AboveDeepBuggy
Some things I liked some I did not.
Brendon Jones
It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.
Sameer Callahan
It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.
Scott LeBrun
As co-written and directed by Ovidio Assonitis ("Beyond the Door", "Tentacles"), "There Was a Little Girl" (a.k.a. "Madhouse") is a mostly tedious affair running through the standard slasher paces adequately but without any real style. For its first two thirds, it actually plays more like a drama with some horror moments than an out and out horror film. It's too bad it got labelled as a Video Nasty, as it's never really that gory, at least not until the end. The good thing is that the performances are better than expected, and things do get marginally more interesting in the final third, with a plot development that some horror fans may see coming and some may not.Trish Everly stars as Julia, a teacher in a school for deaf children whose birthday is nearing. In the days leading up to it, her deformed, demented twin sister Mary (Allison Biggers) escapes from the hospital. It seems that Mary had dominated and terrorized the meek Julia during their childhood, and now Julia is more than a little concerned. Mary had had a spooky canine companion when the two women were young, and now there's a bloodthirsty dog adding to the weirdness.For around an hour or so, this is just a little too dull, although Assonitis succeeds in building some atmosphere. But the story becomes more fun upon its one true big reveal. Eventually, this bears some strong resemblances to the Canadian slasher "Happy Birthday to Me", although it's hard to say whether one movie ripped off the other or not. The beautiful Everly does an okay job in the lead, the equally lovely Morgan Most is fine as her friend, and Michael MacRae is acceptable as Julias' psychiatrist / lover, but the person who steals the show is Dennis Robertson as the friendly Father James. The animal work is good; trainer Joe Camp plays the ill-fated hospital guard. However, during the finale, when the crazed dog comes through a door, a special effect is employed, and it's laughably horrible.Overall, a decent shocker redeemed to a degree by its last act.Five out of 10.
Red-Barracuda
Madhouse is one of that most select group of films that made up the infamous video nasty list. These were of course movies released on home video in early 80's Britain that were considered so obscene that they were thought to pose a threat to the very fabric of society. It seems almost incredible now that this was the case but I remember it and there is no denying that the video nasty furore was front page news and the tabloid press went to town on these films. Naturally, yet ironically, this has led to a situation where all manner of films that would have become more or less forgotten have attained a long shelf life by being included on the list and I expect that their infamy is going to last a lot longer still. But like many of them, Madhouse is really not very shocking at all and it's difficult really working out why it made the cut in the first place. My feeling is it might have been to do with a scene where a man power drills a dog's head! Although this may sound appalling to dog lovers, when you see it, it's patently ridiculous.But irrespective of any of this, for my money Madhouse is actually one of the better nasties. It's about a young woman who has an evil twin sister who escapes from the asylum she is incarcerated in. She returns home in time for their birthday. Murder inevitably follows. This is essentially a slasher flick but fortunately it's not one of the ones that focuses on a group of teenage numb-skulls. Instead it goes for a more psychological angle with added original details, like the aforementioned devil dog. Additionally, the evil sister is a pretty scary character; in several scenes her appearances are actually pretty unnerving. The very fact that this movie is quite frightening at all earns it massive bonus points from me, as so few horror films ever are. It's not only the crazy sister who makes an impact but the deranged uncle does too. The final third of the film builds up a great deal of suspense and ends with a memorably macabre set-piece. The tension is pretty well controlled and overall, this is a very well made low budget slasher. Finally, I have to add that the original title 'There Was a Little Girl' is a lot better than the generic and quite boring 'Madhouse'; it's a film that deserves the better title.
Toronto85
I watched "There Was a Little Girl" the other day under the title "Madhouse". It's about a school teacher named Julia who has a deranged and deformed twin sister Mary. When the two were younger, Mary used to torment and torture Julia with a huge rottweiler. Eventually Mary was committed to a psychiatric facility. Well, late one night, Mary escapes the hospital and heads straight for her sister Julia (along with a large rottweiler). Throughout the middle part of the film, a few people are murdered in the building where Julia lives culminating in a creepy yet unsatisfying finale.Madhouse is a frustrating 80's slasher flick because it's really creepy yet doesn't explain much by the end. Why is the sister crazy? What was with that opening scene of a girl smashing another's head in with a rock? And why is the second killer so deranged? Yes, there are two killers in this movie. By the conclusion, Madhouse never tell us why this second killer is insane and that is really my biggest problem with the movie. Acting is good all around, it surprised me that Trish Everly (Julia) hasn't done anything other than Madhouse because she was pretty good. The gore is well done, not too over the top (except one drill scene). I also liked the filming location of the dark house that Julia lives in. It works well during the stalking/murder scenes. Overall an above average slasher film that I would recommend. It's only flaw is that it leaves us wanting more.6/10
BA_Harrison
Madhouse stars Trish Everly as Julia Sullivan, a teacher at a school for the deaf, whose hideously disfigured and sadistic twin sister, Mary, resides in a nearby mental hospital. Four days before Trish's birthday, Mary escapes in order to arrange a special party for her unsuspecting sister...In the United Kingdom in the 1980s, movies released on home video became the target of a hate campaign led by Britain's über-vigilant defenders of moral decency: the press, bored housewives, and Conservative politicians. As a result, a list was compiled of the films they deemed to be most offensive; these titles became known as 'Video Nasties' and were seized from shops before they had a chance to work their evil influence on an unsuspecting public.Ovidio G. Assonitis's Madhouse was one such 'nasty'.Featuring a bloodthirsty rottweiler, a frenzied axe attack that reduces the victim's back to a bloody pulp, and a messy canine lobotomy by electric drill, it quickly found itself added to the list of titles most likely to corrupt and deprave. It didn't matter much to the moral crusaders that the film was also a well-crafted psychological chiller that delivered plenty of atmosphere, memorable performances, and some lovely cinematography; no... this film featured a dog receiving a drill-bit between the eyes, and we can't have people watching that kind of stuff, can we?Two decades on, and Madhouse is now available uncut on DVD; it seems that the people of the UK have since developed to a stage where they are able to handle such horror without it turning them into murderous lunatics (either that, or the authorities have actually realised they were wrong and the film was never that disturbing in the first place). Oh well, better late than never, I suppose...Ironically, Assonitis's film is perhaps a little too slow and lacking in gore for today's casual horror viewer, but for seasoned fans of the genre, it offers plenty to enjoy: there's the mystery of the identity of a second killer (not too hard to guess, but fun nevertheless); a great OTT performance from Dennis Robertson as Father James, Trish's nursery-rhyme singing uncle; a likable heroine; a brief performance from Morgan Hart as very tasty, blonde rottweiler fodder, Helen; and a ghoulish final scene that is remarkably similar to that of a Canadian slasher, Happy Birthday To Me (who stole from whom is debatable, since both films were released in the same year).
