Sanatorium Confusium

If you want to watch a movie that's quite different from other porn offerings and don't mind that it will be confusing almost from start to finish, this is a good choice. The sex scenes are good, but not exceptional and without much variety.
Published:
Pros
A valiant attempt at a plot; beautiful actors; a few nice extras on 2nd DVD.
Cons
Confusing and disjointed.
Rating by reviewer:
2
extremely useful review


Despite the violence filled trailer and the occasional violent scene, this isn’t a horror movie. I’m a weenie weight about violence and I could easily tolerate this movie.

The movie is about Tabitha, a porn star, who is upset after hearing a senator tell of a campaign to end porn by denying funds to states that allow it. She watches the newscast, after which the same senator enters her hotel room for the purpose of watching Tabitha and another woman have sex. Afterward the senator asks her to tell him a story. As she does so, we are transported to scenes from the story, which spans the course of almost a year.

It feels like a year passes by as the story is told.

The acting in the beginning of the movie is horrible. Fortunately the actors seem to warm up. Either that or I became accustomed to the level of acting and stopped noticing.

The story Tabitha tells takes us through multiple disjointed scenes - in the desert, in a remote shack in the desert, in a cave, at a party, in a hotel, back in the desert, in a hotel and on and on. A stuffed rabbit growls. Tabitha screams. Bones on a table. Sand passes through an hourglass. Tabitha screams again. As the movie progresses it becomes increasingly difficult to keep track of what’s happening as the changes between scenes and locales become faster and faster. So often I thought “What? What’s going on?” We can’t tell whether Tabitha is having a dream or whether its supposed to have really happened. A third possibility occurred to me - she needs to stop taking drugs. Or perhaps she should take her medication. She seems to have a loose grip on what’s real - the definition of psychosis.

There are multiple scenes with a man named Marcelles, a cruel man who has straightjacketed, hooded and applied mouth spreaders to a woman named Kelly, who he tells Tabitha will die if Tabitha doesn’t agree to perform double penetration anal sex within seven days. While most people would use a lawyer to deal with a contract dispute, she instead chooses a quest to find a shaman. This is where the disjointed, confusing scenes in the desert, and other locations, mixed with scenes of porn begin. But I guess the plot was already past the point of rational action as soon as Marcelles entered the movie.

There is one scene with Ron Jeremy. A scene is being filmed where a man strangles a woman. The Director, Ron, urges the actor to lighten up on the strangling, while another man urges the strangler to continue. I was hoping that Ron would have a bigger role in this movie, but sadly that was his only scene.

I found it very hard to follow. The occasional porn scenes weren’t enhanced by being sandwiched between strange and barely comprehensible dream/horror scenes. I’m not a fan of movies that leave you in a constant state of puzzlement.

The movie ends back in the hotel room with the senator, after Tabitha has finished telling her long story. The senator’s reaction to her story is to want to have sex with her. They do. I can’t say more without giving the ending away. But I will say I was pleased with the ending. Very pleased.

The sex scenes were good, but not inventive and the actors were beautiful. No condoms were used. Only in the brief party scene will you see natural breasts that actually move. This was actually the best sex scene in the entire movie. Most of the actresses had beautifully shaped but immobile breasts, like Barbie dolls.

I had felt an obligation to watch the movie a second time with commentary in an effort to understand it, but first I watched the interview with the star, Tabitha Stevens, on the second DVD. In it she says that she wants viewers to not understand it. She wants them to watch it multiple times and still not understand it. So I’m not retarded after all. In her interview she says that the porn business is less twisted than real life and that this is the point of the movie. I don’t see how the movie makes that point.

Also on the second DVD are behind the scenes clips. Footage of Tabitha and Tyler Knight, the one black actor, oiling each other were hotter than any scene in the movie. There is also a compilation of men climaxing which I also loved. But that’s always one of my favorite things to watch.
Experience
While I appreciate the effort to have an actual plot, and it was clearly a great deal of effort, I can’t say that the disjointed incoherent plot in this movie added to it. This film overshot the brief, superficial plots of other movies by miles in its attempt to be both substantial and a porn movie.

If you like watching long unusual movies with ok sex scenes interspersed (just ok), this might be just the one for you.
This product was provided free of charge to the reviewer. This review is in compliance with the FTC guidelines.

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Comments
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  • Contributor: Bunnycups
    I literally laughed out loud when I read about the year long story.
    Awesome review! I felt like I was watching a bad movie with you. You had me laughing. Even though the film wasn't great or good, I was certainly entertained by this review.

    The site isn't letting me vote on your review. I'll be back to vote extremely useful whenever EF fixes the voting glitch.
  • Contributor: Selective Sensualist
    Great review, Tuesday (as usual)! I look forward to the discussion tonight on this movie.

    Will try to remember to come back to vote when the glitch is sorted out.
  • Contributor: Serendipity
    I like that you pointed out it wasn't a horror movie. The trailer did make it look like there would be more of that.
  • Contributor: Selective Sensualist
    Came back to vote!
  • Contributor: Tuesday
    Thanks, SS!
  • Contributor: Alegria
    Great review!
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