The Mad (2007)

Directed by: John Kalangis | 83 minutes | horror, thriller, comedy | Actors: Billy Zane, Maggie Castle, Shauna MacDonald, Evan Charles Flock, Jordan Madley, Ian McPhail, Rothaford Gray, Matthew Deslippe, Christopher Gross, Angela Maiorano, Kara Wooten, Allan Price, Michael Rhoades, James Binkley, Sean Orr

Judging by the cover of the DVD case, you might get the impression that you are dealing with a dark, gruesome and sinister zombie movie. Nothing could be further from the truth. ‘The Mad’ is anything but a serious, socially critical film à la George A. Romero, but rather a horror comedy of the type ‘Shaun of the Dead’, ‘Santa’s Slay’ or ‘Idle Hands’. The trouble begins when customers at a provincial roadside diner turn into man-eating zombies after eating local burgers. A questionable substance, which the local rancher adds to the food of his cows, produces this extremely bizarre effect. Doctor Jason Hunt decides to make a stopover at this exact spot of disaster while passing through with his new flame, his daughter and his friend. Soon they are forced to flee from the rapidly multiplying zombies.

‘The Mad’ is probably such a typical film that will evoke quite a few mixed feelings and for which you as a viewer have to be somewhat in the mood. It is a production that contains quite a bit of corny and black humor. For example, certain pieces of contaminated meat are able to move and actually attack people. Also the scene in which the protagonists have a whole debate about the definition of the word zombie and what exactly a zombie is, is a funny highlight. Billy Zane seems very much at home in his role as a cynical and funny pseudo-hero who, in between killing zombies, tries to improve his slightly troubled relationship with his daughter. Not all jokes or funny sequences are equally successful, but lovers of cynical and black humor with a wink will not be able to suppress a smile from time to time. Besides all the jokes and jokes, ‘The Mad’ is certainly not without the necessary bloodshed. For example, the film shows how you can use tools such as a prong or a tennis racket as effective weapons. The main shortcoming of ‘The Mad’ is that the fun and action-packed scenes almost all take place in the middle part of the film. The start is too slow and the lock goes out a bit like a night candle. So for the balance it would have been better if the makers had spread the better parts a bit more over the whole.

‘The Mad’ is certainly not a good film in the classic sense of the word. However, this was also not the intention of the makers, who clearly had in mind a black horror comedy that should actually be viewed with zero mind. Seen from this point of view, ‘The Mad’ ended up being a nice and entertaining film, although the makers have the misfortune that the same trick in films like ‘Shaun of the Dead’ and ‘Idle Hands’ has been performed before and significantly better.