Possession (1981), The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Apocalypse Now (1979), The Shining (1980), Sunset Blvd. (1950), A Woman Under the Influence (1974), Fitzcarraldo (1982), Black Swan (2010) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Insanity movies.
Storyline: Johnny Barrett, an ambitious journalist, is determined to win a Pulitzer Prize by solving a murder committed in a lunatic asylum and witnessed only by three inmates, from whom the police have been unable to extract the information. With the connivance of a psychiatrist, and the reluctant help of his girlfriend, he succeeds in having himself declared insane and sent to the asylum. There he slowly tracks down and interviews the witnesses - but things are stranger than they seem ...—David Levene <D.S.Levene@durham.ac.uk>
Plot Keywords: reporter, inmate, psychiatrist, girlfriend, witness, thrilling, tense ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: In 1916, beautiful young mute Helen is a domestic worker for elderly, ailing Mrs. Warren. Mrs. Warren's two adult sons, Albert (a professor) and womanizing impudent Steven, also live in the Warren mansion. Mrs. Warren becomes concerned for Helen's safety when a rash of murders involving 'women with afflictions' hits the neighborhood. She implores her physician, Dr. Parry, to take Helen away for her own safety. When another murder occurs inside the Warren mansion, it becomes obvious that Helen is in danger.—Gary Jackson <garyjack5@cogeco.ca>
Plot Keywords: serial killer, mute person, servant, nurse, chilling, suspenseful, mansion ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: A boy whose mother is forced into a sanitarium and father gets a job as a traveling salesman. The boy fends for himself in a seedy SRO hotel.—Mark Allyn <allyn@netcom.com>
Plot Keywords: young boy, mother, father, brother, charming, emotional, winsome ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Ann Lake has recently settled in England with her daughter, Bunny. When she goes to retrieve her daughter after the girl's first day at school, no one has any record of Bunny having been registered. When even the police can find no trace that the girl ever existed, they wonder if the child was only a fantasy of Ann's. When Ann's brother backs up the police's suspicions, she appears to be a mentally-disturbed individual. Are they right?—Alfred Jingle
Plot Keywords: mother, brother, superintendent, landlord, retiree, daughter, creepy ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Actor Bruce Willis and writer/director M. Night Shyamalan reunite after the surprise success of The Sixth Sense for this supernatural thriller. David Dunn (Willis) is taking a train from New York City back home to Philadelphia after a job interview that didn't go well when his car jumps the tracks and collides with an oncoming engine, with David the only survivor among the 131 passengers on board. Astoundingly, David is not only alive, he hardly seems to have been touched. As David wonders what has happened to him and why he was able to walk away, he encounters a mysterious stranger, Elijah Prince (Samuel L. Jackson), who explains to David that there are a certain number of people who are "unbreakable" -- they have remarkable endurance and courage, a predisposition toward dangerous behavior, and feel invincible but also have strange premonitions of terrible events. Is David "unbreakable"? And if he is, what are the physical and psychological ramifications of this knowledge?
Plot Keywords: security guard, wife, sick person, janitor, son, suspenseful, offbeat ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: A bombardier in World War II tries desperately to escape the insanity of the war. However, sometimes insanity is the only sane way to cope with a crazy situation. Catch-22 is a parody of a "military mentality", and of a bureaucratic society in general.
Plot Keywords: captain, pilot, soldier, lieutenant, doctor, witty, amusing ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: A woman wanders the streets of Los Angeles in some sort of emotional distress. She is also under some delusion as she approaches many men, strangers who she calls "David." Eventually, an ambulance is called, the attendants who take her to the hospital, where she is eventually placed in the psychiatric ward. Placing her under some medication to help her remember, Dr. Harvey Willard, the psychiatrist on duty, is able to get some semblance of a story out of her over the ensuing days. This phase of her life begins just over a year ago when she, single RN Louise Howell, is employed by wealthy Dean Graham to take care of his chronically ill and largely bedridden wife, Pauline Graham, at their lake house outside of Washington, D.C. Due to her circumstances, Pauline believes that Dean and Louise are having an affair behind her back. Louise can see that Dean does have feelings for her that way in his loneliness. The "David" in question is David Sutton, a civil engineer who lives across the lake from the Grahams, and who has been having a secret affair with Louise. That relationship was meant to be casual, but David tries to break it off with her when he sees that she has fallen in love with him to an obsessional state. Louise begins to manipulate the situation to be in David's life, even if only peripherally. Louise also begins to feel that if she can't have David, nobody else should. Louise is eventually diagnosed with schizophrenia during this time--something she does not mention to anyone in her life--which places her story to Dr. Willard in some context, including what of the story is real and what is all part of her delusion.—Huggo
Plot Keywords: nurse, psychiatrist, engineer, wealthy man, neighbor, wife, dark ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Ten years have passed since the death of millionaire, Cyrus Norman. Cosby, Cyrus' attorney, has gathered Cyrus' 6 remaining relatives to his New Orleans' mansion for Cyrus' "reading of the will". To the others disappointment, Joyce is the sole heir, but, due to a streak of insanity running in the family, a second will has been made in case Joyce falls victim to it. This puts Joyce in danger. Suddenly, Miss Lu, Cyrus' maid, appears and warns them that the spirits have told her that one of them will die that night. Following this, Hendrick, a prison guard, warns them that, "The Cat", a homicidal maniac has escaped. This sets up Cyrus' relatives with a night filled with murders, mysteries and intrigue.—Kelly
Plot Keywords: relative, friend, attorney, housekeeper, maniac, playful, creepy ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: After their luxury cabin cruiser crashes on a reef, Bob Rainsford finds himself washed ashore on a remote island. He finds a fortress-like house, and the owner, Count Zaroff, seems to be quite welcoming. Apart from Zaroff's servant Ivan, the only other people present are Eve Trowbridge and her brother Martin, also survivors of their own shipwreck. Other survivors are missing, however, and Rainsford soon learns why. Zaroff releases them into his jungle island and then hunts them down in his grisly outdoor chess game. Then after Martin disappears Bob realizes that he and Eve are to be the next pawns in Zaroff's deadly game.—garykmcd
Plot Keywords: hunter, passenger, count, russian, brother, sister, tense ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Set in 1944 France, in the Ardennes forest region, an American Intelligence Squad locates a German platoon wishing to surrender rather than die in Germany's final war offensive. The two groups of men, isolated from the war at present, put aside their differences and share a Christmas celebration. The surrender plan includes a mock battle that turns bad when one of the soldiers is unaware of the surrender plan.—Anthony Hughes <husnock31@hotmail.com>
Plot Keywords: sergeant, jew, german soldier, old man, interpreter, prostitute, powerful ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Rich old Cyrus West's relatives are waiting for him to die so they can inherit. But he stipulates that his will be read 20 years after his death. On the appointed day his expectant heirs arrive at his brooding mansion. The will is read and it turns out that Annabelle West, the only heir with his name left, inherits, if she is deemed sane. If she isn't, the money and some diamonds go to someone else, whose name is in a sealed envelope. Before he can reveal the identity of her successor to Annabelle, Mr. Crosby, the lawyer, disappears. The first in a series of mysterious events, some of which point to Annabelle in fact being unstable.—Ron Kerrigan
Plot Keywords: nephew, niece, lawyer, guard, doctor, killer, chilling ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: A man shows up at Kimberley Prescott's villa claiming to be her brother. But Ward Prescott died in a car accident a year ago, so how can this man be him? Despite Kim's protests that the stranger isn't her brother, everyone else accepts him, including their uncle. Kim begins to fear for her sanity and her life.—Anonymous
Plot Keywords: heiress, brother, stranger, housekeeper, police captain, intense, thrilling ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Sent to a converted castle in the Pacific Northwest used by the U.S. government as a psychiatric institution for military personnel who fought in the Vietnam War, the unorthodox psychiatrist, Colonel Kane, has a lot on his plate already, trying to figure out whether the inmates feign insanity or not. Still struggling with his inner demons, Kane is particularly intrigued by the psychotic former astronaut, Captain Cutshaw, whose metaphysical enquiries trigger a feverish recurring nightmare. More and more, as Kane and Cutshaw engage in intense theological debates over the existence of God and evil, the troubled scientist finds himself at a dead-end, in need of a brilliant but reckless plan to determine the root of the soldiers' complex mental breakdowns. Can Colonel Kane provide proof of an afterlife?—Nick Riganas
Plot Keywords: colonel, captain, psychiatrist, astronaut, mental patient, cheeky, quirky ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: In the town of Triune, a dark and Unspeakable Secret... remembers. Percy Pullman is a successful author and pastor who has become the infatuation of a killer hell bent on terror. Meanwhile, Raymond Fisk, a young local teacher, exhibits signs of demonic possession that tempt him to brutally murder his entire family. Pullman must quickly confront this two front horror or be swept up in the event horizon of his own collapse.
Plot Keywords: half brother, single mother, detective, young man, campy, creepy, dark ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Anthony John is an actor whose life is strongly influenced by the characters he plays. When he's playing comedy, he's the most enjoyable person in the world, but when he's playing drama, it's terrible to be around him. That's the reason why his wife Brita divorced him; although she still loves him and works with him, she couldn't stand living with him anymore. So when Anthony accepts to play Othello, he devotes himself entirely to the part, but it soon overwhelms him and with each day his mind gets filled more and more with Othello's murderous jealousy.—Leon Wolters <wolters@strw.LeidenUniv.nl>
Plot Keywords: actor, actress, mistress, striking, dark, chilling, broadway theater ...
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