Sanatorium - erotic video by Zero Tolerance - review by Hannah Savage

This is an adult movie directed by Gary Orona (who also has created HBO and Cinemax films) and produced with Tabitha Stevens that tells a story revolving around the adult/porn industry and its opposers, like politicians and priests--basically, good versus evil. It comes in a large box (large enough for an additional DVD!) that mirrors the artwork on the cover of the DVD. The front of the movie doesn't look much like a porn, while the back shows clips and snapshots. It is a two-disc set, with one containing the movie, and the other containing deleted and extra scenes, behind-the-scenes footage, snapshots and an interview with Tabitha Stevens. Warning: You may NEED this 2nd DVD to make sense of it all!

In this two-hour long tale, Tabitha makes aware the increasing hypocrisy between the adult industry and those who condemn it to the public, but have "dark secrets"--that they, too, enjoy and participate in it. However, most of this battle is within Tabitha. She is in a situation where her rather sinister manager is forcing her to perform scenes against her will in order to finish her contract, under the threat that her dear friend will be severely hurt.

The movie starts out with an anti-porn politician (Nick Manning) talking on a news station about how the adult industry is evil, wrong and should be condemned. After his speech he heads back to his hotel room and lovingly calls his wife, but as the camera turns we see he has other plans--with Tabitha and another woman, anticipating his return, waiting for him in his bed. Tabitha and Nick get into a conversation about how she entered the industry, and how he believes it's wrong. She recounts her tale to him, which is the storyline of the movie, Tabitha's voice leading you the whole way.

Tabitha struggles throughout the entire movie--to prove the Senator wrong, to tell her tale, to escape the contract with Marcellus (her manager), to save her friend, to become closer with her cameraman/photographer, Alex, and to find and save herself.

This is not a very linear movie (intentionally) so it will require you to pay attention to understand everything that is going on. Scenes flip back and forth, going from different times, replays and flashbacks. There is NOT a lot of sex in the movie, it is more of an adult documentary, and despite the trailers you may have seen, there is not a lot of BDSM or hardcore scenes. The only scenes that contain anything like this--including a suspension hanging by Tabitha--have nothing to do with the sex. While very erotic, the sex is... Quite vanilla, and rather anti-climactic.

It will be a great movie for fans of the director, the actors, or of Tabitha herself. But for those looking for something to get you off, this probably isn't it. I think it is very high-quality and has great cinematography, but I believe the audience that will get the most enjoyment out of this is slim.

I thought that this movie was interesting, and definitely not what I was expecting, either in the way of a porn or horror flick. The first hour went by fairly fast, but once the second hour came into play, things really slowed down and I just wanted the story to be over.

The sex scenes were... Mediocre, and the constant tribal-ish music that played in the background was very distracting. I like to hear the sex, and all I heard was the same clip of music on repeat. Overall, although I liked the movie more than I expected to, I also disliked it a lot more than I hoped to.