Silent Madness

Gauche, forgettable 80’s slasher in the tradition of “Halloween” & “Black Christmas”

A criminally insane patient is accidentally let loose from a sanitarium in the greater New York City area and so a concerned psychiatrist at the facility (Belinda Montgomery) travels to the upstate college where he was formerly employed and committed a massacre years prior. Naturally she hopes to apprehend him before there’s a body count of victims.

"Silent Madness” (1984) mixes the plot of “Halloween” (1978) with that of “Black Christmas” (1974) and "The House on Sorority Row" (1983). In other words, it’s a slasher involving a silent homicidal maniac on the loose at a sorority house with a doctor from the asylum passionately trying to find him. While I’m not the hugest fan of those particular slashers, the first two are certainly historically important to the genre. This one pales by comparison.

It has several positives, like Belinda as the protagonist, the locations and the cast in general, although the guy who plays the inept sheriff is easily a decade beyond retirement age. One imaginative slaying involves an aerobics girl hanging upside down with the use of a rope, a dumbbell and a window.

Unfortunately, the directing & editing is unimaginative at best and sometimes borderline amateurish with lousy continuity, yet the writing may be the worst aspect with its glaring plot holes.

Too much time is blown on why the patient was accidentally discharged and the corresponding cover-up. Meanwhile there’s not enough exposition on the weird secret ward, which smacks of meaningless padding. Very little of it feels real; it’s like a Bizarro-world interpretation of a slasher with emphasis on 3D effects rather than suspense, which mean very little if you’re watching the flick in 2D.

So, this is basically an early 80’s slasher that failed to work out the kinks during production, no doubt because they lacked the funds for a rewrite, et cetera. It shows because “Silent Madness” is surreal at best and bungling at worst. Even the decidedly prosaic ‘B’ "Sorority House Massacre" (1986) is a better option.

The film runs 1 hour, 33 minutes, and was shot in the New York/New Jersey area, including Wagner College on Staten Island, Lord's Castle in Piermont, Nyack and Jersey City.

GRADE: C-