Notable Cast: Trish
Everly, Michael Macrae, Dennis Robertson, Morgan Hart, Allison Biggers, Edith
Ivey, Richard Baker, Jerry Fujikawa
AKA: And When She Was Bad, There Was a Little Girl
AKA: And When She Was Bad, There Was a Little Girl
“Most people’s
nightmares end when they wake up. Mine begin.”
It starts off with a very wide shot. Blackness with a vague
picture in the middle and some slight movement. A slow, creepy and somber
version of Rock-a-Bye, Baby is sung
as the picture draws closer to the viewer. It shows two young girls, one
pushing the other in a rocking chair, before it takes a drastic turn as she
repeatedly bashes the other one in the face with a stone. The tone of this
opening is engaging and symbolic for a lot of the themes that Madhouse will explore over the next hour
and a half as its audience is slowly brought down into an increasingly shocking
nightmare. At the core of what this Italian and American co-production offers
isn’t necessarily one that will rock the foundations, but there’s an admirable
quality to the approach that easily lifts it above so many of its peers. So
it’s not all that surprising Arrow Video finally decided to give it the robust
collector’s edition in the US and UK. It’s truly one of those films that time
and the mainstream horror community has forgotten when it deserves more
attention than that.