Insanitarium Movie
Storyline
TAGLINES PLOT SUMMARY
Metcalfe will play a man who pretends to be crazy in order to save his sister (Sanchez) from being involuntarily hospitalized. Once inside the institute, the siblings discover that a doctor (Stormare) is using his patients like lab rats, forcing them to take a drug that turns them into flesh-eating psychopaths.
| Jesse Metcalfe | Jack |
| Felix J. Boyle | Mental Patient/Zombie |
| Kurt Caceres | Loomis |
| Martin Pierron | Insanitarium Patient |
| Geoffrey Gould | Psych patient |
| Mark Kelly | Policeman |
| Armin Shimerman | Hawthorne |
| Peter Stormare | |
| Kevin Sussman | |
| Yoda Ushery | Orderly |
| Dan Walters | Insanitarium Patient #3 |
| Michael Woodle | Skateboarder |
4.80 out of 10 (724 votes)
Visitor Reviews
It deserves one star but Olivia Munn is in it
posted on 02 Aug 2009So I got this thinking it was going to be a run of the mill "Disturbing Behavior" I'm crazy but not really film. Part of that is true, its a film. This film is hard to describe. It begins with a very brief introduction to our hero Jack's plight, in which you find out that Jack's sister has been put in an asylum for some reason other then the right reason. Jack hatches a zany plan to get himself committed so that he can enter the asylum and rescue his sister. This is a fairly standard b movie plot and how can you blame them for trying to ride the success of Prison Break. The movie pretends to have a plot until the point that Jack enters the Asylum. The audience is quickly introduced to the mad scientist running the facility and its population of nutty inmates. The mad scientist has created a "nano" serum that has a similar effect to "rage" in 28 days later. Like 28 days later, this movie is zombie flick but you'd never know it unless you actually sat through the first half of the film. Unlike 28 days later, this film is not enjoyable to watch. Imagine taking plots from several different awesome films like 28 days later, disturbing behavior, and the Andromeda strain blending it together and then taking out any elements of a plot and you essentially have insanitarium. I gave the film a two because Olivia Munn is in it and if your an AOTS fan then maybe you can fast forward the film to the parts that she is in to get a glimpse of our favorite host stabbing someone in the face. If you're not an AOTS fan and or don't know Olivia Munn leave this movie to the the abyss of bad b horror films.
A very good psycho thriller.
posted on 17 Jul 2009Insanitarium is the best b-movie I have seen ever, and I'm dead serious, no pun intended. The film's strongest point was the storyline. Executed perfectly, not your usual cliché' "kids break into sanitarium for lol's." A young man cons his way into a sanitarium to see his mentally-ill suicidal sister. It is very interesting and grabs you from the start, from here, the movie just roars uphill.Insanitarium's death scenes will leave gore hounds, like myself, crying in awe. Some of this stuff was really awesome. (Ex: Arm broken and torn off.) This is a very well crafted movie and is worth your money.8/10.
Zombies plus crazy people, nice.
posted on 06 Apr 2009Im a great zombie/rage-virus/apocalypse/survival movies fan boy and Insanitarium has and approaches some of that illusions I have.Insanitarium first starts has some vendetta kind of film where Jack (performed by Jesse Metcalfe) sees his sister Lily (Kiele Sanchez) locked down on a mental psychiatric institute where she wouldn't had to be if she hadn't tried to hang her neck in a rope at home. She has been putted there without her brother's will, so the smart and ingenuous prick had the brilliant idea to put him self there to go prison break with his loved sister. Later down there he realizes the mistake he did and tries to explain himself to the director, the sick minded, rapist, the head of the institute Dr. Gianetti (greatly, as always the bad guy Peter Stormare) which come to confirm the suspect Jack had: they are obviously sneaky little crazy mad guys.Dr. Gianetti turns out to be a scientist that to control the whole craziness used his skills to develop a virus without knowing and thinking about consequences. This particular virus, the crystal virus, make eyes turn like big white balls. Yeah thats right, the genius virus created has now evolved in an uncontrollable rage type. Soon the infected insane inmates start to show a particular interest in blood and warm meat and start to bite each other out. So the mess is re-installed. Jack along with his new friend Dave (Kevin Sussman) get his path to reach the sister and fight back to their way out of there.What can i say, it has his moments of terror and the basic and predictable shitty horror, the story line well orientated (yet confusing, like not knowing what in the hell is that you are seeing right there) and an OK performance. I must say, i only saw this film because of two things: my zombie/meat-eaters passion and seeing Peter Stormare performing something so freaky and sneaky like this.
Not convincing ... but entertaining to certain sense.
posted on 31 Mar 2009I don't understand why the leading actor think like ... I must get into the institute to "save" my sister? I don't get why on earth suddenly he got the keys to open the doors of highly secured level? The few seconds that I am most "UNCONVINCED" is when "the man contained inside the cage break the arm of the girl"??? How easy an arm to be broken??? I understand the flow of the plot needs to be bloody RED, but I think it can be shown in some other ways convincing. If you take it easy to it, it is quite entertaining because we (with my friends) really laugh about some scenes, and to us, it became a kind of comedian soap opera kind as the film run through the end, then we looked at each other with laughters. Conclusion : many spaces for improving in "directing & producing".
Watchable; if you like gory films and zombies...
posted on 13 Mar 2009I watched this last night with some friends, who all appreciate gore-fest style films. I thought it was a watchable film that does show some potential at the start, but about halfway through does unfortunately descend into standard slasher/horror cliché territory...One of the redeeming qualities of this title was the gore, it has plenty to keep even the most ardent crimson fan happy. The make up is quite well done, considering that most of the meagre budget was probably spent on the two main stars. There are the usual huge plot holes; such as people who are supposedly insane, suddenly becoming lucid and capable of defending themselves, perfecting motor functions and having sensible conversations (keep the bullets, we'll need them!).The main features include: a doctor having her arm torn off, scalpel to the chin, cleaver to the face, metal spike through the head/mouth, a fair amount of topless female nudity & a couple of cheesy one liners! It won't rock your world by any means, but if you are a fan of this kind of film and you need a bit of escapism (no pun intended), you may find this appealing. I would recommend watching this after going down the pub/bar for a couple of drinks, then back to a mate's place to watch this at the weekend.I give it 5 out of 10; not Oscar material by a long shot, but not such a terrible way to spend 80 minutes of your life, especially with some friends...
Cannibal feast in a mental hospital.
posted on 11 Mar 2009After his mother died our hero Jack was forced to have his sister Lilly committed to asylum because she began to struggle with suicidal thoughts and became a danger to herself.In order to get close to Lilly,Jack fakes insanity to get committed to the same asylum.Doctor Gianetti,who runs mental ward,created a new drug called Orpheum which turns crazies into cannibalistic killers with the urge to butchery.The plot of "Insanitarium" is routine and silly with tons of corny one-liners,but this has to be one of the goriest horror films I have seen during last few months.The acting is pretty decent and the blood flows in spades with severed limbs,impalements and decapitations painting the screen red.Overall,"Insanitarium" has enough goods to recommend it for fans of blood-drenched horror.
A crappy zombie flick with no substance
posted on 01 Mar 2009OK, I can admit that this film tried to be good, but it failed on so many levels. While watching it, I felt like it was ripping off a whole grip of other movies, including Silence of the Lambs (there's even a Hannibal Lecter wannabe!), 28 Days Later (noticeably the camera-work and soundtrack), and a little bit from Boogeyman 2 (which was also a crap fest). There are a lot of other familiar scenes too which I know were jacked, but I don't have time to recall. Throw in a generic smart and nerdy sidekick, a crazy woman who gets naked, and the mad scientist, and there you have the whole movie. The gore scenes were stupid, not even tastefully done. And as soon as the secret is out that people are eating each other, the script goes completely to poop. The actors literally go crazy and try so hard to be bloodthirsty zombies that it just adds up to a gigantic mess on the screen, border-lining on hilarious. There are also a lot of cliché one-liners, such as sticking a knife in someone's face and saying "Here's your present!" with attitude. Corny as hell, right? Overall, this movie does nothing original and is a giant yawn-fest with gore and boobs. Rent at your own risk.
Simply Insane!
posted on 30 Jan 2009This movie more than lives up to its title -- it contains an hour and a half full of insanity. It starts out timidly as the main character Jack performs a desperate act to help his sister -- he pretends to be insane so that he can break into a mental facility and rescue his suicidal sister. From the very beginning, you can tell that there is something fishy going on in the sanitarium. This foreshadowing soon materializes into the complete madness this movie is. The thing that separates this movie from other slashers is the atmosphere, which is reminiscent to that of 28 Weeks Later. But don't expect an elaborate plot or anything deep like the 28 Days/Weeks movies. What you should expect is incredibly gory and intense action scenes. Few movies make me cringe and there were a few instances where I wanted to look away because of the gore. There is an abundance of blood and guts which is pulled off realistically enough to contribute to the overall atmosphere and suspense. Suffice to say, this movie is definitely not for the faint of heart. The acting is not that bad; I am a big Olivia Munn fan and she does a good job in this movie, but don't expect anything tear-inducing. Overall, this is a decent flick that will keep you on the edge of your seat.There are plot holes but they do not take away too much from the movie because of the intense action, realistic props, and relatively decent acting.
Entertaining and occasionally scary, but lacks in the intelligence
posted on 22 Jan 2009After 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.
It was alright
posted on 16 Jan 2009OK, forget the realism you are looking for. Its a zombie movie. Ain't no realism in there. Just like all the other zombie movies.The first 20 mins I really liked. I think it would have been a cool idea to have him committed and then the movie go from the crazy/mad/psyche kind of view, ending up along the lines of... maybe he is really crazy. But no, they went the zombie route, which was fine with me too, just they could have made this into a ...really maybe he is crazy kind of movie.Overall, this was a pretty good movie, definitely not for the ones that don't like blood and guts spraying everywhere, a few scenes of nudity, a corrupt guard, and an even worse doctor running the show, makes for a fairly entertaining movie.Don't take it too seriously, if you are looking for a regular movie, with a not so Hollywood ending, then this one is for you. This is definitely not a Romantic Comedy that you would want to sit down with your wife/girlfriend/partner/significant other with.
Very disappointing
posted on 19 Nov 2008I thought this movie would be average .. maybe good .. because of Peter Stormare. But it was extremely disappointing. The plot is very awkward and many parts are missing logic.The first 20mins are promising because of the creepy atmosphere. Good music and quiet believable characters. But then the story turns from "that could be interesting" to "please not the flesh-eating-zombies again". After the first half it is getting worse. We all know the music from 28 weeks later. You have seen stuff like this a thousand times before and this one isn't very original.4/10 because they tried it.
Cuckoo's Nest Meets Living Dead
posted on 09 Nov 2008The premise of this movie is that a man gets himself committed to an insane asylum to rescue his suicidal sister. What he finds is that a mad doctor is injecting his patients with a new nano-tech drug that turns patients into cannibal vampire killers. This is the setup that allows about two hours of unremitting gore.The saddest thing about this is the participation of Armin Shimmerman of Star Trek. He's actually a good actor, and he spends all of his four scenes on the same set. They probably only had him for a day, and had to work him into the otherwise meaningless plot.It's not a great movie, it's typical of its genre. It has some interesting performances and some good production values, but honestly, I didn't really care about the characters and don't see a reason for you to.
"If you're reading this letter it's because I've been committed to an insane asylum."
posted on 01 Nov 2008~Spoiler~ When I first saw the trailer for Insanitarium I had no desire to see it. Then I caught Midnight Meat Train and really liked it. I found out that the writer of MMT made his directorial debut with Insanitarium and decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. I now regret that act. Insanitarium is just not a good movie. It's about a guy who pretends to be crazy so he will be committed because that's the only way he can see his crazy sister. And wouldn't you know it there is a mad scientist who is experimenting on his patients turning them into brain dead zombies. How many times have we seen this scenario? Nothing new is added and it's not nearly as much fun as the 80's flick Dead Pit (which is a very similar flick that I recommend over this one). Let's face it, when an over-the-top Peter Stormare can't save your movie, you are in a world of trouble.
Bad Direction and not interesting
posted on 22 Oct 2008Movie is bad, the direction was poor, the plot was uninteresting.Initially it seems those who turn to zombie like are slow moving and by end they seem to turn fast. The movie is a copy of other many projects like 28 days later etc but was poorly made. It gets real boring and unwatchable after sometime. Those who don't watch much of horror movies might find it okay but the usual horror buffs wont like this sort of crap. Overall the acting was just okay, nothing more than that.The movie is over hyped. A disappointment.I wont recommend it, don't watch. I would give it a generous 3.
Insane. Bonkers. Crazy.
posted on 16 Oct 2008A young man pretends to be crazy in order to get himself committed to an asylum where he hopes to locate his mentally ill sister. Once there, however, he discovers that the man in charge of the institution is an even bigger lunatic than the patients in his care: he is using the inmates as guinea pigs in dangerous experiments that ultimately turn the poor crazy blighters into cannibalistic killers.Half an hour into Insanitarium, and I was like...meh!: it had a nice concept; I liked the big-breasted, scar-faced nympho-maniac (always a bonus!); but the film seemed kinda so-so in the actual storytelling department. THEN the nutty scientist tied up his assistant, and slashed her leg with a scalpel before shagging her, and, pretty soon after, a cat got it's head ripped off. 'Maybe this is going to be good after all', I thought to myself! And, thankfully, it was.The film gets progressively more bonkers by the minute, and by the time the end credits were rolling, I was grinning like a madman myself, having witnessed one of the barmiest and bloodiest contemporary horrors I've seen in a long time.Whilst the plot might not be perfect, leaving one or two questions unanswered (particularly about the rather ineffective security system in the asylum), Insanitarium succeeds by being plain bonkers and totally unpredictable. I watched this film knowing absolutely nothing about it beforehand, and was totally gob-smacked by the quantity of blood and violence. Who could've guessed there would be so much mad-scientist mayhem, loony-bin lunacy, and gratuitous gore? How the hell did this one slip past my radar? With arm-ripping, gut munching, meat cleaver mutilation, stabbing, electrocution, and some juicy scalpel action (including a brilliant 'up under the chin and into the mouth' moment), this is one film that no gore-hound should miss out on.If I'd been asked to rate this movie based purely on the first 30 minutes, it would've got a 5. However, as events begin to spiral out of control, and the action becomes more and more chaotic, the film just gets better and better, and fully deserves a final rating of 7.5 out of 10 (rounded up to 8 for IMDb).
Prison Break- the low budget horror movie
posted on 04 Oct 2008A girl goes insane and is institutionalized. Her brother decides to get her out by getting himself committed as well. But strange things happen inside. Some of the patients have changed iris color and are rather violent. One of the nurses sympathizes with the brother, a nympho patient is trying to get him into trouble in more than one ways.As it turns out some of these patient with the gray iris in the maximum security area go completely nuts at the sight of blood. They turn into animals. The good Dr. in charge (Peter Stormare, from...Prison Break) is developing his own compound that he thinks will cure all mental disease. His sidekick, a pretty female Dr., goes along with everything the Dr. does.When the sister is about to injected with the substance, the brother and a fellow institutionalized guy decide it's time to get her out. But by then all hell breaks loose. The patients turn outright into cannibals and for some silly script-required coincidence, our group of heroes has to continuously run through the dangerous maximum security area. Of course the brother knows everything about electronics, building layout, etc., he can disarm any security device with a kick and playing with wires.Overall, this movie has the right idea, but goes through all the clichés. It looks good although it is evident there wasn't much of a budget. Perhaps they could have put some money into better use by hiring less extras. There's some gore but little horror.
Insanitarium
posted on 05 Aug 2008I did not like the corny macho lines from a Scharzenegger movie as the hero kills the crazy cannibals, but this is a small problem because it does everything very well and is much much better than many more expensive horror. The actors look like they had a good time playing the patients in the hospital and they make an excellent job. The bad guys do not try to be too real, but take it seriously enough not to end up a a silly comedy. I like this.I think the director loves horror movies and watches them a lot. I expect he is very happy with this movie, and I like this also. I will watch out for this guy.Many modern ( and old) horror movies have some great scenes but have so many bad ones that the result is not good when you watch it all together. This is not true of Insanitarium, the story an old one but a good one and moves along fast. It is also very bloody with a crazy finale that tells you this is not a Hollywood type movie.In summary, Insanitarium is not original, but it is very entertaining. I give it 8/10.
whatever -- I liked it!
posted on 16 Jul 2008This movie is a riff on genre flicks like Shock Corridor and Dawn of the Dead. The lead character's name is Jack (Cuckoo's Nest anyone?). Also, anyone who casts Peter Stormare as a "mad scientist" obviously gets the genre... from "Fargo" to "Constantine" to "Insanitarium". Awesome.So there's an awful lot of blood. That didn't bother me so much and I had to block out some of the really nasty bits but there seems to be a sense of humor running through the film that some of those bitchy critical movie nerds seem to be missing. This is a movie that relishes the genre. The guy's last name is Romero (as in George A.) for God's sake. And the crazy guy is called Loomis (the doc from Halloween), plus a Hannibal Lecter guy and a Nurse Rachet guy...If you don't know classic b-movies you might miss the point but if you do you're gonna have a blast.
Woah
posted on 14 Aug 2009THERE MAY BE SPOILERS? BUT WHO CARES Watch this movie higher than you have ever been in your life. It is hilarious. I hope one day they make a high school musical play about this. I will go across the world to see it. The whole wide world.May it's director be endowed with many manly gifts so that he may seduce rich women into giving him money so he can make a whole quintuplet of sequels. All of it will contain many clever references to society like all great horror movies.Since seeing this movie, all the unicorns in my yard started singing Hallelujah. PERFECTION!