The Maddening

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The Maddening is a 1995 horror film directed by Danny Huston.

Based on a novel by Andrew Neiderman, published under the title Playmates, this was a direct-to-video creepfest featuring Burt Reynolds and Angie Dickinson in roles that must mark the nadirs of their respective careers. Reynolds plays Roy Scudder, the owner of a seedy gas station who helps a young woman, Cassie Osborne (played by Mia Sara) and her five year old daughter Samantha, with their car after Cassie gets into an argument with her husband David (Brian Wimmer). But instead of helping the mother and child, he rigs the vehicle to break down not far down the road. He soon comes upon them in distress, and tows them back to his place. There, he locks poor Mia in a room to entertain his insane wife Georgina (played by Dickinson), who has been out of sorts since the mysterious death of her baby boy. The young Samantha is turned into a "playmate" for the Scudder daughter Jill, who seems to be as crazy as her mother. With husband David searching for her (and subsequently, a private detective on the trail of David whom he believes murdered mother and daughter), Cassie starts to become more and more willing to do anything in order to save her and her daughter's lives.