''Insanitarium '' is a 2008 American

direct-to-video Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, television series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strat ...

horror- thriller film starring

Jesse Metcalfe Jesse Eden Metcalfe (born December 9, 1978) is an American actor. He is known for being John Rowland on ''Desperate Housewives''. Metcalfe has also had notable roles on ''Passions'' and played the title role in '' John Tucker Must Die''. He sta ...

Kiele Sanchez Kiele Sanchez ( ; born October 13, 1977) is an American actress who starred in the A&E Network drama '' The Glades''. Previously, she had starred as Anne Sorelli in The WB comedy-drama '' Related'' and as Nikki Fernandez on the main cast in the ...

Kevin Sussman Kevin Sussman (born December 4, 1970) is an American actor and comedian. He played Walter on the ABC comedy-drama ''Ugly Betty'' and Stuart Bloom on the CBS sitcom ''The Big Bang Theory''. Starting with the sixth season of ''The Big Bang Theory ...

Olivia Munn Lisa Olivia Munn (born July 3, 1980) 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, and on the series '' ...

Carla Gallo Carla Paolina Gallo (born June 24, 1975) is an American actress. Gallo has had recurring roles in the television series ''Undeclared'', ''Carnivàle'', ''Bones'', ''Californication'', and a number of film roles. Since her role on ''Undeclared'' ...

and

Peter Stormare Rolf Peter Ingvar Stormare (; Birth name, né Storm, 27 August 1953) is a Swedish actor. He played Prince Hamlet, Hamlet for Ingmar Bergman, Gaear Grimsrud in the film ''Fargo (1996 film), Fargo'' (1996) and List of Prison Break characters#John ...

. The film is directed by Jeff Buhler.

Plot

Jack (

) goes undercover as a new patient in order to save his sister, Lily (

), who has been involuntarily institutionalized for reasons unknown. The siblings soon find that a mad doctor at the asylum, Dr. Gianetti (

), has been testing an experimental compound, orphium, on the patients that seems to be turning them into flesh-eating zombies; Loomis (

Kurt Caceres Kurt Caceres (born Kurt Heinzman; October 18, 1972) is an American actor of German and Mexican descent. He is best known for his role as Hector Avila on the hit Fox drama ''Prison Break''. Life and career He was also a standout football player ...

), another patient, spreads the infection. The two siblings band together with a terminally paranoid man, Dave (

), and a helpful nurse, Nancy (

), 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 A lobotomy () or leucotomy is a discredited form of Neurosurgery, neurosurgical treatment for mental disorder, psychiatric disorder or neurological disorder (e.g. epilepsy, Depression in childhood and adolescence, depression) that involves sev ...

, 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 Mark Edward Kelly (born February 21, 1964) is an American politician, retired astronaut, and former United States Navy, naval officer serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States senator from Arizona, a seat he ha ...

& 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 Evan Dexter O'Neal Parke is a Jamaican-American actor perhaps best known for his role as Hayes in ''King Kong''. Early life Originally from Kingston, Jamaica, he was raised in Brooklyn, New York, and then on Long Island. Career He played Haye ...

) 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 Hawthorne is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California. It is part of a seventeen-city subregion of the Los Angeles metropolitan area commonly known as the South Bay (Los Angeles County), South Bay. As of the 2020 United States cens ...

. 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 effect In filmmaking a practical effect is a special effect produced physically, without computer-generated imagery or other post-production techniques. In some contexts, "special effect" is used as a synonym of "practical effect", in contrast to "vi ...

s 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

, who plays Vera, his research assistant. She comments on this scene in the behind the scenes

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

extras.

External links

*{{IMDb title, 1103984

References

2008 films 2008 horror films 2008 thriller films 2000s horror thriller films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films American horror thriller films American direct-to-video films American mad scientist films American zombie films Direct-to-video horror films Direct-to-video thriller films English-language horror thriller films Films set in psychiatric hospitals Films produced by Mason Novick Hawthorne, California Screen Gems films Stage 6 Films films