The Mad Death (1983)

Instant Favorite.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

You want to know about rabies ? Try this: One time I was abroad and was unfortunate to be bitten by a stray cat . I didn't think too much of it at the time . I traveled back to the capital city to catch my plane back to Britain and I got into a conversation with the night porter at my hostel who had spent his national service as a medic and for some strange reason the conversation got round to rabies . " We don't have much of that here in cities , but there's a lot of it in the north of the country . Very terrible death , I'd much rather die of AIDS or cancer " he told me . Considering I'd just returned from the north of the country I felt the first pangs of worry . The porter then went into detail of footage he'd seen while in the medical corps " You can see in the victim's eyes that they're aware of what's going on despite their delusions...the throat contracts in spasms and that's what kills them , they effectively suffocate . Very nasty death " By now I was having a panic attack and didn't actually care if I got blown up by a terrorist bomb on my way back to the airport Before I left the next day I popped into a cybercafe and looked up cases of rabies in the region . What I saw terrified me since the disease isn't exactly unknown where I was , several people had died there in the late 1990s . I then looked up symptoms of rabies on the internet and the night porter wasn't kidding , it's almost certainly the most terrible death known to mankind , it kills 40-50,000 people a year and worst of all even if you're receiving inoculations against the disease if you develop symptoms that's it - You're almost certainly going to suffer a lingering painful death . Few and far between are survivors of rabies and those who do survive are left with terrible brain damage making them little more than vegetablesAs soon as I arrived back to in Britain I felt slightly dizzy and had a sore throat . I might have been the first symptoms of rabies or more likely it might have been the cold virus . I popped into my local health centre where I had an appointment with my doctor " Any foaming at the mouth ? If you'd been exposed to rabies you'd have contracted it by now " which is incorrect since it can take as much as several years for symptoms to develop though the average incubation is two to three months , I'd been bitten a couple of weeks earlier . The doctor ( Who seemed much better at asking questions rather than answering them ) managed to contact a hospital in Glasgow where I went the next day .I love hospitals . Having all those young nurses fussing over you , so normally if a young , tall , slim , blond nurse took my blood pressure I'd be in flirting heaven but not this time . I let the nurse carry out the tests without any wise cracks . I was then seen by the doctor , she was in her early twenties , brunette , perhaps the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen . No cheeky comments , no flirting and most of all no false machismo to impress this definitive vision of beauty . To give you an impression of how serious I was after I'd had the first course of vaccinations , I thanked her and said " I hope to never see you again " and I meant it . The hospital sent the vaccine to my local hospital where I was successfully inoculated against the virus over a course of a month . I'm alive but for several weeks I couldn't even begin to describe the fear I felt . I couldn't even hear the word " Rabies " without breaking into a cold sweat . It was perhaps the most frightening experience of my life That's the problem with THE MAD DEATH - It doesn't go far enough . I do remember the title sequence but alas I also remember a few unintentional funny scenes . A woman smuggles in her pet from the continent and it ends up on the menu for a fox which then attacks the star of UFO . If I remember correctly the most " shocking " scene involves Basil Brush being covered in shaving foam being slammed against Commander Stryker's car windscreen . Oh and Commander Stryker's been a naughty boy since he's been having an affair with his secetary and has given the rabies virus to her : Cut to Ms Secetary lying on a hospital bed dying of rabies . It looked like she was faking an orgasm while vomiting toothpaste ! You do get the impression that no one on the production has seen a rabies victim die . There's other images that stick out in the mind like the army going on a cull or the final ambiguous scene that implies it's all going to happen again but comes across as being cheesy .If you really want to know about this terrible killer disease , go abroad and get bitten by a stray mammal then type in " Symptoms of rabies " in any search engine . Make sure you have plenty of toilet paper ready because you'll certainly need it

Oh yes! I remember being hooked to the screen when this mini series first aired on BBC TV. I would have been around 30 at the time, living in England, and I know the thought of rabies horrified me, as it did most British people, because we had been a "rabies free" zone for so long. This was the first time I ever really saw the symptoms and progression of the disease, and it gave me some bad dreams, too.I never saw a repeat of the series while I remained in Britain, but I thought it certainly deserved one. Going on memory, the acting was more than competent, and from the beginning - when the infected cat was smuggled into Britain on a private yacht - I was absolutely riveted.This was an excellent series - I'd certainly buy it if it became available on DVD.Mo

It didn't go far enough in the portrayal of the rabies victims (although it does a fairly job for the first), but we don't get to see the effect on the child victim either. But my main problem is with the size, strength and back-up of the response to the outbreak. As we have seen with the Foot and Mouth outbreaks, even in the past, MAFF and other agencies had the policy of strict containment and kill and burn when necessary approach. Even back in the 60's this was the case so why was there so much pussyfooting around? The scene in the pub for example, he should have been able to call in the police and got those people arrested and the publican closed down for not reporting it. And he certainly should have been armed as well.When the old woman released the dogs they should have gone straight to her house en-masse, arrested her and killed all her animals, instead one person turns up. Pathetic.It was a very good film though in general although lacking in 'power'in terms of solutions. Even with the way they 'sorted it out' there would be no way of saying whether it had got out of the containment area, going by the time elapsed (2 weeks) a 12 mile area around the first outbreak is rather naive in the least.Considering how easily rabies can be transmitted the danger was totally underestimated. A modern version of this would be interesting, at least in this film people could vaccinate their pets, I can't see that being the case these days.

This is a mini series I have never forgotten. Gave me nightmares. Tells the story of what might happen should a rabies outbreak occur in Britain. An American man is infected with this terrible virus at the start of the first episode. He contracts it from a fox that he picks up whilst out driving. He puts the animal in his garage, and then whilst preparing dinner, he cuts himself with a knife. Then not knowing that the fox is rabid, he strokes the animal with the cut finger. From then on, we are taken through the awful stages of the disease which gives him mad fits of terror, foaming at the mouth and dreadful hallucinations. It gives the viewer a terrifying insight into this terrible disease. From then on though the story in my opinion disintegrates. From starting very believable, it ends undramatically with guys going out into the countryside shooting animals at will. The final victim if I can remember is a sheep dog. Serious stuff. But worth a watch. Gives us an education about the most terrifying virus.