Insanitarium

Last updated
Insanitarium
Insanitarium.jpg
DVD Cover
Directed byJeff Buhler
Written byJeff Buhler
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyRobert Hauer
Edited byJanice Hampton
Music by Paul D'Amour
Distributed by
Release date
  • July 15, 2008 (2008-07-15)
Running time
89 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Insanitarium is a 2008 American direct-to-video horror-thriller film starring Jesse Metcalfe, Kiele Sanchez, Kevin Sussman, Olivia Munn, Carla Gallo and Peter Stormare. The film is directed by Jeff Buhler.

Contents

Plot

Jack (Jesse Metcalfe) goes undercover as a new patient in order to save his sister, Lily (Kiele Sanchez), who has been involuntarily institutionalized for reasons unknown. The siblings soon find that a mad doctor at the asylum, Dr. Gianetti (Peter Stormare), has been testing an experimental compound, orphium, on the patients that seems to be turning them into flesh-eating zombies; Loomis (Kurt Caceres), another patient, spreads the infection. The two siblings band together with a terminally paranoid man, Dave (Kevin Sussman), and a helpful nurse, Nancy (Olivia Munn), in the hopes of finding a way out of the asylum. They are attacked by most of the prisoners and staff, who kill Nancy; while on the 4th floor, they encounter Gianetti, who gives Dave an icepick lobotomy, incapacitating him; he attempts to get Jack too, but ends up being infected by Loomis. At the end of the film, the two siblings flag down a pair of officers (Mark Kelly & Sharon Schaffer) in their police car and ask for their help, but when the officers arrive at the asylum to investigate, they accidentally let the patients escape into the outside world. It ends with a panning shot, revealing the city below the asylum's hillside location.

The secondary plot focuses on the affair between Charles (Evan Parke) and Heather (Lisa Arturo).

Cast

Production

The film was shot during August/September 2007 with the majority of filming taking place at the abandoned RFK Memorial Hospital in Hawthorne, California. The "maximum security" set and the "laundry chute" were both constructed from scratch on site in an empty wing of the hospital.

Mathew Mungle Creations, the same special effects company that supplied the notorious effects for the Jeff Buhler written Midnight Meat Train , also supplied the special effects for Insanitarium. Nearly everything was done using practical effects and prosthetics with very little contribution from CGI, including the decapitation of a fake cat.

Stormare improvised many parts of his role, including the "panties in the mouth" scene with Carla Gallo, who plays Vera, his research assistant. She comments on this scene in the behind the scenes DVD extras. [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lol Coxhill</span> English free improvising saxophonist (1932–2012)

George Lowen Coxhill known professionally as Lol Coxhill, was an English free improvising saxophonist. He played soprano and sopranino saxophone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1978 in music</span> Overview of the events of 1978 in music

This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1978.

Michael Myers (<i>Halloween</i>) Fictional character in the Halloween franchise

Michael Myers is a character from the slasher film series Halloween. He first appears in 1978 in John Carpenter's Halloween as a young boy who murders his elder sister, Judith Myers. Fifteen years later, he returns home to Haddonfield, Illinois, to murder more teenagers. In the original Halloween, the adult Michael Myers, referred to as The Shape in the closing credits, was portrayed by Nick Castle for most of the film and substituted by Tony Moran in the final scene where Michael's face is revealed. The character was created by John Carpenter and has been featured in twelve films, as well as novels, video games, and comic books.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jesse Metcalfe</span> American actor

Jesse Eden Metcalfe is an American actor. He is known for his portrayal of John Rowland on Desperate Housewives. Metcalfe has also had notable roles on Passions and played the title role in John Tucker Must Die. He starred as Christopher Ewing in the TNT continuation of Dallas, based on the 1978 series of the same name. From 2016 to 2021, Metcalfe starred as Trace Riley in Hallmark Channel's hit series Chesapeake Shores.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brother</span> Male sibling

A brother is a man or boy who shares one or more parents with another; a male sibling. The female counterpart is a sister. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to refer to non-familial relationships. A full brother is a first degree relative.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olivia Munn</span> American actress (born 1980)

Lisa Olivia Munn is an American actress. After an internship at a news station in Tulsa, she moved to Los Angeles where she began her professional career as a television host for the gaming network G4, primarily on the series Attack of the Show! from 2006 until 2010. Munn appeared as a correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart from 2010 to 2011. She is known for her three-season-long portrayal of Sloan Sabbith in Aaron Sorkin's HBO political drama series The Newsroom (2012–2014).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel Loomis</span> Fictional character

Dr. Samuel J. Loomis is a fictional character in the Halloween franchise. A main protagonist of the overall series, Loomis appears on-screen in eight of the thirteen Halloween films, first appearing in John Carpenter's original 1978 film. Donald Pleasence portrayed the character in five films, with Malcolm McDowell taking on the role in the 2007 reimagining and its sequel. In both portrayals, Loomis is introduced as the psychiatrist of series antagonist Michael Myers, driven to pursue and restrain his murderous former patient. He also appears in a flashback in Halloween Kills.

<i>Bridge to Terabithia</i> (2007 film) 2007 film by Gábor Csupó

Bridge to Terabithia is a 2007 American fantasy drama film directed by Gábor Csupó from a screenplay by David L. Paterson and Jeff Stockwell. It is based on the 1977 novel of the same name by Katherine Paterson and stars Josh Hutcherson, AnnaSophia Robb, Bailee Madison, Zooey Deschanel, and Robert Patrick. In the film, adolescent children Jesse Aarons (Hutcherson) and Leslie Burke (Robb) create "Terabithia", a fantasy world, which they use to cope with their troubled reality and spend their free time together.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Mulaney</span> American comedian and actor (born 1982)

John Edmund Mulaney is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and producer. Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, Mulaney first rose to prominence for his work as a writer for the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 2008 to 2013, where he contributed to numerous sketches and characters, including Stefon, a recurring character that he and Bill Hader co-created. Since his departure from SNL, Mulaney has hosted it six times, becoming a member of the SNL Five Timers Club in 2022.

<i>The Slammin Salmon</i> 2009 American film

The Slammin' Salmon is a 2009 American comedy film by the comedy troupe Broken Lizard. It is about the owner of a restaurant who holds a contest to see which one of his waiters can earn the most money in a single night. The winner receives $10,000, and the loser receives a "beat down" by the owner, Cleon Salmon, a former heavyweight boxer. Kevin Heffernan directed the film, his first time for a Broken Lizard film.

<i>Iron Man 2</i> 2010 Marvel Studios film

Iron Man 2 is a 2010 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Iron Man. Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures, it is the sequel to Iron Man (2008) and the third film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Directed by Jon Favreau and written by Justin Theroux, the film stars Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark / Iron Man alongside Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, Mickey Rourke, and Samuel L. Jackson. Set six months after the events of Iron Man, the film follows Tony Stark as he resists calls from the United States government to hand over the Iron Man technology, which is causing his declining health. Meanwhile, Russian scientist Ivan Vanko (Rourke) uses his own version of the technology to pursue a vendetta against the Stark family.

Live Read is a monthly live staged reading of a film script and a part of the Film Independent at LACMA film series at the Bing Theater directed by Jason Reitman and hosted by Elvis Mitchell from 2011 to 2016. In 2019, Film Independent brought the series back as part of Film Independent Presents... at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, produced by director of programming and events, Rachel Bleemer. A guest director reads the stage directions in the scripts while images from the film would be projected behind the cast. The script is typically announced days before the event and while some actors were announced beforehand, full cast lists and the role each actor would play were kept secret until the event itself. The actors do not rehearse ahead of time.

<i>X-Men: Apocalypse</i> 2016 film by Bryan Singer

X-Men: Apocalypse is a 2016 American superhero film directed and produced by Bryan Singer and written by Simon Kinberg from a story by Singer, Kinberg, Michael Dougherty, and Dan Harris. The film is based on the fictional X-Men characters that appear in Marvel Comics. It is the sixth mainline installment in the X-Men film series and the ninth installment overall. It is the sequel to X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) and stars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Oscar Isaac, Nicholas Hoult, Rose Byrne, Tye Sheridan, Sophie Turner, Olivia Munn, and Lucas Till. In the film, the ancient mutant En Sabah Nur / Apocalypse is inadvertently revived in 1983 and plans to recreate the world in his own image, leading the X-Men to try to stop him and defeat his team of mutants.

<i>The Late Bloomer</i> 2016 film by Kevin Pollak

The Late Bloomer is a 2016 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Kevin Pollak and written by Gary Rosen, Joe Nussbaum, Paul A. Kaplan & Mark Torgove, and Kyle Cooper & Austyn Jeffs. The film stars Johnny Simmons, Maria Bello, Brittany Snow, Jane Lynch, J. K. Simmons, Kumail Nanjiani, Beck Bennett, and Paul Wesley, and is based on journalist Ken Baker's autobiography Man Made: A Memoir of My Body, in which he detailed experiencing puberty for the first time at age 27.

<i>Halloween</i> (2018 film) Film by David Gordon Green

Halloween is a 2018 American slasher film directed by David Gordon Green, and co-written by Green, Jeff Fradley and Danny McBride. It is the eleventh installment in the Halloween film series and a sequel to the 1978 film of the same name, while disregarding all previous sequels. The film stars Jamie Lee Curtis who reprises her role as Laurie Strode. James Jude Courtney portrays Michael Myers, with Nick Castle returning to the role for a cameo. Halloween also stars Judy Greer, Andi Matichak, Will Patton, Haluk Bilginer, and Virginia Gardner. Its plot follows a post-traumatic Laurie Strode who prepares to face an escaped Michael Myers in a final showdown on Halloween night, forty years after she survived his killing spree.

1428 Elm Street, also known as the Elm Street House, is a fictional residential house and street address in Springwood, Ohio, and is an important location in the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, where it has been the home of Nancy Thompson and her mother, later Jesse Walsh and his family, and finally Lori Campbell and her father, throughout the film series. It has also been implied to have been Freddy Krueger's home at some point before the events that take place in the films. It appears in some form in nearly all the films, as well as literature, comic books, toys, and music videos. The house, like Freddy Krueger, Nancy Thompson, Tina Gray, and Kristen Parker, were all conceived by Wes Craven.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">64th Annual Grammy Awards</span> 2022 edition of award ceremony

The 64th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony was held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on April 3, 2022. It recognized the best recordings, compositions, and artists of the eligibility year, running from September 1, 2020, to September 30, 2021. The nominations were revealed via a virtual livestream on November 23, 2021. The performers for the ceremony were announced on March 15, 24, and 30, 2022. South African comedian Trevor Noah, who hosted the previous ceremony in 2021, returned as host. The ceremony's location marked the first time the Recording Academy switched host cities for a single ceremony. This also makes it the first Grammy Awards ceremony to not to be held in either New York City or Los Angeles since the 15th Grammy Awards in 1973 when it was held at the Tennessee Theatre in Nashville, Tennessee. It marked the first time the telecast took place in Las Vegas.

References

  1. "Insanitarium Jeff Buhler | Exclaim!".