Crazy As Hell (2002)

Starring: Mike Beach, Eriq La Salle, Ronny Cox
Director: Eriq La Salle

Rating: R

Studio: Artistic License Films

Review Posted: 10.14.02

Spoilers: Minor

Rating: 3.5/4

By Harvey S. Karten.

A lot of movies over the past century have as their moral that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. If any have pushed this theme more literally than Eriq La Salle's "Crazy As Hell," I'd like to know about them. "Crazy As Hell," which features director La Salle in a compelling role as well, is part medieval morality tale, part Stephen King, and thoroughly absorbing, all the more impressive because it's a low-budget job, shot in L.A. over a period of just nineteen days, with a 24 HD camera, the sort of cinematography just made for a picture like this one. Any of you out there in the audience with a big ego: be warned. Erik Jendresen, the scripter of this ripper, wants your head on a platter.

The opening scene is a cryptic one, the sort that makes sense in the final minutes, which is just the way we like our psychological thrillers. Egotistical Dr. Ty Adams (Michael Beach) sits on a chair, sweating in deep anxiety, a puddle of blood oozing under the door from the room next door, but never fear: this story is not some adolescent "Scream."

The horrors conjured up by La Salle are to be taken with deadly seriousness. Shortly thereafter, we watch this Dr. Adams entering a state mental hospital, given thirty days to test his far-out theory that he can cure flat-out psychotics without medication. (Anyone who has taken Psych 101 knows that middle-class neurotics are the real candidates for talking cures.) Though this experiment is resisted by the institutions' head, Dr. Delazo (Ronny Cox), the show must go on and it's to be filmed 24/7 by a crew headed by Parker (John C. McGinley). While the doc tries mightily with one particular patient, a belligerent Cheryl (Tracy Pettit) who had been a victim of abuse as a child, the real kicker comes in when a charismatic dude who insists that he's Satan (Eriq La Salle) checks himself into the hospital, hostile to Dr. Adams, but using his superior intelligence to push the psychiatrist's buttons.

If you've ever been on the couch (now, now, nothing to be ashamed of, in fact you should be complimented for seeking help for what makes you unhappy), you probably treated your shrink like a god. The guy taking notes and taking your $150 per is calm, cool and collected, knows all and tells virtually nothing. You simply cannot imagine that he has the problems that every other human being is privy to, because he's not about to let you in on any aspect of his personal life.

"Crazy As Hell" sets you straight. Not only can head doctors have problems of their own, but why do you think they were interested in the field of psychology in the first place? Right. Even the most centered of the profession, in fact especially that sort, are bound to believe that they can be of substantial assistance to those they treat, but beware. Ego can be the death of them. "Crazy As Hell" is sharply told, crisply acted with the humor coming from the wonderful John C. McGinley as documentarian, a move for fans that want their horror straight up.

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