Madison County (2011): Out now on DVD

Madison County (2011)
Directed by: Eric England
Written by: Eric England
Starring: Ace Marrero, Colley Bailey, Joanna Sotomura, Matt Mercer, Natalie Scheetz, Nick Principe

Madison County (2011)

(18) Running time: 81 minutes

Director: Eric England

Writer: Eric England

Cast: Colley Bailey, Matt Mercer, Ace Marrero, Joanna Sotomura, Natalie Scheetz, Nick Principe

Reviewed by: Matt Wavish

I like my backwoods horror as much as the next person, and I do enjoy a good slasher, and I also fully appreciate that there is only so much you can do with the genre, but please. If you don’t have anything even remotely interesting to show us, then why bother? That is the question which ran through my head time and time again while watching Madison County, a film that left a rather bitter, cheated taste in my mouth.

Five friends have driven across country to Madison County, the home of a serial killer, and also the home of the author of a book talking about the murders. The group hope to interview the author, but low and behold, when they arrive in the quiet town full of locals with no teeth and pick-up trucks, the author is nowhere to be found. Locals are secretive and don’t like out of towners, and some crazy old bat working in the local diner not only gives away her intentions in the first few seconds, but just might the worst crazy old bat actress you will see all year. Naturally, not finding the author, the group decide to go snooping, annoying the locals who warn them that “he will know you’re here, and he’ll get you”, or something along those lines. Panic panic, run away? Nah, these kids are in a backwoods horror movie, you don’t run until it’s too late, you keep snooping and then wonder why you all start getting killed off one by one!

The film is lazy, and uses the familiar tactics of girl whimpering to give away their hiding place, or girl (again) unable to run through fear. Another totally bizarre moment see’s one of the blokes chase two half naked girls through the woods (as you do) believing they are part of his group. Upon finding them swimming, topless, in a river, instead of leaving them to it he attempts to strike up a conversation. Naturally, if the girls don’t respond then you leave them alone. Not this chap, upon being ignored and given all the signs in the world to basically piss off, he bellows from the top of a small waterfall “I’m coming in with you!!” and begins to strip. When the killer finally arrives and kills him, you cheer more than you are terrified!

It takes the nasty stuff a good hour to return after a brief opening which shows a local simply capturing an escaped girl (and remember, she must be stripped down to her underwear!) and putting her back in his truck. The build up is incredibly slow, with the group literally going round in circles for the sake of stretching the films running time. When the killer does arrive, in all fairness, he’s actually quite good to look at. Wearing a hideous pig mask and standing well over six feet tall, he looks the part, and bizarrely seems to enjoy pain as he never really moves out the way if someone strikes him with a weapon. While he looks good, he is without doubt the clumsiest, stupidest killer I have seen in ages. He’s incredibly slow moving, and often the action is so painfully staged that he just looks dumb, and while he does begin killing, it is all quite tame (a stabbing here, a slashing there) with much of the actual violence happening off screen.

The film just suddenly ends too, and I imagine it was to leave a lasting impression, and allow the viewer to make up their minds as to how they believe it finished, but that decision was just silly, and made no sense, and the film simply doesn’t round up all of the characters’ fates. However, the film does look good, and the production is top notch, and the setting is well chosen, so it’s not all bad. But, the camera work is nauseating and at times it appears that the cameraman may have had one too many whisky’s. The shaky cam is incredibly annoying here: it does not create tension or menace, it creates a headache!

Madison County is a rip off of every backwoods horror you have seen, and it doesn’t bring anything new to the genre, and is happy to just play out old tricks in the hope people will enjoy it. Sadly, the film ended up clichéd, predictable and  not very interesting at all. What a waste.

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