Insanitarium

John Chard

Derivative yet strangely enjoyable. Written and directed by Jeff Buhler, it stars Jesse Metcalfe, Kiele Sanchez, Kevin Sussman and Peter Stormare. After the untimely death of her mother, Lily attempts suicide and is committed to a mental health institution. Her brother, Jack, gets himself committed so as to break his sister out of the facility, but what he finds within those walls is sheer horrifying carnage. You don't need me to point up all the films that this uses as influences, this is pure and simple a bloody zombie/infected based movie, with some sturdy young and attractive actors trying to survive as they strive to escape the madness! Cast are fine and full of guts, with Stormare let loose by the director to instill the head doctor with mania/ego unbound. It takes a while to get going, but fans of blood and gore aplenty are well catered for in the second half of film. The setting of an asylum is also a plus (filmed at RFK Memorial Hospital, Hawthorne, California) and with Stormare on mean - mad - overdrive, this is far from bottom of the barrel stuff. 6/10