DVD Review: MADISON COUNTY (2011)

     
MADISON COUNTY
Written & Directed by:  Eric England
Distributed by IMAGE Entertainment

 I have been looking forward to seeing MADISON COUNTY for a long time.   I live in in the county right next to the real Madison county in Arkansas.  In fact, my wife is from a small town out in Madison county and her parents still live there, so I have spent lots of time in and around Madison County.   We were all excited when we heard a movie called MADISON COUNTY was being filmed here.   I remember getting the updates on the filming from the site's Facebook page, hearing about casting calls around town and wondering when I would get to see the film.   Well, the time has come, as my copy of MADISON COUNTY arrived just the other day.  I was excited to watch it and even more excited to hear that my wife wanted to watch it with me!  My wife is not a huge horror fan at all, and normally does not watch horror films with me, so this was a huge milestone!  She was interested to see it, though, because it was about her hometown area and wanted to see what the film would be like.
For those not familiar with the film, here is the basic plot from imdb.com:

 A group of college kids travel to a small, mountain town called Madison County to interview the author of a tell-all book on the accounts of several grisly murders that happened there. But when the kids get to Madison County, the author is no where to be found and the towns people act like they haven't seen him in years. They also say that the killer never existed and the murders never happened. However, when the kids start digging around to get their own answers, they find out that the stories may be more real than the townspeople are letting on!

 I have to admit, I was a little afraid that my excitement to see this film might leave me to be a bit disappointed at the final result.  This was director Eric England's first feature film, I believe.  Luckily, I had nothing to worry about, as I was not just happy with how the film turned out, I was pleasantly surprised at just how good it turned out to be!

  One thing I noticed right off was the quality of the film.  It looked amazing and had a crystal clear image.  I was wondering what camera they used, and then when I saw at the end credits that they shot this on the RED camera, well that explained it.   But not only was the camera quality good, the actual camera shots were great.  Great cinematography and great some great scene set ups...I especially liked when the camera was focused on the actor close up, but you could see a blurry, out of focus image moving the background.  This made for some very creepy scenes.

 The killer in the film was also great, and could be the next major horror icon!  The killer is named Damien, although I guess he is more commonly referred to as just "Pigman".  He wears a creepy pig head and is a towering figure when compared to the kids he was stalking.   Damien is played by actor Nick Principe, who also played the iconic killer Chromeskull from the LAID TO REST MOVIES , and for a bit of fun trivia for you..LAID TO REST director Robert Hall was the special makeup effects supervisor on this film!

 I had a great time with this movie...not only was it just a well made film, but it was fun seeing familiar surroundings while watching the film.  In fact, just last weekend my family went hiking at a place called "Kings River Falls" and my wife and I were excited when we saw what we believe to be the main falls area of Kings River Falls in a very critical scene of the film.  I am not 100% sure it is the same place we went hiking, but it looked just like it. 

 You don't have to be from this area to enjoy this film, though.  This is a great horror movie that all fans of horror should check out.  College kids getting getting stalked and killed in the woods by crazed killer might sound like a pretty generic plot, but the film has enough good plot points and twists that it comes across as a very fresh addition to the horror genre.

 Kudos to director Eric England and the rest of the cast and crew for putting together such a solid film.  I can only expect great things in terms of future projects from these filmmakers, and I have a feeling we have not seen the last of Damien by any means!

MADISON COUNTY is available for pre-order now and will be released in stores on DVD Tuesday, May 8th.  


CLICK HERE to visit the film's official website
CLICK HERE to watch the trailer
CLICK HERE to pre-order the DVD