Madhouse (1981 film)

Madhouse
1987 U.S. VHS artwork
Directed byOvidio G. Assonitis
Written by
  • Ovidio G. Assonitis
  • Stephen Blakeley
  • Peter Sheperd
  • Roberto Gandus
Produced by
  • Ovidio G. Assonitis
  • Peter Sheperd
Starring
  • Trish Everly
  • Michael Macrae
  • Dennis Robertson
  • Allison Biggers
CinematographyRoberto D'Ettorre Piazzoli
Music byRiz Ortolani
Production
company
Overseas FilmGroup
Distributed byWarner Bros. (West Germany)
Release dates
  • March 4, 1981 (1981-03-04) (Italy)
  • August 19, 1983 (1983-08-19) (U.S.)
Running time
93 minutes
Countries
  • Italy
  • United States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$2 million

Madhouse (also released as There Was a Little Girl and And When She Was Bad) is a 1981 slasher film directed and co-written by Ovidio G. Assonitis, and starring Trish Everly, Dennis Robertson, Allison Biggers, and Michael Macrae. The plot follows a schoolteacher in Savannah, Georgia being stalked by her psychopathic twin sister in the days leading up to their birthday. The film's original title takes its name from a poem called "There Was a Little Girl" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

The film features a musical score by Riz Ortolani and cinematography by Assonitis regular Roberto D'Ettorre Piazzoli. Though it received theatrical distribution in Italy, West Germany, and the United States, it was one of the many films on the "video nasty" list, a list of horror and exploitation films banned in the United Kingdom by the BBFC in the 1980s for violence and obscenity.