Sanatorium - dvd by Zero Tolerance - review by Sammi

It’s no secret: sex scandals fill the news every day. Senators having flings with mistresses or paying for sex, schoolteachers corrupting our youth, and priests doing the unthinkable. Our culture thrives and is titillated by the news when these people are exposed, but at the same time horrified by people who make and perform in porn for a living. Are these “mainstream” people really more sexually twisted than their porn counterparts? Tabitha Stevens goes on a quest to find out, in Zero Tolerance’s Sanatorium.

Sanatorium is directed by Gary Orona, who has produced, directed, and created shows for HBO and Cinemax including “The Erotic Traveler”, “Hotel Erotica Cabo”, “Hotel Erotica”, and “Thrills.” He’s also worked in music videos and has done just about everything behind the camera, and has even appeared in front of it as well.

Sanatorium is a two disc DVD set that comes in a large display box – probably the largest display box I’ve ever seen. It’s the size of 2 standard DVD cases side by side, and could be used for a store display. Inside the packaging is a standard size case with artwork that duplicates the larger box.

Disc one contains the feature movie (which runs about 2 hours, 11 minutes), the feature with director’s commentary, and scene selection. Disc two contains bonus scenes (2 scenes each with Sara Sloane and Kagney Linn Karter), two deleted scenes, trailers, popshots, behind the scenes footage, a slideshow presentation, and an interview with Tabitha Stevens.

The cast is impressive, and includes Tabitha Stevens, Kagney Linn Karter, Sara Sloane, Francesca Le, Raylene, Lux Kassidy and Ashley Roberts. The male talent includes Mark Wood, James Deen, Nick Manning, Tyler Knight, Ron Jeremy, Kris Slater, High Pitch Eric, Matt Bianco, Teddy Andreadis, Ethan Hawk, and Alex Urban.

Sanatorium is presented in widescreen, and sounds and looks great, albeit quite surrealistic in parts. The music is quite interesting and fits the mood of the movie. Chapter stops are good throughout.

The plot revolves around Tabitha and Senator Harold Grimm (Nick Manning). He’s a Utah senator backing a pornography initiative, yet cheating on his wife, and after he watches Tabitha and Ashley Roberts put on a show for him in his hotel room, he and a naked Tabitha sit in chairs and talk. He wants the tension to build before he fucks her, and she tells him about her past and how she (and her world) changed.

The story Tabitha tells starts on May 7, 2005 during a disastrous bondage scene. It progresses to the present day, with cuts of Senator Grimm and Tabitha talking about what she’s gone through and building the tension between them. As the tale unfolds, she has an ongoing platonic relationship with photographer Alex (Gary Orona), who tells her to keep being herself, but she doesn’t listen. She also has a bad relationship with Marcellus (Teddy ZigZag), who’s pushing her to do things she isn’t comfortable with and to become more extreme, and making her fucking on film become less fun and more to please the masses. He gives her 7 days to complete several activities, which she refuses.

Tabitha goes into the desert to find a man to exorcise her demons. She’s directed into deep desert and has several dreams (some sexual) while she discovers who she truly is. Many of the dream scenes are surrealistic and edgy, as Tabitha goes on her journey to free herself.

A lot of good sex scenes are throughout, including: Sara Sloane and Mark Wood; Tabitha in an anal POV; Tabitha with Kris Slater; Ethan Hawke, Francesca Le, Mark Wood and Raylene in a group scene; and James Deen with Kagney Linn Karter. The sex is mostly vaginal, with Tabitha doing anal and ATM in a scene.

The story has a lot of symbolism, some of which is obvious, but some that isn’t at all. The version with the director’s commentary helps out here. Gary has a good speaking voice, and he’s interesting to listen to while he explains what’s going on in the film and offering up additional information.


Overall, this is quite an interesting movie, and worth watching for more than the sex scenes, although you’ll want to watch it again to see more of those as well.

This was really an interesting movie. Even though I’m not much of a plot girl, I found this rather engrossing, although the symbolism and some of the story sequences lost me. I had never seen a director’s commentary on a porn DVD before (and I’m a sucker for watching movies this way, as sometimes you run across the most interesting tidbits), so I watched it the second time listening to Gary’s insights into the movie. It did make a lot more sense to me, especially, without giving anything away, the sequences with the girl in the straight jacket.

The sex scenes were very good, although this is more of a movie I’d put in to watch start to finish than skip to the sex. I would recommend this one if you prefer an interesting plot, and porn that doesn’t seem like porn.