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Julia, 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. 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?

A member of the Video Nasties library and banned for several years, Ovidio Assonitis' Madhouse (1981) is now getting the deluxe Blu-ray treatment from Arrow in this must-see release for fans of slasher cinema. Twisted, disturbing, and brutal this is definitely a fierce film and is on par with that of a Dario Argento film and other Italian horror films of the time.

BD50, DVD9 | 1080p AVC, NTSC | 01:33:20 | 40.6 Gb + 6.93 Gb
Language: English
Subtitles: English

Director: Ovidio G. Assonitis (as Oliver Hellman)
Cast: Patricia Mickey, Michael MacRae, Dennis Robertson
Country: Italy
Genre: Horror

Extras:

• Audio Commentary with The Hysteria Continues

• Running the Madhouse (1080p; 12:40) is an interview with Georgia actress Edith Ivey, who seems incredulous that anyone even knows about, let alone cares about, this film.

• Framing Fear (1080p; 19:32) is a 2017 interview with cinematographer Roberto D'Ettorre Piazzoli. In Italian with English subtitles.

• Ovidio Nasty (1080p; 7:44) is an interesting if fairly brief interview with Ovidio Assonitis, who discusses some almost metaphysical aspects he sees in the film, along with some ostensibly more mundane material like information about Riz Ortolani.

• Alternative Opening Titles (1080p; 3:01) offers the credits sequence featuring the title There Was a Little Girl.

• Original Trailer (1080p; 3:04)