There Was a Little Girl
Encyclopedia
There Was a Little Girl is a 1981 Italian
horror film
directed by Egyptian
filmmaker Ovidio G. Assonitis
.
Madhouse stars Trish Everly, Dennis Robertson, Allison Biggers, Michael Macrae, Morgan Hart, Edith Ivey, and Jerry Fujikawa. It was one of the many films on the "video nasty
" list, a list of horror/exploitation film
s banned by the BBFC for violence and obscenity. The film features a musical score by Riz Ortolani
and cinematography by Assonitis regular Roberto D'Ettorre Piazzoli
. The film's title refers to the poem "There Was a Little Girl" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:
There Was A Little Girl, Who Had A Little Curl, Right In the Middle Of Her Forehead. When She Was Good, She Was Very, Very Good. And When She Was Bad, She Was Horrid.
wrote, "Despite the ridiculousness of the script and the mediocrity of the acting, Madhouse has enough gore and ludicrous set pieces to make it worth a look for slasher fans."
Tom Becker of DVD Verdict
said, "Little touches of audacity notwithstanding, Madhouse ends up being a mediocre chiller with some unintentional laughs."
J.C. Maçek III of WorldsGreatestCritic.com wrote, "While Madhouse can be an interesting thriller with plenty of blood and legitimate creepy scares, it does leave quite a bit to be desired when it comes to tying up the loose ends found herein. Further, with elements of The Omen, Psycho
, Halloween
and other better known classics, Madhouse comes off as somewhat unoriginal in hindsight."
, in the notorious Kehoe House, which has a reputation for being haunted.
There Was a Little Girl (renamed Madhouse for the video market) was released four times on video. A watered-down, cut and edited version was released on VHS in America by Virgin-Label, discontinued and was released again five years later (1989). The film's graphic content got it classified as a "video nasty
" by the BBFC, and the film never saw a theatrical release in the United Kingdom
. In 2004, the film was passed by the BBFC and was released uncut on DVD by Film 2000 and then released by Dark Sky Films in 2008.
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
directed by Egyptian
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
filmmaker Ovidio G. Assonitis
Ovidio G. Assonitis
Ovidio Assonitis is an independent film producer and businessman with over 35 years of experience in the entertainment industry.- Biography :...
.
Madhouse stars Trish Everly, Dennis Robertson, Allison Biggers, Michael Macrae, Morgan Hart, Edith Ivey, and Jerry Fujikawa. It was one of the many films on the "video nasty
Video nasty
"Video nasty" was a colloquial term coined in the United Kingdom by 1982 which originally applied to a number of films distributed on video cassette that were criticized for their violent content by the press, commentators such as Mary Whitehouse and various religious organizations.While violence...
" list, a list of horror/exploitation film
Exploitation film
Exploitation film is a type of film that is promoted by "exploiting" often lurid subject matter. The term "exploitation" is common in film marketing, used for all types of films to mean promotion or advertising. These films then need something to exploit, such as a big star, special effects, sex,...
s banned by the BBFC for violence and obscenity. The film features a musical score by Riz Ortolani
Riz Ortolani
Riziero "Riz" Ortolani is an Italian film composer.In the early 1950s Ortolani was founder and member of a jazz band of national Italian renown...
and cinematography by Assonitis regular Roberto D'Ettorre Piazzoli
Roberto D'Ettorre Piazzoli
Roberto D’Ettorre Piazzoli is an Italian film producer and cinematographer who has worked frequently with Ovidio G. Assonitis.Born in Rome, Piazzoli began working for the Italian movie industry in the early 1960s as a cameraman, under the direction of Vittorio De Sica, Damiano Damiani, Marco...
. The film's title refers to the poem "There Was a Little Girl" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:
There Was A Little Girl, Who Had A Little Curl, Right In the Middle Of Her Forehead. When She Was Good, She Was Very, Very Good. And When She Was Bad, She Was Horrid.
Plot
Julia (Trish Everly, in her only film role), a young teacher for deaf children living in Savannah, Georgia. Julia has horrid memories of her childhood, which was scarred by her sadistic twin sister Mary (Allison Biggers). At the urging of her uncle, Father James, Julia visits Mary, suffering from a severe skin disease, in a mental institution. The meet does not go well, and Mary vows to make Julia "suffer as she had suffered". As their mutual birthday approaches, several of Julia's friends and neighbors begin to die gruesome deaths, some of which committed by a mysterious Rottweiler dog that has some sort of connection to Mary. But is Mary really the killer?Critical reception
Ian Jane of DVD TalkDVD Talk
DVD Talk is a website for DVD enthusiasts founded in January 1999 by Geoffrey Kleinman when DVDs and DVD players were first beginning to hit the market.The site started as an online forum, an email newsletter, and a page of DVD news and reviews...
wrote, "Despite the ridiculousness of the script and the mediocrity of the acting, Madhouse has enough gore and ludicrous set pieces to make it worth a look for slasher fans."
Tom Becker of DVD Verdict
DVD Verdict
DVD Verdict is a judicial themed website for DVD reviews. The site was founded in 1999. Current editor in chief is Michael Stailey, who also reviews for Rotten Tomatoes...
said, "Little touches of audacity notwithstanding, Madhouse ends up being a mediocre chiller with some unintentional laughs."
J.C. Maçek III of WorldsGreatestCritic.com wrote, "While Madhouse can be an interesting thriller with plenty of blood and legitimate creepy scares, it does leave quite a bit to be desired when it comes to tying up the loose ends found herein. Further, with elements of The Omen, Psycho
Psycho (1960 film)
Psycho is a 1960 American suspense/psychological horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins. The film is based on the screenplay by Joseph Stefano, who adapted it from the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch...
, Halloween
Halloween (1978 film)
Halloween is a 1978 American independent horror film directed, produced, and scored by John Carpenter, co-written with Debra Hill, and starring Donald Pleasence and Jamie Lee Curtis in her film debut and the first installment in the Halloween franchise. The film is set in the fictional midwestern...
and other better known classics, Madhouse comes off as somewhat unoriginal in hindsight."
Production and release
The movie was filmed on location in Savannah, GeorgiaSavannah, Georgia
Savannah is the largest city and the county seat of Chatham County, in the U.S. state of Georgia. Established in 1733, the city of Savannah was the colonial capital of the Province of Georgia and later the first state capital of Georgia. Today Savannah is an industrial center and an important...
, in the notorious Kehoe House, which has a reputation for being haunted.
There Was a Little Girl (renamed Madhouse for the video market) was released four times on video. A watered-down, cut and edited version was released on VHS in America by Virgin-Label, discontinued and was released again five years later (1989). The film's graphic content got it classified as a "video nasty
Video nasty
"Video nasty" was a colloquial term coined in the United Kingdom by 1982 which originally applied to a number of films distributed on video cassette that were criticized for their violent content by the press, commentators such as Mary Whitehouse and various religious organizations.While violence...
" by the BBFC, and the film never saw a theatrical release in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. In 2004, the film was passed by the BBFC and was released uncut on DVD by Film 2000 and then released by Dark Sky Films in 2008.