Hollywood 90028

Grindhouse Releasing's iconic theme song lures you into an unpretentious, trashy horror film in the first seconds, but despite initial expectations, Insanity is not really about that and fans hungry for blood and violence will be disappointed, even though it's a restrained prototype of William Lustig's Maniac. The film is more drama than horror. An underground drama that shows how Hollywood's dream factory sweeps up ambitious young people who come to Los Angeles with big plans and find themselves chewed up, broken and alone. It's practically exploitation in the most romantic sense, because it works on multiple levels. The film is fascinating for its footage of Hollywood in the early 1970s, where the characters are drawn to the scenery, the culture in the streets, the street art, or even the architecture of the old buildings that will soon be torn down, so the film also functions as a kind of time capsule of that era. In terms of plot, it's slow and literally mind-numbing, but a patient and perceptive viewer with a sense of ambitious low-budget genre production can immerse themselves in it, and then be rewarded by the final scene, which combines a rather abrupt and shocking conclusion to the story with a perfect tight camera shot from a helicopter across Hollywood, in addition to several thought-provoking themes. (10/10/2023)