lemon_magic "Criminally Insane" is one those movies so uncompromisingly itself that watching it becomes almost an "arthouse" movie experience. The dreariness and awfulness never let up, even for an instant, and the cheapness of the production ends up working in the movie's favor and increasing the impact. I have to rate it a "2", because, let's face it, "Criminally Insane" is TERRIBLE. Compared to this movie, John Waters made Disney comedies (because as awful as his film families were, the members seemed to care about and love each other) and Herschel Gordon Lewis was making Cole Porter musicals. But I will admit - watching this for the first time is a memorable experience.

BA_Harrison Directed by Nick Millard, this miserable z-grade trash-fest stars obese 'actress' Priscilla Alden as Ethel Janowski, a depressed paranoiac with anger issues and a very large appetite, who is released from a mental hospital under the care of her grandmother. But when granny locks the food away from her gluttonous granddaughter, Ethel snaps, embarking on a bloody killing spree.As much as I appreciate really bad movies, I do draw the line somewhere; Criminally Insane hauls it's lamentable lard-ass well over that line and continues to waddle on, offending at every turn, not with its content, but by its sheer technical ineptitude in almost every department. With a terrible script, not one appealing character, amateurish direction, editing that is more of a butcher job than any of Ethel's murders, and the most unrealistic gore imaginable (the blood looks like red emulsion, probably because it is), I didn't find this to be a case of 'so bad it's good'… just plain bad.I rate Criminally Insane 2/10 only because I've heard that the 1987 sequel is worse and I want to be able to rate that even lower if necessary.

Shaza123 As horror fans, we're used to seeing and celebrating iconic evil images. Remember that feeling you felt when Regan's head did a 360 for the first time. Or the time Jaws finally popped his head out from the ocean? Well boys and girls, prepare yourselves for something truly terrifying, because I have seen the true face of evil! Never mind the likes of Freddy or Jason, beware of the one and only...Ethel! I bet you're thinking, "meh, she's just some fat looking chick" but you'll be wrong to underestimate her. She's not just some fat looking chick, she's one CRAZY fat looking chick, and she'll mess you up!...if you interfere with her eating habits.... That's right! Call her fat, call her ugly, insult her to her face and she'll probably not even bat an eye lid, but get between her and her food, and God himself could not save your tortured soul from the grasps of hell she will send you! Ethel will not rest until her stomach is full, and god help us all...she's always hungry! First of all, gosh I loved this movie! At 61 minutes, it does not overstay its welcome, matter of fact, I felt it was cut a bit too short. But no matter, there is a sequel (plus the Death Nurse movies) that reuses stock footage from it, in case I start to miss it.Welcome to low budget territory! Now recently I've been watching some very low budget movies. Most of them only being successful if they were funny or gory. Criminally Insane is both. The dialogue is just magnificent. There were multiple times I burst out laughing, because I never expected such a ridiculous exchange. Take the conversation between Ethel and the boy who delivered her groceries straight to her house, for example. He brings her a whole box full of stuff, (remember, Ethel is fat, so she's buying in bulk). She ordered a stack of food, so he asks for $80 which seems reasonable. Ethel responds with "I don't have $80. I only have $4.50". I could go on and on listing some of the brilliant dialogue, I haven't even gotten to Ethel's sister and boyfriend yet!Speaking of the sister and her boyfriend, I really should mention these guys. Because good lord, were they serious?! Rosalie is Ethel's skinnier sister, and is dating a guy that has no problem cheating on her, forcing her to be a hooker, and slapping her. Doesn't sound like something that's meant to be funny, but seriously, it is. Rosalie doesn't seem to have much problem with any of this. She puts up with it like it's nothing. I think she's got her own issues, but we don't really pay much mind to them. It's Ethel that's the real star of the show. Apart from her size, she's just hypnotic, it's hard not to become entranced in this movie just because of her. So we've covered the grounds of it being funny, but did I mention it was gory? Cos it's drenched in blood. Red looking paint blood, but blood all the same. Sure, when she's hacking people up with a meat cleaver, it might resemble like she's slapping them with a rolled up newspaper, but it's the thought that counts and it equals to quite a bit of a body count. So much that it becomes a problem for Ethel on how to dispose of the bodies. You're gonna love the answer, I just know it. Stay tuned for the ending. For a low budget flick that's about a homicidal women who kills when people try to stop her from eating, it's actually very well made and the actress playing Ethel (the late Priscilla Alden) really did a damn good job. As I mentioned earlier, it's hard not to find her performance hypnotic. Not sure how how old Ethel was meant to be in this movie, as she's being cared for by her grandma, but the actress was 36 when this movie was released, and Ethel looks a hell of a lot older then 36. I would have estimated somewhere in her 40s. She looked almost as old as her grandma. I don't have much else to say about this movie, except to highly recommend it. For a bad movie, it's one of the best, and one I imagine many people enjoying. Just avoid the sequel at all costs.

reptilicus When I first saw this movie I hated it. My girlfriend and I both thought this was just another bit of low budget cinematic stinkweed. Well that was many years ago. We recently found the movie on DVD and wondered "Could it really have been as bad as we remember?" and picked it up.So the answer is yes, it really was as bad as we remember but we developed a new respect for this picture after hearing director Nick Phillips talk about when he went through making it and how the actors really believed in the project. With only $30K to work with they worked for 5 weeks (I guess no one could afford to quite their real jobs so they had to shoot when everybody could get away) to complete the project.Ethel Janowsky (Priscilla Alden) is released from a mental hospital in the custody of he grandmother. Ethel likes to eat, no she LOVES to eat! She starts her day with a dozen eggs, a pound of bacon and half a loaf pf bread and 2 hours later she is ready for a snack! This is not a woman you want to invite over for dinner. When Granny locks up the food and declares that Ethel will have to diet whether she likes it or not Ethel becomes . . . well . . . you saw the title of the movie, right? After skewering Granny with a butcher knife Ethel unlocks the treasure chest . . . er . . . I mean the food cabinet and starts chowing down.Of course life for her does not become idyllic. She has to kill the grocery delivery guy when he demands that she pay her back bill ($80, a hefty amount back in 1975), then her doctor shows up wanting to know why Ethel has not shown up for electro-shock therapy and he gets a shock of his own when she kills him. Then her slutty sister moves in with her sleazy boyfriend/pimp and starts turning tricks in the neighbourhood. As if that weren't bad enough those corpses locked in Grandma's bedroom are beginning to rot and there is only so much that air freshener can cover up. What's a fat, food addict, serial killer to do? Well, she could always . . . oops almost let it slip. Find out for yourself, you might guess the ending but even if you do you will not be disappointed.Gore is plentiful but the killings are unconvincing and, dare I say it, reminded me of Andy Milligan's homemade gore effects. When Ethel bashes in someone's head it's obvious she is barely tapping them while these loud THUMPS are on the soundtrack; ditto when she uses the meat cleaver on her sister and her boyfriend. Still, director Phillips did the best he could (he admitted later that the stage blood they used was a little too red and thick).Ten years later Phillips brought Ms. Alden back to do CRAZY FAT ETHEL, a shot-on-video sequel that probably had an ever lower budget.CRIMINALLY INSANE is on DVD now with its sequel and a bonus film, SATAN'S BLACK WEDDING, also directed by Phillips. Do yourself a favour and skip that one.