Madness 1980

Note: This summary reflects the edited version; the unedited cut contains additional explicit scenes.

Joe Brezzi escapes from prison by scaling a wall, then steals a car after striking a man with a rock. A second confrontation unfolds when an older man comes upon him with a pitchfork; a brutal fight ends with Joe knocking the man unconscious and then killing him with the weapon before driving away, beginning a tense, spiraling chase of impulse and danger.

In a disturbing display of social manipulation, Joe uses a ruse to learn about a nearby house. He stops on the roadside and convinces an old man that he is an insurance salesman, coaxing the man to reveal when the homeowners are home, when they might be away, and when the man himself hunts. With this knowledge, he drives toward the house, hides the car, and bribes the moment with a quick break-in, slipping away as another car approaches.

That evening, Liliana hosts a dinner with her sister Paola and her husband Sergio. The gathering is tense but carefully choreographed to mislead Liliana, because the trio is entangled in an affair that they keep from her. Paola openly probes Sergio about when they will have sex, while Sergio talks about going hunting the next morning, laying the groundwork for the following morning’s plans.

The next morning, Sergio heads out to hunt with a shotgun, Liliana goes into town to shop, and Paola arranges a chair to bask in the sun. Joe reemerges, silent and patient, and slips up on Paola, knocking her out and forcing her to dig beneath the fireplace. When Liliana returns, she is forced to assist in the digging as Paola is bound, and Sergio comes home to join in the labor, all under Joe’s coercive control.

As the plot thickens, Joe exposes the hidden affair between Paola and Sergio to Liliana, and then tries to seduce Liliana himself, keeping a shotgun trained on the two lovers as a grim leverage. Paola and Sergio hatch a plan to rush Joe while he is distracted, but their attempt is thwarted as Joe gets the shotgun first and shoots both of them. He then asks Liliana to run away with him, hoping to salvage a future together amid the wreckage.

When Joe ventures to the car, he leaves the shotgun behind. Liliana, seizing the weapon, turns the table and fires a fatal shot into Joe’s back. The frame freezes on her decision as the screen strips away the remaining tension, and the film ends with Liliana standing over the crater of the night’s violence.