Sweet Insanity

"Sweet Insanity" is a 2006 psychological thriller motion picture film by Daniel Hess, based on a short story of the same name by Daniel Hess and Adam Weis, composer Jesper Kyd wrote the score. It starred Rebekah Isaacs as Stacey, Mackenzie Firgens as Christina, and Jeff Bell as Lex. It received an MPAA rating of Restricted, for strong violence, language, teen drug and alcohol use, and sexuality.

Plot

Stacey is a Senior at her local high school. When a new student, Christina, enters her school her and Stacey strike up an odd acquaintance. Later that day, Stacey's parents tell her they are leaving for the weekend. Stacey then contacts her best friend, Angela. Angela is eating pizza with her friends Rachel, Rich, Brian, Tony, and Stacey's boyfriend Ty. Though Stacey requests that Angela not disclose this information, the others eventually find out. Rich asks if Stacey were to come to the park to apparently drink beer. She refused. Later, Rich, Tony, Joey, and Ty are at the park, drinking. Joey is talking, possibly about Slam-Dancing. Tony soon has to leave, and takes a short cut through the woods. He stops to relieve himself. When he turns around, he is stabbed with a large knife. The scene then turns to Stacey's residence, where Christina appears at the window, asking to stay for the night since she says her parents are having a fight. Stacey agrees.

On the weekend, Angela, Rachel, Ty, Brian. Rich, Joey, and Joey's girlfriend Liz are drinking beer at Stacey's house. Christina appears at the side door. Stacey lets her in and offers her some booze, but she declines, and requests to take a nap in Stacey's bedroom. She then retires there.After all of them get quite drunk, Liz and Joey leave the room and start having sex in the backyard. Joey is then stabbed in the back, falling dead on top of Liz. A pickaxe is then shoved into Liz's head.

Christina comes down and discreetly invites Stacey to smoke marijuana, in which she accepts. Ty and Angela get in the hot tub, and Angela makes a move on Ty. At first Ty tells her to stop, but eventually gives in. A drunken Rich comes outside and sees this. Angela eventually notices, and jumps back in surprise. Rich goes back in, and sits on the couch, where Brian and Rachel are also sitting. They commence to play truth or dare, and Rich dares Rachel to kiss Brian, and before Rachel can achieve this, she runs to the restroom to throw up from all the alcohol. Brian goes to see if she is okay, and she yells at him to get out. Someone else comes behind her, and she yells again, thinking it is Brian. The unknown intruder then slits her throat, and on her way down, Rachel pulls the shower curtain down also.

Angela and Ty are back in the house with Rich and Brian. Rich and Brian leave to mess with Stacey's neighbor, former cop Mr. Sutherland. Rich tells Brian to steal something from Sutherland's house, preferably a trophy; while Rich would cause a distraction. Brian accomplishes this task, but is then held at gunpoint by a mad Sutherland. Pleading for his life, Brian is eventually set free with the trophy.

Meanwhile, RIch has gone back to Stacey's to get a firecracker. Stacey does not have one, so Rich takes a bottle. But before he leaves, he and Ty get in a small argument, and Rich discloses Ty's cheating. Stacey, disgusted, leaves. Ty and Angela set out to find her. Since Ty had beaten Rich, he was on the ground. He stands up and walks around the house when the power fails. In the dark, Rich goes to the garage. He is then cut partially in half by an electric circular saw.

Angela finds Stacey in her parents bedroom. Angela, ashamed, goes to leave, and finds a dead Rachel. She frantically tells Stacey, and they both leave the room. Ty had been searching for Stacey in another part of the house; he is stabbed through the neck via a fire poker. Angela and Stacey walk quietly through the house, and Stacey hides Angela in a closet. Stacey leaves, and finds Ty, dead. Meanwhile, someone in front of the door brings a two foot drill through the closet door, ultimately leading to Angela's demise.

Stacey races to Mr. Sutherlands house, and Mr. Sutherland goes outside with a shotgun to look. He comes back in after seeing no one, and is stabbed by an unknown intruder. Stacey, apparently seeing this, runs out of the house. She is cornered in her garage by a man that Christina had been seeing throughout the movie. Stacey fights him, hitting him with a two by four, and Christina also attacks him.

All this time, another friend of Stacey's, Sean, has been lingering outside a gas station, asking various people to purchase him liquor. Two college girls buy him the alcohol after he gives them marijuana. They drive back to Stacey's while she is fighting Lex, the intruder, in her closed garage. But ironically, The three leave before Stacey can lift up the door. While the three drive, Stacey manages to escape, only to be chased by Lex. The second college girl sees this, and dismisses it as being a hallucination from the marijuana.

Back inside the garage, Christina is lying on the ground. The flashbacks she has been seeing throughout the film all fit together now, as she was raped by Joey and Rich, and Brian watched, and did nothing to help her.

The final scene of the movie sheds light on the entire film. Stacey is in a jail cell, along with Mr. Sutherland. Mr. Sutherland attempts to ask about the rape. Christina's voice appears out of Stacey's mouth(a voice-over), and begs Lex not to take over. Then, in Lex's voice, Stacey recites- "She's not coming back".

Cast

*Rebekah Isaacs- Stacey
*Mackenzie Firgins- Christina
*David Fine- Mr. Sutherland
*Jeff Bell- Lex
*Corbett Tuck- Angela Josh McRae- Rich
*Cory Shaw- Ty
*Shawn Bohigian- Rachel
*Ryon Nixon- Brian
*Chris Ratti- Joey
*Vanessa Motta- Liz
*Zak Kilberg- Tony
*Sam Kraus- Sean
*Nadia Gillispie- College girl #1
*Helena Charbila- College girl #2

Trivia

During the scene where Angela is killed, the slits in the doors are too small for the size of the light bands visible.

Brian was originally meant to be killed; he was supposed to be thrown, drunk, into the hot tub, but Director Daniel Hess thought it would be more ironic to keep him alive, considering the other tribulations he'd already suffered.

The film was distributed domestically on DVD by MTI Home Video and was also released in Great Britain and Germany. It also received limited theatrical release.

The film was shot in Petaluma, California, the same town that hosted American Graffiti in 1971. Director Daniel Hess worked as an uncredited PA on that film; the school locker scene was shot at the same exact location at Petaluma High School as the locker scene in American Graffiti.

External links

*imdb title|0439834