The Mad Death (1983)

Having heard so much about it online, The Mad Death ultimately turned out to be a disappointment when I finally obtained it on DVD. The main highlights turned out to be its opening sequence and an eerie synthesizer score.The main problem with the miniseries is that it is not particularly well written. Many of the characters are too dumb to care about, picking up animals that are clearly rabid even to an untrained eye, and not bothering to have animal bites checked out by a doctor. Furthermore, the film has a certain element of predictability about it, with many of the plot developments telegraphed in advance.Moreover, there is a disturbing lack of violent animal attacks in the film. If one purchases a film called The Mad Death about a rabies epidemic, the least one would expect would be a good, violent mauling every fifteen minutes or so. Most of the violence here is directed toward the animals, mainly gunshots to the head.

A woman smuggles her cat into the UK, an illegal act, the ban on animals traveling having been put in place to retain the country's Rabies free status. The woman is unaware that her cat has just been in an altercation with a fox, but back in the UK it begins to act odd. After a series of scenes involving the passing of the deadly virus from animal to animal, an American businessman Tom Siegler (Ed Bishop) resident in the UK comes across a seemingly stunned fox at the side of the road. The fox appears docile and is amiable to being petted, so Siegler takes him home, but the fox soon turns on him, Bishop becomes infected and is the first to die. The authorities become aware and immediately set in place some restrictions in the area, a cordon is placed within a five mile radius of his house. Michael Hilliard is a veterinary expert who is persuaded to take charge of the investigation and straight away he sets out to find anyone who came in contact with the dead man before he died, his actions and restrictions don't go down well with local animal lovers and the press also make him out to be a bit of a loon. But as the virus spreads, he seems to be justified, but can he restrict the spread and make the country virus free again? In the 80's there was a real fear that rabies aka "The Mad Death", might spread to the UK, there were frightening TV advertisements to warn and scare the public away from smuggling animals into the country from the continent where Rabies was widespread. A frightening premise for a film? well sure the reality of it is scary, but to make it as a horror The Mad Death really needed to push home the fear, sadly it doesn't. The Fear element just isn't explored, The Mad Death is called that for a reason, its a terrible death, but these factors are just not explored well enough to either strike fear into the viewer or to deter would be smugglers. Little or no tension is built up, too much time is spent early on showing in a rather dull way, how it spreads from fox to cat to fox to dog to human and so on, that soon the viewer will be asking what all the fuss is about. I can also say that I have never seen animal lovers portrayed in such a bad light, every single one in the Mad Death, is played as crazy or with murderous intentions, they have no interest in stopping the spread of the virus, even the merest of actions like keeping your dog indoors is treated with apathy and anger, all in all not very believable. The acting is stilted beyond belief, with numerous silences and laboured pauses, actors staring into space and these aren't the ones that are infected. There's also a love triangle going on that is dull in the extreme. The restrictions set in place by police and Dept of Agriculture are also quite laughable in their laxness, if such an outbreak occurred in reality, the UK would be absolutely doomed. Now i realize some elements of plot have to be there to further the story, but here it is pushed to ridiculous extremes. So has the Mad Death got anything going for it? well, there are a few interesting set pieces, a rabid fox locked in a garage, a rabid Alsatian loose in a shopping mall, spring to mind, but even these are lazily handled. In a time when viruses are a real threat to humanity, its hard to get scared by a poodle and a Labrador running wild in a forest. If the filmmakers were out to scare the audience they failed miserably, if they were out to educate the public as to the risks, they also failed as its a little too preachy

I remember this film. It was a three part series on BBC1 if I remember rightly. Every time I was In church since and All Things Bright And Beautiful has been played, the theme of this film comes straight into my head (almost like a hollow whispering of the song). In fact as I sit here now I can hear that dog at the end of the film barking away in the car then going into an eerie whine. The plot was devastating to see what would happen if our country were to have the Rabies Virus - Quite Uncontrolable as you would imagine by all the OTT animal lovers in the programme, making it an impossible task to get hold of the carriers. Brilliant work. Come on BBC give us something for our money. This is one that does no need updating.

I must have been 13 when this had just been broadcasted. Like another video gem -"don't look now",my old english teacher would have probably embraced the idea of giving his fellow pupils a visual lesson or two in the profoundly morbid,with this short tale of rabid pets (& humans).Set in the english countryside,a cat is locally imported & sparks an outbreak of rabies amongst the locals.I remember it being rather dramatic with a stylish ending.I can't remember much detail, so I'm now left with the task of PURCHASING IT (anybody?) watching it,& probably throwing up my next indian.Chien jalfrezi anybody?