The idea isn't bad. It's a little odd. Johnny works for a newspaper and wants to get into a psychiatric hospital to find out who killed Sloan so he can write about it and win a book prize. The newspaper guys are confident in the plan. Will they be innthe end? Cathy is a dancer, which kind of implies she's a nobody and morally lke the other dancers. Has she a point to prove perhaps? Johnny pretends Cathy is his sister and that he has incest fantasies. Hey it worked. That gets him locked up to his exact plan. The exact plan is shown by Johnny predicting other characters dialogue which feels too obvious a sense of control but I dont mimd the idea. Cathy is worried Johnny will catch the crazy bug on the inside. I put this down to her being stupid and scared as people can be like this. So then what?.....
He's in and we meet a few characters. We get to see how crazy they are. Fair enough. He has visions of Cathy that haunt him. Pretty pointless in the scheme of things. More crazies for the hell of it. Johnny goes through a door and is met by, no it can't be...nymphos! He walks slowly toward the exist as the sick fucks surround him but it's too late as he's ravished by the... nymphos. He even needs bandages as every mans fantasy became a nightmare. This has turned into a comedy intentionally? Sadly not. Next he has another long and pointless talk with a crazy guy and Johnny asks about Sloan. Oh yeah I forget there was a plot. Just ask that question and boom we have a plot again. That's how this works.
Around 53.40 some guy is walking around doing that Illuminati eye sign all the celebrities do...? Johnny meets a black guy who claims to have founded the kkk and that he's racist. I think the filmmakers thought they hit on shock and social commentary gold and just kept with it for way too long. Johnny ask who killed Sloan and the black guy is about to reveal all, but he goes nuts again...
By now its obvious that this movie relies on poorly crafted crazy characters as entertainment and then the Sloan question is asked every 20 minutes or so to carry the plot.
Cathy kisses Peter in the hospital. Aren't they supposed to be undercover as brother and sister? She gets away with it. Johnny goes a bit nuts thinking she really was his sister. Is he catching the crazy bug? Is that how it works? Cathy think so and gets him to have electro therapy. Bit harsh. She's the one that broke character. As a result of therapy and for the plot to finally develop Johnny randomly loses the ability to talk sometimes. Johnny finally found out who killed Sloan but now is going crazy. Sometimes he forgets who killed Sloan. Another plot twist but not a good one and a bit late. Maybe it was to add a sense of time pressure near the end? Johnny finally remembers who did it and attacks the murderer whilst surrounded by the crazy people doing their quirks. Powerful imagery it is not. And where did the nymphos go? I suppoze they did there purpose already. Johnny gets out the nut house but it's too late. He's one of the crazies. He even has a visual quirk now.

A pretty pointless and movie that had potential. The characters never went on any journey apart from Johnny's predicted crazy downward spiral and Cathy going from worry to grieving. I'd have liked a power struggle between guards and patients or some scenes showing a different side to the patients, as it relies so much on them to fill the time. It was a shock movie. Shock is good when it knows what it is, but this was trying to be serious. It tried to have powerful imagery like the colour flashbacks, but it did nothing other than be an obvious attempt to give meaning. The movie is unsubtle in every way and there are simple loose ends from the start that couldn't even be bothered to have resolve. It did entertain me sometimes. I actually recommend it.