Madhouse

There is a twist to this horror tale; all modern horror films seem to be required to have a story twist. I won't tell what it is, but I will say careful viewers will have no trouble figuring it out.

A young grad student arrives at a mental institution to begin his internship and from the start notices that the hospital is not up to standard. Patients are not given proper (sometimes not even humane) treatment, doctors and staff seem uninterested, facilities are nearly defunct, and (of course) the place just might be haunted.

The movement of the film is nice and brisk, with scare scenes coming at a fairly steady pace. The cast is capable and it's nice to have a couple horror regulars on board (Lance Henrickson and Jordan Ladd). The scripting is also adequate, but lacks punch; most everything seen here can be seen elsewhere. And then there is the twist, which while not a 'deal-breaker' will still influence your opinion of the film as a whole.

For some decent and classical scares this works just fine, just don't expect anything new or unique.

7/10

Not a better location imaginable to shoot a horror than a mental institution and yet the last really good films revolving on asylums and murdering lunatics date from the 70's, with "Don't Look in the Basement" and "Dark Places". This new film "Madhouse" isn't exactly a masterpiece, neither, but still it's an admirable attempt that makes good use of the ominous clinic setting and even manages to throw in a scary sequence from time to time. Joshua Leonard (one of the twats that got famous after "The Blair Witch Project") stars as the ambitious and idealistic medicine student Clark Stevens, finishing his college years with an internship at the Cunningham Hall clinic. The facilities and methods there are extremely archaic and Clark begins to suspect the administrator, Dr. Franks, of sabotaging the curing processes of his patients. His investigation is interrupted when the clinic's head nurse is brutally murdered by an unknown psycho. With the help of cute nurse Sara and the mysterious patient in cell 44, Clark begins to uncover all the dark secrets of Cunningham Hall clinic. The first hour of "Madhouse" is pretty atmospheric with spooky introductions of the asylum's craziest patients (schizos, nymphs, savages etc...) and a rather impressive collection of typical surgery-tools (a lobotomy, anyone?). After that, however, the script totally stops to make sense and it desperately tries to trick you....without much success, though. The film isn't as gory as you might think but it does contain two or three very nasty sequences and they are effectively done. It could have been a better film but I'm not complaining about the end result too much. Worth a look.

Clark (Joshua Leonard) is a young and idealistic new intern at a run-down and out-dated mental health facility. His aspirations for cleaning the place hit a snag when he butts heads with Dr. Franks (Lance Henrikson) who seems to not mind that the patients never seem to get any better. Shortly Clark begins seeing things and death and mayhem invade the reality of the "Madhouse". Together Clark and Sara must uncover who or what it is that stalks the asylum and survive the massacre.

"Madhouse" is a slick-looking production. Nicely filmed and directed it adds some nice visual pizazz to a relatively standard script. The three leads are all veterans of horror films and do very well in their parts. Excellent sound design and above-average photography make "Madhouse" a solid horror-thriller.

This movie is admittedly better than the usual fare horror fans are offered, however it was still missing something. The majority of the characters were interesting, though at times they seemed too perfectly tailored for their roles.

The movie is suspenseful for the most part and keeps you guessing. At times, things seemed kind of corny (worms and men with eyeliner don't scare ME, for instance) and certain plot points are never explored to their full potential.

All in all, it's a movie worth seeing (especially if you're into the genre). Reminded me a little of a juvenile version of Session 9... but if given the choice between the two, I'd choose Session 9 again!

Saw this on a DVD in 2005. Revisited it recently. Ther is something creepy about films set in asylums, hospitals n institutions. But these films need good amount of atmosphere n suspense. Well, Madhouse ain't one of em but its not that bad. The story is about an intern who before graduating arrives at a mental health facility where he notices that there is something weird going on. In the institution there is a restricted area where the most dangerous patients are kept permanently locked up. Silence of the lambs style. Patients r given the same medicines n mysteriously people r murdered in gruesome ways. Sadly only two kills in this film. The movie has decent atmosphere n suspense. Ther is a nice twist. Ther is enuff gore. The acting was dull but it is always good to see our genre actor Lance Henriksen. Sadly he is not given enuff screen time. Of course ther r much better films than this. The Ward, Psych 9, Session 9, Patrick, Shutter island, Asylum blackout, Insanitarium....