When we first meet Stacey (Rebekah Isaacs) it's during the junky dream sequence that opens the movie as she's being chased (in slo-mo no less!) by a bra wearing, knife wielding psycho only to wake up just before anything bad happens.

Things continue on this by-the-book pace as Stacey heads off to high school and ends up befriending new girl Christina (Mackenzie Firgens) when they're forced to share a locker. She agrees to show her new partner around and we get the chance to meet all of her other dully written friends. Seems a group of the guys, including Stacey's wannabe boyfriend Ty (Cory Knauf), are looking for a weekend of partying. Lucky for them that Stacey's parents are going away and the house will be all hers.

It's the typical evening of partying, trying to get laid, and generally being teenagers. But things soon change when it turns out there's a murderer lurking around looking to kill them off (yawn!) one-by-one. But really it's no surprise when it seems the town is filled with weirdo freaks as they encounter a drunk, an old woman who likes to stare, and a bum who tells them "Jesus doesn't live here anymore" before the killings begin.

A stabbing in the chest starts the death scenes and from there it's tons of recycled kills (though the drill through the closet door moment is okay), dull scenes of everyone drinking it up, and a finale that's basically a whole lot of running and "bleh" deaths.

Adam Weis' script (based on a short story by director Daniel Hess) offers up tons of weak dialogue and we begin to wonder why the dissimilar Stacey and Christina are even friends (obviously it's to have some faux lesbian moments), but it's the amateurish acting and fact that there's no skin, the deaths are mostly off camera, and it moves at an incredibly dull pace that eventually puts the final nail in Sweet Insanity's coffin.

Touted by the blurbs on the DVD box as a "mind-bending, nail-biting thriller in the tradition of Hitchcock and Clive Barker...", this is just another cheap and bloated slasher flick that has the typical red herrings (is it all the grumpy, alcoholic ex-cop next door?), a weak homage to Psycho (maybe that's why they said it was in the "tradition" of the Hitch) during a throat slashing, and the revealing of a killer who has nothing to do with the plot (and looks like Andy Dick).

Sweet Insanity is such a waste of time that I'd even settle for a slasher flick with the girl pictured on the box art - just to see some Goth-like emo kid cut her arms in angst after knocking off all the kids at school who bullied her... (Chris Hartley, 6/5/06)

Directed By: Daniel Hess.
Written By: Adam Weis.

Starring: Rebekah Isaacs, Mackenzie Firgens, David Fine, Corbett Tuck.

Picture Ratio: 1.78:1 Widescreen.

Picture Quality: There's a few shaky moments and it looks about as low-budget as it is, but the transfer here sports solid colours and doesn't look that bad really.

Extras: The disc I recieved only contained a trailer, but the retail version will also contain a director's commentary, deleted scenes, and a still gallery.

Visit MTI Home Video for more info.