Line #17 Film/CriminallyInsane


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6	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/CriminallyInsane_5864.jpg]]
7	[[caption-width-right:300:The quintessential [[FatBastard Fat Bitch]].]]
8
9	->''"My heart is just fine as long as my stomach is not empty."''
10	-->-- '''Ethel'''
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12	''Criminally Insane'' (also known as ''Crazy Fat Ethel'') is a [[SlasherMovie slasher]]-ish horror film released in 1975.
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14	Institutionalized for an indeterminate amount of time due to suffering from a number of problems, the most prominent of which is her violent mood swings, the morbidly obese Ethel Janowski is eventually released into the care of her grandmother despite the protests of one Doctor Gerard, who suggests that Ethel come in four times a week for electroshock therapy. Once home, the surly Ethel starts stuffing her face, eating her poor grandmother out of house and home. Becoming fed up with Ethel's gorging, granny empties the refrigerator and locks all the food away in the cupboards, telling Ethel that it's high time she went on a diet whether she wants to or not. Not taking this well, Ethel proceeds to stab her grandmother to death and cuts the key to the pantry locking out her cold dead hand.
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16	With no one around to stop her, Ethel goes on an eating binge and quickly runs out of food, necessitating that she order more from the local grocery store. When the teenage delivery boy shows up with the food and demands payment for it and other overdue bills, a frustrated Ethel murders him, barely having time to lock the body in her grandmother's room with the old woman's rapidly decaying corpse before her prostitute sister Rosalie shows up needing a place to stay. Begrudgingly giving Rosalie and Rosalie's abusive pimp and boyfriend John room and board, Ethel spins a lie about how their grandmother has gone away to visit someone and beats Doctor Gerard to death when he stops by asking questions about where Granny Janowski is, and why Ethel has not gone to her scheduled treatments. With the bodies piling up (not to mention smelling terrible) and her housemates and the police becoming suspicious, Ethel starts to crack even more. What is a fat, unstable woman who just wants to eat in peace to do? Oh yeah, kill everyone!
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18	A bit of a CultClassic, ''Criminally Insane'' had a poorly received shot-on-video sequel thirteen years after its initial release, though much like ''Film/SilentNightDeadlyNightPart2'' and the sequels to ''Film/TheBoogeyman1980'', it consists primarily of footage recycled from its predecessor. What little new footage there is has Ethel being dumped in a lax halfway house due to extreme budget cuts to the asylum she was placed in, and it isn't long until her appetite and murderous urges get the best of her.
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20	In 2005, both ''Criminally Insane'' films got a DVD release by Shock-O-Rama Cinema, coming packaged with the vampire flick ''Satan's Black Wedding''. While the sequel is barebones, ''Criminally Insane'' was bestowed with a commentary track and an interview with the director, a producer, and its star, Priscilla Alden.
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22	A remake of the first film, using the alternate title ''Crazy Fat Ethel'', was released in 2016.
23	----
24	!!The first film provides examples of the following tropes:
25
26	%% SeventiesHair
27	%%* TheAlcoholic: One of Rosalie's clients.
28	* AnArmAndALeg: After the smell becomes too overbearing, Ethel decides to dispose of her victims by chopping up the bodies and dumping them elsewhere.
29	%%* AntagonistTitle: ''Crazy Fat Ethel''.
30	* AssholeVictim: John, Rosalie's abusive ex-boyfriend and pimp, is the least sympathetic of Ethel's victims.
31	%%* AxCrazy: Ethel.
32	* BeautyEqualsGoodness: More like "Ugliness Equals Evilness", as Ethel is an AxCrazy psycho who's also fat and ugly, and everyone else is at least average.
33	* BigBad: Ethel Janowski, a madwoman who kills anybody who gets between her and food.
34	* BigEater: The entire source of Ethel's insanity.
35	%%* BloodyHandprint: The opening credits.
36	* CuriosityKilledTheCast: Doctor Gerard barging into the house in search of Grandma Janowski, and John's and Rosalie's complaints about the smells emanating from the locked room making them threaten to kick in the door (Ethel even points out before killing Rosalie that she should have just ignored it).
37	%%* DeathByMocking: John.
38	* DomesticAbuse: John is extremely abusive to Rosalia both physically and emotionally.
39	-->Rosalie, I'm going to tell you the truth for once, okay? You need a good beating every once in a while. All women do. And you especially.
40	* EasilyForgiven: After John tells her that she needs to be abused every once in a while, Rosalie accepts his apology and goes back to having drugs and sex with him.
41	* EatTheEvidence: Unable to get rid of the bodies by burying them or dumping them at sea, Ethel resorts to this.
42	%%* EvilLaugh
43	* GrievousBottleyHarm: After a deliveryman refuses to give her the food she ordered, Ethel smashes a bottle over his head, then stabs him with a piece of the shattered remains.
44	* FatBastard: Ethel is morbidly obese and will kill people for the pettiest of reasons.
45	%%* HandOfDeath
46	* ILoveTheDead: Ethel sleeps next to John's corpse for a night.
47	* ImAHumanitarian: The film ends with a detective, who is called after a neighbor finds a severed hand in the trunk of Ethel's car, discovering Ethel in the middle of gnawing on a severed arm.
48	* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: The grandmother's death.
49	* ImprovisedWeapon: Doctor Gerard is bludgeoned with what appears to be a candlestick holder.
50	* InsaneEqualsViolent: Who knew slight paranoia over food could lead to serial murder?
51	%%* {{Jerkass}}: John.
52	%%* LadyDrunk: The briefly mentioned Mrs. Janowski.
53	%%* TheMasochismTango: Rosalie and John.
54	* MummiesAtTheDinnerTable: Ethel props John's and Rosalie's corpses up in a bed and talks to them while scarfing down some potatoes.
55	* MurderIsTheBestSolution: Food locked away? Kill the key holder. Don't have enough to pay the grocery bill? Kill the delivery boy. Sister and her boyfriend complaining about the rank odors coming from the always locked bedroom? Kill them.
56	* NailedToTheWagon: Grandma Janowski decides to clean out the fridge and lock all the food in the cupboards so Ethel can't get at it. Big mistake.
57	* NoEnding: The film literally ends with a detective finding Ethel partaking in cannibalism.
58	%%* NumberedSequels
59	* {{Overcrank}}: Faked in the scene where John smacks Rosalie by having it done again in a much slower manner.
60	* PaterFamilicide: A gender-flipped version: Ethel kills her grandmother, her sister, and her sister's boyfriend.
61	* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Ethel is quite an anti-Semite in the film, and when it's theorized the missing delivery boy may have been robbed, she suggests the mugger was colored.
62	--> "You and that hebe are trying to starve me to death!"
63	* PsychopathicWomanchild: Ethel is what happens when you combine the selfishness and impulsiveness of a spoiled child with the size and strength of an adult.
64	* PunkInTheTrunk: Ethel stuffs the sack containing her grandmother's dismembered remains into the trunk of her own car.
65	%%* RedShirt: Rosalie's drunk client.
66	* RightThroughTheWall: "Sometimes I could hear you. I know what you were doing with John, Rosalie."
67	* TheScourgeOfGod: Rosalie is a prostitute who snorts crack, while John is a misogynistic, violent ass who also partakes in recreational cocaine usage.
68	%%* SeanConneryIsAboutToShootYou: Or hack, in this case.
69	%%* SerialKiller: Ethel.
70	* TheSeventies: The movie is set in 1973.
71	* TheSociopath: Ethel Janowski, who believes that murder is a justified response to people trying to regulate her compulsive eating.
72	%%* SexSignalsDeath: John and Rosalie.
73	%%* {{Streetwalker}}: Rosalie.
74	* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: It shows most of the deaths, for instance.
75	* VillainousGlutton: Ethel is absolutely obsessed with eating and will literally kill people who try to curb her food intake.
76	* VillainProtagonist: Ethel receives the most focus off all the characters.
77
78	!!Its sequel provides examples of the following tropes:
79
80	%%* TheEighties: Set in 1986.
81	%%* AirplaneArms: Done by Ethel in [[LeaveTheCameraRunning a really, really long]] scene.
82	%%* AssholeVictim: The orderly and Edgar.
83	* BerserkButton: Hope denying Ethel pretzels.
84	-->'''Ethel:''' YOU GIVE ME THOSE PRETZELS, GRANNY!\
85	'''Hope:''' [[TemptingFate I will not]].\
86	''(Cue Hope getting murdered)''
87	* {{Blackmail}}: Having seen Ethel kill the orderly, Edgar blackmails her into giving him her desserts for the next month.
88	* BlatantLies: The opening credits since they're stock footage from the first film with nearly three-thirds of the cast not in the film.
89	%%* TheBluebeard: Edgar.
90	%%* BondOneLiner:
91	%%-->'''Ethel:''' (after killing Hope) Looks like I just lost hope. ([[EvilLaugh laughs]])
92	* ChaseScene: A rather {{Narm}}ful one, with Ethel chasing Doctor Stevens through the halfway house. It involves Ethel chasing him around a dinner table -- several times.
93	* CloudCuckooLander: Greg, who believes himself to be an animal and collects insects from the ground so he can eat them.
94	* CuriosityKilledTheCast: After being out of touch with Hope for two days, Doctor Stevens drops by the halfway house to see what is wrong, and gets knifed by Ethel.
95	* DeadPersonImpersonation: The film ends with Ethel pretending to be Hope Bartholomew, the halfway house director.
96	%%* DeathByMocking: The orderly.
97	* DreamSequence: These are used to show most of the previous film's footage.
98	* {{Flashback}}: To the first film.
99	* ImprovisedWeapon: Hope has her head bashed in with... something that looks like a goblet.
100	%%* {{Jerkass}}: The orderly.
101	* LeaveTheCameraRunning: This movie could win some kind of award for this. It has {{Padding}} upon {{Padding}} despite being only ''60 minutes long''. [[invoked]]
102	* MediumBlending: The film was shot on a cheap video camera (complete with a motor being picked up on the mic), which intercuts with the original that's shot on film. The difference is striking.
103	%%* ObfuscatingInsanity: Edgar, presumably.
104	* OrderliesAreCreeps: The unnamed one feeds the halfway house patients dog food, and taunts Ethel by eating chocolate bars in front of her.
105	* PoliceAreUseless: Two murders at the halfway house and Ethel isn't even a suspect.
106	%%* SerialKiller: Edgar.
107	%%* StockFootage: Roughly a quarter of the film.
108	* WallCrawl: Greg is convinced he is a lizard, and he thinks he can do this.
109	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: It isn't revealed what happened to Greg after Ethel kills Dr. Stevens.

Context Film / CriminallyInsane