Dark Sanity

DARK SANITY is a long, dull slog through a woman named Karen's "visions" and panic attacks. She's allegedly being stalked by a scary man (Aldo Ray), and, not-surprisingly, her husband doesn't believe her. While Karen frets a lot, there's also a gardener who's either been trained to act like a zombie, or has been lobotomized.

This all leads to the sudden, absurd finale, making us wonder what hideous sin we've committed that has brought this movie upon us.

After watching this cinematic donkey log, it's no shock that the producer and director vanished after it's completion...

The cover for Dark Sanity depicts a woman, presumably Kory Clark as the film's protagonist Karen, with a demonic forked tongue. Why, I don't know, because she doesn't have one in the film. Instead of being a she-demon (which might have been cool), Karen is simply a housewife, albeit a recovering alcoholic housewife with marital issues and psychic powers. In an attempt to start life afresh, Karen and her long-suffering husband Alan (Chuck Jamison) move to a new home, which they got cheap, partly because it is such an ugly property (those rough stucco walls and caramel carpets have simply got to go!), but also, as they later learn, because it was the site of a brutal murder.

Soon after, Karen starts to have chilling visions of the killing: glimpses of a shadowy figure brandishing an axe and a severed head. Hubby Alan, who is fresh out of sympathy, thinks that his wife is back on the sauce, but a local cop, Larry Craig (Aldo Ray), who was involved with the murder investigation, believes that Karen might be the key to solving the case.

A meandering mediocre mystery featuring very little gore and zero scares, Dark Sanity is humdrum stuff, despite fairly capable direction from Martin Green and one or two adequate performances. The boredom arises from a dreary script that focuses far too much on Karen and Alan's failing relationship, and which neglects to deliver scenes of tension. There's also a little too much padding in the form of obviously innocent suspect Benny the creepy handyman, and to make matters worse, apart from the visions and a poor cat who loses its head, there are zero deaths. If only a few more people had wound up hacked to pieces before the final reveal, this might have been a worthwhile little psycho thriller.

As it stands, it's a 3/10 at best.

"Dark Sanity" (also released as "Straight Jacket") follows recovering alcoholic Karen Nichols, who moves into a house in Los Angeles with her husband where a brutal axe murder occurred. Karen, already prone to psychic events, begins to experience a number of disturbing visions.

This little-seen production is about as obscure as obscure can get; virtually nothing is known about anyone involved with it, and all the names associated with it have fallen into complete anonymity other than that of Aldo Ray, who stars as a quirky retired cop who also shares a psychic connection to the protagonist's home. To put it plainly, there is not much about this film that makes sense. Karen's visions ostensibly have a greater meaning, though the house and Ray's character's connection to the murder victim is sketchily drawn to say the least. Karen's alcoholism is played to the hilt only to generate conflict between her and her gruff husband, but the roots of her problems remain unclear. The psychic and premonitory elements are even stranger and come across as arbitrary features that were shoehorned into the screenplay.

From a narrative standpoint, it seems obvious that the filmmakers behind "Dark Sanity" either ran out of money or ideas (or perhaps both), as the film feels like a slipshod effort that was patched together to make a semi-cohesive final product. That being said, all of the relative strangeness that abounds in the film really makes it a treat for anyone who enjoys bad (and surreal) B-horror movies. It is similar in tone to something like "Don't Go Near the Park" in that, despite having a dark subject matter, it aesthetically resembles a family-oriented made-for-TV movie of the era, boasting stark '70s period sets, simplistic camerawork, and a stock musical score that could have just as well been featured in an episode of "The Brady Bunch."

The gaudy late '70s/early '80s Southern California atmosphere lends the film a nice nostalgic flair, and, while I wouldn't say it is an overall well-acted film, there are actually some solid performances here, particularly from Chuck Jamison, who plays Karen's boorish husband. Kory Adams, who portrays the tortured Karen, also offers some realistic moments in a performance that is otherwise often shaky. The experienced Aldo Ray (at this stage in his career, a drunk himself) is actually worse than both, spitting his dialogue out and stumbling over lines.

The film culminates with a giallo-esque attack sequence revealing the black-clad axe killer, in what is one of the most absurd (and abrupt) chase sequences in horror history--it's all good, though, because the truth is, "Dark Sanity" is not much of a horror movie anyway. If anything, it's a psychological chamber drama with some murder mystery thrown in (and some brainscrambling psychic powers). While it is on many levels a veritably bad film, I did find it extremely entertaining and weirdly fascinating. It is one of those obscure genre efforts whose production history is likely more interesting than the film itself. Unfortunately, at least as of the writing of this review, nobody involved with it has come forward, and few people have even seen it; it was released direct-to-video, receiving scant distribution and only occasional TV airings throughout the 1980s. It may one of those instances of films that are truly "lost to history." 7/10.

It can be said that good movies are a dime a dozen...too bad this one can't seem to find a dozen to fit into. I saw this movie by sheer accident (I was expecting to see the Joan Crawford one...as in this one's titled "Straight Jacket" on video)and I was really not impressed at all....it was pretty boring and pretty dull in the scare department...but it was not all bad...it had one the my favorite "horror" actors in it...as in one who I respect and who became more known for his horror (in my mind at least--Eg. "The Forest"-"Don't Go Near The Park")than for his earlier more serious works as in Aldo Ray..The story was your A-typical slasher type film story of the early 80's--very low budget (as you can tell by the quality of the film and the way it looks like it was shot using less than standard film)and for the most part poorly acted...but it was actually kind of creative in parts--no not "E.T." creative but it's not supposed to be...I'd be real surprised if this movie ever found it's way into someone's personal collection....not because it was bad...but just because there are better things out there very similar to this that may catch your eye and in the end make you forget to pick this one up off the video store shelf....Honestly I can't say it was good but for low budget horror it was not that bad...on the bright side it was better than, more scary than and even more realistic than the modern disaster "Anaconda"....sometimes low budget can be more interesting than big budget.

An insurance salesman (Chuck Jamison) and his recently deinstitutionalized alcoholic blonde wife (Kory Clark) move into a new house in Los Angeles. She has bloody visions of an axe murderer and severed body parts lying around the house. Turns out that the same house is a former murder site and the killer was never found. Ridiculous suspects turn up like a balding, sweaty gardener who crushes snails in his hand, a nosy neighbor inspired by Ruth Gordon in ROSEMARY'S BABY, her fat slob/pervert husband, a guy at a nuthouse and guest star Aldo Ray as a "retired" cop Larry Craig, who had similar visions of the house when he investigated the original murders.

This thriller with a rock-bottom budget (which I saw as STRAIGHT JACKET) has a little low-budget charm, but is slow moving, poorly made and pretty boring. Some videos say it was made in 1982 or 1987, but I've also seen the production year listed as 1978 (?)