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There have been tons of flicks that take place in a sanitarium… mostly because it’s a great setup for a horror flick, despite the fact that sanitariums are a quickly disappearing facet of society. Still, movies like The House on Haunted Hill and A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, plus countless others, have set the bar high for this tried and true horror setting. First time director Jeff Buhler takes this familiar setting and creates a fascinating world of carnage and destruction in his film Insanitarium.

The film starts out with some duder pretending to go crazy so that he can get locked up and sent to the sanitarium to rescue his sister who he has lost contact with. Once he’s there, he discovers that the people he’s locked up with aren’t all they seem, as they have white eyes and a lust for blood. It turns out the good doctor has been doing experiments on his patients… experiments that are slowly transforming them into cannibalistic crazies. The dude must escape the asylum with his sister, his crackpot, conspiracy theorist friend, and Olivia Munn. But first they must fight through an army of insane fuckers.

Jeff Buhler’s film is a perfect throwback to the more serious horror efforts of the eighties, when people still took pride in killing people on screen and having people eat each other. Buhler makes painstaking efforts to make his film look professional and the setups and cinematography within the film are excellent. The film may be a straight to DVD flick, but were it not for its b-movie plot, it would totally be worth a theatrical release. The pacing is a little off in the first half of the film, as much time is spent on developing the scenario and trying to be mysterious, but the character and plot development pays off big time in the film’s last half hour when it transforms into a carnival of carnage… complete with topless chick running around with blood covered breasts. It’s clear that Buhler has some idea of what horror fans want to see, and Insanitarium plays out like a love letter to the genre, minus all of the, what has become by now required, unnecessary horror flick referencing. Buhler’s film feels larger than it actually is and he does a wonderful job of giving the film a larger than life feel, especially during the film’s killer conclusion.

The acting in the film is surprisingly good. Jesse Metcalfe is fairly interesting and gives a pretty solid performance as Jack, the dude that pretends to be insane to get inside the asylum. Metcalfe carries the film nicely, and he’s aided by a pretty solid supporting cast. Peter Stormare (Armageddon, Fargo) is creepy as always as the insane doctor. Kevin Sussman rocks as Jack’s nerdy friend, a crazy conspiracy theorist who knows his way around the asylum. Olivia Munn (Scarecrow Gone Wild, Strip Poker) steps off the set of G4’s Attack of the Show and delivers a surprising performance as a nurse who helps out Jack and his group of crazy bastards as the shit hits the fan. Armen Shimerman is fantastic as a Hannibal Lecter-type character, and he plays probably the most memorable villain in the film.

The gore in the film may take a while to show up, but when it does, it’s splattered liberally over the padded walls of the sanitarium. The amount of blood and gore in the film is amazing… and the best part is, it’s all practical stuff. There are no CGI explosions or guts here, just solid practical pieces. The last half hour of the film is a blood-soaked playground of carnage, and it is the excess of the film’s ending that pushes this film over the top and into the must see range.

Not everything is perfect in the film, however, as there are many scenes where characters mysteriously or magically come back to life after having received, what for any normal human being, would be a critical wound. There are some moments that are simply too hard to believe, but they are still fun in a silly sort of way, but by the third time a character miraculously fights off a deathblow only to appear jumping out of a door later, it becomes quite noticeable and distracting.

Insanitarium is a solid flick that plays with blood the way a monkey plays with its shit… by smearing it all over the walls. It’s a nice horror flick, that may not be the most original thing out there, but its execution is near flawless. Pick it up when you get the chance and give it a watch.

Final Synopsis: Definitely a solid flick, Insanitarium is worth giving a rent. It’s a fun movie for the true horror fan. Give it a watch.

Points Lost: -1 for magically reappearing characters, -1 for some off pacing, -1 for not having nearly enough medical staff in a hospital with a fair amount of patients

Lesson Learned: Pretending to be insane to get inside a sanitarium is not the best idea apparently.

Burning Question: What is your favorite sanitarium/insane asylum movie?

Insanitarium
7/10

Tags: 2008, brutality, cannibal, cannibals, horror, horror movie, indie, insane asylum, Jeff Buhler, Jesse Metcalfe, kevin sussman, latest movie reviews, low-budget, Olivia Munn, Peter Stormare, recent, ultra-violence