It comes down to a sudden revelation that who should be a patient is running the asylum, a troubled doctor (Annabelle Weenick) who burns a letter in a patient's hand to keep something from being revealed to the public. She witnessed the violent murder of her boss (Michael Harvey) by one of the patients as he was informing long-time nurse (Rhea McAdams) that she could not leave even though the weight of her job was starting to get on her nerves. One of the female patients (who keeps a doll around, thinking that it is her baby) murders McAdams (who could pass for Mary Wickes' sister) and obviously hides her body because everybody seems to think that she has left the hospital. At the right moment, young nurse Rose Holotik (with the soapy name of "Charlotte Beale") shows up and talks her way into a try-out, and boy, will she have her hands full when she gets a load of the small number of patients that this hospital treats.
Everyone loves Danny (Jessie Kirby), the big black man with the sweetness of a child, only wanting to be liked by everyone, and on occasion, having an adult sized version of a child's temper tantrum. There's a nymphomaniac who gets violently angry when men turn down her advances an old lady whose rants that all visitors need to leave NOW, and a judge who seems to do nothing but recite the law in his mentally handicapped state. Other patients have varying problems, but it is the two dark haired young women who commit the bulk of the horrific situations, one of them Camilla Carr whom smart 'Designing Women" fans will recognize as the nasty Ima Jean who declared that "AIDS was killing all the right people".
Don't go into this (or the basement) thinking that this is your typical cheapo 1970's gore fest. Certainly there are many moments when it does go down that alley, but the writers seem to have wanted something a bit more profound than just another slasher film. Each of the characters are well developed, and the performances are startlingly realistic. Hotolik quickly becomes the leading character, someone wiser than the self-proclaimed head of staff (Weenick), and the detail makes this mighty interesting in spite of its low budget, lack of any actors of name, and the sometimes slow pacing. It's quite different than other films about mental institutions (certainly no "Cuckoo's Nest"), and it is the originality that makes this stand above others with the varying themes that this film utilizes.
Everyone loves Danny (Jessie Kirby), the big black man with the sweetness of a child, only wanting to be liked by everyone, and on occasion, having an adult sized version of a child's temper tantrum. There's a nymphomaniac who gets violently angry when men turn down her advances an old lady whose rants that all visitors need to leave NOW, and a judge who seems to do nothing but recite the law in his mentally handicapped state. Other patients have varying problems, but it is the two dark haired young women who commit the bulk of the horrific situations, one of them Camilla Carr whom smart 'Designing Women" fans will recognize as the nasty Ima Jean who declared that "AIDS was killing all the right people".
Don't go into this (or the basement) thinking that this is your typical cheapo 1970's gore fest. Certainly there are many moments when it does go down that alley, but the writers seem to have wanted something a bit more profound than just another slasher film. Each of the characters are well developed, and the performances are startlingly realistic. Hotolik quickly becomes the leading character, someone wiser than the self-proclaimed head of staff (Weenick), and the detail makes this mighty interesting in spite of its low budget, lack of any actors of name, and the sometimes slow pacing. It's quite different than other films about mental institutions (certainly no "Cuckoo's Nest"), and it is the originality that makes this stand above others with the varying themes that this film utilizes.