Silent Madness (1984)

Silent Madness is another obscure horror film from the 80's that has never found it's way into DVD. It was originally shot with 3-D "graphics", but I don't think it ever made it to theatres for it to be shown in that format. The plot is about a mental patient named Howard Johns who gets released from the hospital accidentally due to a computer error. When a psychiatrist Dr. Joan Gilmore discovers the mistake, she tries to alert the hospital's senior staff about it. However, they do not want to tarnish the reputation of the hospital so they cover it up and make it look like Howard Johns is dead.Our main character Dr. Joan Gilmore makes her way up to the sorority house where the murders took place years prior and, with the help of a local newspaper reporter, manages to stay the night at the estate with a few girls. Her goal is to capture Howard Johns before he murders again. Eventually a few people are murdered, nothing really shocking or special about the kills. This movie for the most part has no gore at all. It's a very tame slasher flick compared to others. We also know who the killer is right away, so it takes away any sort of mystery or suspense. The best part of the whole film is the big chase scene at the end between Joan and the killer. There is also an interesting twist at the end which I could see coming early on.Silent Madness is sort of a rip off of the original Halloween. The story involves a psychiatrist (like Dr. Loomis) who goes out to find a mental patient (like Michael Myers) who has been let out of the mental hospital . The acting in Silent Madness is pretty good, especially from Belinda Montgomery. But their are very little scares to be seen. I give credit for the unique idea of having it not just be "main girl v.s killer", but "main girl v.s hospital staff". Joan having to fight off deranged hospital attendants who are determined to cover up the release of Howard Johns adds a bit more to the movie and makes it different from your average eighties slasher.5/10

This is another entry that only recently I have heard off, and especially filmed in 3D I would have thought that this movie would have been more loved and more remembered, but when I saw it I kind of see why this isn't as much loved as some of the slasher gems that came from the 1980's.The plot = A mental patient is accidentally released from a mental hospital and returns to the college where he murdered a bunch of girls 20 years ago and now he's doing the same thing again. But a doctor from the hospital is soon on his trail with no-one to turn to she must face him alone.Okay this movie does have an interesting story line, but this entry sadly does fall a little flat, all substance and no style. The so called 3D aspect is totally wasted and unfulfilled, as the cheap looking effects are terrible and uncovers what is essentially a poorly made but cheesy slice of exploitation. Okay the body count is high but the deaths are lacklustre and hardly a drop of blood in sight.The only redeeming aspects are decent acting from recognisable leads, a few laughs, some jumps, and a little twist or two, but none of the leads are likable in my opinion apart from the scenery chewing Sheriff who was a hoot and a half.All in all "Silent Madness" may have one or two effective scenes, but none of them are particularly thrilling, it just seems to be that this movie has the right ingredients and not mixed together well.

Silent Madness throws us right into a psychiatric hospital and hones in on Dr. Joan Gilmore, a no-nonsense doctor who doesn't have time for games. By the powers of deduction she concedes that Crest Haven hospital has released the wrong patient in a mix-up of like-sounding names. The hospital claims that Howard Johns is deceased but Joan's intuition knows better because momma didn't raise no foo'… that, and there's an obvious paper trail leading back to an old 80286 jobber from the early days of computing. As a result of Johns' instability and absence of any moral faculties, it's just another night in the Christmas workhouse for him to steal someone's car, drive to NY, and impose his will of terror upon a grouping of innocent sorority co-eds. Why this particular campus you may ask? It was the scene of humiliation at the hands of a small group of sorority sisters many years earlier, followed up with their demise and Howard's imprisonment. Dr. Gilmore attempts to convince the stereotypical, fat-bellied town Sheriff (Sydney Lassick of 1975's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest fame) that disaster is close at hand but her pleas are ignored. Meanwhile, the hospital puts a plan into motion that attempts to silence Joan before the horrible news reaches the public; an atrocity much akin to Watergate and that misprint in CVS circulars allowing customers half-off on bags of Doritos. The experts that extended their years of experience put Silent Madness through the usual ringer of "let's ignore the only intelligent character and decide upon ourselves that she's delusional while young females are haplessly destroyed around us." On one hand I suppose it's refreshing to see a killer displayed more realistically (and one that performs his own stunts, by the way), but the dumbfounded expressions and the deer in headlights approach to the victims sucks the life right out of it. The more than obvious scripted death sequences of "stand here, on this marker, and die", are proof of this. We're even treated to an exhibition of stupidity that features a muscle-bound fool who simply can't match the speed and cunning of the killer; either that or he's spent too much time grooming his dark pompadour-like mane to focus on saving his girl from certain death. Belinda Montgomery (Grandma Flynn in 2010's Tron: Legacy) is perhaps the only character that responds intelligently and reasonably in the face of danger. Her acting merits are legitimate as the lead role and she's paired her up a male reporter; albeit cheesy in his portrayal but not too shabby overall.The death scenes mostly happen off-screen while the watering hole of suspense remains dry – there are no redeeming qualities in these murderous segments – therefore, it has the appeal and the semblance of a made-for-TV movie. A cut and uncut version of this film have both been distributed so a viewing of the latter may change your opinion. The 1980s was a gimmicky period for many things, I'll give you that. One notorious element that persisted to find a niche was the use of 3-D in films. 1953's House of Wax serves as a fine example that got the ball rolling in horror films. Kids today would probably scoff at the supposed 'three dee' of olden days but it's commonly known that human beings under the age of 18 shouldn't share their opinions. Horror movies adopted this technique and ran with it all throughout the '80s and one can only guess the director of Silent Madness expected such an idea to boost the film's worth. But alas, it's an inferior product. The use of 3-D was vapid and over-used 30 years ago. This recent barrage we're experiencing will run its course. Simon Nuchtern, the film's director, was the same guy who released a film called Snuff in 1976. If you're in the majority of not having seen it, than surmise rather quickly that it is worth far less than the entrails of Interstate carrion. Simon's slapdash effort in riding the Slasher wave with a project like Silent Madness only amounted to roughly 10 minutes of actual entertainment and 80 minutes of tedious, color-by- numbers malarkey just to reach any semblance of "fun" – a heinously modified entry in his vocabulary with an elusive meaning. I guess it's only fair to slap smart-mouthed viewers, rings-first, in the mouth with a clunky, awkward ending so unjustly tacked on that it doesn't make the aforementioned abuse even slightly worth it. So come time for that dreaded curtain call, you won't be surprised by the shocking conclusion simply due to disinterest. Nuchtern only released one more film as a director in 1985 before calling it quits; easily the best decision he's ever made in his career. If there was a petition going around to ban this no-talent, and I was older than the age of 2 in 1984, I would have gladly signed the top line of the document. Technically I probably could have if someone allowed me to grasp a pen within my infantile fingers to haphazardly scrawl my initials. Silent Madness is a mistake of a film – other than a few items taken from a different angle and a killer derived more from reality, it can easily be shelved into the Z-grade bank of Slasher-types made possible by hack directors who treated the genre like a playground for Down syndrome children. This colossal number of mishaps supersedes a figure unimaginable. Films of this persuasion should ban together and employ a tag-line that more accurately summarizes their endgame: "SILENT MADNESS - THE MOVIE, JUST LIKE EVERY OTHER MOVIE, JUST LIKE THAT ONE MOVIE, BUT…NOT! COME SPEND MONEY ON AN OVER-PRICED TICKET TO FUND MY PET PROJECT THAT I MADE ON BARELY A DIME'S BUDGET! WITNESS OUR EXCEPTIONAL TALENT TO PRODUCE SOMETHING COMPLETELY UNORIGINAL! FUN FOR NO AGES!

SILENT MADNESS (1984) ** (out of 4*'s) Director: Simon Nuchtern. Belinda Montgomery, Viveca Lindfors, Sydney Lassick.Mental patient is accidently released from the hospital and instantly goes on a violent killing spree. Sound familiar? The patients doctor tracks him down to a sorority, his old home!Familiar on all levels. Shown in 3-D in the theatres. For fans of the genre. NOTE: this film is extremely rare!