There Was a Little Girl (1981) YTS

Reviewed by Wuchak 6 / 10

**_Slow slasher set in Savannah pays off with

**_Slow slasher set in Savannah pays off with the last act_** A teacher of deaf kids is haunted by her upbringing with her crazy twin sister. When it’s discovered that she’s escaped the institution, people around her start dying. This builds up to the sisters’ birthday. While technically an Italian production, “Madhouse” (1981) was shot in America with American actors and is also known as “There Was a Little Girl.” While the first hour is mostly unhurried drama, this is the foundation for the crazy last act. The producer/director/writer Ovidio G. Assonitis gives hints of what’s really going on, but doesn’t spell it out. He respected the viewer to put the pieces together. The film should also be esteemed for featuring something that didn’t become in vogue until fifteen years later with “Scream,” although the contemporaneous “Just Before Dawn” did it as well. Meanwhile the ending borrows something from “The Night Strangler” from eight years prior. This was protagonist Trish Everly’s only proper film and starring role, which is strange since she’s a convincing actress. She happened to be a member of Dean Martin's singing/dancing group the Golddiggers from 1969-1971 and had bit parts in several TV series and a few TV movies. Her real name is Patricia Mickey. Also worth mentioning on the beauty front is blonde Morgan Most as Helen. Interestingly, James Cameron believed that Assonitis (listed as Oliver Hellman in the credits) would hire American directors to get funding from studios for his projects and then find an excuse to fire them and direct himself. The proof for this, it is claimed, is “Beyond the Door,” this movie, and “Piranha 2: The Spawning.” It runs 1 hour, 32 minutes, and was shot in Savannah, Georgia. GRADE: B-

Reviewed by drownsoda90 6 / 10

Atmospheric slasher mired by an anemic conclusion

"Madhouse," also released under the titles "And When She Was Bad" and "There Was a Little Girl," focuses on Julia, a teacher in Savannah, Georgia whose twin sister, Mary, has spent most of her life in a psychiatric institution. After an overdue visit to see her, Julia becomes increasingly paranoid about her sister's ominous warning that she will take revenge on her, and as their mutual birthday approaches, people in Julia's life start dying.Co-written and directed by Italian filmmaker Ovidio G. Assonitis (who several years prior directed the fever-dream "Exorcist" ripoff "Beyond the Door"), "Madhouse" is a halfway decent slasher film that draws on a confluence of contemporaries, but doesn't quite manage to live up to what it sets out to do. The film has been credited by genre fans for its atmosphere and photography, and that is most definitely where I feel the film excels as well. The house it's set in is wildly eerie and the Georgia setting lends an additional layer of Southern Gothic atmosphere that is at times intoxicating.At times the film feels like a straightforward slasher; at others, it seems like it's edging into the territory of the supernatural, and this lack of transparency keeps the audience on their toes for the first half. The film begins to lose this balancing act though in the last thirty minutes with a premature slipshod reveal and a conclusion that feels uninspired and lazily unfurled. It doesn't necessarily go where you expect it to—I'll give it that— but it's less about the nature of the revelation and more about how it's broached in the narrative. The film was notoriously banned in the UK during the "video nasty" era, and it does boast some considerable gore, though I did feel the bulk of the killings relied a bit too much on the canine dispatch (which itself seems to be a riff on "The Omen" and "Suspiria"). The cast is mostly made up of unknowns, but the performances are decent for a film of this type.Overall, I found "Madhouse" to be a bit underwhelming, mainly because it sets itself up for greatness, and then handles its conclusion in a way that feels lazy and uninspired given all that precedes it. As sluggish as the last act is, I do have to praise the film for its curation of atmosphere and the moody cinematography. There are some truly unnerving scenes in the house that are memorable, and the film does manage to establish a sense of foreboding before it nearly undoes itself. 6/10.

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There Was a Little Girl

1981

Action / Horror

There Was a Little Girl

1981

Action / Horror

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**_Slow slasher set in Savannah pays off with

Atmospheric slasher mired by an anemic conclusion

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