Madhouse (2004 film)

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Madhouse
Directed by	William Butler
Written by	William Butler Aaron Strongoni
Starring	Joshua Leonard Jordan Ladd Natasha Lyonne Lance Henriksen
Music by	Alberto Caruso
Cinematography	Viorel Sergovici
Distributed by	Lions Gate Films
Release date(s)	December 20 2004 (UK) February 22 2005 (USA)
Running time	91 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Madhouse is a 2004 film, directed and co-written by William Butler and starring Joshua Leonard. It was released directly to DVD on December 20, 2004 in the United Kingdom and on February 22, 2005 in the United States. It is rated R for strong horror and violence, gore and scenes of a sexual nature.

[edit] Plot

The film opens with a flashback depicting a young boy escaping from Cunningham Hall, a mental facility. The boy escapes through his window and manages to run into nearby woods, where two of the facility's staff pursue him. The boy escapes into an open area, when a car emerges from the darkness and runs him over, sending him tumbling into bushes. A man exits the car and looks on before returning to the car, assuming the young boy dead.

Clark Stevens (Joshua Leonard), a psychiatric intern, has come to Cunningham Hall Mental Facility to train before he can graduate to medical school. Inside, he meets some of the patients (with one convincingly pretending to be a doctor working there) and is welcomed by nurse Betty. Betty gives him keys to the facility and a walkie-talkie for communication, then takes him to the person in charge of the facility, Dr. Franks (Lance Henriksen). On the way however, they are suddenly interrupted by one of the patients named Carl, who claims that he "shouldn't be here" and patients aren't allowed to go home when they're mentally stable. Betty shrugs the accusations off and pushes Carl away.

In Dr. Franks' empty office, Clark examines his bookcase whilst waiting for Franks to arrive. He finds a book titled "Psychology and the Paranormal," which strikes his interest. He reads the first page, which implies connections between mental stability and the paranormal. Before he continues reading, Franks arrives. Clark and Frank talk about the facility and its patients, with Clark suggesting some improvements for the building, but Franks replies stern and bluntly. At this point, Dr. Morgan and Dr. Douglas enter, wanting to meet Clark.

Clark now meets nurse Sara (Jordan Ladd) in the cafeteria, and she takes Clark on a tour around the facility. As they leave, mental patient Alice (Natasha Lyonne) sits watching a window, where she sees flashes of a demonic-looking boy. Sara continues the tour with Clark, but come across head nurse Hendricks, who talks to Sara privately. Whilst they're talking, Clark examines a flickering light when a mental patient claims "there's something up there." Sara returns and continues the tour, and finishes it off by taking him to the basement cells, where they hold the patients that are potential murderers and rapists - a place nicknamed "Madhouse."

These basement cells are supervised by security guard Wallace, who grants Clark and Sara access to the Madhouse. However, one of the patients seems to have a paranoid fit, and starts smashing glass with his head. Sara calls Drake, another security guard, to come down and help. This scares Clark, who backs up against a wall and is grabbed by a patient, who is holding a sharp shard of glass, trying to self-harm and bleed over Clark. Luckily, Drake arrives and beats the patient, with Clark telling him to cease because the patient didn't hurt him. Drake does indeed stop the beating and leaves, saying "let's hope he gets it right next time."

Later at night, Clark is in his room, when he witnesses a boy pass the bathroom door. Clark investigates, but no-ones there. Over the walkie-talkie, Clark overhears a report about a "situation in the rec-room," and goes to help. Instead, he spies on the situation from the door and watches Hendricks badly treat Alice with a stun-gun over medication. She continues shocking Alice with the stun-gun, but Alice is saved by Carl, who treats her sympathetically and takes her to her room.

Clark makes his way back to his room, but finds the boy from before in the hallway. Clark gives chase, and ends up at the Madhouse, where he finds no-one at the supervision desk and the door to Madhouse open. Clark enters to investigate, but finds nothing. However, Dr. Morgan finds him and they talk about the mysterious boy. Morgan recalls a patient from Cell #44, who escaped but apparently died - however, Morgan believes him to still be alive and back in the facility. Before he can continue, Hendricks arrives and gives Clark the task of cleaning up a mess in the rec-room.

Sometime later, Clark confronts Franks about the boy. Franks denies that anyone could be running around un-supervised. Clark retells the Cell #44 story to Franks and notices a book titled "Ghosts and Hauntings" on the desk, which Franks hastily removes. When Clark leaves the office, Hendricks arrives and argues with Franks. Clark overhears some of the argument, such as Hendricks shouting "[she] knows." Soon, Sara arrives and they discuss Franks selection of weird books before Sara is requested at the nurses station for night duty.

In the nurses station, Sara and Hendricks hear a mysterious sound. Hendricks, equipped with her stun-gun, investigates the source and is led into dark stairway, when someone in a cloak attacks her and renders her unconscious. She wakes up strapped to a chair, and the cloaked figure plays loud music whilst torturing her with the stun-gun. She begs him to stop, and the figure dissapears. However, a few moments later, he pops back up from behind the chair and continues the torture - eventually killing Hendricks.

The next day, Hendrick's body is found and is taken away. Franks assures everyone he'll "seriously review the safety protocol" to prevent this happening again. The staff are then assigned patients to interview about the murder, with Clark being assigned to the Madhouse with Drake. Drake, after getting angry at one of the patients, leaves. Clark, alone, only has a few more to get through and goes to Cell #44, where a patient hides in the darkness and refuses to talk. Clark goes away, but then the patient - who identifies himself as Ben London - starts to talk cryptically and sometimes in riddles. He tells Clark that if he's looking for the murderer, "the top of the food chain is a good place to start," which Clark infers to be Franks.

Sometime later, Clark asks Grace (the nurse in charge of medicine) what Ben's prescription is and what it's for. Grace replies that everyone in the Madhouse are on the same drugs, and Clark takes a bottle for examination. Outside, Clark sits watching the patients play, when he sees the mysterious young boy from before playing with a ball. Carl then joins him and recalls his past to Clark of how he ended up in the facility. Clark says that Carl shouldn't be in the facility anymore, and Carl agress, "but the day [he] leaves here is the day [he] dies."

In a meeting later, lead by Clark and Sara, Alice talks about seeing the young boy. Clark is intrigued and Alice continues, saying the boy makes sure that she "never forgets what madness feels like." After the meeting, on his way back to his room, Clark comes across Drake having sex with a patient in an open room. After Drake notices him looking, Clark leaves. Waking up the next morning, Clark gets a phone call from Sara that Drake is the murderer and has been arrested by the police.