Madhouse

Madhouse is a 2004 American slasher film, directed and co-written by William Butler and starring Joshua Leonard, Jordan Ladd, Natasha Lyonne, Lance Henriksen, and Mark Holton. Its plot follows an intern who uncovers a series of murders at a rural psychiatric hospital. It was released directly to DVD on December 20, 2004 in the United Kingdom and on February 22, 2005 in the United States. Plot In 1994, a young boy attempts to escape from Cunningham Hall Mental Facility before getting hit by a car. Years later, psychiatric intern Clark Stevens arrives to Cunningham Hall to train before he can graduate to medical school. Inside, he meets some of the patients and is welcomed by Nurse Betty, who gives him keys and a walkie-talkie before taking him to the director of the facility, Dr. Albert Franks. On the way, however, they are interrupted by a patient named Carl, who claims that he "shouldn't be here," and that reformed patients are held as prisoners. In Dr. Franks' office, Clark finds a book titled Psychology and the Paranormal, which implies connections between mental stability and the paranormal. Franks arrives and converses with Clark about the facility before introducing him to Dr. Morton and Dr. Douglas. Sara, a nurse, takes Clark on a tour of the facility. As they leave, mental patient Alice sits watching a window, where she sees a sinister-looking boy. Sara talks privately with head nurse Annabelle Hendricks before finishing the tour with the basement cells, where the most dangerous patients are kept- a place nicknamed "Madhouse." One of the patients attacks Clark with a shard of glass but is beaten down by Drake, a security guard. That night, Clark witnesses a young boy on the grounds of the hospital. Later, he observes Alice being physically abused by Nurse Hendricks. Clark sees the boy again and pursues him to the Madhouse but only finds Dr. Morton, who recalls a patient from Cell #44 who escaped but apparently died. Before Clark can continue, Hendricks arrives and gives him the task of cleaning a mess in the rec room.