FORGOTTEN FILM: LUNATICS: A LOVE STORY (1992)

LUNATICS: A LOVE STORY was released to video in 1992, but you may not have ever heard of it. I don’t blame you. I wasn’t even aware of it at the time. It was only in the mid 90’s that I heard of it.

As a Deborah Foreman fan, I saw it listed on her filmography as having been released. So, I began to look for it. And, it was impossible to find. None of my video stores carried it, even though Columbia Tri-Star released it on video.

Even on Ebay, when a rare copy would be auctioned off, I would give up when it got at the 40 or 50 dollar level. The reviews weren’t that good to justify it.

I had given up and hadn’t thought of the film for years, until writing the “What Ever Happened to Deborah Foreman” feature did I notice that there were finally used copies available at a reasonable price.

15 years later, I finally received a copy and watched it.

I wish I could say it was worth the wait, and is a true hidden gem. But, it isn’t.

LUNATICS: A LOVE STORY stars Theodore Raimi. Raimi is the brother of director Sam Raimi, who produced this in the period between EVIL DEAD 2 and DARKMAN. The film does have the look and feel of a Sam Raimi film, particularly CRIMEWAVE. Bruce Campbell even appears in multiple roles, and co-produces.

Raimi (who looks like a cross between his brother, Bill Gates, and Woody Allen) plays Hank. Hank, after spending time in a mental institution now lives in an apartment in L.A. (even though the film was shot in Michigan). He hasn’t left the apartment in months. He hides under his bed, tinfoil lining the walls, believes that spiders are crawling in his brain, and that drills are coming through the walls.

I should probably mention this is a comedy.

Meanwhile Nancy (Deborah Foreman) isn’t having the best day. Her boyfriend (Bruce Campbell) dumps her, leaving her at a dive motel without enough to pay the bill. She sneaks out, is almost attacked by a gang, before hiding out in a bus station.

At the bus station, Nancy answers a pay phone. It is Hank, thinking he is calling a chat line. Hank invites Nancy over. Needing a place to hide, she accepts.

That is the set up for the film. There are moments where I was really enjoying it. Raimi is a good comic actor. I’m surprised he hasn’t done more. Foreman, in one of her last roles, is as likable as usual. There are a lot of interesting claymation effects that work well in the story.

But the film does grind to a halt. It gets to be pretty slow going. And you finally reach a point where you have to question if this subject matter really is suitable for a comedy. Not to be one of those PC type critics, but a comedy about mental illness may not be in the best of taste.

On a technical level, there are issues as well. A lot of the sound levels seems to be different from shot to shot. And it does have some of the strangest use of extras I have seen. Everywhere, in seemingly dead hotel lobbies, in bus stations, there are just too many people sitting around. I think the filmmakers just wanted to give work to all of their friends and family.

Writer / director Josh Becker had previously worked with Raimi on THE EVIL DEAD. He would go on to shoot several episodes of XENA as well as an interesting film (also with Campbell) called RUNNING TIME. More of an experiment than a film, this followed a robbery told in a few lengthy tracking shots (but done in a way to make it look like it was in one take).

The film isn’t a complete disaster. Like I said, it does have some moments that make you think a better film could have come from this material. But, this isn’t it.

The best thing to say about this, I can finally cross it off my “To Find” list.

Here is the trailer for the film: