The Future Of Madman Marz

Joe Giannone’s Madman (shot in 1980, released 1982) has experienced a resurgence with slasher fans in recent years similar to the Sleepaway Camp movement. Yet this has all been contrary to the increasing rarity of the film since Anchor Bay’s DVD went out of print.

But that’s about to be remedied as Code Red DVD prepare to release their own special edition into the marketplace come September. Writer/executive producer of Madman, Gary Sales, recently spoke with Retro Slashers about what’s planned for the trusty camp slasher.

“The DVD’s almost done and it’s coming with an hour+ featurette – The Legend Lives: 30 Years of Madman, by horror filmmakers, Victor Bonacora and Dave Beinlich.” Sales tells us. “Lotsa interviews and never before seen images. Just interviewed Deron Miller of CKY, who was inspired by Madman to write Escape From Hellview, the band’s 3rd most popular song on YouTube. In addition, we caught Carl Fredericks (now 84), who played Max. Sorry, Gaylen Ross won’t go on camera. But Paul “Madman” Ehlers is there. There’s also a trip back to Fish Cove, the old  location where Madman was shot.”

Sales has really taken Madman by the belt-buckle and secured its mass-availability long into the future across several formats. He informs us “We’re also now on YouTube Rental and heading for PlayStation, & Hulu. We’re also in iTunes review mode now and should be live there before Halloween.”

No talk of an old slasher movie resurfacing would be complete without bringing up the possibility of another Madman movie. Sales enthusiastically outlined to us what he refers to internally as the Madman Marz 3D Re-Imagining Project. “I’m in talks with studios and foreign buyers for a release in 2011. The script has been written by Paul “Madman Marz” Ehlers, his son Jon (born during production) and myself.  It’s killah! Really killah!” We’ve also heard that it could function as a dual reboot/sequel similar to Friday The 13th (2009) but plan a follow up conversation with Sales in future to address this.

Not simply forward-minded, Sales is happy to look back to yesteryear and take stock of what Madman really meant to people: “Many of our fans are from back in the day and Madman was one of the first horror pix they ever saw (many were underage and got to see it in the early days of VHS while their parentz weren’t home or thru an older sibling.)  But many young horror fans missed the first run and weren’t around in the early 80’s and are just discovering the cool slashers we made back in the day.”

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