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Strong and Moving!

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

I was pleased to see so many other reviews here that felt the way I do about this film, it really is an obscure gem that deserves rediscovery. The story owes a great debt to "Psycho", but I have to say that "Crazed" really digs deeper than "Psycho" does in its exploration of the emotional horror experienced by its Norman Bates character, Grahame (Lazlo Pappas). There's a Marion Crane parallel too in Karen (Beverly Ross), a troubled woman who sets out to follow her dream of becoming a journalist. When she rents a room in the boarding house where Grahame also lives, she triggers a growing obsession that quickly breaks whatever tenuous ties Grahame has to sanity and pushes him over the edge, his life spiraling downwards into madness and murder.Grahame becomes a lurking presence in the house, spying on Karen in her most intimate moments through peepholes he has set up in the walls of the house. Every attempt he tries to make to reach out to Karen in a conventional way is met with awkward rejection, and this emotional isolation is the true horror that the film is most interested in showing us. Grahame also makes for a compelling character due to the sensitive performance by Lazlo Pappas. Beverly Ross is great, too, and these two characters emerge as doomed people who are similar, yet unable to reach one another. Although "Crazed" isn't a film where graphic violence is the focus, it does feature several murders that are quite shocking, not because they're gory, but because they're so realistic. The thing that sticks with you after the credits, though, is the stunning performance by Pappas, who convinces us that we've just witnessed a real person losing grip of his mental health. I was shaken after I saw this movie, and it still haunts me.

A diabetic seizures sufferer Karen wants to take a part in a creative writing course.She rents a room in Mrs Brewer's boarding house.One of the tenants is Grahame,obviously disturbed and mentally unstable ex G.I,who lives at the top floor.He falls in love with Karen and the consequences are deadly as the murders begin..."Crazed" is leisurely paced,but suspenseful psycho-slasher that owes a lot to Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho".The acting is very good and the plot offers some twisted surprises and two gruesome killings including one fairly nasty stabbing scene and a strangling."Crazed" is quite similar in tone to "The Silent Scream" and "The Killing Kind",but I enjoyed it.8 out of 10.

I would wish to say a few words about this picture.In late July, 1976 I was in Los Angeles enrolled in a summer film workshop at U.C.L.A.; while editing my documentary film "24 Hours at the Original Pantry" I responded to a bulletin board card posted at the school looking for technical help on an independent feature film. I responded to the ad and was introduced to Richard and Jean Cassidy. I was hired that day as the company grip in charge of construction.Together they had written, conceived and filmed a 35MM presentation short film of their story. The beautiful B/W project was an obvious tribute to the suspense and magic of Alfred Hitchcock. Directed by Richard, it featured his wife, Jean as the murder victim. This well crafted short was photographed very skillfully by a bright and talented Director of Photography named Doug Hodge.The original working title of this film was "The Paranoiac"; it was completed and released as "Slipping into Darkness" by a company called Jupiter Pictures, sometime in late 1979.Featured in the film is a very large house which still stands on Edgemont, south of Wilshire Blvd. and a few blocks east of Highland Avenue in Hollywood, Ca. Almost the entire film was set in this one location. This was the nature of "low budget/ no budget" independent film making during that era.For anyone interested in the nuts and bolts. The camera, grip and set lighting equipment package (Additionaly, I suspect some financial assistance) was provided by The Sawyer Camera Co. Cliff Sawyer and Jack Birns were co-founders of the landmark Hollywood motion picture equipment rental company still known worldwide as Birns and Sawyer in Hollywood, California. The 35MM camera package consisted of a Mitchell BNCR as the primary/ or "A" camera. The heavy Mitchell Camera was always operated on a Worrell geared camera head mounted upon an Italian Elemack "Spyder" dolly . An Arriflex 2C was used as the portable hand-held "B" camera. During the production, the BNCR was replaced by a camera known as the "Mitchell 205 Reflex". This was old Michell Model NC modified dramatically and updated by an Italian company in order to compete worldwide with the new and very innovative Panavision "X" camera.(only a small handful Mitchell 205 cameras still exist today) Even by present standards these cameras and lenses were great, but not very user friendly in terms of shooting sync sound in confined interior spaces. At that time HMI (Daylight balanced)lighting technology was almost unheard of and carbon arc lights were far to expensive to operate within their limited budget. Therefore, tungsten lighting color corrected by filters for Daylight situations and extensive color gel correction and tenting of windows for all the interior scenes was relied upon . The project was shot on the relatively slow Eastman Kodak Color Negitave film stock of that era. The "tool box" we worked with was quite limited and very labor intensive for the crew size.Despite the technical burdens and financial pitfalls which all small independent films faced and dealt with during the 1970's, I feel that this picture stands up very well compared with most low budget independent projects made during that time. Thirty plus years later, I remain proud that this was my first feature film as a Key Grip. I still feel the same way about my efforts on a professional level and those who worked with me. Without the wonderful insights and information handed me by the talented and patient Director of Photography Doug Hodge, I might not have pursued and gained knowledge fundamental to the worlds of grip,set lighting and camera. In later years, I worked steadily as a key grip, lighting gaffer and cameraman on many film and television projects.Additionally, the dogged determination of Richard and Jean Cassidy to see their project finished and out into the public arena was an inspiration to me. My professional life and career might never have gone beyond that 16MM editing room at U.C.L.A.. Motion pictures like this one were the training ground for many of today's "A"-list Producers, directors, actors, artists and technical craftspeople. My generation of film makers made our mistakes. We learned how and tried in all aspects of of our craft, to make a better mouse trap. Years ago, Key Grip and old friend Raymond Mario Perosi said to me: "Well hell, were all new once".I have not seen this picture since 1979. Now that I discovered the new title, I will look froward to screening it with the latest changes and fresh eyes. If you have any comments about this film or film making in general, please submit them here or via my listing on this site.Thank you for taking time to read my comments.--Dan Zarlengo

Blood Shed/Crazed/slipping Into Darkness was the first movie I ever reviewed on IMDB. Initially I totally bashed the film. After A second viewing I take it back completly!!! The fact that the video art work makes it look like a violent-gore film lead to my negative review. I was expecting a gore fest and instead got a film with low body count and no gore. This film is actually very good. Their are a lot of interesting little things in this movie proving way ahead of the current events of our time. The lead character is constantly having flashbacks of his childhood. Most interesting is the priest flashbacks, the film seems to hint that he was molested by a priest especially of the quick shots of the boy on his knees possibly in a confessional booth. Ironically this issue is currently all over the news. It's almost as if the writer knew of a dirty little secret and was exposing it with this film. The character's army flashbacks are interesting too, especially since real life serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer had a bad experience in the army as well. It seems to me at second look that this film is a realistic look of how a lonley individual with serious past issues can slowly become completly insane and end up murdering people. To top it off there is some funny dialogue by the old ladies in this film to soften the serious tone. A second look at this film reveals a seriously under rated study of insanity. The original title Slipping into Darkness fits the movie better than the Blood Shed tag which will steer you the wrong way!