A Casa Assassina

The horror/thriller is about a rookie intern who checks into a mental health facility and discovers its darkest secrets as well as his own ones. Excellent sound effects, above average photography and smart script filled with plenty of shock moments make this film real fun to watch for fans of this genre. Joshua Leonard, a veteran in such films, acts quite well as the lead character.

But there are loopholes in the plot. One can clearly see them after a single viewing. The ending is catchy, but utterly unnecessary. Jordan Ladd hardly looks like any medical personnel. But most of all, the actions of the patients are very much exaggerated and overtly dramatic. Apart from these points, 'Madhouse' is worth renting, because the 'thrill' element is in right proportions in the film.

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.

The psychiatric intern Clark Stevens (Joshua Leonanrd) comes to Cunningham Hall, a mental healthy facility administrated by Dr. Franks (Lance Henriksen), for a training period before his graduation in medical college. He gets close to the resident Sara (Jordan Ladd) and to Ben London, a dangerous patient lodged in cell 44 in the basement of the clinic. Clark becomes intrigued with a boy, who seems to be a ghost, and finds that Dr. Franks does not use real medication in the patients. A further investigation shows hidden dark secrets in the clinic.

"Madhouse" is an unknown low-budget movie with a surprisingly great gory story. The direction is sharp, the screenplay is very well tied up and in the end it is a worthwhile horror movie, highly recommended to be discovered by fans of this genre. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "A Casa dos Horrores" ("The House of the Horrors")

"Madhouse" is one of the best asylum-set horror films I've ever seen (not quite as good as "Session 9", though), and provides for some good spooky entertainment. The film begins with Clark Stevens (Joshua Leonard, "The Blair Witch Project"), who is sent off to intern at a secluded mental institution for the criminally insane. The place is old and has quite a lengthy history. While staying at the asylum, he meets Sara (Jordan Ladd, "Cabin Fever"), a hospital employee, and the two begin to hit it off. Then, one day, Sara takes Clark to the basement of the asylum, which, unlike the rest of the nicely renovated building, is dark, damp, and rotting away. Only the most violent and insane patients are kept in the darkened dungeon-like rooms, and Clark begins to have a conversational relationship with an unseen patient who resides in one of the cells, who seems to know a lot about the hospital's history. But more secrets are unraveled and someone begins murdering people around the hospital, and Clark finds himself responsible to investigate.

I have to admit, this movie really surprised me. I was expecting something along the lines of cheap, straight-to-video trash to be honest, but I was pleasantly surprised with this creepy little mystery thriller. For one, I liked the story. An isolated mental institution with a violent history is a perfect place to set a horror movie - and this film makes good use of it, with the perfectly constructed and very spooky sets. The actors were also very good - Joshua Leonard was convincing as the intuitive intern, and Jordan Ladd really displays her acting skills. Natasha Lyonne also had a role as an insane patient, and she played it very well. Then there's the scares. I've seen hundreds of horror movies, and I am rarely scared by them, but this one succeeded in getting quite a few scares out of me. The scares were very well placed and got my heart pumping pretty fast. One of the scariest had to be the scene with the nurse who is pushed down the stairwell, the camera-work was clever and was the main reason that the bit was so jolting. Very unexpected and very scary.

Another addition to the film's overall creepiness are the patients that reside in the asylum basement, good God they were scary. They're made out to be the most insane, mentally disturbed patients in the building - and that they are, not only in a mental aspect but also physically. The makeup job had them looking beyond scary, and the actors that played them made their characters just flat out bizarre and oddly disturbing. I'm actually surprised that this film never got a wide theater run, because it's easily worthy of it, and is much better than half of the teen-horror trash that is put out there lately.

All things considered, "Madhouse" is a unique and surprisingly scary horror film, and the twist in the end adds the film's overall atmosphere. I was actually scared on a few occasions, which is really rare. And going in, my expectations were low, but this movie really delivered. Try watching it all alone at night, with all the lights off - trust me, you'll get spooked on more than a few occasions. 8/10.

i have seen it. i always like movie theme like horror cum mental institution. e.g. session 9, house of haunted hill remake springs to my mind. lance henrikssen has only a small role here. anyway, in madhouse, i found it creepy, disturbing and scary throughout the movie especially the first time we see the "basement lock up patients" scenes. the sound design/effect is very very vigorous. this is another movie which got a 'clever' ending, it's not a 'scratching my hairs' kinda ending but rather a 'WoW" ending. i truly recommend it.

to anyone who wish to know my selection of favourite horror movies, here it is: - the shining - psycho - the ring remake - the grudge (original) - jaws - the exorcist - the eye (hong kong) - dead end .......etc etc