Criminally Insane (1975) User Reviews (43)

A Different Kind Of Exploitation Horror Movie

[Steve_Nyland · 6/10 · 8 September 2006]

See, Ethel isn't actually insane. She just wants to eat, sit around the house by herself and be left alone for some seconds on dessert. Maybe thirds. Hell she'll clean off the whole sponge cake, the can of icing, maybe some ice cream too on the side. If one thing, she's not shy about her craving for food, and how she lets it consume her. She doesn't eat the food so much as the food kind of uses her as a conduit. Ethel is merely a walking process by which it gets eaten. I will always refer to this movie by it's most famous re-title: FAT CRAZY ETHEL. Try it on a double bill with FAT GUY GOES NUTZOID and remember the cheeze dip. FAT CRAZY ETHEL was one of two startling horror features made by porno/exploitation veteran Nick Millard in an ill-fated attempt to go straight in the mid 1970s: Check out SATAN'S BLACK WEDDING for something a bit more conventional, though not much more. His work might not have grabbed hold of the imagination of mainstream viewers, but fans of ultra-low budget indie regional horror will find a fascinatingly claustrophobic and morbidly obese little horror thriller here. The film mostly takes place within the creepy, tacky interior of Ethel's aunt's house, where she has returned from a couple months of helpful shock therapy to wean her from her insatiable cravings for food. It didn't work but Ethel can live with it so long as the grocery bill is paid. This in a neighborhood where groceries are delivered right to your door: Bacon, chops, cereal, eggs, plenty of ice cream & raw cookie dough.

The fun in this movie is twofold: First, watching Ethel slowly and in an almost Hitchcockian manner find herself pretty much needing to murder people to keep the flow of fatty, caloric foodstuffs coming -- and to silence any harping voices in the peanut gallery urging moderation. One of the things I like about how Ethel's character is drawn has to do with how profoundly unhip, square and uninvolved in the world she is. The deaths don't mean anything to her personally other than the need to hide the remains, which does become a problem after a while. But if it wasn't for her uncontrollable gluttony she could fit right at any social circle dedicated to the bitter & withdrawn. Like a Tool concert or maybe the MPAA. The other pleasure in the film is a guilty one, which is making fun of fat people. They are one of the last socially acceptable prejudices to have, since fat people are by nature absurd, greedy and unattractive pariahs now that one legged Eskimos with AIDS are off limits too. I'm playing devil's advocate with this one: Prejudice of any kind is a bad thing, especially when you get to know the target of your hatred as a person. The catch is that this movie doesn't really let you, keeping the viewer at arm's length observing her behavior and being welcomed to criticize or even outright laugh at her for being so disgusting. Watch her plow through a box of Nilla Wafers or scrape some extra eggs onto her plate to see what I mean. Since the film regards her as a freak and regards what she is doing with clinically detached disdain (killing people is worse than overeating, at least in my book) it's OK to regard her the same way. As a walking stomach.

Ridiculing someone for who they are is always more fun and safer in numbers, so ETHEL is actually quite a little crowd-pleaser and has a little cult following due to its short life as a Drive In curiosity or home rental oddity. It's hard to forget a movie like FAT CRAZY ETHEL, which once you get down to brass tacks is an exploitation film that is exploiting the obese & insane. Ethel is as sane as you or I, she just finds herself propelled down this path of antisocial behavior by her lust for food. The inevitability of it all is the payoff in a way, and while it may not be titillating to most to watch Ethel's life spiral out of control, the movie's utterly banal, humdrum and everyday look has a certain charm to it that fans of non-Hollywood "regional horror" will get a kick out of. And again the claustrophobia is hard to ignore, especially with a 350 pound woman occupying what little elbow room there is. That such a big woman is confined to such a teeny, tacky, unenjoyable house is half of what's scary about it: Imagine being stuck in there with her. Ick!

So it's behavioral horror where a person is defined by their behavior -- This is how 350 pound food addicts behave in the movies, taken to surreal heights of exaggeration that plays on our own paranoias. We all know the 300 pound shut in dysfunctional idiot up the block, we all suspect that something odd is going on behind closed doors that keeps them from sweating it off just via respiration, and here is an example of what they could be doing. It's almost a perfect little urban nightmare, and over quickly enough to allow viewers to also watch the comparatively awful & unredeemable FAT CRAZY ETHEL 2. If nothing else, that will help you appreciate what a taught little exercise in urban paranoia this is. It's ultra low budget and everyday reality production values may turn off viewers who rely on pyrotechnics or flying squirrels to enjoy a horror show, but give her a try especially in the company of friends and beer and snacks. Ethel gets her own bag.

6/10

Criminally neglected celluloid crapola

[Eegah Guy · 4/10 · 26 July 2001]

Barely an hour long, this has got to be one of the worst horror films of the 70s. Ethel is fat, crazy and hungry for blood in this dreary minimalist gore film. The cast is made up of some of the ugliest people in recent memory, the classical/experimental music score is annoying and of course the acting is atrociously BAD!! Millard's "directing" is completely devoid of style and/or talent, except for an entertaining nightmare sequence where Ethel chops up a bloody mannequin while director Millard indulges in using negative image effects. The blood does flow freely but is way below the standard of your average H.G. Lewis film. If you can make it through this movie try watching the sequel. It's twice as bad as this!!!

Deserves recognition for the effort.

[insomniac_rod · 6/10 · 13 August 2006]

I don't know if I should call this a cult classic but something for sure it's obscure guilty pleasure status.

Priscila Alden steals the show as the mentally unstable Ethel. The woman will do anything for her food! Heck, she even kills her granny in a painfully (literally) scene. She finishes anyone that gets on her way. She's criminally insane because she's released from a mental institution sooner than expected and she demonstrates she's not ready for society! The direction is cheap, cheap but with a heart. The director focuses all the time on Ethel's behavior and at some point you can say that character development was intended. The score is disturbing on it's own way. There's an orchestra in the likes of "Friday the 13th". It worked for the movie's "intense" scenes.

My problem with "Criminally Insane" are the poor dialogs. Ethel's one liners in almost all death scenes is terrible. The rest of the dialogs between her and the rest of the cast are really bad. The low production values need to be recognized because it seems that the producers' intention was to create a serious B-Horror movie.

I recommend "Criminally Insane" for people who can stand a (short) period of boredom with the usual but few must-see scenes. If you don't enjoy the greatness of a B-movie, then avoid this like the plague. If you like to watch extremely low budget movies with zero production values but that try too hard, give this movie a chance.

Demented Hilarity

[thebeastlybaby · 14 October 2001]

This movie is funny for all the wrong reasons - the horrible acting, the lamentable special effects, the bizarre music, and the $.57 budget. However, if you're in the mood for something a little, uh, offbeat and darkly comic, watch this. I have honestly never seen anything funnier than "Criminally Insane" and I would recommend it for anybody who likes the weird, cheap, and hysterical.

One of the scariest films you can ever see.

[casablancavic · 1/10 · 5 April 2022]

This movie was so scary that it kept me up for almost 3 months.

The intense action and tension was just horrific on levels you can't even imagine.

Ethel has to be the most terrifying person to ever grace the screen and you have to think and remind yourself that it's only a movie and not actually real.

The fear she brings to the screen is never before seen and will probably never will be seen again.

Her sinister laughter reminds us how truley evil and horrific of a person she really is and how it is a miracle that you don't die in your chair watching this bloodfest as she is carving up everybody and eats them.

The blood splatter in her house is sheer terror because her fantastic performace enables us to believe on levels we can't evven comprehend - of how good of an actress she really is - and so is everybody else in this masterpiece of terror.

The music score is certainly spine-chilling, as are the makeup and special effects. The editing and camera work is beyond top notch and all film schools globally should be teaching this technique of skillful precision.

Direction that only one of the finest masters can conceive, brilliant locations, a script that must have taken 45 years to develop and mould into what is possibly one of history's finest films to ever be produced.

Makeup and wardrobe is the best you ever will see anywhere and the casting of course can never be matched on any level.

If you are seeking tension, horror and anything else that the best movie can ever have - then this is the movie to watch...even the cover artwork assures you of the skill required to develop such a fine piece of cinema.

For the next 10 000 years to come, you may never see a film so well balanced as this...so invite all your friends and family members, neighbours and coworkers to enjoy only one of the best movies ever made and ever to be made.

You will want to watch it at least 8 times in a row to really grasp how intense this is.

I must be a glutton for punishment.

[BA_Harrison · 2/10 · 14 November 2015]

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.

A gem of a bad movie.

[Cadaver_ · 7/10 · 19 March 1999]

Made in 1973 but not released until a couple of years later, CRIMINALLY INSANE is probably the most famous movie made and released by IRMI Films of Pacifica, California. The film stars Bay Area actress Priscilla Alden as Ethel Janowski, an immensely obese misanthrope who is prematurely released from a mental institution and sent to live with her grandmother. Ethel's insatiable appetite for food causes problems for her grandmother, who promptly restricts her granddaughter's feeding habits. Big mistake! Ethel does away with granny and any other visitor that enters the house. Unforgettable ending.

This is probably the cheapest film I've ever seen (and believe me, I know cheap): the entire film has a grainy "home movie" quality, the music sounds like two musicians constantly tuning their instruments, negative printing is used for a dream sequence, and the acting is pitiful, except Alden, who gives a wonderfully demented and memorable performance as Ethel. This picture is extremely pathetic and even though I've never had the nerve to tell anyone else that I own the film (much less played it for anyone), I still find it very compelling viewing. There's some "other worldly" quality to it that makes it quite unique (and satisfying, if you've got really low standards like me). Don't say you weren't warned!

The exact same cast and crew returned for CRAZY FAT ETHEL II, and a loosely related film called DEATH NURSE (both released in 1987 and both starring Alden).

My heart is just fine as long as my brain is not exposed to this movie.

[AntonFokker · 2/10 · 23 May 2014]

The first time I have heard of this title was in an review by The cinema snob. Judging from his review, I saw how bad this movie was. I than looked for the full movie. And OH MY GOD WAS THIS MOVIE BAD.

I will now explain the story. You see that this review has no spoiler warning, because you can tell the plot in just one line: An obese mental patient who kills everyone who is standing between her and the fridge. That's the entire story in a nutshell, there are some other things like the characters and the ending that I won't tell you (you can watch the cinema snob's review if you want to know that).

The "effects" on the blood are just cheap. The actors (if you can call them) don't look at the person they are talking to, and the music is driving me Criminally Insane.

This is an Z grade movie, so I am not surprised by the fact that this movie sucks, but I have to admit that this movie is hilarious, because of how bad it was. AVOID THIS AT ALL COSTS!!! (especially the sequel)

Fascinatingly bizarre diamond in the rough

[Sandcooler · 8/10 · 5 November 2011]

Vile, crude, disgusting, hideous, degrading, nonsensical: "Criminally Insane" (AKA "Crazy Fat Ethel". Seriously.) is a movie that just has it all. It's a bewildering exercise in bad taste, merely watching it makes you feel like you desperately need to take a shower. Furthermore, it has the unique ability to make everything some people hate about Z-grade schlock into a merit. Just take the film stock this movie is shot on, for example. It looks like someone was embalmed in it, but that's exactly how you want it to look. Forget about the pretty colors and high definition, this right here is what it's all about. The actors also add a lot to the general uncomfortable atmosphere: Priscilla Alden is great as the deadpan lead, but the bit characters are actually just as good. The spineless Sarah Jessica Parker-faced sister who just for the hell of it is also a prostitute, her abusive make-up wearing boyfriend/pimp, the random drunk dude (a sadly brief cameo), the shock therapist, the oddball police inspector, you don't want any of these people living next door. Oh, and then there's the dialogue. This script is so full of gems that it's hard to keep up, can humor get any darker than this? I don't know how "Criminally Insane" was ever intended, but the finished product is incredibly awesome. Dig it up if you can, it's totally worth it.

Criminally funny is more like it.

[Hey_Sweden · 7/10 · 13 September 2014]

Low-budgeted piece of junk marked a sidestep into slasher type cinema for adult filmmaker Nick Millard. It's become somewhat iconic among aficionados of bad B movies, if only for the performance of its leading lady, the imposing Priscilla Alden. Make no mistake: it's a VERY bad movie, in just about every respect. The music score in particular is egregious. Filmed in about five weeks for approximately $30,000, it just sort of plods along, but clocks in at a mere 62 minutes in length. Part of the pleasure is in watching the EXTREMELY tacky gore, which is plentiful and amusing in the way that only the brightest red paint can be.

The late, great Ms. Alden plays Ethel Janowski (an alternate title for this is "Crazy Fat Ethel"), an obese young woman who's just gotten out of a mental hospital where the doctors there seemed to really love giving her electro-shock therapy. Now her sole focus in life is on stuffing her face, and woe to any stupid person that gets in the way of her feeding frenzy. Ethels' trampy sister Rosalie (Lisa Farros) adds complication to Ethels' life by coming to stay with her while continuing to turn tricks for mindlessly horny men.

The superior character actor George 'Buck' Flower, here using his exploitation pseudonym of C.L. Lefleur, adds to the fun with his appearances as an investigating detective. There's also entertainment in seeing the surly Ethel being forced to deal with an escalating situation, killing one person after another to keep this killing spree a secret. As a result, that house starts stinking pretty badly. Viewers' jaws may drop when Rosalies' pimp / boyfriend John (Michael Flood) lets her know how he feels about the beating of women - which actually seems to turn her on!

Millard spices things further with his priceless nightmare sequence, an unqualified highlight. And the abrupt way that he resolves his own silly story does make perfect sense, knowing what we do about Ethel.

This is garbage, but it's GREAT garbage.

Seven out of 10.

It felt old and broken

[cgearheart · 1/10 · 12 June 2022]

It's not easy to call Criminally Insane a movie. It felt like a cheap, poorly edited, no money video tape from Hollywood Video that was thrown about, lightly kicked, had some of the tape tugged at, was thrown around again, was sat at a dinner table and smeared with a bunch of crap, and then kicked around again. It felt old and broken. Not good at all, not even in a trash cinema way. It was just bad. And stupid. And long (even though it's an hour long.)

F.

If you love 'em bad, then this is for you!

[udar55 · 10/10 · 18 September 2005]

CRIMINALLY INSANE is a real treat for cult horror fans. Don't get me wrong, it is no classic and plays like a low rent H.G. Lewis film (yes, you read that right) but there is just something inherently appealing about this film.

The story is incredibly simple (Ethel kills nearly everyone she encounters) with few surprises (the end is a shocker though) but the film is infused with some great moments of black humor. The star of the film is, of course, Priscilla Alden as the criminally insane Ethel. I will stand my ground when I say the film's success rests firmly on her shoulders. Scenes of her repeatedly stabbing her grandmother while yelling, "I want that key! I want that key!" or her taking out a grocery store delivery boy are played perfectly. Despite Millard's claim that the got professional actors from Los Angeles, this is strictly amateur hour (sharp eyed viewers will catch a clean shaved George "Buck" Flower in there though). Strangely, all of this works to the film's benefit, creating some incredibly surreal moments.

The film is filled with plenty of these "what the hell" moments. For instance, Ethel's sister Rosalie and her abusive boyfriend John move in. During a bedroom romp, John explains to Rosalie that he beats her because "baby, sometime you need to be beaten." How does she react to this misogynist viewpoint? Why by embracing him and giving him a kiss! The film is incredibly cheap and Millard makes no bones about it. In fact, he is oddly proud of what appears on screen for his $30,000 ("the biggest budget I have ever had," he claims). Watching this type of "do it yourself" cinema reminds me of the aforementioned H.G. Lewis, the cult films from Something Weird or Frank Henenlotter's debut BASKET CASE. It may not be pretty but it is definitely entertaining.

Hide the Nilla wafers!

[reptilicus · 7/10 · 21 November 2005]

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.

Unwatchable but somehow compelling

[lemon_magic · 2/10 · 23 April 2016]

"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.

"My Heart's Just Fine As Long As My Stomach's Not Empty!"...

[azathothpwiggins · 17 October 2019]

CRIMINALLY INSANE (aka: CRAZY FAT ETHEL) stars the inimitable Priscilla Alden as Ethel Janowski, a rather rotund woman who is released from a mental hospital. Ethel is advised to drop a few pounds, which results in her consuming mass quantities of food, like whole packages of bacon and a loaf of bread with her dozen eggs for breakfast.

Ethel's nagging grandmother attempts to get her to "watch her figure". Ethel ponders this, while eating boxes of vanilla wafers. When granny locks up the food, Ethel takes offense, and takes out her frustration on granny with a big knife.

So begins Ethel's spiral into the abyss of hunger-driven, homicidal frenzy. As the bodies pile up, Ethel's madness explodes exponentially, while she eats and eats and eats.

The cheap, non-produced, barely-directed appearance of the film adds to its effectiveness. Ms. Alden plays her role with utter seriousness and conviction, making Ethel seem like more than the stereotypical lunatic. Even when she's polishing off a stack of sweet rolls or devouring an entire gallon of chocolate ice cream!

EXTRA POINTS FOR: The character named John (Robert Copple), one of the most heinous jerks in schlock movie history! Bravo!

P.S.- Watch for George "Buck" Flower as the halfhearted police detective...

Good Badness #7: Criminally fat and ugly

[Vomitron_G · 2/10 · 3 December 2009]

This attempt at film-making was really too much. This really is Trash with a capital "T". It also carries a simple lesson in life: Never put an overly fat, retarded woman (who's one desire in life is to eat constantly) on a diet. Because she'll go berserk and slaughter everyone coming in reach of her chubby claws. That's the plot of this film, and I can't exactly say it makes up for an exciting viewing. Just imagine an enormous piece of woman performing various actions like killing a victim, dragging bodies up and down the stairs, moving her butt out of the sofa to answer the door, etc. I mean, it takes ages for her to get anything done, so that should warn you about the movie's pace. I imagine the only thing she can really do in the blink of an eye, is eating a pie.

A horrible piece of awful rubbish. Acting that reaches new, unimaginable depths. Be on the look-out for George "Buck" Flower (with no beard) as a detective. As soon as he opens his mouth, you'll be convinced that the man couldn't act his way one inch into a scene even if his life depended on it. The "gory killings" totally fail to have any upsetting effect, as they are so ineptly staged and the blood is clearly some red paint they threw around on the set and smeared some victims with. People just keep showing up at her doorstep (including her slutty sister, who doesn't look like anything remotely "sexy" either), and the fat trollop just keeps on killing everybody while stuffing herself with food. She just piles the bodies up in bedrooms, stinking up the whole place. Anybody who smells anything? Wack & slash, and the poor bastards die too.

Surprisingly, while this film can't move any slower to its "shocking" denouement (which you can see coming from the moment Fat Ethel makes her first kill), I didn't really get bored sitting through this piece of excrement. I never thought a steaming pile of celluloid turd could actually be this fascinating. And no matter how you look at it, once you've seen it, you won't forget it. If you think you can handle a fine example of bad taste in film-making, then this is the film for you. One of the ugliest films I've seen in a long time. Take this as a compliment or a warning; you be the judge.

Good Badness? Yes, very much, if only for its aka title being "Crazy Fat Ethel". 2/10 and 8/10

Criminally Insane (1975) *

[JoeKarlosi · 3/10 · 29 August 2006]

Ha Ha Ha... Also known under the much funnier title of "Crazy Fat Ethel" (or some similar variant), this is a pretty bad sleaze film about a psychotic obese woman of little tolerance who bludgeons anyone who gets in her way by trying to tell her what to do with her life (like stopping eating like a fat gluttonous pig for one thing). She then piles up her ever-mounting corpse collection in a spare room and has to keep buying air freshener to hide the odor! As if all this wasn't bad enough, the acting and directing are all terrible, yet fans of such exploitation crud may get a chuckle.

* out of ****

Super Bad

[Tromafreak · 7/10 · 2 July 2008]

Oh my God!! That was awesome!! I thought I had seen all the great ones. I'm not sure if I've ever seen a mess this bad, except maybe in Ray Steckler's Chooper, but wow, I mean wow!! Where have you been all my life? Criminally insane is about an enormous ogre named Ethel, Ethel has just been released from an asylum. Ethel is criminally insane, her grandma takes her in, only for Ethel to eat all her bacon, eggs & nilla wafers. If that wasn't enough, then the ungrateful Ethel kills poor grandma for attempting to set some eating restrictions for financial reasons. Ogres really do make crummy granddaughters. Now, this is Crazy fat Ethels house, one problem, no more food, so now Ethel orders some groceries, problem solved, I'm afraid not, bad movie fans, she's $75.50 short. Solution? Order the food anyway, kill the delivery boy, then inhale groceries as quick as ogrely possible. Now, problem solved :) Money for food will no longer be an issue, since Rosalie, Ethel's sister has offered to pay some rent after inviting herself to stay. In a shocking turn of events, as it would turn out, Rosalie is not an ogre, she is only a hooker, nonetheless, her face still makes me uncomfortable. Problem!! Ethel stuck grandma and delivery boy in grandma's room & their corpses are starting to stink up the whole house, Rosalie & her beau/pimp who also recently moved in are starting to notice. Solution? Kill them both, All they did was snort coke & make out anyway, not a very appealing thing to watch while inhaling yum yums. Now, problem solved :) Ethel has now, really gone off the deep end, the weird mini montage that includes Ethel chopping up a doll, makes that quite obvious. Unfortunately Ethel's problems are still piling up, not only is there some cop breathing down Ethel's neck about a missing delivery boy, but the stink from all the corpses are even getting to her now. Solution? Chop up the corpses, and throw them off a cliff--no, wait!! That's stupid. Why not just eat them? Genius!! Ethel now kills 2 birds with one stone by dining on her victims. Now, problem sol--oh, I forgot the cop :(

I have read everyones reviews for part 2 and have a pretty good idea of what I'm in for, oh yeah, I still have every intention of buying it (soon), I mean how bad could it be, right?. I give Criminally insane zero stars, because you don't give movies like this stars, Criminally Insane is beyond the stars. Would you give stars to a horrible train wreck? No, you just stare, and be grateful it's only 61 minutes long.

Nothing interesting here

[GoreMonger · 1/10 · 24 July 1999]

Being a huge fan of horror films, I systematically go through a video store's horror selections checking out all of the films. This is an occasion when I should have left the movie on the shelf. The gore in this movie is extremely fake, and the blood doesn't look even close to being real. The acting, well, there is no acting. The film looks like the cast got together the night before to briefly look over their scripts. The only horror movie that I've seen that parallels this one is Appointment with Fear. Both are equally horrible movies that should have never been released.

"I don't have $80...I only have $4.50!"

[alanmora · 8/10 · 16 January 2007]

Let me open up by setting the mood for this one. When "Criminally Insane" was first released in the theaters there was a large, industrial sized scale placed in the lobby of selected theaters where it was shown and any woman weighing over 250lbs was admitted to the film for free! This should help set the mood for this poorly filmed, inept but highly entertaining horror-cheapie. The saving grace of this film is the hysterical Priscilla Alden (the 250lbs actress who plays the role of Ethel Janowski). She plays the lead character so dead pan that you cannot help but be entertained by her as she fries a pound of bacon at a time, cooks a dozen eggs, or toasts an entire loaf of bread! Food is actually a character in this film and it is Ethel's worst enemy. She kills 6 people in between stuffing her face with a half-gallon of ice cream, an entire box of vanilla wafers, or a dozen sweet rolls and when she runs out of ideas about how to conceal the bodies...she eats them! Meanwhile she is also the rudest woman you will ever come across, concerned only with her next meal as she spouts anti-semitic statements about her doctor and calls the grocery boy (whom she had just murdered) a "smart-alec kid". So grab yourself a gallon of ice cream and enjoy this 70's horror gem!

Ethel Fat.

[Foreverisacastironmess123 · 7/10 · 29 July 2014]

I swear this is one of those bad horror movies that hates you right back.. What can one say about this mouldy old curio left in the sun too long that hasn't already been said? Well if you go for weird soft core porn hippie atmospherics despite most of the cast being quite sexually unappealing and in fact ugly as sin, as well as unintentional comedy mostly derived from the wooden actors and their hilariously awkward and clunky dialogue, then this one is most assuredly for you! For just over an hour it feels like a ~really~ long and stretched-out period of time. It looks like a public access television movie, action-wise it's extremely limp stuff with many scenes going nowhere, the pacing is slower than a crawling snail, it gets very dull and dry a whole lot, and I don't think I've ever seen a film with a bigger assortment of lame and/or annoying characters in my life, every conversation is absurdly blah and long-winded and the whole thing is pure trash, but that's what made me laugh the most, I actually enjoyed it as an early proto-slasher oddity, and it worked for me. It chugs along like a broken down old barge, but it knows where it's going and it gets ya there in the bitter end! There's a considerable frustration factor but there's a balance between the enjoyably bad and awful, and for me this was mostly tacky fun than anything else. It's annoying but it's the kind of annoying that compels you to keep watching just to see how it ends. I mean yeah it's a beyond cheap crap-fest but damn it, like Ethel herself there's a certain blunt as drywall charm there and it carries itself very well! Definitely one to chuck on the so-bad-it's-good pile! It's frightfully humble, it ain't Freddy or Jason, it's just Ethel, she lives to eat, she's insane and if you get between her and food you're dead, simple as, and the character was no deeper than that! I really liked that gal, purely because she was so very unlikeable. Her stony expression and rude manner just made me smile, reminded me of a gargoyle! Her method of murder was to chop at the people but then politely stop at the last second just before reaching their heads and then lightly tap with a muffled thud sound. And the whole act is shot in one badly-edited motion that made me bust out laughing every time. And the resulting blood sure looked suspiciously like red paint, but there was a lot of it and it was vibrant and kinda glorious, so I wasn't complaining. The campy gore is probably what Hitchcock would have called a "Mcguffin", something a story doesn't really need but nevertheless simply can't do without. Anyone unwary enough to allow such a lumbering tank of a woman to get the better of them surely deserved to croak! I found the sordid spectacle of her and of the movie to be very amusing and enjoyable. Most of the time I was baffled by the bizarre feel, but throughout it all the stern, strangely lovable gloomy presence of Ethel was there to ease the pain! And although it was no surprise to me as I had earlier reached the conclusion that the picture would get to that point sooner or later, the abrupt quick-shot way it ends gives it an extra preposterous kick that actually caps things off really well and it ended with another great laugh for me. If you ask me this isn't anything remotely special and isn't good or well made enough for it to qualify as a horror classic, but for a terrible quality effort that's cut-down to size, "Crazy Fat Ethel" gives a fair amount of fun to ensure it becomes a surreal slasher nightmare that just about does the trick! She's really fat.

Deserves it's place on the cult circuit

[tomgillespie2002 · 3/10 · 12 January 2013]

Nick Millard, director of obscure cult favourite Criminally Insane, must have been ashamed of himself. As well as this schlocky (yet quite enjoyable) effort, he has notched up as many Z-grade soft-core flicks as he has had aliases, such as the classics Fraulein Leather (1970), Pleasure Spots (1975), and, most hilariously, Sex Weirdo (1973). He has named himself Helmud Schuyler, Otto Wilmer and Alan Lindus, and here goes by the name of Nick Philips. Although he displays a unique talent for ineptness, Criminally Insane proves to be almost charming in its embracing of trash, and although features technical standards akin to Herschall Gordon Lewis, it channels the Midnight Movie sleaze of John Waters.

The obese and mentally ill Ethel (Priscilla Alden) is released from a mental hospital, where she moves back in with her mother Mrs. Janowski (Jane Lambert). Having been warned of Ethel's physical health and dangerous over-eating, Mrs. Janowski places her on a diet, locking all the cupboards and emptying the fridge. After being refused the key to the cupboard, Ethel stabs and killer her mother, and orders a big delivery (with extra ice-cream). Unable to pay the bill, Ethel kills the delivery boy as well, dragging him and her mother into the back room where they begin to rot. Things become complicated when Ethel's sister Rosalie (Lisa Farros) moves in, bringing her prostitute lifestyle as well as her sleazy pimp boyfriend John (Michael Flood), in with her.

From the synopsis alone, one could predict what they were letting themselves in for. This is shameless exploitation, made on an obviously tiny budget, and filmed in mainly one location (probably the director's grandma's house). Millard's takes people's natural disgust for obesity (now a much more sensitive issue in these PC days) and turns it into a movie monster. Alden, clearly possessing no acting ability, is nevertheless memorable, and more disturbingly, believable. I could imagine watching her on the Jerry Springer show being crane-lifted out the side of her house. At only 61 minutes, it doesn't demand much, but if a film this short can feel dragged out towards the end then you know you're in trouble. But ultimately, there are plenty of logic-defying moments that provide much-needed hilarity, and the thickest fake blood you've ever seen, and deserves it's place on the cult circuit.

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"Bad" yes, "unentertaining" NO!

[TheMikeJustice · 10/10 · 12 February 2000]

Criminally Insane is a surprisingly entertaining film, especially for one that's only 60 minutes long and shot entirely in someone's grandma's house. I originally thought it looked like a home movie, until I saw the director's follow-up film "DEATH NURSE," at which point my opinion of the first film changed entirely. I was then impressed with the luster and sparkle of CRIMINALLY INSANE. The characters are really interesting, especially Ethel's hooker sister and her abusive pimp boyfriend who dreams of being in the movies. Most interesting, of course, is Ethel herself. Priscilla Alden, displaying something almost remotely resembling true moviestar charisma. She is a hoot to watch as she hacks her grandma to death out of frustration at finding the refridgerator empty. At only 60 minutes the plot moves along swiftly, with odd subplots rearing their head, including Ethel's incompetant attempts to dispose of the bodies. Very, very, very interesting. Very overlooked. Anyone who doesn't like this movie is a jerk.

Bad Beast

[Tweetienator · 6/10 · 3 October 2021]

One of those low budget horror beasts every connoisseur of the art of horror should have witnessed at least once in his lifetime. Criminally Insane is terrible but exciting and entertaining at the same time.

Trashy grindhouse flick

[Leofwine_draca · 4/10 · 25 April 2018]

CRIMINALLY INSANE is an outrageously cheap and cheerful slice of slash-and-dash from the exploitation-heavy decade of the 1970s. It's a film that's never going to win any awards for acting, script, or direction, but the sheer numbskulled simplicity of the storyline somehow makes sense and undoubtedly grindhouse fans will get a kick out of some of the gruesome antics put on screen. Put simply, the obese Ethel comes out of an asylum and goes home, where she grabs a cleaver and hacks up friends, family, and neighbours, in between eating. There's a lot of eating. There's no subtext here, nothing much apart from all the fake red paint blood, but I guess some may enjoy that anyway.