Madhouse Movies

When filmmakers depict the inner world of psychiatric institutions, the products of their imagination range from horrific to comical, from fact-based depictions to entertainment far removed from reality. Madhouse movies raise issues and provoke fascination.

This collection of new essays by psychiatrists, film scholars and educators presents a broad overview of movies about madhouses or insane asylums in cinema. It correlates these portrayals with current events to show how these films either shape or reflect realities of the day. Not dwelling exclusively on negative depictions, hackneyed horror films or muckraking movies, it also explores films that overly romanticize institutions and portray them in unrealistically positive ways.