A fun, weird and trippy movie, set in an asylum where the shrinks are as insane as their patients (and some even more). I like mostly the tone of the movie, the atmosphere, and the sometimes very grotesque, weird performances and scenes. Hysteria - not a movie for everyone, but if you like stories about insanity, crazy docs and their works, this one will just do - just don't expect a horror gore feast, it's a mix of fantasy, science, thriller and drama.
9 Reviews
What starts out like a thriller,ends like a fairytale.
djangozelf-1235110 August 2015
Warning: Spoilers
The ending of this is just a polling and so is the sixties free love vibe that surrounds it.
The old doctor seems to be some miracle worker and can cure any disorder and it turns them into an entertainment group.
This dragged on for way to long that at times I thought I was watching a musical and I was waiting on some sort of revolt that would end it all.
Finally the young doctor leaves the place but after a few minutes decides he was better of at the asylum?!.
The first part was interesting but the second part totally blew it. This movie has way to many inconsistencies for it to truly work.
A 4 over all. And that's me being kind.
The old doctor seems to be some miracle worker and can cure any disorder and it turns them into an entertainment group.
This dragged on for way to long that at times I thought I was watching a musical and I was waiting on some sort of revolt that would end it all.
Finally the young doctor leaves the place but after a few minutes decides he was better of at the asylum?!.
The first part was interesting but the second part totally blew it. This movie has way to many inconsistencies for it to truly work.
A 4 over all. And that's me being kind.
Fame (1980) meets Asylum (1972)
Stevieboy6666 January 2023
Well this is quite a strange movie, British/Canadian film set in an asylum where the doctor/mad scientist in charge is as crazy as his patients, in whom he has implanted electrical devices so that he can create the perfect being (or something, I found it rather confusing to say the least). "Welcome to the last good old fashioned madhouse" he says to a new arrival. Only thing is I doubt that many mental institutions stage musical numbers and accompanying dance routines, performed by the patients, they are very frequent in this film and I found it to be too much. At one point they sing "One for all and all for one" over and over, no doubt inspired by the classic "Freaks" (1932). One of the main characters is Veronica, a beautiful patient who - along with a few other women - sheds her clothes throughout, Hysteria was directed by Rene Daalder, a protege of the infamous Russ Meyer, so the nudity is hardly surprising. Most of the running time takes place in the dimly light old building, the picture is quite dark though in fairness the print that Talking Pictures TV (UK) screened was poor, VHS quality. It looked like it was from 1987, not 1997. Hysteria is described as a psychological thriller but it is also a horror that has a dose of black humour. I didn't really enjoy it, the plot isn't easy to make sense of and I found the dance numbers too repetitive, at 103 minutes it was too long. It is an unusual movie and while it is far from being instantly forgettable it is not one that I would want to watch again.
Incredibly strange b-movie
Mikew30018 October 2002
I really still don't know what this movie is all about. Described as a "psycho thriller", its about Patrick McGoohan as a mad scientist running a hospital for mentally disturbed patients and doing psychological experiments with schizophrenia and paranoia effects. Now it's the turn of a doctor to find out about this mad experiments of his boss.
That's the whole story, and it's even difficult to fin a plot within this weird and confusing b-movie psycho drama. I guess there was no real script involved, as the pacing, the logical story and the acting all seem completely pointless. Only Amanda Plummer's performance as a paranoid wheelchair patient is at least interesting and unusual.
There are martial arts fights, seducing sexploitation, horror elements, crazy zombies just walking around and even modern dance theater scenes, but the whole senseless mixture of weirdo elements cannot bring light into the darkness but only leave the watchers confused about this very strange film that nobody really needs.
That's the whole story, and it's even difficult to fin a plot within this weird and confusing b-movie psycho drama. I guess there was no real script involved, as the pacing, the logical story and the acting all seem completely pointless. Only Amanda Plummer's performance as a paranoid wheelchair patient is at least interesting and unusual.
There are martial arts fights, seducing sexploitation, horror elements, crazy zombies just walking around and even modern dance theater scenes, but the whole senseless mixture of weirdo elements cannot bring light into the darkness but only leave the watchers confused about this very strange film that nobody really needs.
well expressed theme
brozhi26 June 2004
I like the movie quite a bit. I admit some of it is a little confusing at times, but the atmosphere and erratic movements of the characters does an excellent job of emphasizing the point that the place is unhealthy, and that the occupants aren't quite normal. If the place were bright and the people perfectly functioning the movie would have been far more confusing.
The costume choices and the diologue also added to the effect. The characters have strong personalities, and their connection to each other is well demonstrated. There are also some interesting quotes, that could go a long way towards getting the viewer to really think about what they are seeing, and what their life is like. I thought it was an excellent movie overall. Very well done.
The costume choices and the diologue also added to the effect. The characters have strong personalities, and their connection to each other is well demonstrated. There are also some interesting quotes, that could go a long way towards getting the viewer to really think about what they are seeing, and what their life is like. I thought it was an excellent movie overall. Very well done.
Incomprehensible rubbish
Leofwine_draca14 January 2023
HYSTERIA has to be one of the dumbest and most incomprehensible films I've sat through in a while, a real patience-tester with nary a plotline in sight. It's another asylum film in which lead Michael Maloney enters the scene only to discover - unsurprisingly - that the doctors are just as mad as the patients. There's some guff about mind control and the like, but it's all an excuse for overacting, bizarre behaviour and wall-to-wall female nudity, with so much of the latter that this feels like a skin flick. Pity poor old Patrick McGoohan, appearing here in his last film, for making such a lapse of judgement. The biggest surprise is that the director Rene Daalder previously made one of my all-time favourites, MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH, back in the 1970s.
Strange film - but worth a look!
iwill23 February 1999
Hysteria is sort of a combination of Heart of Darkness and the old mad doctor type horror films. Patrick McGoohan is wonderful as always as Dr. Langston, a psychiatrist who is trying out a new radical form of therapy on his patients. When another doctor (Michael Moloney) brings a patient of his to the institute, he finds out that it is hard to leave once you are part of the group mind. Fans of fantasy and new age will enjoy this film, as well as the casual viewer...but it is definitely not for all.
In the Kingdom of the mad, the Insane Man is King
Moor-Larkin9 September 2007
Warning: Spoilers
I had read a little about this movie, which made it sound poor. Then I watched some clips on Daalder's website and there was some stuff that made it look quite interesting. I didn't think I would get to see it, short of a holiday in the USA or Canada, because the only Release was in that Region's video. Fortunately, an enlightened friend pointed out to me that my new video-machine played Region 1 video-tapes!! So, onto Amazon.com I went and here's my review, after just one watching.
Daalder's skill gave it a great opening. The Hysteria graphic must be one of the cleverest I've seen in a while. Daalder is credited with writing the screenplay too. He must have done some kind of Homage to McGoohan's prisoner opus because it's replete with Prisoner, Village and Escape motifs and phrases. The action is pretty straightforward. Disillusioned psychiatrist is ordered to discharge a dangerous female patient he's vaguely in love with. Her care in the community is to rely on her being fed copious pharmaceuticals. Unable to damn her to this existence he takes her to the strange Gothic asylum run by McGoohan's Doctor Langston. We already know that something very odd is going on there and it has led to the 'murder' of at least one man.
It turns out that Langston is dabbling in a little cybernetic surgery on the side and has implanted some gadget into the brain-stem of all his patients that allows all of them to experience one another. His asylum has no locks because nobody wants to escape. They're all enjoying each other too much. His technique has the further advantage that anyone employing violence feels their victim's pain, so there is no fighting or aggression. There is evidently a fair amount of sex however - naturally.
A darkness hovers though, because one mind is dominating all the others and using their bodies for her own satisfaction. Amanda Plummer plays the crippled dominatrix, Myrna, who needs others to sate her needs, much of which appears to hinge upon ballet, dancing having been her passion. It becomes evident that she probably isn't physically crippled but will not dance for herself.
The young psychiatrist is eventually seduced by everyone. His love for the original girl is waylaid by the dominatrix who leaves his former love an empty vessel. His admiration for Langston (who was evidently a doctor out of tune with modern pharmaceutical psychiatry) reduces his resistance to becoming the new King. However, it is clear that his crippled nemesis, Myrna, continues to be the power behind the throne.
That's the plot anyhow. Sadly, Mr. Daalder seemed to lose it in the last ten minutes or so and veers from the young psychiatrist fighting the Langston's system to becoming a willing participant, rather too swiftly. The 'mad' people are also sent out into the 'community' and a suggestion made that they begin to turn the rest of Society into group automatons. This last strikes a dull note because the whole interest of the film relied on a small, tight community being so inter-reliant as to work in perfect harmony together - with all the contradictions between Society and the Individual, which that engenders.
The confused conclusion aside, the movie isn't too bad. Patrick McGoohan has a great time, moving from theatrical flourishes to intriguing face-to-camera soliloquy. The subject matter makes you stop and think at times too. There's a possibly very good movie in there, if someone could concentrate and be willing to put in a little more hard thinking about the concepts and heir consequences; but that'll have to wait for the Remake....... and sadly that probably will not have Patrick McGoohan in it; so I'll just have to make do with this one.
A small PS added..... After watching the movie again, I realised that the young psychiatrist does not "veer....... from.... fighting the Langston system to becoming a willing participant, rather too swiftly".... What had actually happened was that Langston had transferred his consciousness into the younger body. Still a little confused at the ending; but in a good way.
Daalder's skill gave it a great opening. The Hysteria graphic must be one of the cleverest I've seen in a while. Daalder is credited with writing the screenplay too. He must have done some kind of Homage to McGoohan's prisoner opus because it's replete with Prisoner, Village and Escape motifs and phrases. The action is pretty straightforward. Disillusioned psychiatrist is ordered to discharge a dangerous female patient he's vaguely in love with. Her care in the community is to rely on her being fed copious pharmaceuticals. Unable to damn her to this existence he takes her to the strange Gothic asylum run by McGoohan's Doctor Langston. We already know that something very odd is going on there and it has led to the 'murder' of at least one man.
It turns out that Langston is dabbling in a little cybernetic surgery on the side and has implanted some gadget into the brain-stem of all his patients that allows all of them to experience one another. His asylum has no locks because nobody wants to escape. They're all enjoying each other too much. His technique has the further advantage that anyone employing violence feels their victim's pain, so there is no fighting or aggression. There is evidently a fair amount of sex however - naturally.
A darkness hovers though, because one mind is dominating all the others and using their bodies for her own satisfaction. Amanda Plummer plays the crippled dominatrix, Myrna, who needs others to sate her needs, much of which appears to hinge upon ballet, dancing having been her passion. It becomes evident that she probably isn't physically crippled but will not dance for herself.
The young psychiatrist is eventually seduced by everyone. His love for the original girl is waylaid by the dominatrix who leaves his former love an empty vessel. His admiration for Langston (who was evidently a doctor out of tune with modern pharmaceutical psychiatry) reduces his resistance to becoming the new King. However, it is clear that his crippled nemesis, Myrna, continues to be the power behind the throne.
That's the plot anyhow. Sadly, Mr. Daalder seemed to lose it in the last ten minutes or so and veers from the young psychiatrist fighting the Langston's system to becoming a willing participant, rather too swiftly. The 'mad' people are also sent out into the 'community' and a suggestion made that they begin to turn the rest of Society into group automatons. This last strikes a dull note because the whole interest of the film relied on a small, tight community being so inter-reliant as to work in perfect harmony together - with all the contradictions between Society and the Individual, which that engenders.
The confused conclusion aside, the movie isn't too bad. Patrick McGoohan has a great time, moving from theatrical flourishes to intriguing face-to-camera soliloquy. The subject matter makes you stop and think at times too. There's a possibly very good movie in there, if someone could concentrate and be willing to put in a little more hard thinking about the concepts and heir consequences; but that'll have to wait for the Remake....... and sadly that probably will not have Patrick McGoohan in it; so I'll just have to make do with this one.
A small PS added..... After watching the movie again, I realised that the young psychiatrist does not "veer....... from.... fighting the Langston system to becoming a willing participant, rather too swiftly".... What had actually happened was that Langston had transferred his consciousness into the younger body. Still a little confused at the ending; but in a good way.
'Hysteria' flies waaaaaay over the cuckoo's nest and deep into the Event Horizon!!!!!
Weirdling_Wolf3 February 2023
Inventive, hysterical, and strangely beautiful, Rene Daalder's intelligent, never less than compelling psychodrama vividly brings a disturbing verisimilitude to the age-old adage of 'The lunatics are running the asylum!' Daalder creates a stylish, ballsy, and fiendishly clever descent into a tightly choreographed maelstrom of deliciously distracting dementia! This artfully staged British-Canadian Co-production has a rousingly wonderful score, a sardonic, thought-provoking text, and the uniformly fabulous cast deliver visceral performances as the increasingly outlandish patients who eerily share one squalling group consciousness, with their impish, gimlet-eyed ringmaster, Patrick MacGoohan, being on magisterially mental form, charismatically portraying the illuminated lunatic Dr. Harvey Langston with a barely controllable glee! And the sultry, raven haired, distractingly limber beauty, Emmanuelle Vaugier is positively magnetic as the volatile, darkly fascinating, but dangerously psychotic, Veronica Bloom! This jittery,frequently erotic, excitingly off-kilter Sci-horror gem proves itself to be an eccentric, enticingly Cronenbergian 'Shock Corridor' that is manifestly worth the visit!
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