Psychotic uses that tried and tested horror scenario - the lunatics have taken over the asylum. It's a premise that is usually good for plenty of scares and suspense - you'd have to be a really bad film-maker to screw this up - but writer/director Johnny Johnson fails on almost every level, penning a dreadful script, commanding lousy performances and displaying a total lack of technical prowess.
The plot sees employees at a soon-to-be-closed mental institution celebrating their final shift when several dangerous patients escape, aided by disgruntled guard Thomas (Steve Hope Wynne), who has just been canned. Psychologist Dr. Helen Kingford (Jenna Verdicchio) has to team up with murderer Lara Visser (Kristina Dargelyte) in order to survive the night.
Instead of going down the straightforward route, pitting the staff against the inmates in a fight for survival, Johnson attempts to introduce an inadvisable supernatural element, having Thomas and one of the nutters become possessed by... well, your guess is as good as mine since this is never adequately explained. Johnson also clumsily inserts some rubbish about a little girl called Chloe (Rosie Cochrane) who has been living in the bowels of the building, with Helen assuming the role of the girl's protector. This Ripley/Newt-style subplot makes little sense (how has the girl survived on her own and unnoticed?), the naffness compounded by the fact that Cochrane is a lousy child actor.
In terms of horror, there's a modicum of gore and a couple of cheap jump scares, but nothing that's going to give anyone sleepless nights - except for maybe the backers of this film, who must lie awake wondering where the estimated budget of £2,000,000 went.
The plot sees employees at a soon-to-be-closed mental institution celebrating their final shift when several dangerous patients escape, aided by disgruntled guard Thomas (Steve Hope Wynne), who has just been canned. Psychologist Dr. Helen Kingford (Jenna Verdicchio) has to team up with murderer Lara Visser (Kristina Dargelyte) in order to survive the night.
Instead of going down the straightforward route, pitting the staff against the inmates in a fight for survival, Johnson attempts to introduce an inadvisable supernatural element, having Thomas and one of the nutters become possessed by... well, your guess is as good as mine since this is never adequately explained. Johnson also clumsily inserts some rubbish about a little girl called Chloe (Rosie Cochrane) who has been living in the bowels of the building, with Helen assuming the role of the girl's protector. This Ripley/Newt-style subplot makes little sense (how has the girl survived on her own and unnoticed?), the naffness compounded by the fact that Cochrane is a lousy child actor.
In terms of horror, there's a modicum of gore and a couple of cheap jump scares, but nothing that's going to give anyone sleepless nights - except for maybe the backers of this film, who must lie awake wondering where the estimated budget of £2,000,000 went.