Sweet young nurse Charlotte Beale (a charming performance by ravishing redhead knockout Rosie Holotik) goes to work at a remote rural asylum run by Dr. Geraldine S. Masters (the excellent Annabelle Weenick). Among the motley assortment of colorfully crazed patients are insatiable, aggressive nymphomaniac Allyson King (the luscious Betty Chandler), loopy Judge Oliver W. Cameron (a gloriously hammy Gene Ross), paranoid Vietnam veteran Sergeant Jaffee (nicely played by Hugh Feagin), gentle giant Sam (the amiable William Bill McGhee), and nutty old hag Mrs. Callingham (the supremely irritating Rhea MacAdams). Said patients are dangerously encouraged to act out their fantasies by Dr. Masters, which of course results in a rash of brutal killings. Director S.F. Brownrigg, working from a clever and suitably overwrought script by Tim Pope, does an expert job of creating and sustaining a suffocatingly dank and brooding atmosphere of seething madness and oppressive claustrophobia. Robert Farrar's spooky score, the grimy set design, a few wild grisly murders, Bruce B. Alcott's grungy no-frills cinematography, plenty of deliciously robust, scenery-scarfing histrionics from a game no-name cast (Ross in particular is a total eye-rolling hoot), and the genuinely shocking surprise bloodbath conclusion further add to the overall infectiously seedy fun of this choice trashy chunk of 70's low-budget regional horror exploitation cinema.
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