Insanitarium (2008/Sony DVD)
Picture: B- Sound: B- Extras: D Feature: D
Horror is
a genre that just cannot help mocking the mentally ill, even outside of the
movie maniacs that once made so much money at the box office. Needless to say that the portrayal is as
idiotic as it is defaming and regressive, but Writer/Director Jeff Buhler takes
it to new lows with Insanitarium, a
wreck that deserved to go pretty much straight to DVD as Jesse Metcalfe and
Peter Stormare waste there time and ours in this would-be chiller about a guy
trying to save his sister from the title locale.
With set
design looking more like a mall or Music Video than a mental institute, this is
absolutely stupid from the start, never believable and ultimately insulting to
anyone’s mental health. Surprise, the
patients are being experimented on, but why should that be shocking when many
real-life stories the same thing is happening, often with the help of corporate
pharmaceutical companies? The mentality
that people are disposable as presented here is desperation from people trying
to turn a quick buck. Skip this one!
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image is sharper than expected; no doubt
trying to get the most out of the laughable production design, but nothing is
distinctive about the look here and is as quickly forgotten. The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix has a better
soundfield than the 2.0 Stereo and Surround Pro Logic foreign mixes, but that
is usually because there is no story and the loudness is an attempt to cover
that. They failed. Extras include a storyboard gallery (in an
example of how storyboards kill a production), two making of featurettes,
deleted scenes (hardly distinguishable form the final product) and a (yahoo?)
bonus digital copy of the film to download to your PC or portable computer
device so you can show everyone how bad this really is.
- Nicholas Sheffo
