Autumn (Robin Garrels), reluctantly accepts a job delivering drugs to a pair of mobsters in order to earn enough money for herself and her boyfriend, Hart (Chris Grega), to go to California. Something goes terribly wrong and we skip forward to present day to find Autumn in a mental institution suffering from amnesia. She's hypnotised by Dr. Lumen (John Specht), the hospital’s psychiatrist, who to tries to piece together her fragmented memories and uncover the events which caused her trauma.  As she gets closer to remembering what happened, the line between reality and madness blurs as the awful truth dawns upon her. 

Well, you can't always judge a dvd by it's cover. The packaging depicts lots of blood n' gore, and since it's a Sub Rosa Extreme product, that's exactly what I was expecting. I was very surprised to discover an intelligently written, convoluted character study of a young woman with a tragic story buried deep in her subconscious. Robin Garrels, who wrote and starred in Insaniac, is outstanding as Autumn. Her non-linear story is told through flashbacks and memories that go from nightmarish surrealism to reality and back again throughout the film. Autumn's relationship with her boyfriend Hart is very well realised, the poetry scene in particular is  moving and sensitive. It's tempting to say that if Insaniac was given a big budget it could be something very special, and in some ways the  budget fettered the film's ambition, but that's doing it an injustice because the performances and the writing have made Insaniac one of the most rewarding movies I've seen in a long time. S.J.T.

Insaniac. 2002

Directed by John Specht

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