Silent Madness... in 3-D no less, as it was upon it's initial theatrical release gave me a headache. I initially attributed the pain to those funky glasses... but damn if I didn't get another headache watching it on video!

Belinda J. Montgomery is the only star I recognized in this movie. She plays the heroine... a psychologist from the state mental hospital. She also does a pretty good job as one of "damsel-in-distress" types in the movie...

The Plot

Herbert Johns (I think that was the character's name...) is locked up in the state mental hospital after he killed four young women at the local all-girl college. He is a mute (hence the title... duh) and is pretty slow... so he had no way to explain the events of the night.

The barbaric head of the hospital has had Johns subjected to a myriad of experimental treatments... basically using the poor wretch as a guinea pig in new forms of torture... and any semblance of sanity the big guy might have had is long since destroyed...

Then a mishap happens... and another inmate at the asylum dies, one John S. Herbert (again I'm not 100% sure of the name, but you see where this is going... ;-) )

Comedy of Errors

Johns is slated for release, since the only way the computer knows to release an inmate is to list him or her as cured. (Death as a cure?) So because of the similarity in their names, Johns is released. Everybody save for a staff psychologist, the fetching Ms. Montgomery, seem hell-bent on accepting the computer's word over their own common sense.

John's has not been gone long when the mistake is realized... the real dead man has been buried, and so the computer shows them short an inmate!

The Slaughter Starts

Secluded in the woods miles from the school, a young woman and her beau are engaged in some serious hanky-panky in the back of a van. Johns stumbles on the scene, and breaks into the van and slits the guys throat. The babe runs for her life... directly toward the camera since this was filmed in 3-D originally... and then a hatched is hurled after her! In the original big-screen viewing, the hatched did seem to fly out of the screen , but even then seemed contrived! In the video version, you lose the effect that was the whole point...

The hatchet buries itself into the girl's back. Johns would made Daniel Boone look like an amateur with his throw!

School's Out

What would be better? The school is on holiday and most of the girls are gone. A handful have stayed in their dorm, under the watchful eye of their prudish house mother. She publicly berates one who is parading about in just her bra... inside the girls-only dorm!

Meanwhile, outside on campus, a long-haired and legged blonde is roller-blading. Dressed in full protective gear; knee and elbow pads and helmet, she is ready for any peril the sidewalks might have to offer.

Too bad for her the peril comes from the shrubs! Johns is there and he grabs her around the waist and pulls her back into the bushes and apparently renders her unconscious...

The helpless skater is then taken to a tool-shed and the madman kills her... by putting her head in a vice and tightening it until she is dead...

Nobody Notices

As I've said many times, the police in movies like these leave something to be desired... and while they are clueless as to the culprit, at least they know about the kids in the van and are trying to figure it out... The poor murdered skater is not even missed... everybody just figures she went home at the last minute!

Meanwhile, the lovely Ms. Montgomery has approached the local authorities about Mr. Johns... and while those in charge scoff at the notion that he'd come back home... one of the officers gets involved in the case... (primarily because he's gotten interested in Belinda... Bet you never saw that before! ;-) )

The director of the hospital is growing concerned, not because of John's apparent killing spree, but because Montgomery is making noise... about things at the hospital... and he likes his job! So he dispatches a pair of psychotic orderlies to bring her and Johns back! (How do we know they're psychotic? Well, they were the ones who assisted in Johns' torture... and have also shown their lust for the sexy doctor... (No, I don't mean they're crazy for wanting her...) and they discuss using the cattle prod to subdue her when they find her...)

The Gang's All Here

OK... now that the stage is set and all the particulars are in place, the real show begins... The orderlies are lurking around and Johns is lurking around and Montgomery is lurking around and the cop is... well, he's not there, naturally!

Johns apparently remembers Montgomery from any lucid moments he might have had at the hospital, and sees her being chased by the orderlies. He intervenes and the orderlies try their best to overpower Johns, but get pretty well smacked around for their effort. Montgomery wants desperately for Johns to be subdued, so naturally she hasn't taken the opportunity to flee... and when Johns sees her and gives her chase, she tries to run and stumbles... and is swatted unconscious by the brute!

Johns is quite devious, as evidenced by the scene with the vice seemed to indicate; and Montgomery is the only certifiable star, so... no, she's not dispatched quickly. Instead, Johns ties her to a drill press machine... aiming the drill right at the middle of her pretty little head... and then he hides.

And The Orderlies Appear Again!

Those wonderful oafs, the orderlies, have followed the trail somehow to the basement where Johns has his damsel-in-distress tied. She is bound and gagged and can not communicate... save for her eyes... and they register fear at the sight of the despicable duo. One of the pair decides to take advantage of the bound and helpless bait... (oops, did I say bait?) and climbs on top of her and begins to kiss her neck quite eagerly. His partner looks for a light switch to make things brighter, but instead starts the drill... which makes mush of Belinda's assailants brain!

The other orderly is quickly dispatched into his afterlife as well as the powerful madman attacks him, swatting away the cattle prod and squeezing the life out of the poor evil schmuck.

The Grand Finale

Leaving Belinda behind (for some odd reason) Johns heads up the stairs. In a sort of rec-room two victims-in-waiting are playing. One sexy blonde is working furiously at a video game and one sexy brunette is working out on a gravity-bar setup that has her ankles secured to the top and her hanging upside down. (Which proves to be quite convenient for the bad guy!)

Johns quietly enters the room and drives a huge knife into the back of the blonde... and just as she does, the brunette sees him. She gasps, screams, struggles to release her ankles from their bonds, and is quickly knocked out by a savage blow to her chin delivered downward by Johns.

Downstairs, Belinda has worked herself free, and is trying find Johns again. She hears the screams, and tries to figure out where they are coming from.

Back upstairs, the brute killer is wrapping the end of a long coil of rope about the girl's tender neck as she hangs there helpless and unaware. Then she comes to, and feels the rope and sees Johns tying the other end to a large weight! She begins screaming all the more and trying desperately to free her neck from the rope around it!

Montgomery hears the screams and triangulates where they are coming from... and rushes in just in time to see the brunette dead, held horizontal in the air by the weight that has been thrown out the window; falling short of the ground and tightening the rope around the pretty girls throat!

Johns sees Belinda as well... and moves menacingly toward her... but who should appear but the house mother... who it turns out is the killers mother as well... and she scolds him for all he's done. The cop arrives (better late than never) and in the ensuing carnage, we find out that Johns was not the killer years before, but his mother was... killing the four girls because they had taken off their blouses and tormented her son when he couldn't respond!

This time, it is Johns who dies as he is shot trying to attack his mother... and she is left to face her crimes and mourn the loss of her son.

Truly a mish-mash! The story was convoluted enough, but dealing with the 3-D-less video leaves you feeling that the producers didn't have a clue what they were trying to do! Montgomery's performance is pretty good, given what she had to work with in the way of a script, and the brunette victim gave a very believable performance as she was about to die...

If you choose to watch, keep silent about it! ;-)

Joe

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older