Tubi Tuesday: Insane Like Me?

“Insane Like Me” is a low-budget vampire flick that is flawed but fun, saved by a couple of capable leads and some solid bloody action.

Insane Like Me? leaves you wanting more with a strong opening that packs a punch and suggests a film full of blood-soaked thrills. Unfortunately, it never reaches those heights again with a middle that lags. Still, by the time we get to the wild ending, there’s enough fun here to warrant a watch.

We meet our cast at a welcome home party for our protagonist, a returning soldier named Jake Morgan (Britt Bankhead). The party, organized by Jake’s newly pregnant (unbeknownst to him) girlfriend, Samantha (Grace Patterson), is being hosted at an abandoned hotel infamous for its dark and deadly history. An abandoned building with a dark history is the perfect setting for a horror movie, but this film takes it somewhere you’d never expect.

When a sleazy investigative reporter shows up to film at the notoriously haunted hotel, an innocent get-together soon turns into a balls-to-the-wall bloodbath.

Directed by Chip Joslin and co-written by Joslin with star Britt Bankhead, Insane Like Me? doesn’t mess around when it comes to gore and blood. It throws the audience into a zombie/vampiric-like horror that spreads like a virus.

When Jake Morgan is blamed for the gruesome fallout from the doomed party, the story accelerates, and I am hooked.

Our secondary protagonist, Crystal Davis (Samatha Reddy), is Samantha’s sister, arriving on the scene nine years later. Samantha has been missing since the tragic events of the opening, and college student Crystal is determined to discover what happened to her sister.

Reddy as Crystal does a good job holding the film together in its second half.

Surrounded by a group of stereotypical and nearly intolerable teen friends, she stands out as someone with a strong head on her shoulders who wants more from her life. As she searches for information about Samantha’s disappearance, the past begins to rear its ugly head.

Meanwhile, Jake is on his own mission. He has spent the last nine years in a high-security psych ward for the criminally insane, where he faced constant abuse from the guards and endured haunting visions of his lost love. He lies to his therapist in the hopes of gaining his freedom, pretending he has been delusional. After getting out, he commits himself to hardcore training and returns home, where he crosses paths with Crystal, the only person who seems to treat Jake like something other than a monster.

Crystal seems to know the truth of Jake’s innocence, sensing his palpable sadness. When she discovers firsthand that everything Jake has been warning people about is real, she teams up with him to save her sister and the town. Unfortunately, her father is the town sheriff (played by indie stalwart Eric Roberts), and he’s got Jake pegged as an unhinged madman. Unsurprisingly, he doesn’t buy Jake’s fantastical story about bloodsucking killers on the loose.

Seeing Roberts as the sheriff was a delightful surprise.

He plays a corrupt family man willing to do anything to protect his town while its residents remain ignorant of the danger around them. By the time the film reaches its third act, Roberts goes all out with his over-the-top acting, which adds a level of fun to the film.

Both our protagonists gave standout performances that had me glued to the screen. Despite the film’s low points, they still carried it well.

Insane Like Me? is a super low-budget film, and that really comes across. At times, the dialogue and acting are cringe-worthy. There’s also the problem of a severe lack of horror. The beginning and end of the film deliver the goods, but everything in between can often drag.

The film relies on its intriguing lore, but it’s never fleshed out enough to work as well as it should. As a result, the big plot twist sadly falls flat.

Still, there are interesting ideas and concepts being explored, as well as the seeds of a much better film, given a bigger budget and another few rounds of script polishing.

Insane Like Me? is far from elevated art, but it’s decently fun if you don’t take it too seriously.