Jenny Wright is Virginia, a mousy bookstore worker/wannabe actress who gets caught up in a horror novel by an author named Malcolm Brand. The books are so vivid that Virginia often pictures herself in the books. Director Takacs' reworking of this familiar theme fails due to his reliance on some very old horror film conventions.
Virginia searches for Brand's second novel, "I, Madman," after finishing the first, which involved a demonic creature who takes its revenge on its creator. In the second story, the madman of the title has razored off his own facial features in order to please the woman he loves. He then tracks down better features, using the woman's friends as his own personal parts store. Meanwhile, in Virginia's world, a competing actress is killed and scalped. The madman shows himself to Virginia wearing the other actress' red hair, and Virginia is troubled. Luckily, she has a cop beauhunk who likes to come over without knocking and scaring the living daylights out of her, and supposedly the audience. Soon, the piano repair guy across the street has his ears removed, and Virginia goes to the police, who poo-poo her story and send her packing. Virginia gets more involved in the murders, or are the murders getting more involved with Virginia? The film limps along to it's silly conclusion.
The villain is very good. Lots of shadowy and backlit shots really make him effective, as does the bizarre facial reconstruction he decides to attempt. The gore is very convincing, but the stop motion animation Takacs used to better effect in "The Gate" is not. No explanation as to why the villain is haunting Virginia, and no one else. I coasted along with "I, Madman" on its good intentions for long enough, but eventually the whole thing strayed into familiar territory, and then tried to convince me they were up to something completely new and different. Some of the decisions made by the characters and screenwriter are so ludicrous, they negate the suspense.
In the end, I cannot get too manic about "I, Madman."
