I don't think I've reviewed a Nick Millard film on the site so far, which is surprising. Many years ago, he was one of the most important directors in my life. I had a chance to interview him, and my excitement was incalculable when the Slasher // Video released Cemetery Sisters, the last remaining unreleased Millard film from 1987. Nick Millard got his start in the exploitation circuit's softcore porn courts, and in 1975 shifted focus to a series of grimy, unforgettable horror films, producing movies like Death Nurse, Satan's Black Wedding, and Doctor Bloodbath. The film that kicked everything off in '75 was of course Criminally Insane. Criminally Insane remains the best of Millard's films, but given that I love all of them, that's saying something. Like the best trash films, this one's surprisingly complicated, so let's get started!
Ethel Janowski has just been released from the mental hospital and is living with her grandmother in her apartment. Ethel is worthy of the film's alternate title of Crazy Fat Ethel, for she is indeed both crazy and fat. The doctors are hesitant to release her from care and urge her grandmother to get Ethel to lose weight. When Mrs. Janowski does just that, Ethel decides to fight for her to right to Nilla Wafers, and stabs the old lady to death. Thus commences the main conflict of the film: Ethel has to keep getting food while hiding her murders, which increase rapidly in number as she kills everyone who comes to investigate the disappearances of people who she's previously murdered. Complicated things is the arrival of her prostitute sister Rosalee and Rosalee's repugnant boyfriend John. Of course, it doesn't help that the bodies of all her victims, stored in her grandma's bedroom, are starting to stink...
Criminally Insane is yet another film which benefits from having a straightforward premise. By embracing the grime of the era in which he made the movie, Millard takes the film in a lot of different sleazy directions. This is one of those Crapsack World films where no one is likable--at least not entirely. John is an abusive, lying, short-tempered, coke-sniffing pimp. Rosalee mocks Ethel for her weight, takes advantage of her hospitality, and belittles their offscreen mother for taking up with "a little brown man." Even Ethel herself, arguably the film's protagonist, is an antisemite. But we also sympathize with Rosalee, who is beaten by John and other men, and Ethel often seems child-like and innocent when she isn't in a violent rage. Could it be that the characters of this low-budget slasher film are complicated? Indeed, it's because of the characters that I come back to this movie again and again. They are interesting to observe, and the way circumstances pile up around and spring on them is always enjoyable.
It's one of those movies, too, where I always notice new things every time I watch. One of my friends helped me realize that this movie has necrophilia in it. Spoilers follow: when Ethel kills John and Rosalee, she speaks to their bodies: "I could hear you sometimes, you know. I knew what you did with John, Rosalee." Dissolve cut to the next morning, where Ethel is laughing in bed...next to John's corpse. I assure you, such implications are not beyond Mr. Millard. To finally realize what's going on here adds another layer to the film. To love a movie only to see more of it is a unique and incredible feeling. And there is much to love to begin with.
Criminally Insane is a very professionally made movie, and the technical errors can largely be attributed to equipment faults rather than personnel errors. With its impressive use of fades, dissolves, zooms, and cuts, the movie is startlingly kinetic, which is something that is somewhat lacking in Millard's later films, which are often shot more like stage plays. I don't want to say that Millard got lazy or anything--he was still following his passion, but had less time and money on his hands. The stiffness of the later Millard films makes them amazing in another way, one which is in some cases more challenging to understand. I'll get to that when I get around to movies like Death Nurse; suffice it to say for now that Criminally Insane shows a sharp eye for direction and a genuine talent for film.
Also, the movie has a lot of blood in it. Not as much as an H.G. Lewis movie, but it is still the trademark Lewis Bright Red Paint. There's something about Bright Red Paint being used for blood which has almost a mythic quality to it. It is a piece-part of Americana as it is a piece-part of the American tradition of the Bad Movie. It is a symbol of laziness, and yet it also packs a Pop Art brightness to it which harkens back to the Adam West days of yore. The world seems like it was so much brighter then...there was a dancing logic in the long shots of mannequins dressed in garbage bags getting their arms cut off, or fat people dancing through cemeteries in feather boas.
The past also sucked dick. I should say that, too. Criminally Insane, like a lot of the '70s trash I like, is an experiment in Problematic Fave Theatre.
But if you want to see the history of exploitation cinema in action, and visit the cornerstone of its creator's astonishing career, Criminally Insane is a good stop to make. I encourage you, as always, to seek out its mysteries for yourself.
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