The past weekend brought us Scorcese’s SHUTTER ISLAND, and got me thinking back to some of my favorite other genre flicks that feature asylums. Be they looney bins, psychiatric hospitals, or just plain nut houses, the concept of horror and crazy people go together like kissing booths and cold sores.
So when you feel like the pressures of the week are about to send you postal, check out some of the folks who have really lost it, and feel better about the fact that even though you might snap and take out your boss or that dude that cut you off in traffic, you’re far more sane than any of the denizens in these places.
As always, spit those bullets if you’ve got shite to say!
WARNING – FULL THROTTLE CRAZY BELOW!
10. Psychiatric Hospital, BAD DREAMS
Cynthia has to be thanking her lucky stars that she’s got a dreamy doctor to focus on, because other than that she’s stuck in a pretty f*cked up situation. Nearly get burned to death, spend years in a coma, get visited by the angry spirit of a disenfranchised cult leader, and then all your crazy buds start offing themselves. Welcome back chica.
9. Dr. Seward’s Lunatic Asylum, DRACULA
One great thing about grabbing the assistance of nutters is that they generally possess a certain moral flexibility that their more sane counterparts do not. Good ole Renfield has been spending some QT in a legit insane asylum when the dark prince Dracula comes a callin’. Since being stuck in such a place sucks, he not surprisingly agrees to play.
8. Westin Hills, NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3
The only thing cooler than Dokken’s theme song is the setting of the only NOES flick that Craven wrote, yet did not direct. Watching these eager Dream Warriors run around trying to avoid getting off’d by hot nurses and aggressive TV’s is a blast that is made all the more fun/frustrating because whose going to believe the stories of a bunch of crazy kids?
7. Paragon Clinic, THE FURY
Government agents are always screwing things up when somebody’s got super cool powers. And they are way too dense about how to “safely” deal with people who can kill you with their minds. Me personally, instead of even sending them to a “clinic”, I’d make sure they thought they were hanging at a vacation resort/spa. Otherwise people start exploding and shite.
6. Channard Institute, HELLRAISER II
Buy the HELLRAISER II DVD here
I really hope that I never end up going insane, because my media fueled perception of the doctors that run the damn things isn’t good. I mean, handing a dude with bug hallucinations a couple razor blades so that he can cut himself up in order to bring a psycho chick back from Hell? And that’s just the start of the plan? Jeez. How f*cked up can you get?
STAY TUNED FOR PART 2!