Madhouse

Streaming video - 1981

A crimson-soaked tale of sibling rivalry taken to a terrifying and bloody extreme. Julia has spent her entire adult life trying to forget the torment she suffered at the hands of her twisted twin Mary... but Mary hasn't forgotten. Escaping hospital, where she's recently been admitted with a horrific, disfiguring illness, Julia's sadistic sister vows to exact a particularly cruel revenge on her sibling this year - promising a birthday surprise that she'll never forget. MADHOUSE fuses slasher elements with the over-the-top excess of '80s Italian terror - resulting in a cinematic bloodbath so gut-wrenching that the British authorities saw fit to outlaw it as a "video nasty." *"[MADHOUSE] might be regarde...d either as straight...slice and dice, or as a subjective insight into a damaged woman's psychotic meltdown. It works either way, but is richer and more satisfying if viewed as an early prelude to the 'The Babadook.'" - Anton Bitel, **Little White Lies*** more