Nerds That Geek Movie Review: ‘Madhouse’

Written by Scott Edwards

​When you try to move forward in life, sometimes you have to let go of your past. Although you have learned from your past experiences in life, they may hold you back if you have been plagued by failure at every turn. Closing your eyes, clearing your head and taking a leap can be the only way to counteract this, even if you know what will happen, the future is far from written and you may wind up surprising yourself.

Paul Toombes is enjoying his latest movie release with a house full of his friends and coworkers. Even with everyone having a good time at the party, Paul has a secret that he is looking to share with everyone that will leave their heads spinning, he is getting married. Young actress Ellen Mason has agreed to become his wife and Paul cannot be any happier since she is the only woman who has not wanted to use him for anything other than himself. But Ellen has a skeleton in her closet that she has not told her fiancé, in that she started acting in adult movies long before they met. Being furious about this fact about his future wife, Paul storms off and leaves Ellen alone in her room. After a short nap to calm down, Paul goes to apologize to his bride to be, but finds her without her head.

Paul is sent to a psychiatric hospital for several years and with his head right, he is ready to move on with his life. Traveling across the pond to visit his old friend Herbert Flay, Paul is hesitant to reprise his former role of Doctor Death, the character that put him on the map, but it is for his longtime friend so he cannot say no. Herbert is looking to unleash the monster that he knows Paul still has in him by submitting him to some former works and when Paul is able to snap out of the trance, he fears that his old character has come back to life. When a young actress is trying to track down the former Doctor Death, she is greeted with exactly who she was looking for. Being found floating in the lake, her family hears the stories about who she was trying to entice and come up with a plan of how to retrieve money for their loss.

As the filming for the new Doctor Death movie begins, Paul is able to fully immerse himself in the role once again, but when strange deaths start happening around the set, he wonders if he is really the killer that he has portrayed in the films all these years. With the police and the media believing the same thing, Paul has to find a way to prove that he is not the killer, but still has his doubts. As Doctor Death continues to kill and run free on the set, Paul recognizes the killing patterns from his previous films, but not knowing who has taken over Doctor Death’s role will keep him guessing until he is able to find the murderers true motivation.

This is quite the brain tease as you are left questioning who the killer is as well. With Paul not being able to explain his strange behavior, it could be him and he would not even know it. The list of suspects may not be vast, but you are able to get a couple and that is what makes the movie fun. With some interesting ways to die being shown, you get plenty of screams from the actresses and they can be haunting, since you know what will happen next. A great movie that shows what a person is willing to do when being put into a corner and not being able to get what they want with plenty of people standing in front of them. You never know how far someone will go unless they are given the proper motivation and Doctor Death had been given just that, motivation. Stay Scared.

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