Silent Madness (1984)

Directed by: Simon Nuchtern

Starring: Belinda Montgomery, David Greenan, Tori Hartman, Katie Bull, Katherine Kamhi, Sydney Lassick and Viveca Lindfors, cameo by Paul DeAngelo

Genre: Horror, Slasher

Rated: R

Due to a computer error, dangerous mental patient, Howard Johns, is released from the hospital. Doctor Joan Gilmore discovers this error, and upon bringing it to the attention of her senior staff members, realizes they’re trying to cover it up. Gilmore takes it upon herself to find Johns, hoping to stop him before he returns to the scene of his crimes and begins to recreate them.

I really liked that the “survivor girl” role was filled not by a teenager, but by a professional woman with a good head on her shoulders. Joan Gilmore is a great heroine for this film – she’s tough, stands her ground, and is willing to fight for what she believes is right, even if no one else believes her. She’s a licensed psychiatrist and cares deeply about all of her patients, even the violent ones that have to be chemically restrained. She is also willing to risk her own life to help the girls she believes Johns will be targeting. She may meet a love interest on the way, but she is her own being and she continues to prove herself despite the misogyny she faces in the work place and on her quest to stop Johns from returning to where it all began.

The other characters are pretty unmemorable – some simply introduced only a split second before getting killed off. (Ex: Barbara, the skateboarding girl). Joan focuses her time on the three girls still home for spring break – Pam, Cheryl and Jane (Sleepaway Camp’s Katherine Kamhi). These girls really don’t have much personality, and I honestly didn’t care whether she was able to save them or not. Joan’s love interest, Mark, is the only other character I found myself rooting for. He also happened to be the only male in the film’s population that could respect a woman and work alongside her without treating her like she was inferior or a sex object.

I did like how the film explored the territory of the working woman. In the 1980s, more women were leaving the home and entering the workplace, becoming career women rather than housewives. It was really nice to see the heroine of this film being a professional, better yet, a doctor, and having her boss also be a woman. Joan also proves to be motherly as well as career driven, so the film drives out the idea that women can’t be both. We also see her deal with the blatant misogyny from her male peers and the males that work beneath her. She proves herself to these sleazebags every day, and won’t allow them to tell her she’s wrong when her gut tells her she’s not.

Of course, if the film’s protagonist can almost be seen as a feminist character, it has to be balanced out with a little T&A from the sorority sisters. At least three pairs of breasts are shown, as to be expected from a cheesy ‘80s slasher. It’s just a bummer that the film falls back on lame clichés when they have such a progressive heroine. Breasts are shown, “slutty” girls killed, virginal girls survive. I guess I can’t ask for too much.

The kills were a disappointment. They are all pretty bloodless and most of them happen off screen. The viewer gets the basic gist of what’s happening to the victim, but no real thrill in the suspense or the gore. Most of the kills happen very quickly, giving the viewer little to no time to worry for the intended victim, and even less for the victim to fight back. The only suspenseful scenes involve the final chase between Joan and Johns. She is likable and she is a fighter. I didn’t want anything to happen to her.

The plot itself has been done – mental patient gets out of the hospital and returns home to kill again. It was done in Halloween, and I’m sure even before that. It is also fairly predictable. I did, however, really like the hospital cover-up angle the film took, proving that those Joan works for may be just as dangerous as the man she is trying to bring back into custody.

Overall, this is a pretty tame slasher. The kills are rather boring and bloodless, the plot predictable, but the heroine is great. I’d like to see more characters like her in horror.

5/10