I, Madman

You might know and love her as the groupie who was terrorized by Bob Geldof in PINK FLOYD: THE WALL, or as a sensuous vampire in NEAR DARK. Yes, I, MADMAN stars Jenny Wright (who seems to have since fallen off the face of the earth) as Virginia, an actress / bookstore employee who finds the book she's reading is becoming reality: a psychopathic killer steals parts from his victims to reconstruct his face and win over the woman he loves. (Think Jack the Ripper as a sadomasochistic 1940s surgeon running amok in the '80s.) And what's worse, Virginia's the object of his affection! Her boyfriend's a detective (Clayton Rohner, APRIL FOOL'S DAY, "G Vs E"), but when Virginia tells him what she sees, he thinks that she's flipped her lid! Soon Virginia herself becomes unsure because no one else seems to see the psycho surgeon either... and people close to her keep getting murdered!

This intelligent, taut little thriller, which is an effective mix of film noir, supernatural chiller, monster movie and '80s slasher, was Hungarian director Tibor Tikács's followup to his popular, campy teen horror flick THE GATE, but somehow it came and went with little fanfare... it was quickly dumped on video (originally with a terrible cover in the US) and remains virtually ignored. Which is a shame, because it's a gem, and most reviews of it have been positive. Released in Europe under the title HARDCOVER, the movie's available on DVD around the world, and it's not hard to find here in the USA.

There's a great review of it on Horrorview.