Chabert Watch: Sanitarium (2013)

Watched:  05/18/2025

Format:  Tubi

Viewing:  First

Directors:  Bryan Ramirez, Bryan Ortiz, Kerry Valderrama

So, this one turned into a bit more of a rabbit hole than I was expecting.  

Sanitarium (2013) is a movie independently produced in San Antonio, Texas - just down the road from my own Austin, TX.  It's a great town, and I recommend it.

The film is an anthology, three stories centering around how a trio of inmates landed in a sanitarium run by Malcolm McDowell, who sort of book-ends the film and shows up here and there.  But the movie is a testament to people figuring out they can afford the day rates for some actors and living out the dream of making a movie with actors they like.

The first segment stars John Glover (a personal favorite of mine) as an artist who makes tableaus with puppet-like figures.  This also includes Robert Englund.  

The second features Chris Mulkey as a prototypical movie drunk dad, David Mazouz of Gotham fame as a young kid who is seeing monsters, and Lacey Chabert as his teacher.  

The third and longest segment features Lou Diamond Phillips.

I have no idea how indie movies like this are made, but IMDB tells me that each segment took 5 days to shoot, so I imagine a *lot* of prep work went to each segment so they could maximize everyone's time.

All in all, it's a pretty well made film, with the third and first segments a lot stronger than the second - if you asked me why Chabert's character was even in the movie, I couldn't really tell you.  But I generally liked what I saw of all three.  Short films are a pretty good way to keep me from lingering so long on a movie that I start to pick at it, but the shorter segments tighten everything up.  It did kind of make me want to watch some other horror anthology movies later this year.  Maybe a Creepshow and Twilight Zone.

The primary force behind the movie is Kerry Valderrama, who - a quick internet search tells me - passed in 2023.  Sadly, he doesn't seem to have made many more films to make it to IMDB, but there's many folks online mentioning their good experiences with him.

I think his segment with Lou Diamond Phillips was actually really interesting - and Phillips solid as pre-usual.  The love and care that went into it is obvious.

Is it stupid?

No!  It's maybe more interesting than scary. But I was impressed with what some folks from SA pulled together in a city I don't think of as being film-heavy, and managing to do it all on their own.

And, how was Chabert?  She's fine!  She plays a young school teacher concerned for our hero of the segment.  But she doesn't get a lot to do.