Dark Sanity (1982) User Reviews

The only demon here is the demon drink.

[BA_Harrison · 3/10 · 3 August 2017]

The cover for Dark Sanity depicts a woman, presumably Kory Clark as the film's protagonist Karen, with a demonic forked tongue. Why, I don't know, because she doesn't have one in the film. Instead of being a she-demon (which might have been cool), Karen is simply a housewife, albeit a recovering alcoholic housewife with marital issues and psychic powers. In an attempt to start life afresh, Karen and her long-suffering husband Alan (Chuck Jamison) move to a new home, which they got cheap, partly because it is such an ugly property (those rough stucco walls and caramel carpets have simply got to go!), but also, as they later learn, because it was the site of a brutal murder.

Soon after, Karen starts to have chilling visions of the killing: glimpses of a shadowy figure brandishing an axe and a severed head. Hubby Alan, who is fresh out of sympathy, thinks that his wife is back on the sauce, but a local cop, Larry Craig (Aldo Ray), who was involved with the murder investigation, believes that Karen might be the key to solving the case.

A meandering mediocre mystery featuring very little gore and zero scares, Dark Sanity is humdrum stuff, despite fairly capable direction from Martin Green and one or two adequate performances. The boredom arises from a dreary script that focuses far too much on Karen and Alan's failing relationship, and which neglects to deliver scenes of tension. There's also a little too much padding in the form of obviously innocent suspect Benny the creepy handyman, and to make matters worse, apart from the visions and a poor cat who loses its head, there are zero deaths. If only a few more people had wound up hacked to pieces before the final reveal, this might have been a worthwhile little psycho thriller.

As it stands, it's a 3/10 at best.

Obscure and cheaply produced psychothriller

[capkronos · 3/10 · 12 May 2003]

An insurance salesman (Chuck Jamison) and his recently deinstitutionalized alcoholic blonde wife (Kory Clark) move into a new house in Los Angeles. She has bloody visions of an axe murderer and severed body parts lying around the house. Turns out that the same house is a former murder site and the killer was never found. Ridiculous suspects turn up like a balding, sweaty gardener who crushes snails in his hand, a nosy neighbor inspired by Ruth Gordon in ROSEMARY'S BABY, her fat slob/pervert husband, a guy at a nuthouse and guest star Aldo Ray as a "retired" cop Larry Craig, who had similar visions of the house when he investigated the original murders.

This thriller with a rock-bottom budget (which I saw as STRAIGHT JACKET) has a little low-budget charm, but is slow moving, poorly made and pretty boring. Some videos say it was made in 1982 or 1987, but I've also seen the production year listed as 1978 (?)

"It's too terrifying to even try & visualise it." Another average one-time-watch horror/thriller/mystery at best.

[poolandrews · 4/10 · 4 June 2005]

Dark Sanity starts with a seemingly happy married couple named Alan (Chuck Jamison) & Karen Nichols (Kory Clark, the IMDb listing is wrong her name is definitely spelt with a 'K' in the credits) moving into a new house in Los Angeles area having relocated from San Diego. Karen is an ex-alcoholic & has in the past suffered from 'visions', things begin badly as no soon has Karen set foot in the house she has a horrifying psychic vision of a severed head... Alan tries to comfort her & they both try to forget the incident & get on with moving in. Alan is a salesman & invites his boss & his wife Mr & Mrs (Clarine Jackman) Jacobs round for dinner, an idea with which Mr Jacobs agrees to. At first the casual dinner party goes well but while going upstairs Karen suffers from another vision, this time a cloaked figure appears to attack her with an axe. The Jacobs quickly make their excuses & leave as Karen shouts, screams & acts like a real loon. Karen's visions continue & she thinks about starting to drink again when an ex-police Sergeant named Larry Craig (Aldo Ray) talks about the house's dark past. Craig says that a woman named Lucy Duncan (Iris Bath) was decapitated in the house about a year ago & he thinks that the wrong man was put away, Lucy's son Edward (Dennis Barnett). Craig also says that he had strange visions in the house as well & that he was a personal friend of Lucy's. Craig believes that the murderer is still at large & Karen's visions can help him unlock the mystery, find the real killer & bring them to justice. But who can it be? Surely it's not Benny the retarded gardener as that would be far too obvious, but who else is there...?

Directed Martin Green Dark Sanity is a strictly by-the-numbers murder mystery with a few horror elements thrown in for good measure. The script by Larry Hilbrand & Phillip Pine isn't exactly gripping edge-of-the-seat stuff as it plods along at a fairly pedestrian pace. The murder elements aren't introduced until the 30 odd minute mark when Craig eventually shows up, what proceeds that is Karen having a couple of very brief visions. Frankly I'm surprised at the IMDb on this occasion, they insist on no spoilers without warning readers yet the 'Plot Outline' section on Dark Sanity's main page gives away the twist ending revealing Karen's visions weren't flashbacks to the past but in fact flashfarwards to the future, her future. The person who wrote that is fired! Empty your desk now! Anyway, it works OK as an overall storyline but seemed a little lightweight & the eventually unmasking of the killer was somewhat underwhelming & the motive was about as simplistic & dull as it could have been & it's a shame that such little effort appeared to go into this potentially make-or-break aspect of the script. Dark Sanity felt more like a Saturday afternoon crime mystery episode like Columbo (1971 - 2003, wow has it really been that long?!) or Quincy (1976 - 1983) just without the intelligence or personality. The psychic investigator portion of the script is also severely underdeveloped & this could have been a great plot thread but instead it's reduced to the cheapness of having Karen scared by her visions & being able to have a severed head turn up once in a while, the marital dramatics between Alan & Karen also seem unnecessary & are frankly tedious to sit through. One more thing, what has that black cat that keeps turning up got to do with anything? There's not a lot of gore, just a couple of OK looking severed heads, one cat & one human & a severed hand. The acting is OK & varies throughout the film. Technically Dark Sanity looks rather cheap through it's relatively short 85 odd minute running time, it ain't going to win any awards that's for sure. The music sounds like it was composed for a completely different film & doesn't compliment the on screen action at all. Overall I thought Dark Sanity was an OK time waster, I don't think I will ever want to see it again but as a one-time-watch it was satisfactory. Average at best & a good episode of Columbo would probably be a better alternative, difficult to recommend.

Independent horror with a good atmosphere

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 26 February 2017]

DARK SANITY is an interesting independent horror film made in America in 1982. The behind-the-scenes shenanigans seem to be just as interesting as the film itself with reports of the main cast members never getting paid for their work and the like. The whole film is set in and around an old house which is moved into by a young woman who may or may not be going out of her mind.

The protagonist of this film is assailed by all kinds of weird visions, most of them rather amusing in an inept kind of way. The supporting cast is made up of the usual creepy characters popping up unexpectedly and supposedly helpful characters telling our heroine that she's imagining everything. Aldo Ray, who had quite a career in Z-grade cinema in the 1980s, plays in a largish supporting role. Although nothing much happens in DARK SANITY, I found it better than expected, as it does manage to evoke an appropriately creepy atmosphere throughout.

Not Really Scary, but.....

[brando5092 · 5/10 · 25 January 2001]

It can be said that good movies are a dime a dozen...too bad this one can't seem to find a dozen to fit into. I saw this movie by sheer accident (I was expecting to see the Joan Crawford one...as in this one's titled "Straight Jacket" on video)and I was really not impressed at all....it was pretty boring and pretty dull in the scare department...but it was not all bad...it had one the my favorite "horror" actors in it...as in one who I respect and who became more known for his horror (in my mind at least--Eg. "The Forest"-"Don't Go Near The Park")than for his earlier more serious works as in Aldo Ray..The story was your A-typical slasher type film story of the early 80's--very low budget (as you can tell by the quality of the film and the way it looks like it was shot using less than standard film)and for the most part poorly acted...but it was actually kind of creative in parts--no not "E.T." creative but it's not supposed to be...I'd be real surprised if this movie ever found it's way into someone's personal collection....not because it was bad...but just because there are better things out there very similar to this that may catch your eye and in the end make you forget to pick this one up off the video store shelf....Honestly I can't say it was good but for low budget horror it was not that bad...on the bright side it was better than, more scary than and even more realistic than the modern disaster "Anaconda"....sometimes low budget can be more interesting than big budget.

"The only thing you're gonna leave in this house is a bad taste in my mouth."

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 21 March 2023]

With genius lines of dialog like that, you know you're not listening to Shakespeare or Edgar Allan Poe Or Nathaniel Hawthorne or any of the other great writers of Gothic thrillers or fabulous ghost stories. For members of the Aldo Ray fan club, this film is an absolute must, with him as a retired cop who decides that he needs to help the newly arrived couple (Kory Clark and Chuck Johnson) who Move into a house where only a year ago, a horrendous ax murder took place. Johnson is oh so attentive and worried about his recovering alcoholic wife who runs scared from Ray until he confronts her as she's about to go off the wagon, seemingly to warn her, but there's more to him than meets the mental ward at Cedars-Sinai. A nosy, overly friendly neighbor seems to pop around at the most inconvenient of times, adding to suspicions that Ray is somehow involved.

This is one of tjose delightfully bad thrillers, with subtle elements of horror but nothing really graphic. Well maybe a severed head and hand, and some other bizarre visuals, making Clark scream hysterically. She's pretty good as the troubled heroine, but Johnson is unconvincing as the oh so loving husband. Other supporting players come off rather amateurish, but it is unintentionally funny and enjoyable, even the second half does drag a bit. They obviously tried to stretch this out quite a bit, utilizing the subplot of Clark's drinking problems from the past as a constant fallback when the horror elements of the story are sidelined. Probably too many characters (including the sex starved husband of the nosy neighbor ogling Clark and the suspicious acting gardener) which means a lot of red herrings. But I stuck with it through, something I don't always do with starless thrillers on low budgets. So while intriguing, it's a chore from time to time, but not a total time waster.

Like an ABC Movie of the Week, straight from the psych ward

[drownsoda90 · 7/10 · 24 July 2023]

"Dark Sanity" (also released as "Straight Jacket") follows recovering alcoholic Karen Nichols, who moves into a house in Los Angeles with her husband where a brutal axe murder occurred. Karen, already prone to psychic events, begins to experience a number of disturbing visions.

This little-seen production is about as obscure as obscure can get; virtually nothing is known about anyone involved with it, and all the names associated with it have fallen into complete anonymity other than that of Aldo Ray, who stars as a quirky retired cop who also shares a psychic connection to the protagonist's home. To put it plainly, there is not much about this film that makes sense. Karen's visions ostensibly have a greater meaning, though the house and Ray's character's connection to the murder victim is sketchily drawn to say the least. Karen's alcoholism is played to the hilt only to generate conflict between her and her gruff husband, but the roots of her problems remain unclear. The psychic and premonitory elements are even stranger and come across as arbitrary features that were shoehorned into the screenplay.

From a narrative standpoint, it seems obvious that the filmmakers behind "Dark Sanity" either ran out of money or ideas (or perhaps both), as the film feels like a slipshod effort that was patched together to make a semi-cohesive final product. That being said, all of the relative strangeness that abounds in the film really makes it a treat for anyone who enjoys bad (and surreal) B-horror movies. It is similar in tone to something like "Don't Go Near the Park" in that, despite having a dark subject matter, it aesthetically resembles a family-oriented made-for-TV movie of the era, boasting stark '70s period sets, simplistic camerawork, and a stock musical score that could have just as well been featured in an episode of "The Brady Bunch."

The gaudy late '70s/early '80s Southern California atmosphere lends the film a nice nostalgic flair, and, while I wouldn't say it is an overall well-acted film, there are actually some solid performances here, particularly from Chuck Jamison, who plays Karen's boorish husband. Kory Adams, who portrays the tortured Karen, also offers some realistic moments in a performance that is otherwise often shaky. The experienced Aldo Ray (at this stage in his career, a drunk himself) is actually worse than both, spitting his dialogue out and stumbling over lines.

The film culminates with a giallo-esque attack sequence revealing the black-clad axe killer, in what is one of the most absurd (and abrupt) chase sequences in horror history--it's all good, though, because the truth is, "Dark Sanity" is not much of a horror movie anyway. If anything, it's a psychological chamber drama with some murder mystery thrown in (and some brainscrambling psychic powers). While it is on many levels a veritably bad film, I did find it extremely entertaining and weirdly fascinating. It is one of those obscure genre efforts whose production history is likely more interesting than the film itself. Unfortunately, at least as of the writing of this review, nobody involved with it has come forward, and few people have even seen it; it was released direct-to-video, receiving scant distribution and only occasional TV airings throughout the 1980s. It may one of those instances of films that are truly "lost to history." 7/10.

"Schizoid, Paranoid, One Of The 'Oids!"...

[azathothpwiggins · 10 June 2021]

DARK SANITY is a long, dull slog through a woman named Karen's "visions" and panic attacks. She's allegedly being stalked by a scary man (Aldo Ray), and, not-surprisingly, her husband doesn't believe her. While Karen frets a lot, there's also a gardener who's either been trained to act like a zombie, or has been lobotomized.

This all leads to the sudden, absurd finale, making us wonder what hideous sin we've committed that has brought this movie upon us.

After watching this cinematic donkey log, it's no shock that the producer and director vanished after it's completion...