August 06 2026, 21:09
I, Madman
Director: Tibor Takács
Release year: 1989
Book shop clerk and aspiring actress Virginia (Jenny Wright) loves pulpy noir horror and can’t put down a book by new discovery Malcolm Brand (Randall William Cook). The gruesome details and savage story line excite her, but they also keep her awake at night, and new boyfriend Richard (Clayton Rohner) thinks she shouldn’t read them. Brand’s final book, I, Madman, appears mysteriously at her door, and once she starts reading it, events from the book blend into the real world, and soon she is being terrorised by the dead Malcolm Brand.
I love that such an obscure film, with many actors appearing in little else, took such big swings with the story. Virginia is a bookish, nerdy heroine who wants to get lost in fantasy. A monster is shown in stop motion. It’s meta before meta was cool. This was the year of Halloween 5, Friday the 13th Part 8 and A Nightmare on Elm Street 5 – horror films were fizzling out as a cultural force. It’s a lovely surprise to find some creativity this late in the cycle.
I, Madman shares some DNA with the Elm Street films, mashed with Frankenstein and Jack the Ripper. Virginia’s new boyfriend, homicide detective Richard, is rooted in the physical world, and won’t believe her explanation of the killings that are happening around her. She tells Mona (Stephanie Hodge), her workmate at the book shop, that she isn’t sure if Richard is for her, perhaps because she senses his lack of inner life and imagination. The ghost of Brand is more real to her than Richard is, and in an early lovemaking scene, Virginia gets off on recounting to Richard the devilish deeds in the book, which he seems confused by. She wants more than her daily life can give her.
While Brand is clearly evil, there’s also something powerful and useful about him to Virginia. He kills an actress she’s jealous of, as well as a man she’s friends with who wants to become a lover – a rival to Richard. Brand is collecting body parts to recreate his great love and wears them: a red-haired scalp, ears, nose, lips, until by the end he’s impressively grotesque. Richard saves Virginia by arriving in the nick of time at the book shop, but it’s Virginia who figures out the spell that sends Brand back where he came from. It’s a pleasingly feminist film.
Jenny Wright was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Actress in 1989, and I can see why. It’s a supple, interesting performance in a surreal low-budget horror film. She lost to Demi Moore in Ghost, and was also up against Nicole Kidman and Anjelica Huston. This film punches well above its weight. It did win one award, Best Film at the Avoriaz International Fantastic Film Festival in 1990. I can see why.
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