Insanitarium [Import]

After a young man, Jack (Jesse Metcalfe of Desperate Housewives), loses his sister to a mental asylum due to her illness after their parents' death, he turns himself 'crazy' to be able to enter the hospital himself and protect her. However, once he enters, he and his new friend (Kevin Sussman) discover that there is something much more sinister going on. . . the doctor (Peter Stormare) has been using his patients as guinea pigs by turning them into vicious cannibalistic murderers. Now, it's up to Jack to rescue his sister and escape from the Hell that is the asylum.

Asylums & hospitals have always been my favourite settings for horror films above anywhere else. There's something about psychiatric hospitals that can be simply terrifying. Even in real life. The madness within can really get to the sane. So, needless to say, this film had at least a few points going for it before it even started. And, luckily, it wasn't just the idea and the setting that was good: the film wasn't too bad either. Utilizing a few good actors (Metcalfe, Stormare, Kevin Sussman), some very good gore, a hell of a lot of violence, a little bit of a nudity, and a whole lot of crazy people, writer/director Jeff Buhler (Buhler... Buhler... Buhler...) delivers to us an above-average infected horror with enough blood and severed limbs to keep gorehounds satisfied, at least for a short while. The direction was fairly good, although the writing did hurt the film a bit. Between one too many 'action hero' lines ("You're a knock-out!" / "You deserve this!" / etc.), more than a few out-of-place scenes (random 'sex' scene with Peter Stormare?), and a few glaring plot holes, it's quite apparent the script could've used a bit of a shine up before production. But, some awkward writing aside, Insanitarium ends up being an interesting, entertaining, and occasionally scary horror film that is well worth checking out.

Final verdict: 5.5/10.

Insanitarium has one of the more inane plots you'll ever see in a horror film, which in and of itself is quite an achievement. Jack (Jesse Metcalfe) is trying to see his sister who has been committed to a mental institution. When the hospital refuses to let him see her, Jack decides to get himself committed as well. He cuts his chest with razors and walks onto the streets raving like a lunatic. As if on cue, here come the police and the ambulance that just HAPPEN to take him to the same hospital where his sister is. How's that for luck!

Once inside he meets the head of the hospital, the creepy Dr. Genetti played by Peter Stormare. Has Stormare ever played a part where he wasn't creepy? Jack soon learns that Genetti is conducting experiments on the patients and injecting them with an experimental drug. Jack is determined to find Lily and get her out but when he reveals his ruse to Genetti and his staff, they think he is even more nuts and are not about to let him go.

Jesse soon leans the horrible truth about the experiments. The drug is turning the patients into blood-thirsty maniacs (well, even more maniacal than normal) and he will have to try and find his sister and escape with an entire hospital full of flesh-eating psychos on their tail.

Insanitarium is a rather dumb movie for the first hour or so. This is a rather large hospital and yet you only see one orderly and one nurse, who seem to work 24 hours a day. The orderly has one of the patients sneak out of his room at night to steal pills for him. Umm...wouldn't he have easier access to them, what with having a key card and all? To top that off, he has regular sexual trysts with one of the patients and Jack is able to just sneak around the hospital by walking under the cameras in the corridors. Great security! But the last 25 minutes saves the film from being horrible as it essentially turns into "28 Days Later" inside an asylum. The inmates go on a killing spree, killing and eating anyone they can find including each other. Insanitarium features a ton of gore and some gruesome kills including machetes through the back of a head that come out of the mouth, arms torn off, stun sticks shoved down throats, etc...

The climax finds four survivors on the run from the lunatics and it's the most exciting part of the movie. Olivia Munn of G4's "Attack of the Show" has a co-starring role as a nurse's aide and she does quite well. Armin Shimerman (Star Trek DS9) has a small role as one of the maximum security crazies. The performances in general were all good although Stormare tends to overact and chew scenery in every film he's in and it's no different here. Stupid script but it has some exciting and terrifying elements.

This movie is SOO gory! And a little disturbing. (I.E. Cat scene). The acting was good. It moved a little slow in the begining then sped up and let gallons of blood fly. Entertaining movie. Worth a rent or cheap buy.