available on DVD so you will have to try and track down the VHS. If you can find one reasonably priced I recommend you pick it up.

3 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer