Escape from the Insane Asylum manages to be both fantastic and mundane. It is fantastic in scope, encompassing storylines about false imprisonment, secret experiments, haunted houses, and mentally-challenged hood-wearing serial killers all at once. Yet it is, in essence, a soap opera about a woman confronting her personal problems. Both sides of the coins are engraved with stock footage from Frozen Scream, which, like this movie, stars Renee Harmon. Charm is everywhere when Renee is around. And this movie is special, because there's charm in the movie even where Renee is not present.
Her charisma must have an aura, though, because almost all of the films featuring Renee Harmon are some of my favorites, or at the very least, fond acquaintances. She seemed as the star of Frank Roach's Frozen Scream, and co-plotted with and acted for James Bryan in The Executioner Part II, Hell Riders, Lady Street Fighter, Run Coyote Run, and Jungle Trap. All of those (save the as-yet unreleased Jungle Trap) have found some place or another in my heart. Escape from the Insane Asylum, directed by Felix Girard but featuring Harmon as writer, star, and producer, is yet another jewel in the crown of the Harmon canon. It is both a good introduction and worthy twilight to her acting career. She is energetic and compelling physically, and yet her presence is dominated by oddly-enunciated German accent. She always stands out in ways both good and bad--yes, the accent is jarring, but she is a seriously talented actress, who frequently ends up appearing alongside a significantly less gifted cast. She is a legend and you should get to know her immediately.
Chris Nilsen's husband Alex, a doctor at ye humble mental hospital, has married her for her money, and when she starts sniffing this out (along with the fact that he likes fucking a blonde named Inez) he has her institutionalized in his hospital. She eventually gets out under unclear circumstances (first she's told she isn't getting out! Then...her daughter picks her up?), but there's another person taken off the patient list--a serial killer with a psychic mom. But there's more--a group of repetitive teenagers who decide to stay a night at the old MacFarlane place, which is supposedly haunted. And then there are ghosts in the movie. The ending tries to explain it all with hypnotism and SCIENCE. And that's exactly the perfect endcap for a piece like this.
We know from listening to the dialogue and seeing the complexity of the different plots that the makers of Escape cared. But why does it feel like they didn't? The scattered weirdness occasionally comes across as laziness--the recycled footage from Frozen Scream, for instance. Depending on the account, Scream was made either five or eleven years prior to Escape. It was also shot on film, whereas Escape is a video production, so, yeah, a little out of place. Adding to the idea that these inserts are filler is the fact that there is almost no way to reconcile them with the plot arcs of Escape. Scream is about people being turned into frozen zombies in order to find the secret of immortality, and the frozen zombie part at the very least is communicated in the inserts. Assuming the lifted scenes are meant to be flashbacks, that means that at some point, Chris created these zombies (?), which may be why she's wealthy. But she mentions a "board of directors," which doesn't sound like something one would associate with a zombie lab. And I don't know if there's much profit in creating immortal emotionless serial killers.
Plus, scenes end perplexingly in this film. Chris talks to one of the evil doctors in a therapy session about how she's having all sorts of hallucinations. However, she doesn't want to talk about them. The doctor's response to being simply told, "I don't wanna talk about it"? "Alright!" he then looks down, bored, and picks up a cocktail. He sips it for awhile. FADE TO BLACK.
In fact, at least half the scenes end like that. Harmon doesn't seem to be aware of how to do scenes transitions. That's okay. Many of the plots that go on in this film are, if not disturbing in content, disturbingly shot and acted. The movie is goofy enough to avoid being dark. Awful acting, bizarre dialogue ("You're not crazy, you're just psychic!" *Both characters cheerily laugh*), and sheer incompatibility of the plots help stand in the way of being overwhelmed by the creepy shots and occasionally deep introspections made by the characters.
So in essence--if you want a movie that has so-bad-it's-good qualities alongside so-good-it's-good traits, with some sexy German accents to boot, this is your flick. It's a thriller, it's a slasher, it's a soap opera and a mess. If you've seen Renee Harmon before, find some gentle comfort in her familiar presence. If this is your first time, get ready for a long road. A long, pleasant road, with lots of daffodils growing alongside it, with the added fact that you bought a lot of your favorite candy at the last gas station and you're eating it while driving. Track it down.
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