Silent Madness (1984) User Reviews

A fun slasher

[BandSAboutMovies · 5/10 · 14 October 2020]

Shot with the ArriVision 3-D camera system, Silent Madness wasn't just late to the 80's 3D revival, it was late to the slasher madness too. It was directed by Simon Nuchtern, president of August Films. He brought over plenty of foreign films and had them re-edited for American tastes, like the film that the Findlays shot in Argentina called The Slaughter, which was released as Snuff. He also brought Karate Kiba to U.S. theaters with a new open and called it The Bodyguard and that's why we call marijuana chiba, as well as directing New York Nights and Savage Dawn.

You have to love how Wikipedia has the writer of this movie, Bob Zimmerman, linked to Bob Dylan. Nope. This Bob was part of the camera crew for Don't Go in the House and Nightmare. His co-writer was Bill Milling, who may be better known as an adult director using the names Philip Drexler Jr. (A Scent of Heather) and G.W. Hunter (Heart Throbs), Craig Ashwood (All American Girls), William J. Haddington Jr. (When A Woman Calls), Chiang (The Vixens of Kung Fu (A Tale of Yin Yang), Jim Hunter (Up Up and Away), Luis F. Antonero (Temptations) and Bill or Dexter Eagle (Virgin Snow). Some of the dialogue was written by Nelson DeMille, who would go on to write the book The General's Daughter. They were all working from a story by Nuchtern.

The Cresthaven Mental Institute is, charitably, a mess. It's also packed with patients, so they decide to just declare several of the patients cured, which means that Howard Johns (Solly Marx, Honcho from Savage Dawn, the Samurai from Neon Maniacs and plenty of stunt work too) is let go instead of John Howard. Years ago, after peeping on some sorority sisters, they had decided to strip for him - because that's how we dealt with Me Too moments back then, kind of like giving someone a whole carton of cigarettes to smoke when all they wanted was one, and that's a bad euphemism and I don't condone this kind of behavior - and he lost it and killed them all. So to prove that the nature vs. nurture argument is a joke and the seventeen years of treatment did nothing, the very first thing John does when he gets released is kill an aardvarking couple in their van with a hatchet and a sledgehammer.

Dr. Joan Gilmore (Belinda Montgomery, who has been the love interest for The Man from Atlantis, Crockett's ex-wife on Miami Vice and Doogie Howser, M.D.'s mother) realizes that something smells bad in Denmark - or Cresthaven - and starts looking into this, only to learn that Howard Johns was already dead when the computer snafu happened. She teams up with a reporter and goes undercover as a legacy at the sorority where everything when wrong all those years ago, because she obviously realizes that she's in a slasher movie and the killer always comes back to the scene of the crime.

There are so many plot threads going on here. There's the conspiracy at the mental hospital and the cyborg experiments being done on the patients that goes nowhere. There's the two killers hired by Dr. Kruger* (Roderick Cook, who shows up in two of Becca's favorite childhood films, 9 1/2 Weeks and Spellbinder, movies no seven-year-old shound be watching and that's why I love her) to kill off our protagonists. And there's the killer coming back to the sorority house.

I've gotten this far and forgotten to inform you that Sydney Lassick (sure, he was Mr. Fromm in Carrie, but he's also in Skatetown U.S.A.; 1941; Alligator; The Unseen and shows up as Mr. Lowry in Lady In White) plays the law in this and the house mother is Viveca Lindfors (The Bell from Hell, Creepshow). And two of the teens - Janes and Paul - are played by Katherine Kamhi and Paul DeAngelo, who we all know better as Meg and Ronnie from Sleepaway Camp.

Oh! One of the sorority girls - Barbabra - is Elizabeth Kaitan from Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2, Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood, Roller Blade Warriors: Taken by Force and, of course, Candy from Vice Academy 3 through 6.

Shot under the title Dark Sunday, with alternate names thrown about like Beautiful Screamers, The Omega Factor" and The Nightkillers, I have really no idea why this is called Silent Madness.

Teens are killed by vice, by steam, by nailgun and by aerobicide, while drills and crowbars and broken mirrors take out some of the antagonists. You'll wonder, when we knew that toxic masculinity and the health care system were both the biggest issues we'd be facing as a society way back in 1984, why did we just concentrate on making sure the slasher killer was dead instead of working on the root cause? And that's why we are where we are, except you know, there's no real Jason Vorhees. Or Howard Johnson. Or John Howard.

Vinegar Syndrome has announced that they are putting out a 3D movie this year. This would seem to be the right one, seeing as how it fits perfectly into the other films they've released.

*Seeing as how this was really shot in 1983, it's prescient that the bad guy has that name and works out of a boiler room.

Jumps right in

[hmservant · 6/10 · 8 February 2021]

"Silent Madness" wastes no time in getting to the action. The wrong psycho - I mean "mentally-disturbed individual" - is released from his treatment facility and goes on a killing spree. Only after a couple nameless victims are slashed do we get any sort of establishing exposition; not that I'm complaining. While the miscreant doctors responsible for the mishap busy themselves with covering it up, Dr. Joan Gilmore (Belinda Montgomery) sets out to track the killer. There is some fun to be had along the way. The murders make good use of the 3-D gimmick and the gorgeous Katie Bull is mesmerizing in her beauty. Also deserving mention is Barry Salmon's eerie, perfectly suited musical score. For me, however, the real star of the movie is Virgil, played by Dennis Helfend. He turns in a wonderfully demented performance as one of the hospital orderlies tasked with corralling the killer. (Sadly, "Silent Madness" is listed as his final role. He apparently passed away in 1988 at the tragically young age of 49.)

Madness... is served.

[lost-in-limbo · 5/10 · 7 February 2009]

Reasonably obscure, low-budget comprised b-grade slasher item with a misogynistic edge (though light exploitation) and with a scathing blast on the processes of a mental hospital. As it stands there's nothing really out of the ordinary, but for such a trimmed production it's commendably done, as I went in expecting something truly inept. Still some might find it so and it's not completely flawless. While the death sequences can look laughably kitsch, few do show bits of innovation (though the killer seems to pick off whoever is about with no real pattern to it) and some scenes looked like they were made for novelty 3D, and coming to this site I found out it was the case.

Howard Jones is a psychotic in Cresthaven asylum, who ten years ago massacred some sorority sisters at the Omega Sorority house. By accident he's released into society, and heads back to Barrington where the original massacre occurred. Dr. Joan Gilmore discovers the mishap and tries to get something done about it, but the staffs seem to want to cover it up. So Gilmore goes to Barrington to convince them that Jones has returned, before he begins his bloody rampage again.

Quite predictable and dry, until it crops up with a shock ending (that's obviously hinted early on) and an unusual revelation that kind of brings it down to tell the truth. The pacing is too limp, as little bit of urgency would have not gone astray. Director Simon Nuchtern's genetic handling has its moments, by managing to build upon the characters and ominously growing situation. Sure sometimes it was clunky, but he tries with the tired material at hand. However being diluted of suspense and atmosphere, it wallowed on murkiness and a clumsy sounding score that incoherently pounded out the notes/cues.

The characters aren't particularly sympathetic, but Belinda Montgomery as Dr. Gilmore is believably resistant in her solid portrayal. Roderick Cook enthusiastically works as one of mischievous doctors and Sydney Lassick is rather facetious as the lazy sheriff. Viveca Lindfors shines in her small part and Jeffrey Bringham was sturdy as the psychotic killer. Low-budget horror/b-movie fans will have a treat with the support cast with likes of Solly Marx (who's mainly a stunt-man), Katherine Kamhi, Paul DeAngelo, Dennis Helfend, Paige Lyn Price and the sorely forgotten b-actress the lovely Elizabeth Kaitan.

An undemanding slasher effort, though make sure get the uncut version.

3 times more effective in 3-D

[The-Silent-Photoplayer · 1 November 2004]

I recently saw a nice 35mm print of this in a collection of a friend who had a print that hadn't been run that he had held onto for 20 years. Appropriately enough, I saw it on Halloween.

The film itself is entertaining and keeps the viewer's attention. It's a generally psychological thriller about a killer that through the error of a psych ward that's been having seedy events behind the scenes. Most of the plot is predictable, and the acting is pretty mediocre, but the cinematography and good locations coupled with some clever moments make this one worth seeking out (even moreso in 3-D).

Some notes about the film: Apparently it opened in LA in 3D and pretty much did a roadshow tour. By the time it hit NY, it was being shown flat, which goes to show it really sort of hit the tail end of the 3D craze of the early 80s, which is too bad, because the photography in this one is tenfold that of anything else that was being done at the time (it was done with the over-under polaroid process, not anaglyph, and this was the way it was presented to me). Several murders have some great effects that really work well in the 3-D.

The film, while not being totally obscured with nobodies, does rise to the occasion with some character actors. The sheriff, a security guard and the housemother of the college make for some interesting roles and those actors/actresses stuck out in my mind as being some of the most memorable portrayals. Not too much gore, and everything is done well enough to leave the imagination up to the rest. My hands got sweaty during the show, so I was somewhat tense.

Worth catching if you can, particularly for an indie production. 7/10

Seen it all before...

[natashabowiepinky · 4/10 · 12 July 2013]

A dangerous lunatic escapes from a mental hospital. A girls college is nearby. You figure out what happens next. And if you can't, you haven't seen enough movies. Or I've watched too many. Anyhoo, as the body count rises and we get a couple of obligatory boob shots, no-one believes the one sane female doctor who knows what's going on, so she sets out to stop the guy herself. After all, those vestal virgins ain't gonna be much use in a fight...

Apart from a nostalgic glance at an old Dragon's Lair arcade machine, there is NOTHING that separates this from the surfeit of others slashers from the 80's. Bad hair, awful editing and plot holes are here in abundance. Why for instance, when our mad psycho catches up with the good lady doctor, is she the only victim he doesn't dispatch straightaway... He ties her up (not very well) thus giving her a chance to escape. Not only is he crazy, but also incredibly dumb.

File under FORGETTABLE NONSENSE. Next... 4/10

Somewhat Bland

[glenmatisse · 5/10 · 16 January 2021]

Mostly predictable slasher flick with one nice twist towards the end and some fun 3D effects. The story itself sounds more interesting on paper than it ends up in the film, but it's anchored by a great performance by Belinda Montgomery who seems to think she's in a much classier film than she is. Viveca Lindfors chews up the scenery in the best way as the housemother of a sorority where a series of brutal murders took place. It's not a movie you'll remember much about when it's over, but it's not the worst way to spend 90 minutes of your time.

Oops, we accidentally released a homicidal maniac!

[Coventry · 4/10 · 13 February 2018]

80s Slashers for Dummies. I don't know if such a book really exists, but if yes then "Silent Madness" surely followed it word for word! Admittedly most contemporary teen slasher movies suffer from a lack of originality, but Simon Nuchtern's film is truly an amassment of clichés, stereotypes, predictable plot twists and trite killings. It's like our director first watched a dozen of other movies and took notes. We need a mental asylum, a sorority house with a bunch of underdressed coeds, a black-and-white flashback of a massacre that took place twenty years ago, a cocky news reporter and a deadweight sheriff. The funniest thing about "Silent Madness" is, in fact, that the lunatic didn't escape from the asylum, but that he was accidentally released following the dumbest administrative error in history. The release papers were signed for tame patient John Howard, but instead they let go the paranoid and dangerously insane Howard Johns. Two decades ago, he killed several college girls with a nail gun and now promptly heads back to campus to finish his work. There's a reasonably interesting sub plot about the head doctors at the mental institution being deranged psychopaths themselves, and they are even sending creepy goons after the one good-hearted shrink who's trying to correct their mistake! Maniacal Howard murders a handful of pledge sisters and hides in the basement of the sorority house, which is - hands down - the biggest basement I've ever seen. This basement looks more like an underground steel factory! Regardless of how hard the film tries to be special, it's a suspenseless and unmemorable horror effort. The 3D effects (quite the hype around the time of release) are poor and derivative, while most of the murders are uninspired. I am afraid, however, that I watched a cut version since the amount of gore was very limited and the running time was nearly six minutes shorter than indicated on IMDb. The beautiful Belinda Montgomery gives away a likable performance and there are neat supportive roles for veterans like Viveca Lindfors ("Creepshow") and Sydney Lassick ("One Flow over the Cuckoo's Nest"), but they all deserved a better screenplay. The foreseeable climax even shamelessly rips off the mother (pun intended) of all eighties slasher movies!

A classic 80s Slasher and better than it gets credit being.

[catfishman · 7/10 · 28 March 2021]

This is a relatively well written and well shot 80s Slasher film that deserves to be better known. The acting by the main actors stands up (a few of the extras are a little weak but that adds to the 80s Slasher charm), and the story, while not the greatest, is definitely good enough for the genre. There's a pretty high kill count, and actually more than one bad guy (there's a couple "sub" bad guys).

Now, it's pretty important what cut of this movie you end up watching, as many are heavily edited as well as poorly cropped. I grabbed the latest Vinegar Syndrome release which has been beautifully restored as well as released in 2D, the original anaglyph 3D as well as an amazing Blu-Ray 3D release (for those few movie nerds like me that still have a 3D TV kicking around).

Entertaining Psycho on the Loose Movie

[annablair-19191 · 5/10 · 19 April 2022]

A murderer is released by accident and he returns to the sorority house which functioned as the scene of a crime he committed many years ago. In the meantime, a doctor from the hospital tries to find him before it's too late.

The basic structure calls to mind Halloween with its escaped mental patient returning home to kill again as the doctor tries to stop them, but it seems less concerned with suspense and more concerned with silly 3D effects. Some death scenes are creative, but it's lacking the blood usually associated with the horror films of this time and, without scares, it could have used a little excitement in that area.

This truly has a classic 80s slasher feel to it you'll thoroughly enjoy

[kevin_robbins · 7/10 · 10 May 2021]

Silent Madness (1984) is a movie that was highly recommended on Twitter and is available for free on YouTube. The story focuses on the head of a Psychiatric ward who releases an inmate and blames it on a computer glitch. A group from the ward tracks down a trail of murders to a sorority house where they hope to finally catch the killer. This movie is directed by Simon Nutchtern (Savage Dawn) and stars Belinda Montgomery (Tron: Legacy), Vivica Lindfors (Creepshow) and Sydney Lassick (Carrie). This was a fun old school slasher film with some better than expected kill scenes and predictable but well done sequences. The premise was also entertaining as was the dialogue between characters. This truly has a classic 80s slasher feel to it you'll thoroughly enjoy. I'd score it a 6-6.5/10.

Low budget 80's horror

[Sergiodave · 4/10 · 18 December 2020]

This movie was originally in cinemas as 3D, unfortunately I saw it in 2D, so maybe I lost some of the amazing effects! This is a very typical horror movie where all the characters make all the obvious bad mistakes. The plot is a re-hash, the acting poor and the music awful. The only thing that got my attention was Vivica Lindfors playing the head of the girls school. She also played the English teacher in John Cusack's movie 'The sure thing'. For horror buffs only.

Overly censored campy 80's horror

[tvcarsd · 8/10 · 17 November 2021]

This was an enjoyable movie with good characters, plot, acting, directing, music and effects. It must have been heart breaking to put the work into the gory fx only to have annoying censors delete it just cause. This movie really had the potential be more than a cheesy B horror.

Either ways, what's left is a nooted horror with little actual depictions of the numerous grizzly death scenes in the movie. I would say this movie could have been as good as the original friday the 13th's or sleepaway camps but they destroyed it in its prime. Still worth seeing though for everything else.

This is Good!

[adriangr · 7/10 · 20 August 2007]

The one line reviews do this film an injustice. Saying something like "A psychopathic killer escapes from an asylum and goes on a killing rampage at a sorority house that echoes a day of slaughter that occurred 20 years earlier" does sum up the plot quite well but this film is NOT the Halloween/Friday 13th/etc copycat that you might think it is.

The plot starts of rather outside of normal slasher territory by introducing our heroine, Joan Gilmore who is actually a doctor at an asylum. Lots of the initial running time is devoted to the internal goings on at the institution, and the corruption uncovered makes quite a fascinating subplot that I could have watched develop as a story in it's own right. But the reason for it all is really to set up the fact that a mentally unstable patient is released by mistake, and while the senior staff try and cover up the fact, the honest Dr Gilmore realises that she's going to have to go it alone to track him down and get him back. What follows is an intriguing (well, for a slasher movie!) turn of events as Dr Gilmore traces the original sorority house where the patient committed the murders that got him committed, and poses as a previous "sister" to gain access to the house and try and trap the killer. Aided by a local news reporter, she soon finds out that she was right, and the killer has returned, but he's not about to give up and come quietly without a few corpses piling up! I'll mention why I think this film is worthy of some note. First off, the main heroine, as played by Belinda Montgomery is not a young virginal beauty but a working doctor, and while attractive enough, she's certainly no average teen heroine, rather a resourceful intelligent woman. Secondly, the film sets up the killings in a very clever way, with a few girls being in the house falling victim to the killer in surprisingly brutal ways, as well as a seemingly random couple who get attacked in a camper van near the start actually turning out to be relevant to the plot later on. The film also throws in a couple of brutish hospital attendants who are dispatched by the other doctors (when they realise that the cover-up is not working) to catch the killer. These two thugs also have sexual designs on Dr Gilmore and decide she's just as much a target as the killer when they make their way to the sorority house armed with tranquillisers and cattle prods(!). At this point the film develops a unique three-way dynamic in which Dr Gilmore, the two thugs and the killer all have to square up to each other, and it's hard to know whether to root for the attendants or the killer, as they are a very repugnant pair and played with great sleazy excess by the two actors. The final scenes work very well as these three parties try out-manoeuvre each other to gruesome effect, while Dr Gilmore tries to avoid falling into the clutches of either. Dr Gilmore gets to scrabble and dodge through many hair-raising predicaments, including the menace of being tied under a power drill at one point, and the climax is pretty well done.

The film is fairly low budget, but well filmed. The murders are all filmed rather cruelly, as the killer seems to purposely choose a very unpleasant way for each victim to die. The film was originally shot in widescreen, but sadly the version I have seen (the old rental VHS) ruins things with terrible pan and scan. Plus, it's also made in 3-D! Well you don't get to see it in 3-D here, but lots of objects get poked and wiggled into the camera and it must have looked great in the cinema, as the use of the 3-D medium is wisely limited to moments that actually contribute something to the mayhem, rather than showing us people using yo-yos or blowing bubbles.

I recommend this movie - although I have read that the DVD releases are CUT so be warned - there's a scene in which an industrial drill gets up close and personal with the back of someones head which is quite graphic, and while other murders are less intense, there are several shots of gory wounds and sharp impalements. So it would be a shame if any of this has been removed. For my part, I thoroughly enjoyed the film, and if I could be sure the DVD releases were uncut I would buy one just to see it in wide-screen...shame about the 3-D, but you can't have everything!

Silent Madness

[Toronto85 · 5/10 · 28 May 2012]

Silent Madness is another obscure horror film from the 80's that has never found it's way into DVD. It was originally shot with 3-D "graphics", but I don't think it ever made it to theatres for it to be shown in that format. The plot is about a mental patient named Howard Johns who gets released from the hospital accidentally due to a computer error. When a psychiatrist Dr. Joan Gilmore discovers the mistake, she tries to alert the hospital's senior staff about it. However, they do not want to tarnish the reputation of the hospital so they cover it up and make it look like Howard Johns is dead.

Our main character Dr. Joan Gilmore makes her way up to the sorority house where the murders took place years prior and, with the help of a local newspaper reporter, manages to stay the night at the estate with a few girls. Her goal is to capture Howard Johns before he murders again. Eventually a few people are murdered, nothing really shocking or special about the kills. This movie for the most part has no gore at all. It's a very tame slasher flick compared to others. We also know who the killer is right away, so it takes away any sort of mystery or suspense. The best part of the whole film is the big chase scene at the end between Joan and the killer. There is also an interesting twist at the end which I could see coming early on.

Silent Madness is sort of a rip off of the original Halloween. The story involves a psychiatrist (like Dr. Loomis) who goes out to find a mental patient (like Michael Myers) who has been let out of the mental hospital . The acting in Silent Madness is pretty good, especially from Belinda Montgomery. But their are very little scares to be seen. I give credit for the unique idea of having it not just be "main girl v.s killer", but "main girl v.s hospital staff". Joan having to fight off deranged hospital attendants who are determined to cover up the release of Howard Johns adds a bit more to the movie and makes it different from your average eighties slasher.

5/10

"They Don't Have No Minds To Examine!"...

[azathothpwiggins · 19 August 2021]

Due to budgetary constraints and human error, homicidal madman Howard Johns (Solly Marx) is released from a mental institution. Dr. Joan Gilmore (Belinda Montgomery) attempts to figure out what went wrong, while Johns heads for a sorority house for a night of murderous mayhem.

SILENT MADNESS is another forgotten slasher from the golden age of the sub-genre. As such, it has a certain charm. All of the prerequisites are in place: A maniac on a mission, beautiful female victims, nudity, gore, and an explanatory flashback sequence.

The sorority sisters are all suitably silly, and Marx's goggle-eyed portrayal of Johns is gleefully crazy. Ms. Montgomery is believably exasperated.

An enjoyable enough ball of bloody yarn.

Watch for Sydney Lassick as the Sheriff and Viveca Lindfors as the -underused- house mother...

Maybe It's Better In 3D?

[bettyconway · 5/10 · 25 November 2019]

Silent Madness is one of those sad last ditch efforts than came right at the end of the slasher cycle that's depressingly low on creativity or spark. No one involved seems to care much about how the movie will turn out and it gives the entire film a sleepy feeling as if they've given everyone in front of and behind the camera a Xanax.

A mental patient escapes due to some shady behind the scenes dealings at the asylum and returns to a sorority house where he'd murdered a bunch of sorority girls years prior. A idealistic doctor decides to track him down, putting herself in harms way.

It's not a bad idea for a story, but it's told without any style or excitement and every plot twist and development feels telegraphed from the get go. The most interesting thing in the film is Viveca Lindfors more than earning her paycheck as the daffy housemother of the sorority who seems like she might be even more insane than the killer wandering around. She's worth seeing it for and, if you can catch a 3D print of the film, I'm sure that might add a few extra thrills.

On the Dulller Side of the Things

[jamiemiller-07611 · 5/10 · 8 December 2021]

If Silent Madness had been less concerned with throwing 3D effects in our faces and more concerned with an interesting script, it might be a more memorable movie. They take the usual escaped mental patient storyline and adds in so many subplots and character you can hardly keep track while being surprisingly tame and bloodless for an 80's slasher movie. Viveca Lindfors as the unhinged sorority house mother gives the film's most spirited performance but Belinda Montgomery is likable as the film's lead.

A maddening of a film

[videorama-759-859391 · 4/10 · 24 May 2016]

I can't believe some of the talent that participated in that crap, the great Vivica Lindfors of all people. She ought to be stoned. There are a couple of impressive moments, but that simply joins all those other crap 80 horror pics. The movie starts off trashily, it had me thinking, "Oh, it's not gonna be like this?", but then got better, for a while, but then it fell back, below average. Gore hounds will share a madness of their own, where gore is scarce and restrained. The most effectively terrifying scene, is the sledge hammer attack van scene. Due to a computer glitch, a most dangerous infamous patient, is wrongly released, where he's a guinea pig in an underground operation by some bad eggs at the psychiatric facility, repellent ones who belong with the other psycho's. One young nurse, Montgomery, one of many talented performers in this, knows something's rotten in Denmark, and does some snooping around where she ends up on a girl's campus, where this nutter, once massacred a sorority, who were pr..k teasing him. She meets a handsome reporter and they form a partnership, to find out if this presumed dead nutter is still alive, which we already know he is. Lindfors's secret, I saw straight off. Montgomery as a goody goody, kind of gets annoying, where our nutter who we view full on, mostly in the end, is SCARY, while also looking like an extra on a zombie movie. This flick, will disappoint, and comes up short on many things, although it's not badly made. It walks paths of predictability too, as it becomes all too familiar with other films of it's ilk. Montgomery overacts big time at the start, Sydney Lassick, simply used as the town cop, while Lindfors, of course walks away with her acting reel. From the makers of the much better House, this bad film, with a good story line, just wasn't utilized properly, in it's last half hour.

An Alright Way To Waste Time

[joymontgomery-04744 · 6/10 · 17 December 2021]

A computer mix up at a mental hospital leads to an accidental discharge of a madman who murdered several sorority girls many years ago and, now that he's on the loose, he heads back to the scene of the crime to terrorize a new batch of sorority girls.

Silent Madness doesn't do anything that we haven't seen in other sorority slashers and, in actuality, the script feels much less interesting in sorority slashings than medical world drama between doctors and psychiatrists. Some of this drama is interesting, but you might find yourself wishing they'd have focused a little bit more on giving the horror elements a boost.

Dull Slasher Flick

[gwnightscream · 4/10 · 25 November 2021]

This 1984 horror film tells about a female doctor trying to stop an escaped patient released by a computer/clerical error. He heads to a sorority house where he killed the girls after being the object of humiliation 20 years prior. This has some gory kills and a decent female lead, but it's dull. You could give this a try maybe once only if you enjoy horror/slasher flicks.

Slasher released from loony bin.

[HumanoidOfFlesh · 6/10 · 3 August 2012]

Psychotic serial killer with traumatic past is accidentally released on an unsuspecting world.He promptly returns near his place of staying and begins to stalk and kill teenage sorority girls."Silent Madness" features Sydney Lassick,Viveca Lindfords and two cast members of "Sleepaway Camp".It's a watchable slasher flick with heavily censored and thus bloodless death scenes.The action is quite slow and there are some drawn out and uninteresting scenes.The gore is also absent;only one death on an exercise machine is pretty shocking and creative.Still if you are into slasher sub-genre you can give this one a look.Recommended for fans of "Doom Asylum" or "Final Exam".6 mental asylums out of 10.

Obscure for a reason.

[BA_Harrison · 3/10 · 14 May 2010]

A criminally insane patient is accidentally released from a psychiatric hospital due to a computer error. Psychiatrist Dr. Joan Gilmore (Belinda Montgomery) suspects what has happened and attempts to alert her superiors, but is obstructed by other members of staff who are keen to cover up their mistake. Following a trail of clues, Joan heads to the sorority house where, twenty years earlier, the lunatic slaughtered several girls. Guess who is there to meet her...

"You sluts, you whores", screams batty house mother Mrs, Collins (Viveca Lindfors, Aunt Bedelia in Creepshow) at a group of fun-loving sorority sisters who innocently dare to reveal a little bare flesh; this hysterical outburst is easily the best thing about obscure, mid-eighties slasher Silent Madness, the rest of the film being over-talky, virtually bloodless, and lacking in style.

Originally shot in 3D, the film initially looks as though it might at least be a bit of laugh thanks to some gratuitous 'in your face' moments designed to exploit its gimmick to the max, but this novelty soon wears off. Sydney Lassick, of 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' fame, puts in a reasonably quirky performance as a disbelieving small town sheriff, which helps alleviate the boredom a tad, there's one imaginative kill involving a girl suspended upside down by her ankles, a length of cord and a dumb-bell, and a bonus point is awarded for getting the obligatory topless babe scene in pretty quickly, but even then, my rating is still only a paltry 3/10.

Trust me buy the 3d bluray it's better 3d than we get now!!! Fun flick!!

[joiningjt · 9/10 · 10 January 2021]

It's a low budget horror film but with a decent story and amazing 3d!! The 3d makes the movie nothing that we haven't seen but it's a get drunk or smoke a bowl and put on your glasses and have some horror fun!! Its so funny this is from 1984 with 1 1000th of today's budget yet the 3d effects are better than 90 percent of the crap we get now!!! Fun 3d flick!!!!

Dumb and Fun

[sarastrahan-61184 · 6/10 · 16 October 2021]

Due to a computer error, a psychotic patient escapes from a mental hospital and heads back to the scene of his crime many years later which is now a sorority house full of young victims fresh for the picking. A doctor trying to expose the hospital's nefarious plans goes after him and tries to stop him before it's too late.

If seen in its original 3D print, Silent Madness can be a good deal of fun even as the plot drags a bit and the murder scenes are surprisingly bloodless besides one or two. Belinda Montgomery is a likable heroine worth rooting for and Viveca Lindfors is a campy treat as the housemother of the sorority.

Overall, pretty weak.

[recluse2 · 3/10 · 6 November 2014]

I was considering giving this film a rating of 6 stars as I was watching it, up until the second half began. Then it started losing interest, becoming slow and lifeless and without suspense or tension. The one exception was the Sheriff character (he's the highlight of Silent Madness); he was hilarious, his lines were so funny and outrageous. Other than him, it is a boring, not-worth-watching second half. The sorority girls are really annoying, the house mother's acting is uncompelling, the scary scenes not real scary (but yes, the manner of some of the killings was unique and well-done). I presume the title of the movie refers to the killer's not ever uttering a single word the entire time. His looks and facial expressions don't come across as particularly psychotic or creepy. The lead male (newspaper editor) is a nothing-special character and his acting is mediocre. The two thugs are ridiculous and unreal characters. (Although the hospital parts at the beginning are pretty good). The secret "backroom" of the hospital where they are holding some patients in isolation and doing evil stuff to them (what are they doing exactly?) is not sufficiently explained. And the leading lady's motives for going up to the town and sorority house, and police station, to try to look at files to get background information on the killer also are not explained--and don't make sense. She is not there with the thought of hunting him and bringing him back--she does not suspect he is going to be there--he just happens to show up. So what was her point in trying to find out more facts about him and the original murders? What did she hope to do with this information? Finally, the twist ending was nothing to write home about. And the romantic interest aspect between the leading lady and newspaper editor was just tacked on. Never quite seen a movie like this where the first half was watchable and enjoyable and the second half just went to heck-- except for the Sheriff, really. With all this said, maybe you still want to watch it to see if you agree with my assessment of it.