Sanitarium (film)
| Sanitarium | |
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| Directed by | Bryan Ortiz, Bryan Ramirez, Kerry Valderrama |
| Produced by | Amanda Rubio Ramirez, Kerry Valderrama |
| Written by | Evan Boston, Crystal Bratton, James Hartz, Scott Marcano, Bryan Ortiz, Kerry Valderrama |
| Starring |
Lacey Chabert Malcolm McDowell Lou Diamond Phillips John Glover David Mazouz |
| Music by | Douglas Edward |
| Cinematography | Philip Roy |
| Edited by | Paul de La Cerda, Justin Malone, Bryan Ortiz |
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Release date
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Running time
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108 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Sanitarium is a 2013 horror anthology film that was directed by Bryan Ortiz (Monsters are Real), Bryan Ramirez (Figuratively Speaking), and Kerry Valderrama (Up to the Last Man). It received its world premiere at the Miami International Film Festival on March 1, 2013 and was released to DVD on December 31, 2013.
The film stars John Glover, David Mazouz, and Lou Diamond Phillips as three people whose stories ultimately lead them - and friends - to become patients of a sanitarium.
The film is divided into three short stories framed by Dr. Henry Stenson, a psychologist who are treating three patients with unique disorders. Each one is preceded and succeeded by Stenson giving a monologue about his interpretation, except for the last patient, whom he interviews directly. The second patient's story is additionally framed by a psychology student about to write a thesis by reading the patient's file.
Gustav, an aged, disheveled doll artist, works for his old friend, Sam, who helps showcase his creations. He is assisted by the young Mateo, whom he is unaware has been drugging his alcohol with a psychoactive drug which soon drives Gustav into believing that his creations can talk. He is especially obsessed with a female doll whom he named Madeline, who talks him into killing Sam, his assistant, and also Mateo's lover, Isabelle. After Mateo discloses what he had done, Gustav commits suicide, but not before saying that Mateo can now own his creations. The segment is closed with the deranged Mateo opening a box containing Gustav's creations, as Stenson wonders which one is controlling which.
A young boy, Steven, who has catatonic schizophrenia, lives with his abusive father, who forces him to do household chores while he goes to a stripper club everyday. Steven feels stalked by a man clad in black with a black fedora. One day, while having his attention at a friend's pornographic magazine, the man stops him from leaving, revealing his monstrous face, but he suddenly disappears when Steven's teacher, the kind Ms. Lorne arrives and holds Steven responsible for the magazine. Suspecting that his father is abusive after seeing him rudely fetching Steven home while refusing to explain his neck bruise (actually caused by the monstrous man), she trails them. Before Steven is abused, the man manifests and stuffs him into a burlap sack before killing Steven's father. He also kills Ms. Lorne when she comes in, leaving Steven unresponsive by the time the police arrive. Dr. Stenson narrates the events afterward: Steven was transferred to the sanitarium where he remains a catatonic and hallucinating of the monstrous man well into his adulthood, yet he sometimes can see him smiling while looking at the sky.
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