I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

How sad is this?

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

"Criminally Insane" is one those movies so uncompromisingly itself that watching it becomes almost an "arthouse" movie experience. The dreariness and awfulness never let up, even for an instant, and the cheapness of the production ends up working in the movie's favor and increasing the impact. I have to rate it a "2", because, let's face it, "Criminally Insane" is TERRIBLE. Compared to this movie, John Waters made Disney comedies (because as awful as his film families were, the members seemed to care about and love each other) and Herschel Gordon Lewis was making Cole Porter musicals. But I will admit - watching this for the first time is a memorable experience.

It is difficult to put into words how I feel about this grainy, drive-in classic. I know it is bad, yet, somehow, I cannot stop repeatedly watching it because it is just so entertaining. Here's the set up: Ethel, a 250 pound mental patient is released into the custody of her grandmother, provided that she returns for tri-weekly shock treatments, gains employment, and tries to lose weight. Unfortunately, Ethel only intends on sitting around the house, cramming as much food down her gullet as possible. When granny discovers the costs of feeding Ethel, she decides to take control and lock up the food. What does Ethel do?- stab her own grandma in the back. Next she kills a grocery delivery boy for trying to collect her past due bill, and both bodies end up locked away in granny's bedroom. The trouble begins when Ethel's prostitute sister, Rosalie shows up, moving in and soon inviting her vain, abusive boyfriend, neither of them being able to handle the smell of rotting flesh that is beginning to spread throughout the house.(Believing grandma is has gone on a trip Rosalie comments, "It smells awful. Grandma must have s*** all over her bed before she left!")Ethel must bump off all who either come between her and her food, or discover her secret, and her attempts to get rid of the bodies all fail. We last see the gluttonous lady attempting to eat her problems away, and as she gnaws on a hand the film cuts off right at the 60 minute point. Reasons to tune in? It's worth a million laughs, and I guarantee you've never seen anything else like it. When it comes to 60 minute movies, you could do a lot worse.

See, Ethel isn't actually insane. She just wants to eat, sit around the house by herself and be left alone for some seconds on dessert. Maybe thirds. Hell she'll clean off the whole sponge cake, the can of icing, maybe some ice cream too on the side. If one thing, she's not shy about her craving for food, and how she lets it consume her. She doesn't eat the food so much as the food kind of uses her as a conduit. Ethel is merely a walking process by which it gets eaten. I will always refer to this movie by it's most famous re-title: FAT CRAZY ETHEL. Try it on a double bill with FAT GUY GOES NUTZOID and remember the cheeze dip. FAT CRAZY ETHEL was one of two startling horror features made by porno/exploitation veteran Nick Millard in an ill-fated attempt to go straight in the mid 1970s: Check out SATAN'S BLACK WEDDING for something a bit more conventional, though not much more. His work might not have grabbed hold of the imagination of mainstream viewers, but fans of ultra-low budget indie regional horror will find a fascinatingly claustrophobic and morbidly obese little horror thriller here. The film mostly takes place within the creepy, tacky interior of Ethel's aunt's house, where she has returned from a couple months of helpful shock therapy to wean her from her insatiable cravings for food. It didn't work but Ethel can live with it so long as the grocery bill is paid. This in a neighborhood where groceries are delivered right to your door: Bacon, chops, cereal, eggs, plenty of ice cream & raw cookie dough.The fun in this movie is twofold: First, watching Ethel slowly and in an almost Hitchcockian manner find herself pretty much needing to murder people to keep the flow of fatty, caloric foodstuffs coming -- and to silence any harping voices in the peanut gallery urging moderation. One of the things I like about how Ethel's character is drawn has to do with how profoundly unhip, square and uninvolved in the world she is. The deaths don't mean anything to her personally other than the need to hide the remains, which does become a problem after a while. But if it wasn't for her uncontrollable gluttony she could fit right at any social circle dedicated to the bitter & withdrawn. Like a Tool concert or maybe the MPAA. The other pleasure in the film is a guilty one, which is making fun of fat people. They are one of the last socially acceptable prejudices to have, since fat people are by nature absurd, greedy and unattractive pariahs now that one legged Eskimos with AIDS are off limits too. I'm playing devil's advocate with this one: Prejudice of any kind is a bad thing, especially when you get to know the target of your hatred as a person. The catch is that this movie doesn't really let you, keeping the viewer at arm's length observing her behavior and being welcomed to criticize or even outright laugh at her for being so disgusting. Watch her plow through a box of Nilla Wafers or scrape some extra eggs onto her plate to see what I mean. Since the film regards her as a freak and regards what she is doing with clinically detached disdain (killing people is worse than overeating, at least in my book) it's OK to regard her the same way. As a walking stomach.Ridiculing someone for who they are is always more fun and safer in numbers, so ETHEL is actually quite a little crowd-pleaser and has a little cult following due to its short life as a Drive In curiosity or home rental oddity. It's hard to forget a movie like FAT CRAZY ETHEL, which once you get down to brass tacks is an exploitation film that is exploiting the obese & insane. Ethel is as sane as you or I, she just finds herself propelled down this path of antisocial behavior by her lust for food. The inevitability of it all is the payoff in a way, and while it may not be titillating to most to watch Ethel's life spiral out of control, the movie's utterly banal, humdrum and everyday look has a certain charm to it that fans of non-Hollywood "regional horror" will get a kick out of. And again the claustrophobia is hard to ignore, especially with a 350 pound woman occupying what little elbow room there is. That such a big woman is confined to such a teeny, tacky, unenjoyable house is half of what's scary about it: Imagine being stuck in there with her. Ick! So it's behavioral horror where a person is defined by their behavior -- This is how 350 pound food addicts behave in the movies, taken to surreal heights of exaggeration that plays on our own paranoias. We all know the 300 pound shut in dysfunctional idiot up the block, we all suspect that something odd is going on behind closed doors that keeps them from sweating it off just via respiration, and here is an example of what they could be doing. It's almost a perfect little urban nightmare, and over quickly enough to allow viewers to also watch the comparatively awful & unredeemable FAT CRAZY ETHEL 2. If nothing else, that will help you appreciate what a taught little exercise in urban paranoia this is. It's ultra low budget and everyday reality production values may turn off viewers who rely on pyrotechnics or flying squirrels to enjoy a horror show, but give her a try especially in the company of friends and beer and snacks. Ethel gets her own bag.6/10

The only thing thats INSANE is how much I love this movie. There's something about boring low-budget horror that makes me feel peaceful and "at home". Its the way I feel about Friedel's "California Axe Massacre". I get a similar vibe from this movie. Ethel (Priscilla Alden) character is so stagnant and unfeeling (no over-acting here). I find it so entertaining to watch wig out within the first 10 minutes, slaughtering family members just because she's got a craving for Nilla Wafers. I can totally see why tons of people would hate this movie. Even though its only an hour long, I could see someone with a short attention span having a particularly big problem with this. But anyone who's awesome will dig it whole-heartedly. (Especially when the detective says "Oh My God" at the end) I do believe thats my favorite part.