Madison County (2011) Review

Upon arriving in the town and stepping into the local diner, they get the distinct feeling they’re not welcome. When asked about the author of the book and the killer, the diner owner, a little old lady, denies any knowledge of a killer ever being in the town and that the author in question hasn’t been seen for a while, but she points them in the direction of the author’s house anyway.

Undeterred by the comments, they continue with their quest only to find an empty house. So the five of them decide to split up and have a look around the grounds for anything that might give a clue as to whats going on. You only have to watch Scooby Doo to know that this is never a good idea!

Predictably, this is where everything goes wrong and they soon realise that the legend of the killer in the book is very true and very much alive and active. One by one they start getting picked off my the pig head wearing perpetrator. It also becomes apparent that the locals might be turning a blind eye.

After kicking off to a good start with the very first scene, which lasts for just over a minute, it all heads downhill from there! The film is predictable, has more holes in the plot than Swiss cheese and fails to give any kind of fright or shock.  It has one decent kill scene involving a broken baseball bat, the rest were just the normal slice and dice routine.

It’s all been done before and done a hell of a lot better. The only good thing about the movie wasn’t utilised to it’s full potential, and that was the killer. Instead, it concentrated too much on the college kids instead of developing the story and threat of the killer. I mean come on, he was played by the 6 ft 7 in. Nick Principe, who is best known for playing Chromeskull.

Even though there’s room for a sequel, it would have to fill in all the mess of the details that this movie  left out. That means it would have to be a pre-sequel, if that makes sense! You know, like The Godfather part 2. But it would need the writing and directing skills of Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola to pull it off! Anyway, I digress.

The movie ends so abruptly around the 1 hour 7 minute mark that it left me thinking “WTF? Is that it?” which consequently turned into a “Thank god it’s over!” (not that I believe in god or condone that kind of thing!). It was as if they ran out of ideas or just gave up!

The cast –

Joanna Sotomura as Brooke
Natalie Scheetz as Jenna
Colley Bailey as James
Matt Mercer as Will
Ace Marrero as Kyle
Nick Principe as Damien
Katie Stegeman as Kristen

Director & Writer – Eric England