"Do you hear voices, John?"

Cult Classic B-Movie of The Month

Director Sam Fuller's SHOCK CORRIDOR (1963).

Journalist Johnny Barrett seeks a Pulitzer Prize winning story. He wants to enter a Mental Hospital undercover and determine who killed one of the patients. His first problem is to convince his girlfriend to pretend to be his sister so that he can be committed to the asylum for having an 'unhealthy' sexual obsession! After much persuading she agrees and a psychiatrist (who doesn't take much persuading) declares him insane. Once inside the hospital he seeks out three witnesses to the murder, unfortunately these patients are all a bit looney tunes.


Life in the hospital, shot in harsh b&w, is quite disturbing and perhaps one of the best depictions of 'madness' on film. As the days pass, Barrett gets closer and closer to finding out the identity of the murderer but at the same time he finds himself spiraling into real insanity. The stress of the environment and the people he talks to drive him further and further from reality. Will he survive the ordeal without losing his mind?

One of the funniest scenes, to a viewer in 2006, is where Barrett tries to flee his confines but is set upon by a roomful of Nymphomaniacs!! Remember when 'Nymphos' used to be locked up to protect the public?

There's certainly no mistaking that SHOCK CORRIDOR is a low budget, exploitation film but there's a lot more to it than that. Fuller's patients, whose dementias feature xenophobia and atomic war, are an obvious reflection of American society. The film is a crazy, well made, well acted, frightening exploration of the fragility of the mind.