Saturday, April 5, 2014

Crazy Fat Ethel II (1987)

aka Crazy Fat Ethel 2, aka Criminally Insane 2

How bad is it? 90% of it is borrowed footage.
Should you see it? Only if you can't find a copy of "Criminally Insane."

In 1974, the film "Criminally Insane" was made on a shoestring budget and went unnoticed until it developed a cult following when it was released on videotape. It's about a woman who's obsessed with food and kills anyone who gets between her and her meal (fortunately, she doesn't resort to cannibalism). The star, Priscilla Alden, could actually act and had charisma of a sort. Thirteen years later, the same director got the same actress to play the same character, this time shot on videotape (and the difference in quality of film stock is obvious). Because of overcrowding, she's been released from the asylum she was placed in at the end of the first film and she just goes back to her old ways. The problem with the film is that it consists almost entirely of flashbacks to the earlier film, a money-saving approach taken to an extreme. This makes it the same film as before, but with the continuity missing. After this, there was another near-sequel called "Death Nurse," which is not worth more than this mention.

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