Great Insane Asylum Movies
These are the top films which are set in a psychiatric ward.
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- DirectorAnatole LitvakStarsOlivia de HavillandMark StevensLeo GennA detailed chronicle of a woman during her stay in a mental institution.The beautiful de Havilland gives a brilliant performance.
- DirectorDenis SandersStarsStuart WhitmanCarol LynleyRoddy McDowallAn actor hired to locate $1 million in stolen loot endures the rigors of an insane asylum.Great acting by Whitman and Bacall, and Roddy McDowall can be pretty creepy!
- DirectorMilos FormanStarsJack NicholsonLouise FletcherMichael BerrymanIn the Fall of 1963, a Korean War veteran and criminal pleads insanity and is admitted to a mental institution, where he rallies up the scared patients against the tyrannical nurse.Too many great actors with great performances to acknowledge them all. A true classic, probably should be number one.
- DirectorPenny MarshallStarsRobert De NiroRobin WilliamsJulie KavnerThe victims of an encephalitis epidemic many years ago have been catatonic ever since, but now a new drug offers the prospect of reviving them.DeNiro really took my heart in this one -- a very different role for him.
- DirectorWilliam ButlerStarsJoshua LeonardJordan LaddNatasha LyonneA young psychiatric intern unearths secrets about the mental health facility in which he works.One of those new horrors that try almost too hard to give a huge twist ending; the kind you have to watch a second time, now knowing the end, to make sense of the events leading up to it. But satisfyingly suspensful, plus it's got Lance Henriksen.
- DirectorJames MangoldStarsWinona RyderAngelina JolieClea DuVallA directionless teenager, Susanna, is rushed to Claymoore, a mental institution, after a supposed suicide attempt. There, she befriends a group of troubled women who deeply influence her life.
- DirectorRoland WestStarsLon ChaneyGertrude OlmsteadHallam CooleyA meek clerk who doubles as an amateur detective investigates some very strange goings-on at a remote mental sanitarium.The inmates take over in this silent film starring Lon Chaney as the mad doctor!
- DirectorMel BrooksStarsMel BrooksMadeline KahnCloris LeachmanA psychiatrist with intense acrophobia (fear of heights) goes to work for a mental institution run by doctors who appear to be crazier than their patients, and have secrets that they are willing to commit murder to keep.Those who are tardy do not get fruit cup.
- DirectorWilliam MaloneStarsGeoffrey RushFamke JanssenTaye DiggsAn amusement park mogul offers a group of diverse people $1,000,000 to spend the night in a haunted house with a horrifying past.One of the very few remakes I approve of.
- DirectorAnna BodenRyan FleckStarsKeir GilchristZach GalifianakisEmma RobertsA clinically-depressed teenager gets a new start after he checks himself into an adult psychiatric ward.Figured since I included High Anxiety I should throw this one in the mix