CRAZED

US, 1982, 88 minutes, Colour.
Laslo Papas, Belle Mitchell.
Directed by Richard Cassidy.

Crazed is one of many small-budget horror thrillers made in the late '70s and early '80s in the United States. Following on the popular success of Halloween and Friday the 13th with their mysterious killers and multiple slayings, there was an enormous run on this kind of imitation. Most of them did not match the originals. Crazed is rather more modest and small budget - a lonely, emotionally retarded man with humiliating army experience, pries on the boarders of an eccentric old lady. Jealous, he murders one and preserves her in the apartment and consequently has to kill all those investigating. There is a lively performance by the old lady - but she too is murdered. The film ends with one of those moralising focuses on the nature of mental illness and asylums. The film is not as violent as many of its kind and attempts some characterisation. It may be seen more as a small
budget exercise in the horror genre.