Mark Robson’s horror thriller tracks the experiences of a spirited, young girl Nell’s (Anna Lee) efforts to expose the cruelty & reform ‘bedlam’. Stonehearst Asylum is not just any asylum film; it’s an asylum film with some serious star power. Asylum Horror Movies. The girl Lisa (Janet Margolin) is a schizophrenic, who carries a deep trauma only speaks in rhymes. Stock Montage/Getty Images An engraving depicts a scene at Bedlam, the first asylum in England founded in 1247. The film is set in a small town in France near the end of World War I. 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Millennium Entertainment has changed their new movie from Eliza Graves (2014) to Stonehearst Asylum (2014). 'The Great British Baking Show': What Are Walnut Whirls? While cleaning the facility, the crew discovers nine tapes of sessions the asylum’s doctors had with a patient with multiple personalities. Brazilian film-maker Lais Bodanzky painful docu-drama, similar to “Girl, Interrupted”, chronicles author Mr Carrano’s stay in a hellish mental asylum for a detox program. The best GIFs are on GIPHY. Like other protagonists on this list, Teddy slowly begins to question his own sanity as he digs further into the mystery. 325, This story has been shared 304 times. According to one popular theory in the early 1900s, insanity … “Snake Pit’s” brilliance is justified in the heartrending performance of Olivia de Havilland, who deeply exhibits inner thoughts of an institutionalized schizophrenic. There are usual cliched dialogues & scenarios, but the raw performance of Santaro plus the decadent atmosphere is hard to shake off from our mind. We're in an insane asylum, then we're in a haunted house, then we're enjoying a terrible unknown '80's band play out for 3 songs. As in life, there are many moments here left for us to contemplate on what is concrete and what a hollow delusion is. The de-humanizing treatment of institutional powers is blended with the right mix of angst and humorous absurdity. There are a lot of scary movies about asylums, so help us determine the best ones by voting your favorite hospital horror films on this list up or down. At the end of the movie, these plot lines converge in a chilling climax. This independent horror film, originally titled The Forgotten, centers on Nurse Charlotte Beale, a new hire at a small mental hospital. While Virginia’s emotional problems are very grounded and realistic, the real socioeconomic problems in running an asylum were also properly dealt with. Asylum (30) Mental Institution (30) Gore (29) Violence (26) Death (25) Doctor (24) Insanity (23) Nurse (21) Slasher (21) Female Nudity (20) Ghost (20) Bare Chested Male (19) Flashback (19) Hospital (19) Insane Asylum (19) Mental Patient (19) Mental Hospital (18) Patient (17) Suicide (17) Knife (16) Nightmare (16) Supernatural Power (16) Corpse (15) Cult Film (15) Flashlight (15) Psychiatrist (15) He is able to cram in political ideas and social observation through the emotional suffering of the inmates. As they learn about the patient’s different personas from the tapes, including a homicidal personality named Simon, two crew members go missing, causing tension between crew members that quickly begins to erode their trust. How does a society with flawed, mad practices could judge its people to be sane or insane? If I am searching for a fundamental or spiritual truth which my society isn’t aware of, am I an insane person? In Jeremy Leven’s oddball fantasy, Johnny Depp plays a delusional young man, who is convinced that he is the world’s greatest lover, Don Juan. The terms ‘psychotic’ or ‘paranoid schizophrenic’, etc may give us a concrete idea of madness, but ‘mental illness’ is very much a grey area to contemplate. Based on Yumeno Kyusaku’s famous novel, the movie version directed by Toshio Matsumoto deals with experiences of a young insane man, Kure Ichiro, confined to an Eastern philosophy talking psychiatric doctors of a mental asylum. The plot centres on an asbestos abatement crew, winning a bid to do a job in an abandoned insane asylum. Colonel Vincent Kane (Stacy Keach in his best role) is appointed as a head psychiatrist to use unusual methods to cure the assortment of weird inmates. Based on Mary Jane Ward’s fictionalized memoirs, the film marvellously visualizes (it was the era of Hays Code) the nervous breakdown of a young woman named Virginia, afflicted by repressed childhood trauma. The eerie, labyrinthine, alienating rooms of the institution pervades like a deadly virus in the mind of Gordon. The Ninth Configuration may seem lighthearted at the beginning, but by the end, you’ll be asked to question your prevailing conception of faith, sacrifice, and good versus evil. An empathetic doctor Kirk (Leo Glenn) treats her to the era’s new psychotherapy for apprehending the painful memory of Virginia. But, then I have been slightly afflicted, since making a movie list is itself is a minor act of insanity. The doctor writes off Trent’s story as a hallucination, but we soon learn that Trent’s experience is closer to reality than he originally thought. It makes me ask what is ‘real’ or ‘normal’. })(); (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Copyright; High on Films. The plot concerns Johnny Barrett (Peter Breck), a newspaper reporter, who wants to unravel the mystery behind a murder, happened in state psychiatric hospital. With the hidden society of misfits, “Girl, Interrupted” conveys the neurosis of contemporary young woman, embracing their girlhood within rigid societal constructs. This horror-comedy follows a group of former US Marine Corps soldiers living in a castle that doubles as a government-sanctioned mental asylum. Where to Watch Don't Look In The Basement. znscr.parentNode.insertBefore(zergnet, znscr); 266, This story has been shared 258 times. 334, This story has been shared 325 times. Some of the main characters in these asylum horror movies are … Charlotte is eager to work with the well-respected-but-radical Dr. Stephens, but when she arrives, she learns that he has been murdered by a homicidal patient. This film is based on a story by Edgar Allan Poe (The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether) and directed by Brad Anderson (The Call, The Machi Stream It Or Skip It: 'Peyton's Places' Season 2 on ESPN+, the Legendary Quarterback's Tour of NFL History, Mike Tyson Vs. Roy Jones Fight Live Stream: Time, Card, How To Watch Live Online. And, despite the cutting-edge treatment for mental illness, the word mental asylum (or mental institution or psychiatric hospitals) is another morally grey area. Colonel Kane arrives at the castle to assume control over the patients’ treatment, but the patients soon come to believe that Kane isn’t as sane as he claims to be. Peter Blatty marvellously builds & breaks down the lines that divide rationality and insanity. One member of the crew plays the tape of a former, dangerous patient with multiple personalities and Gordon (Peter Mullan), the crew leader, starts to behave in a mysterious manner. But, the film does brood over the topics of fantasy, imagination and the boredom of harsh reality. In this 1972 film, a young doctor must interview four patients at a mental institution in order to secure a job at the facility. But, films on this list explore how the rigid or empathetic constructs within a mental asylum play a role in reforming or degrading the minds of those vulnerable individuals. The terms ‘psychotic’ or ‘, It has also provided a setting for an intense atmosphere to scare us. zergnet.type = 'text/javascript'; zergnet.async = true; Interim 'Jeopardy' Host Ken Jennings Under Fire for Insensitive Tweets, New Movies + Shows to Watch this Weekend: 'The Flight Attendant' on HBO + More. Frank Perry’s minor art-house film (adapted from a novel by Theodore Rubin) has the premise of a boy-meets-a-girl story. The story is pretty basic and it’s definitely not a fair critique of the institution’s treatment methods, but Forman’s symbolism combined with Hasker Wexell’s fabulous cinematography gives us a phenomenal dramatic agitation. Is Nicole Kidman Wearing a Wig in 'The Undoing'? Search, discover and share your favorite Insane Asylum GIFs. The film is a light-hearted portrayal of a state asylum and the film’s direction or pacing have nothing much to offer. I’m a Cyborg But That’s Okay (2006) is a South Korean romantic comedy implasibly set … Part of the reason for that is cinema, where we have seen haunting images of caretakers behaving as ‘lion-tamers’ in dealing with the mentally vulnerable individuals. (function() { “Ladies and Gentlemen, what you are about to see is a horror film, with all the degeneracy peculiar to that genre. After 400 years, a small group of humans develop a plan to defeat the mechanical invaders in the ultimate battle between man and machine. Insane Asylum (19) Mental Hospital (19) Flashlight (17) Knife (17) Patient (17) Suicide (17) Corpse (16) Nightmare (16) Psychiatrist (16) Shower (16) Supernatural Power (16) Torture (16) Cult Film (15) Psychopath (15) Surprise Ending (15) Bare Breasts (14) Blood Splatter (14) Fear (14) Nudity (13) Photograph (13) Serial Killer (13) Axe (12) Decapitation (12) Escape (12) Female Frontal Nudity (12) 148, This story has been shared 114 times. It’s cynical, melancholic tone expresses how empty life would be if all there’s left to reflect in society is insanity and anger. Acclaimed Korean filmmaker Chan-wook Park’s offbeat romantic drama set in a mental asylum, tells the story of Young-goon, who driven crazy by her assembly line work thinks of herself as a cyborg and tries to charge herself by plugging into the mains. The tangle of madness and lies encountered by Ichiro could also be viewed as a metaphor for the emotionally afflicted Japanese youth. The whole idiocy and love shown in the asylum become a parable for our own machine-run world, where we desperately try to accept & believe in others’ feelings. One of the 18th century England’s greatest shame was the insane asylum, commonly referred by Londoners as ‘Bedlam’. "https:" : "http:") + '//www.zergnet.com/zerg.js?id=82730'; Paul’s descent into madness starts when he is rejected by the girl he loves. If I am searching for a fundamental or spiritual truth which my society isn’t aware of, am I an insane person? Escape is all over the place. There’s a superfluous nature in the way, the film brings home its psychoanalysis, although the burgeoning mental breakdown of Daniels in the delimited environment gives enough cinematic pleasures. McMurphy’s crusade for liberation or battle of wills provides abundant life lessons and the film’s final image of freedom is rich and impactful in its imagery that it still stays fresh in my mind. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! There are tons of great movies about psychiatric asylums, but some are a step above the rest when it comes to their scream-inducing capabilities. Even when its reporter protagonist is shown outside the mental institution he is bounded to four walls, obsessed by the risks he wanted to take for attaining the Pulitzer Prize. The narrative takes place on an abandoned castle that has been transformed into an insane asylum for the traumatized Vietnam War veterans. 304, This story has been shared 266 times. If so, please enlighten my mind in the comments section. The asylum movie has become a trademark of the psychological horror sub genre because of its versatility and inherently eerie atmosphere. As Teddy attempts to discover the truth, he learns about the unethical practices of the institution’s staff and the lead psychiatrist’s fondness for illegal, life-threatening procedures. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. This scary movie reunites us with Nancy Thompson, now a psychiatrist who specializes in dream therapy, as she meets with children at a mental hospital who are being haunted by Freddy Krueger. Milos Forman’s stirring classic isn’t just a work that claims for free-spirit in a tyrannical mental facility; it is a… Although the film’s much-talked-about asylum makes an appearance only after an hour, it doesn’t matter whether the narrative moves within the walls of the mental institution. Over the course of the film, he listens to the stories of a murderous mistress, a tailor who makes a suit that can bring people back to life, a woman who believes she is being controlled by her brother, and a man devoted to perfecting soul transference. Trent explains to the doctor that author Sutter Cane’s books are slowly driving people crazy, so he set off to investigate the phenomenon. Want to create your own favorite asylum horror watch list? The film also showcases an idealized atmosphere for the mental institution and depicts how certain kind of mental illness could be cured by better communication. Teddy is there to investigate a disappearance and gradually learns that the missing element is far more elusive than he thought it to be. But, the sadistic Sims (Boris Karloff), running the asylum commits the girl into the institution on a trumped-up charge. The Asylum's Sequel 'Zoombies 2' Bringing the Undead Animals Back to Life Later This Month Read More... '9-1-1' Season 2 Spoiler: Chim Gets Stabbed In Sharknado-Inspired Episode However, one night, Edward hears screaming coming from the cellar, and when he investigates, he learns the truth about what’s going on in the facility. The acting physician in charge, Dr. Geraldine Masters is reluctant to hire Charlotte after the murder, but she takes on the young nurse despite her reservations. Who can forget the sombre surroundings in the opening sequence of the expressionist masterpiece “The Cabinet of Dr Caligari”; the incendiary documentary “Titicut Follies”; the traumatized, weird world of Fenix in Jodorowsky’s “Santa Sangre”; or that soul-sucking psychiatric hospital dance party sequence in Refn’s “Bronson”? Insane asylums were once seen as symbols of progress for people with mental health issues. In legal terms, the word ‘insanity’ can be thrown around to try and give a clear perception of a crime, but in medical terms, how does a person is deemed ‘insane’? Because Svankmejer’s vision of madness has no boundaries and the whole spacious world looks like one, hellish madhouse. 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His magnetic eyes and steamy words make some women believe that, including the nurses at the psychiatric institution he has been committed to (“Have you ever loved a woman until milk leaked from her” asks Don). This story has been shared 1,130 times. Novelist William Peter Blatty’s (“Exorcist”) directorial debut has attained cult classic status, in the years preceding its lukewarm commercial response. What’s the borderline between normal and insane? DoP Stanley Cortez and Fuller work in tandem to precisely visualize the disintegrating inner mental state of Barrett and the pervading insanity in the dark corridors of asylum. If there’s one film on this list that you’ve heard of, it’s likely Shutter Island. The action that follows leads to a twist that even seasoned horror fans won’t expect. Like the young protagonist who had killed his fiance on the day of marriage, we are also haunted by many unanswered questions. 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