Danny had previously directed the little seen Mr North (1988) and Becoming Colette (1991), although is mostly known as an actor with a long line of credits since the 1990s, including some high-profile roles. The director is Danny Huston, son of director John Huston, known for The Maltese Falcon (1941) and The African Queen (1952). Both give totally over-the-top performances as the psycho white trash couple and this gives the film a lurid fascination akin to the way Bette Davis and Joan Crawford were shown in their faded demented glory in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) and a host of imitators. The casting of Burt Reynolds and Angie Dickinson, something that would have been a major headline act circa 1978, gives The Maddening a certain novelty. The film taps into the Southern Gothic atmosphere – although does use Florida as its setting, creating an intriguing new possibility of what one might call Tropical Gothic. The Maddening is an imprisonment thriller in the vein of films such as The Collector (1965), The Fanatic/Die, Die, My Darling (1965), Boxing Helena (1993) and Paranoid (2000).
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