Disturbed (1990)

I think this movie was totally underrated. Malcolm McDowell's performance as Dr. Russell was brilliant. His personality transition during the course of the movie added a wonderful level of humor. I enjoyed the story line and found that the whole plot wasn't given away too early. To me, the movie was just what I think it was intended to be--light entertainment. Also I felt the Geoffrey Lewis's part as Michael added much to the overall story. He was the "straight man" and pulled of some great deadpan lines. One other bonus is that the movie shows that very fine line between sanity and insanity. I could watch this production a second time and be just as entertained.

This is really about a sadistic doctor in a mental hospital who rapes his patients. One of these patients commits suicide on visiting day in front of her very young daughter, who later, as an adult, admits herself into the same hospital under the pretense that she has sexual-oriented problems. Really she is just there for revenge. With the help of an orderly who is also disgusted by the doctor's behavior, she sets it up to look like the doctor accidentally murdered her while trying to rape her. Then her "body" mysteriously disappears and reappears despite the doctor's best efforts to conceal his crime. She "haunts" him until he looses his mind and ends up a mental patient himself.While this is certainly not a masterful film by any means, it's not really that bad, and if you are a big Malcolm McDowell fan you may even love it-- despite the general mediocrity of the movie, he shines. Whoever wrote the other review must have the attention-span of a doorknob. For a B-movie, it's really not that bad at all, and even has some charming and amusing moments (candy-gram, and I'll say no more).

obviously doesn't understand about mind-trip movies. This movie was completely awesome and the suspense and visual mastery of this movie is superb. A 6 thumbs up!!! (me and 2 of my friends.) Watch this movie...watch it lots...

A moderately amusing thriller with a comic edge. The (little known) director often uses distorted camera angles to portray the hero's slow "degeneration into a state of madness" (that's how he describes his condition at one point) and the script is clever enough to keep you guessing and wondering whether Malcolm McDowell (in a great performance that gives class to the production) is simply having "vivid" hallucinations or is driven to insanity by someone else. There are some impressively shot scenes in this movie, but it is marred by an inconclusive ending, which doesn't fully resolve the plot. (**)