The Mansion of Madness (1973)

The first film of Mexican schlockmeister Juan Lopez Moctezuma, radio DJ, jazz enthusiast, and disciple of Jodorowsky, The Mansions of Madness features some of the most delirious imagery you will see this side of the Atlantic. Based on a short story by E.A. Poe, a journalist returns to his French homeland to investigate a revolutionary sanitarium led by Dr. Mayar. What he finds there, however, is far from what he expected. For within the asylum, the patients have been given free reign by the mad doctor who presides over bizarre rituals involving sex, torture, and celery. Actually, The Mansion of Madness is a lot more comical and fantastical than the description makes it out to sound like. There are plenty of surreal and disturbing moments, but there is a playful side to this one. At times it reminded me of The Hour-Glass Sanitarium with some of the most ridiculous set pieces and sequences just bursting off of the screen. A sadly underrated gem by a sadly underrated director.