Escape from the Insane Asylum (1986)

ESCAPE FROM THE INSANE ASYLUM

WRITER: Renee Harmon

DIRECTOR: Felix Girard

STARRING: Renee Harmon as Chris Nilsen

Frank Neuhaus as Seymour Harper

Henry Lewis as Alex Nilsen

Lauren Brent as Becky

QUICK CUT: A woman spends time along to gather her thoughts, and make new friends.

THE MORGUE

Chris - A woman with her own business, married to a doctor, who is helping him fund his research. But once she starts thinking of stopping, things turn sideways.

Alex - Chris’s husband, a bit of a mad scientist, and someone who isn’t about to let ‘morals’ get in the way of science.

Dr. Harper - Chris’s doctor, and Alex’s partner in crime. And probably more amoral than even Ale3x is.

Becky - Alex’s daughter from a previous marriage, and she’s become closer to Chris than she is to her won father.

TRISK ANALYSIS: Merry Triskmas, one and all! For our final review of the year, I thought I would turn my attention to Night of Terror or as the copy I watched is known as, Escape from the Insane Asylum. Both of these titles are ill suited to this film, but more on that later. This is another movie involving Renee Harmon who even long time readers of Trisk probably don't remember from one of our early reviews; Frozen Scream.

Oh, and this being the 400th Trisking ever, I know the tradition is to do another Puppet Master movie, but since this was the 7th anniversary of when I first reviewed Frozen Scream, that seemed like too good an opportunity to pass up. So let's get to it!

The movie opens up on some weird deja vu vibes, and then a married man and his mistress discussing if he's gonna leave his wife. A clue; no.

Instead, Inez threatens Alex with blackmail, just in time for someone in a hood to show up and say hey. Inez is surprised, and Alex seizes the opportunity to inject her with a needle and she passes out into the credits.

This is how covid deniers think mandates will work.

And suddenly, there is footage ripped right from Frozen Scream dropped into the movie. I will not be discussing it, because I already have, and it has ZERO EFFECT AT ALL on the plot of this movie. Just...added scenes for no reason.

I will say, however, the quality between the movies is readily apparent, and jarring.

Following that diversion we find Paul in the titular insane asylum, catatonic in his room, as his mother tries desperately to wake him.

Paul? PAUL! Your father is in danger, Paul!

Paul's kinda there though, so he mutters about being put into a hood and that he "doesn't wanna do it". And mood, man. Fuckin' mood. I don't wanna do it either.

We then jump to the facility's day room, with your expected bunch of people acting weird, including a bald woman ranting about how the Shadows are coming for Lord Kiro, or something.

Off in the corner is our star, and writer, and actress from Frozen Scream, talking to her lawyer trying to get out of the insane asylum. Is this where the escape comes in??

I already have so many questions. In a delightful twist, most of them get answered satisfactorily by the end of the movie. I mean, the movie is still nonsense, but it does lay out its main points.

We then cut to elsewhere in the facility and learn Alex is a doctor there, so maybe he shouldn't have his wife held where he works? Seems conflicty. Anyways, he's talking with his associate Doctor Harper, about their Important Research, and I hope it involves frozen immortal zombies.

They try and lay the groundwork about some stuff between Alex and his wife, and how he's trying to use her finances and business to fund his research, and her hesitation is why he's trying to have her declared insane, you know, as one does.

It sure is a smart idea to talk about our evil plans within earshot of other people!

Chris gets told about how another patient was killed, and that's when the nurse drags her off to her next appointment. Well, after injecting her and making her more compliant.

Along the way, she hallucinates more Frozen Scream footage. I, too, sometimes hallucinate past movies.

Meanwhile, an orderly is attending to Paul, who suddenly sits up, and slits his throat.

Harper explains to Alex his dastardly plan to operate on Chris's brain to diminish her capabilities to get what they want. But in order to perform an operation on a person currently sitting in a room not ten feet away, they must first let her go.

And then stress her out, so she acts crazy, and they will then have to bring her to where she already is, to perform surgery they could perform right now.

What, and I cannot stress this enough, the fuck.

Meanwhile, Chris is muttering to herself in the mirror, and then in a very cheap effect, Inez's head is floating beside her with a look of dull surprise.

Just paint your face, the shadows smiled.

That's when her husband shows up with the good news that Chris is to be released, under the watchful eye of Harper, and with the random stipulation that she'll be staying at some random house.

So uh, not so much an 'escape' as a 'work release program'.

Alex's daughter meets up with Chris, and they seem good friends, which I'm sure helps the home life. They drive off, and Chris says they need to find Inez's place. Now, I'll admit, there is a LOT going on, and a dodgy accent here and there, but I do not know how she learned the name Inez. Heck, I've been watching this movie and *I* just learned the name Inez!!

They stop at a shop run by Paul's mom to ask directions and OH okay, the house she's staying at is "Inez's place" and it just so happens it was the mistress's home. That really coulda been laid out better.

Could I, a totally not crazy person who didn't escape from the mental hospital right behind me, get a lift?

Once they leave, Paul runs in, saying he ran away, and his voice is SUPER creepy and childlike, and I love it with all my heart.

He doesn't want to go back, what with murder and all that, so his mom sends him to the old MacFarlane place to hide out. Okay, I guess technically that is an Escape from the Insane Asylum, but it's weird he's kind of a side character.

Meanwhile, Becky hands her stepmom a photo of a ghost, and oh, I guess it's time to establish that ghosts exist in this movie, 20 minutes in.

This photo is yet another plot point that will not be dealt with.

Later that night, Chris is woken up and she stumbles around the strange house until she comes across a questionably racist mask. It scares her so bad she sees more Frozen Scream footage. And this is the last we see from that movie, so…what even was the point??

The next day, while Paul auditions for a role in the first season of Slasher, Becky heads into town, while walking over all her mom's Rice Krispies.

After a few weird happenings, Paul lurks around outside, walking over more Rice Krispies. Chris is so convinced she's being haunted she yells at the intruder to go away.

But then Harper's wife, Ellen shows up to introduce herself to the new neighbour, and that doesn't seem fishy at all.

Ellen invites Chris over to a party at her doctor's house, and again, seems weirdly fishy to attend a party thrown by your doctor.

Becky is there with her friends at this weird pool party, and Becky wants them to check out the old MacFarlane place. But rather than get the plot moving forward, they decide to stay home.

This pool is so huge that when it cuts to the band killing time to pad the movie, it's now night time, clearly existing in another time zone.

I don’t make enough as a doctor, I have a job as a bartender on the weekends

Paul's mom shows up, and after a bit of yelling, Seymour tells her, with a shockingly straight face, to take two aspirin and call him in the morning.

There's a lot more talking, and Seymour drops that Alex is acquiring 'volunteer' street people for their research, so we cut over to exactly that.

So it's later in the night, the kids are bored, and AGAIN Becky pushes the Old MacFarlane place, and as they creep around, we see Alex find his prey.

He drives around a bit, injects her with the stuff, and the sound goes all staticy. Shit, he just drugged the sound engineer! What's she doing working as a prostitute??

The kids wait and hide as they see Alex drive up with his victim, although it's not clear that they actually see anyone or anything.

Meanwhile, Chris is cleaning when a rocking chair starts moving by itself. She tells Becky to come look...AND THEN STOPS THE ROCKING. "Come look, before I stop what there is to see!"

Chris is also hearing noises that Becky isn't hearing, urges her to call Seymour, and she heads over, while the kids have ANOTHER pool party.

She tells her doctor about her experiences and reassures her, and it goes about as well as you figure.

This is taking business casual a bit too far.

Next, she visits Paul's mom, who explains to her, don't worry! You're not CRAZY! You're just seeing ghosts! Much better!

As she leaves, she sees the ghost of Inez, unable to lower her arms from a t-pose, and chases after the apparition.

Chris returns home, just barely missing Paul as he sneaks around and eats her food.

Paul comes out of the closet and grabs her, but she passes out, only to wake up some time later thanks to Ellen.

Chris immediately jumps into sorting files, and says she saw Inez. Ellen is shocked, because she's GONE...to, uh, the farm upstate, er, I mean, EUROPE! Yeah, that's the ticket.

Also, as an aside, everyone sure seems to know a lot about Inez, and how she was schtupping Alex behind Chris's back, and are being none to subtle about it.

Somehow, Chris finds Inez's passport and credits cards in these files, and ponders the natural thought of, how can she be in Europe without it?

Chris meets up with the town gossip who doesn't believe Inez went to Europe, and how weird her disappearance was.

To make a long story not as long, Chris now knows Inez and her husband were having an affair, and is pretty sure she's dead, and enlists Paul's mom to conduct a seance.

Meanwhile, the kids sneak BACK to the MacFarlane place, and you know, for a movie that has a lot of plot going on, it sure has a whole lot of nothing going on?? Like, we're packed with ideas, they're technically doing things, but it feels like we're going nowhere.

Like, this is the third time the kids have come to the haunted farm, to say how creepy it is and do nothing. All in a movie with a hooded killer, plots to take money, a ghost, and just...somehow so nothing?

Back at the seance, they are not even trying with the planchette, and I kinda applaud them for saying fuck it.

And somehow this leads them to know that Inez was killed, and at this point, I'm just gonna roll with it.

While the kids FINALLY decide to check out the inside of the haunted house, Ellen shows up at the seance asking where they are. When Paul's mom hears, she knows they better hurry, since that's where her batty baby boy is hiding out.

The movie spends a lot of the time with the kids just kinda wandering around, splitting up, making out, you know, the usual horror movie fare. But finally, Paul grabs one of the girls and yoinks her down a hallway.

Which is a good time for the adults to show up and add to the meandering in the dark, like this is AvP Requiem. Yeah, I know I just made that joke earlier this month, but if movies are gonna continue to be filmed in no light o vision, I'm gonna keep making it.

All your life you've never seen a woman, taken by the wind

As they split up, Chris runs into the dull surprise spirit of Inez, who offers zero help, and just floats there, as Chris answers all her own questions.

Okay pause here. This is SUCH a weird role, Inez. The opening is fine, but after that, they just have the character show up, stand awkwardly, and then fade out. She does not say a single thing. She does not interact. She is literally just there, fuzzed out and ghostly, but they could have achieved the same affect with a still image. But it's clearly NOT, because her hair is blowing, and dress is moving. She's just...THERE. So, so weird.

And now back to the ridiculousness.

More wandering ensues, Chris scares herself good by a weird and creepy model arm hanging in the attic, leading me to questions I know are pointless to ponder.

If women can't find you handsome, they should at least find your hands.

Chris then finds the dead hooker hanging on the wall like an abstract piece of art, which is way more effective than weird arms.

She then runs into her husband and doctor, who try and convince her she's having another episode.and...

...AAAAAHAHAHAHAHA. Alex says he will "take care of you" to his wife, and the movie fades, and it does that thing as it fades to another scene, as Chris passes out, of having his last line echoy fade out. EXCEPT IT IS CLEARLY THE ACTOR JUST REPEATING THE LINE FOR THE EFFECT. You can see his lips moving!

Holy *shit* that is amazing.

The doctors tell the kids that they didn't see nothin', and as Alex calls the hospital, Chris gets up and overhears him plotting to have her lobotomised. And killed. Stop saying the quiet part out loud!

Now, I want you all to go home and remember what we said about wearing pastels.

Chris makes a run for it, leading to an *ahem* car chase, and she eventually ends up at the bric-a-brac shop with Paul's mom.

But she's of no help, since the doctors are using her son as leverage for her to stay out of the way. Alex grabs his wife, and off they go to lobotomise the movie.

Seymour complains about the storms outside that have come out of nowhere to make things more atmospheric, because they make performing these operations more difficult. Dude. You're just gonna kill her anyways, who cares?

Aaaand then red lasers and Inez show up, there's a lot of intense staring, until Inez's FACE STARTS TO MELT, which catches Paul so off guard when he rushes in it even gives him pause. When you have even your killer taken aback and going “…dafuq?” you know things have gone pear shaped.

CAP: Oh shit they're pulling a Winterbeast

After some screaming, we cut to a forest trail with Becky and Chris going for a walk, and we learn that the doctors and nurse died because "of fright". Look, unless "Fright" is the name of Paul's knife, that is not what they died of. Fear is the mind killer, I guess.

Oh, and as they walk into the credits, they try and absole Paul, whom I never really blamed, bu saying he never killed anyone, he was just under hypnosis!

And if that's not bad enough, they then try and say aw shucks, the doctors' hearts were in the right place (Good for the stabbing, but I digress), they were just trying to HELP people, some people got hurt and died along the way, and funding dried up! Oh darn!

TRISK ASSESSMENT

Video: It’s kinda soft and grey and very VHS transfer, but lord knows I’ve seen worse. It’s all right.

Audio: Serviceable, if just below average.

Sound Bite: "Scrub scrub, clean clean, wash!"

Body Count: All right, but when most of them happen off camera in the last few seconds, I am unimpressed.

1 - A few minutes in, and Inez gets injected and dies

2 - Paul slashes an orderly's neck.

3 - Guard stabbed in the eye with glass from Frozen Scream

4 - Dead hooker found hanging in the attic

5, 6, 7 - Doctor, Seymour, and Nurse Flanagan "died of fear"

Best Corpse: The only one even worth mentioning is the orderly’s death. That’s a pretty decent slashening.

Blood Type - C: All right, but not great. A decent neck slash, and splashes of blood here and there.

Sex Appeal: Nothing to mention.

Drink Up! Whenever Inez shows up

Movie Review: There’s an okay story in the center of this movie, I think, but this one handles it in such a haphazard way, with too many side plots and characters, and goes nowhere fast. The core idea is fine, but there’s too much piled on top, and nothing happens. It could be much worse, the core concept is all over the place and nonsensical, and it’s put together well enough in most ways, but it’s not very well made or written or directed or anything. Two out of five rocking chairs.

Entertainment Value: Holy shit does this movie vacillate between entertaining and baffling and right back to entertaining again. Almost every performance is camp in some way, the piled on nature of the plot leaves you scratching your head, and how everything is presented is in such a level of unreality this thing is a sight to behold. Nothing here is real, and it’s all so entertaining to watch. I kinda love it? Four out of five Frozen Scream clips.

Oh, the alternate version, “Night of Terror” (Which is just as inaccurate a title, since this takes place over several days, and the terror is arguably negligible, but I digress) I took a look at, and I want to dive deep later, but it appears to be lacking the Frozen Scream footage. And is somehow LONGER?? It gets weirder, folks.