Shaza123 As horror fans, we're used to seeing and celebrating iconic evil images. Remember that feeling you felt when Regan's head did a 360 for the first time. Or the time Jaws finally popped his head out from the ocean? Well boys and girls, prepare yourselves for something truly terrifying, because I have seen the true face of evil! Never mind the likes of Freddy or Jason, beware of the one and only...Ethel! I bet you're thinking, "meh, she's just some fat looking chick" but you'll be wrong to underestimate her. She's not just some fat looking chick, she's one CRAZY fat looking chick, and she'll mess you up!...if you interfere with her eating habits.... That's right! Call her fat, call her ugly, insult her to her face and she'll probably not even bat an eye lid, but get between her and her food, and God himself could not save your tortured soul from the grasps of hell she will send you! Ethel will not rest until her stomach is full, and god help us all...she's always hungry! First of all, gosh I loved this movie! At 61 minutes, it does not overstay its welcome, matter of fact, I felt it was cut a bit too short. But no matter, there is a sequel (plus the Death Nurse movies) that reuses stock footage from it, in case I start to miss it.Welcome to low budget territory! Now recently I've been watching some very low budget movies. Most of them only being successful if they were funny or gory. Criminally Insane is both. The dialogue is just magnificent. There were multiple times I burst out laughing, because I never expected such a ridiculous exchange. Take the conversation between Ethel and the boy who delivered her groceries straight to her house, for example. He brings her a whole box full of stuff, (remember, Ethel is fat, so she's buying in bulk). She ordered a stack of food, so he asks for $80 which seems reasonable. Ethel responds with "I don't have $80. I only have $4.50". I could go on and on listing some of the brilliant dialogue, I haven't even gotten to Ethel's sister and boyfriend yet!Speaking of the sister and her boyfriend, I really should mention these guys. Because good lord, were they serious?! Rosalie is Ethel's skinnier sister, and is dating a guy that has no problem cheating on her, forcing her to be a hooker, and slapping her. Doesn't sound like something that's meant to be funny, but seriously, it is. Rosalie doesn't seem to have much problem with any of this. She puts up with it like it's nothing. I think she's got her own issues, but we don't really pay much mind to them. It's Ethel that's the real star of the show. Apart from her size, she's just hypnotic, it's hard not to become entranced in this movie just because of her. So we've covered the grounds of it being funny, but did I mention it was gory? Cos it's drenched in blood. Red looking paint blood, but blood all the same. Sure, when she's hacking people up with a meat cleaver, it might resemble like she's slapping them with a rolled up newspaper, but it's the thought that counts and it equals to quite a bit of a body count. So much that it becomes a problem for Ethel on how to dispose of the bodies. You're gonna love the answer, I just know it. Stay tuned for the ending. For a low budget flick that's about a homicidal women who kills when people try to stop her from eating, it's actually very well made and the actress playing Ethel (the late Priscilla Alden) really did a damn good job. As I mentioned earlier, it's hard not to find her performance hypnotic. Not sure how how old Ethel was meant to be in this movie, as she's being cared for by her grandma, but the actress was 36 when this movie was released, and Ethel looks a hell of a lot older then 36. I would have estimated somewhere in her 40s. She looked almost as old as her grandma. I don't have much else to say about this movie, except to highly recommend it. For a bad movie, it's one of the best, and one I imagine many people enjoying. Just avoid the sequel at all costs.

Vomitron_G This attempt at film-making was really too much. This really is Trash with a capital "T". It also carries a simple lesson in life: Never put an overly fat, retarded woman (who's one desire in life is to eat constantly) on a diet. Because she'll go berserk and slaughter everyone coming in reach of her chubby claws. That's the plot of this film, and I can't exactly say it makes up for an exciting viewing. Just imagine an enormous piece of woman performing various actions like killing a victim, dragging bodies up and down the stairs, moving her butt out of the sofa to answer the door, etc. I mean, it takes ages for her to get anything done, so that should warn you about the movie's pace. I imagine the only thing she can really do in the blink of an eye, is eating a pie.A horrible piece of awful rubbish. Acting that reaches new, unimaginable depths. Be on the look-out for George "Buck" Flower (with no beard) as a detective. As soon as he opens his mouth, you'll be convinced that the man couldn't act his way one inch into a scene even if his life depended on it. The "gory killings" totally fail to have any upsetting effect, as they are so ineptly staged and the blood is clearly some red paint they threw around on the set and smeared some victims with. People just keep showing up at her doorstep (including her slutty sister, who doesn't look like anything remotely "sexy" either), and the fat trollop just keeps on killing everybody while stuffing herself with food. She just piles the bodies up in bedrooms, stinking up the whole place. Anybody who smells anything? Wack & slash, and the poor bastards die too.Surprisingly, while this film can't move any slower to its "shocking" denouement (which you can see coming from the moment Fat Ethel makes her first kill), I didn't really get bored sitting through this piece of excrement. I never thought a steaming pile of celluloid turd could actually be this fascinating. And no matter how you look at it, once you've seen it, you won't forget it. If you think you can handle a fine example of bad taste in film-making, then this is the film for you. One of the ugliest films I've seen in a long time. Take this as a compliment or a warning; you be the judge.Good Badness? Yes, very much, if only for its aka title being "Crazy Fat Ethel". 2/10 and 8/10

CMRKeyboadist The 70's is truly a great era for cult cinema. With classics like "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", "Last House on the Left", "I Drink Your Blood", "The Crazies", etc, it is no doubt that we have a gem of a movie called "Crazy Fat Ethel" or better known as "Criminally Insane". Although, far more low-budget than some of the other horror/slasher flicks coming out at the time (not by much, though) this was a whole lot of fun and is certainly not a waste of 1 hour (that's right, the movie is 1 hour and 1 minute long).The story starts with Fat Ethel being released from an insane asylum. Her kind Grandmother picks her up and takes her to her townhouse in the city. One night Ethel decides to go downstairs for a midnight snack and discovers that all of the food has been locked away. It turns out that Granny wants to put Ethel on a diet. Well, poor Granny gets sliced up with a butcher knife thus starting Fat Ethel's murderous rampage. She kills the grocery boy when she doesn't have enough money to pay him. She kills a friend of her Grandmother's who is just checking in. She even murders her sister and her slimy boyfriend.That is most of the movie. I won't give the ending away but there is a sequel, so you can imagine how this movie ends. For the most part, this movie was a great "B" slasher from 1975. It's funny to think that the term "Slasher" isn't really recognized until "Halloween" and "The Friday the 13th" movies came along. But no doubt, this is definitely a slasher. For most of the murder scenes Fat Ethel is slicing people up with either a butcher knife or a meat cleaver. And though it isn't very gory it makes up for it with all the excessive blood use.If you are looking for a campy, no-budget, 70's slasher check this one out. I am glad I did. 8/10

udar55 CRIMINALLY INSANE is a real treat for cult horror fans. Don't get me wrong, it is no classic and plays like a low rent H.G. Lewis film (yes, you read that right) but there is just something inherently appealing about this film.The story is incredibly simple (Ethel kills nearly everyone she encounters) with few surprises (the end is a shocker though) but the film is infused with some great moments of black humor. The star of the film is, of course, Priscilla Alden as the criminally insane Ethel. I will stand my ground when I say the film's success rests firmly on her shoulders. Scenes of her repeatedly stabbing her grandmother while yelling, "I want that key! I want that key!" or her taking out a grocery store delivery boy are played perfectly. Despite Millard's claim that the got professional actors from Los Angeles, this is strictly amateur hour (sharp eyed viewers will catch a clean shaved George "Buck" Flower in there though). Strangely, all of this works to the film's benefit, creating some incredibly surreal moments.The film is filled with plenty of these "what the hell" moments. For instance, Ethel's sister Rosalie and her abusive boyfriend John move in. During a bedroom romp, John explains to Rosalie that he beats her because "baby, sometime you need to be beaten." How does she react to this misogynist viewpoint? Why by embracing him and giving him a kiss! The film is incredibly cheap and Millard makes no bones about it. In fact, he is oddly proud of what appears on screen for his $30,000 ("the biggest budget I have ever had," he claims). Watching this type of "do it yourself" cinema reminds me of the aforementioned H.G. Lewis, the cult films from Something Weird or Frank Henenlotter's debut BASKET CASE. It may not be pretty but it is definitely entertaining.