Insane Like Me? review.
Strong character motivation highlights this vampire revenge story.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Insane Like Me?
Directed by Chip Joslin
Written by Britt Bankhead and Chip Joslin
Starring Britt Bankhead, Eric Roberts, Grace Patterson, Samantha Reddy, Jack Maxwell, Paul Kolker and Meg Hobgood
Insane Like Me? Review
By the end of Insane Like Me? the story becomes a hard one to easily classify. It throws a lot at the screen in the final act. A convergence of ongoing arcs and stories, yes…but also a few ideas that feel more out of left field. That’s entertaining in its way. But it feels strange after the much slower paced acts that precede it. What isn’t difficult to classify, however, is the aspect of Insane Like Me? that works best. The aspect that it would be better served keeping its focus on as the movie begins to (intentionally) go off the rails. There is a good vampire killing revenge story here. Trying its best to keep its head above water.
Jake Morgan (Britt Bankhead) returns home from active duty to the loving arms of his girlfriend Samantha (Grace Patterson). While he would like a quiet night at home…Samantha and her brother Will (Paul Kolker) have other plans. It’s Halloween night…and there is a surprise party waiting at an alleged haunted hotel in their East Texas town. Over 200 people have reportedly disappeared on the premises. It’s enough to bring out a paranormal investigator…covering the hotel the same night as the party. Samantha’s dad is the town sheriff (Eric Roberts) …and he does not approve of Jake.
Not long into the party we discover why people have been disappearing. It’s full of vampires. The paranormal investigator gets his story. Unfortunately, it’s by becoming the first victim of the night. Jake fights them off as best he can…but Samantha is abducted. Will was unconscious for the whole thing…leaving no one to believe Jake’s claims of vampiric activity. If you think the sheriff didn’t like him before…the sole suspect in the (assumed) murder of his daughter doesn’t do much to repair that relationship. Jake is locked in an institution and the movie skips a full nine years into the future.
While the first act does a fine job introducing us to Jake and the world of the movie…it has some pacing issues that plague Insane Like Me? throughout. What probably should have been a pre-credit sequence instead encompasses the entire first act of the story. There is some benefit to it. Jake’s emotional state is easier to connect with as a result of the time we were able to spend with him and Samantha. Waiting so long to get any momentum going, however, makes it difficult to get it going when the time does come.
Jake’s mental state is…not great. He manages to score his release from the institution. That only comes about due to his willingness to lie. He pretends that his vampire story is made up…and that he isn’t still seeing Samantha everywhere he looks. We know neither is true. And we know what he’s going to get up to when he returns home. Jake’s quest…to murder vampire on his way to discovering what happened to Samantha is the unquestioned highlight of Insane Like Me?. Bankhead delivers a believable bad ass full of mental scars. Whenever the movie concentrates itself on his mission…it does so for the better.
A lot has changed in the nine years since Jake went away. Will is now a deputy…and he hates Jake almost as much as his father. Samantha’s younger sister Crystal (Samantha Reddy) is all grown up and the only member of the family willing to give Jake the benefit of the doubt. Crystal and her friends take the spotlight for a while. A clear group of fodder tied to an obvious key character. Predictable, sure…but it leads to Jake kicking vampire ass and the more of that we can get the better.
The second act is where Jake’s mission gets the most attention. There are still some pacing problems…but most roads lead to the story furthering how far Jake will go in his quest. It also deepens how badly Samantha’s father wants to stop him. What begins as a seemingly clichéd take on the tough southern sheriff becomes something more interesting by the climax. It’s one of many wild moments that the third act throws at us. Insane Like Me? goes into hyperdrive in act 3. Not every idea works…but they’re coming fast enough that you won’t have time to think about it.
What works in Insane Like Me? works well. Jake is a compelling character who raises every scene that focuses on him. The story beings by unfolding at a slow pace before ramping up to a wild ride. It can’t pull off the action scenes to match the effort put into building them…but its concentration on Jake and the characters that surround him do lead to some fun rides. Where those rides are taking us are not always be worth the trip, however.
Scare Value
The core concept of Insane Like Me? works. It isn’t always able to overcome the things that don’t, however. Britt Bankhead creates a character worth following…even when the story doesn’t give him somewhere worth going to. At its best when it sticks to vampire killing revenge story…Insane Like Me? plays it too patiently between those story beats.
2.5/5
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