Main Cast: Michael Beach, Eriq La Salle, Ronny Cox, John C. McGinley, Tia Texada
Release Year: 2002
Country: US
Run Time: 113 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
A psychiatrist confronts a new client whose problems may not be all in his head in this drama. Dr. Ty Adams (Michael Beach) is a well-known psychiatrist who has earned no small amount of controversy for his blunt and "anti-medicinal" approach to treatment. Adams is also dealing with some emotional problems of his own after the death of his wife and child. Parker (John C. McGinley), a documentary filmmaker, has arrived at the hospital where Adams works to make a movie about his work, just in time for Adams to start working with a new patient -- a mysterious and angry fellow known only as "The Man" -- who insists he is Satan (Eriq LaSalle). The new patient is not easily convinced that he's delusional, and as he becomes a greater disruptive force, Adams can't help but wonder if maybe the stranger is telling the truth. Crazy as Hell was directed by actor Eriq LaSalle, who plays the new patient and is best known for his work on the television series E.R.; it was his first theatrical feature, after helming the made-for-cable Rebound. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
Eriq La Salle's directorial debut is a beauty despite the transparency of the "surprise" ending. The always-fine Michael Beach, La Salle, and cagey veteran Ronny Cox give superb interpretations of the tight and intelligent script that somehow remains suspenseful and coherent, overcoming an intentionally jumbled structure. The slick, polished visuals glide over a talkative second act that is stolen by La Salle's smooth-talking, infinitely charming, and utterly satanic Satan, which is cause enough to watch. Not perfect, but impressive, and psychological and occult thriller aficionados will find this less ponderous and much smarter than usual. ~ Buzz McClain, All Movie Guide
Sinbad - Orderly; Tracy Pettit - Cheryl; Twink Caplan - Suzanne; Tom Everett - Mansell; Khylan Jones - Brianna; J.P. Manoux - Arnie; Jim Ortlieb - Mr. Tobin; Ray Xifo - Selden
Credit
Lynn Kressel - Casting, Donna Berwick - Costume Designer, Eriq La Salle - Director, Troy T. Takaki - Editor, Michael Huens - Line Producer, Billy Childs - Composer (Music Score), Charles Lagola - Production Designer, George Mooradian - Cinematographer, Eriq La Salle - Producer, D.J. Caruso - Producer, Butch Robinson - Producer, Ken Aguado - Producer, Brad Bryan - Sound/Sound Designer, Eriq La Salle - Screenwriter, Jeremy Leven - Screenwriter, Butch Robinson - Screenwriter, Erik Jendresen - Screenwriter, Jeremy Leven - Book Author
Crazy as Hell, released in 2002 (New York and L.A. only), is a horror suspense film that follows Dr. Ty Adams (played by Michael Beach), an aggressive and overconfident psychiatrist who is producing a documentary film about a nearby state-run mental hospital. While treating a new patient (Eriq La Salle, who also directed) who claims to be Satan, Dr. Adams begins to question his own perceptions.
Adams has a chess game with the facility's administrator (Ronnie Cox) that runs through the whole movie. Adams himself is actually traumatized by the death of his own daughter. His arrogance and insistence on being right leads him to locking the police away from a suicidal patient and attempting to talk her down himself, only to have Eriq La Salle's character Barnett inexplicably appear on the rooftop and reveal jarring truths about Adams, leading to the patient's suicide. The death calls a halt to the documentary, and Adams prepares to leave, satisfied that he had discovered the secret behind Barnett's real identity, having found and spoken to his mother. Adams and the administrator regretfully say goodbye, having left their chess game unfinished. Just before he leaves, Barnett's mother arrives and asks him to take a fruit basket to her son, whom Adams has had locked away in solitary in a 24-hour straitjacket as a menace to himself and other patients. The mother asks Adams if he believes in God, and he says no. When he opens the door we see Barnett inside the room in the straitjacket, but while still at the doorway Adams is distracted by an orderly (Sinbad), and when he looks into the room it is empty. He looks out into the hallway at Barnett's mom, who takes off her wig revealing a bald head. He chases her around a corner and finds that Barnett's mom is now totally Barnett in women's clothes. He chases him further and stumbles into a bedroom where he finds himself, bleeding, dying or dead, apparently having killed himself over his daughter's death. He then realizes that he is now in a library, and looks around to see the administrator sitting on a throne as the devil surrounded by the patients and staff, all horribly transformed, including the recent suicide. The devil says, "Checkmate." Adams tells the assembly that he knows this isn't real, and that he knows who he is. The administrator/devil asks him who is he? Adams says he's a good man. And the devil asks, then why are you here? As he keeps protesting that he's a good man, we fade to black.
The screenplay was written by Jeremy Leven. The themes explored in this film, (love; the relationship between man, God and Satan; fate versus self determination; and the nature of insanity), scratch at the surface of the deeper exploration of these themes in his 1982 novel Satan, His Psychotherapy and Cure by the Unfortunate Dr. Kassler, J.S.P.S., which is everything but a horror story.
