Insane Like Me (2022): A Supernatural Thriller Review

Insane Like Me (2022) 

Written by Britt Bankhead and Chip Joslin

Directed by Chip Joslin

A supernatural thriller about a combat veteran, who returns home after a tour of duty overseas. He becomes the lead suspect in his girlfriend’s disappearance and is subsequently wrongly convicted and incarcerated. Nine years later he is released from the mental asylum, he returns home to find the truth and settle the score. (IMDB)

Vampires, grizzled combat veterans and Eric Roberts… who wouldn’t want to go on a journey with that combination? While Eric Roberts might epitomise quantity over quality with his filmography, you know you’re going to get some fun, scenery chewing shenanigans whatever film he is in, so I was very much up for giving Insane Like Me a go!

The movie follows military veteran Jake (Britt Bankhead) who returns from active duty only to get caught up in a vampiric slaughter at a party where his girlfriend, Samantha (Grace Patterson) disappears. Jake becomes chief suspect and accused of murdering Samantha, a problem exacerbated by the fact her father is the town Sheriff (Eric Roberts).

Diagnosed as insane because of what he says he saw at the party, Jake is incarcerated for nine years until the doctors believe he is sane. Nine years of injustice drive Jake to return to scene of the crime, determined to uncover the truth and find out what happened to Samantha who he hopes may just still be alive! For Jake, the truth turns out to be more complex than simply a nest of vampires and he finds himself battling more than just the undead.

Insane Like Me is low budget, and you can see that right from the off. It feels a bit clunky when it starts, and the acting can be a little ropey in places. However, it’s not enough to spoil the movie and the action ramps up quickly as vampires crash the party and attack the guests, including Jake and Samantha. Once the ball gets rolling and you settle into the rhythm of the film, the acting is less of an issue, it just jars slightly at the very beginning. But you also get Eric Roberts as a gnarly sheriff with an itchy trigger finger and some very dark secrets.

The budgetary restrictions mean the special effects are also dialled back, so ILM isn’t a particularly gory film, but the effects are decent enough to be convincing in the most part. I think I may have just wanted a bit more blood and guts in a vampire film… but maybe that’s a “me” problem! 

My main issue with the film was around continuity and a couple of things that were mildly annoying but, again, not enough to upset the overall viewing experience. I’m not going to go into them in this review for fear of any spoilers, but how annoying they are will just depend on how anal you are. I am guessing I am only mildly anal.

Joslin has done a decent job with the direction and ILM is a tight 86 minutes that doesn’t drag at any point and includes enough set-pieces and action to keep you entertained. Until, perhaps, the final act where Jake finds out the truth. The resolution of the main plotline around whatever the hell has been going on in that town, was fairly “easy”. When you have a horde of vampires terrorising a town, you want a bit more violence and resistance pushing back at your hero. Wave after wave of vampires standing between your hero and his/her goal, but ILM didn’t quite get me on the edge of my seat for those final scenes. However, I felt the resolution of the Samantha plotline was handled well. It provided an emotional heart to the story and was not necessarily what I was expecting.

At the time of writing this review, ILM scored 4.8 on IMDB. While this might not be the greatest score, don’t let that put you off giving it a whirl. To be fair, that’s a half decent score for a low budget horror. You might not get the polished sheen of larger budget, studio productions, but it’s a pretty good indication of what might be to come from Bankhead and Joslin.

Insane Like Me is streaming from 4^th June 2024