Screaming for Sanity: Truth or Dare Part III (1998)

SCREAMING FOR SANITY: TRUTH OR DARE PART III

WRITERS: Ron Bonk, Kevin J. Lindenmuth, & Tim Ritter

DIRECTOR: Tim Ritter

STARRING: Kathy Kay Kurtz as Alicia Laymon

Joel D. Wynkoop as Dan Hess

Ken Blanck as Clive Stanley

Maurice Mayberry, Jr. as Dr. Reznor

Lara Gorlin as Tina Bates

Kathleen Ritter as Shane Stanley

Buzz LaChance as Spinell

Franklin E. Wales as Ken Kreggs

R.M. Hoopes as Otis Shapiro

QUICK CUT: The effects of Mike Strauber’s reign of terror continue to reverberate throughout Florida in this latest installment.

THE MORGUE

Clive - A young man, a victim of Mike Strauber, who has spent the last 12 years trying to recover.

Dr. Hess - One of Mike Strauber’s doctors, who has spent his career making sure he stays in the institution. But he harbours a secret connection to Mike that haunts him to this day.

Dr. Reznor - The doctor in charge of Clive’s case, doing his best to help him get past what happened 12 years ago.

Ken - A guy who is trying to make his living by profiting off memorabilia left behind by serial killers and their victims. If he doesn’t watch out, he may just become a victim himself.

TRISK ANALYSIS: Welcome back, Triskelions! March is here, and it is coming in like a lyin', cheatin' spouse. Wait, that's not how that goes. We kick things off with Screaming for Sanity, the third in Tim Ritter's Truth or Dare? series. After taking last year off for Ritter's Killing Spree, we return to the world of Mike Strauber. Review another Truth or Dare movie? All right, I will!!

The movie wastes no time, as it's very first scene wastes a baby in a stroller. Yes, it's the scene from the first movie, but it is definitely a way to kick things off and making me cheer.

We are once again at the Sunnyville Mental Institution, as the trio of doctors are still debating what to do with Mike Strauber, still calmly sitting there with his copper mask. At least we're not playing games with a secret sequel this time around.

They establish these regular hearings are to determine if he should go to a halfway house for better rehabilitation, and Doctor Hess is on the side of "Forget it!"

He takes Mike back to his room, and for some reason he begins to get violent and shove Mike around. This escalates until he punches Mike with some cheesy foley work. Before that goes any further, Hess is discovered and stopped.

We cut from there to Clive being interviewed by a doctor, discussing whether he should be let out, and it seems largely voluntary, as the doctor says he's done all he can, and wants Clive to reenter society.

He also reveals that his son was lost in a car accident. And if you can put two and two together and get plot, you know who ran the kid over. In case you don't get it though, the movie shows it, and will show it more than Peter Parker says "With great power comes great responsibility."

The doctor clears Clive, as he admits that he's still grieving, but doesn't want to hurt himself or others, and he's no longer seeing his wife, another casualty of the accident.

Clive is given a job at the local elementary school, just so he can be near children and suffer anew each time he sees a baby stroller. And we see more flashbacks. It's wonderful.

On top of that, he says hi to one of the babies, but he sees it as covered in blood, shouting, "Truth or Dare! Truth or Dare!!" Oh, this is glorious.

Ah good, it's not a Tim Ritter film until the lead heads down to the beach to stare forlornly at the ocean.

Later, Clive gets a prostitute, and we get a seizure from the flashing strobe lights as she performs for him. He asks her, well dares her because of course he does, he dares her to cut him, and she does.

He keeps calling her Shane, and we see Clive seeing his dead wife. You know, I am starting to think he should not have been let out so soon.

But once she leaves, Clive chats with his ex-humed ex-wife, and she hands him Mike's mask, because kinky, I guess.

From there, we check in on Doctor Beatdown, sulking on the couch when his wife comes home. We find out he's sulking because he's been fired and disgraced for his actions.

Meanwhile, Clive confronts his doctor over the article about Hess and Strauber, seeing that Mike's lawyer is making money off the case, and people are exploiting items and the victims to make money.

Clive stresses out, and we get to see a few more babycides, as he says he needs to make everyone pay.

Elsewhere, Hess is at a diner, and he gets a handwich while the waitress offers to rip out her eyeball. They reenact scenes from the first movie, and it's all one horrific nightmare of Hess's.

Waitress? There’s a fingernail in my sandwich.

Meanwhile, we learn about some guy who's selling serial killer memorabilia, including clippings of Mike's hair, and recordings of him in the institution.

After hearing about this, Clive is relaxing and listening to his devil wife on his shoulder urging him to take care of all such profiteers.

Hess and Clive's doctor meet in the middle of a lake (??) and they discuss how bad they are at treating patients. Hess is naturally concerned that Clive might come after him for some responsibility for Strauber, but it gets brushed off because, ha ha, Clive is perfectly normal!

Clive has grabbed a crowbar and found his way to Ken's house to begin his spree, and while he's there, he takes Mike's mask as his own.

He murders Ken's girlfriend in the pool, and stalks up to Ken, unable to hear a damned thing over his headphones.

Ken does eventually see him, and you're pretty sure he's gonna take Clive with ease. Except Clive has a stun gun and drops Ken like a sack of potatoes.

Clive forces the vulture to eat some Comet cleaner, and then leaves the place while the guy experiences fast acting foaming action.

Dan and his girlfriend have a calm chat, Dan sees to be in a better place, and he tells her about Mike Strauber. And we get the revelation, complete with flashback, to Hess being one of the orderlies, and holy shit, that is such a great way to tie in the coincidence of reusing actors, and giving it meaning.

So now we have the guilt of losing his friend, the orderly Mike stabbed with a pencil in the original, letting Mike go, driving Hess to become a doctor, watching over him, and making sure he never gets out again. I really really like that.

Oh yeah, and there's this subplot that Mike has fangirls, including one who broke up with her boyfriend, moved to Florida, and is pining after him. Her boyfriend has come to get her back, but she's not interested in men who don't wear full copper faceplates or carve up their faces.

After Billy smashes a bottle into his own face, and Tina chews on the scenery, we cut over to Ken who is somehow still alive after having his plumbing cleaned out.

He manages to crawl all of ten feet, before Clive finds him again, and goes at his teeth with a hammer and chisel. Still he persists, until Clive tosses a plastic bag over his head to finish the job.

Following that, Clive continues his revenge spree killings, and tracks down Mike's lawyer, to take care of him for profiting off the book.

He dispatches the lawyer and the girl he's seeing pretty quickly, and he gives the book a read. Needless to say, he is not a fan. Can you imagine if he liked it, after killing the author? Whoopsie doodle.

Clive next pays Tina a visit, and because of the mask, she assumes it's Mike. She sees him through the peephole, and instead of waiting to come in, Clive is a bit extra, and rams a giant spike through the hole and through her head.

He's had his fill of killing for the night, and so Clive heads home to sleep it off, but his dead wife tells him he has to kill off Dr. Hess to complete the set.

Hey I’ll just have some iced tea if you’ve got any.

So Dan wakes up the next day, with his girlfriend transformed into a copper m...wait what? OH! Clive kidnapped her and left the mask as a message, got it!

Dan goes to the cops, but they think he's the killer, because of reasons. The violence doesn't help. But he makes an escape by laying out the cop escorting him.

He tracks down his girl through some detective work, finds her nailed to a wall like she’s the lord and saviour. When he asks her how she's holding, up, "Not great!"

Dan looks for some help, but finds Clive instead, leading to a pretty sweet fight, silly foley work aside, throughout the warehouse. They make the most of the space, that's for sure.

He removes the mask to reveal Clive, and Dr. Reznor shows up so he and Dan can exposit the rest of the plot. It was all part of the doctor's plot, letting Clive go, to take care of the profiteers. And it all culminates in yet another twist; it was Reznor's son, *not* Clive's, the product of an affair with Clive's wife. Daaamn.

On top of that, Shane, Clive's dead wife steps into the picture...but it's really her *sister* masquerading as her dead sister to drive Clive mad!

Dan is shocked, wanting to know how they can blame him for what Mike did. Dude. You YOU!! have been blaming him for it all movie long. How is it a surprise others can and do??

Clive is Not Quite Dead though, hears all this, and stands up to murder the doctor.

The sister runs off, Clive drops to the floor, and in guilt over being used, having lost everything he takes his life. After *several more* shots of mowing down the baby.

Dan finally goes to take his wife down from her cross, and the movie slides to its conclusion with Shane on the run, haunted by Clive asking if she wants to play Truth or Dare.

TRISK ASSESSMENT

Video: It’s pretty rough and grainy and low quality. I definitely want to check out the recent Blu-Ray release at some point.

Audio: It sounds okay, but gets a bit garbled at times.

Sound Bite: "Your sharp as a tack...for a washed up, suicidal drunk."

Body Count: A decent enough showing here, but Clive does not reach the dizzying heights of as Mike Strauber.

1- 40 seconds in, and we get treated to the baby getting run over from the first movie.

2 - Clyde drowns Tim's wife

3 - After he survives eating Comet, Clyde chokes out Tim

4 - Clyde knives the laywer in the back of the head.

5 - And then kills his wife for good measure

6 - Clyde stabs Mike's girlfriend through the eye.

7 - Clyde stabs the doctor in the back

8 - And then kills himself

Best Corpse: I grant the first ever Triskaidekafiles Lifetime Achievement Award upon Baby Runover, for his excellence in repeated trauma.

Blood Type - B: I feel like they could have gone more, gone hard, but what is here is pretty good.

Sex Appeal: A little toplessness all around.

Drink Up! …you know this is coming; every time that baby gets mowed down.

Movie Review: Compared to the other movies, I don’t think this is quite as good, but it’s on equal footing with Wicked Games. A little better maybe, just because it plays straight with us. The plot is solid, I like the reach of Strauber’s actions, the cause and effect of it all…It’s right about what you expect from Ritter, so you know what you’re in for. He continues to make sleazy exploitation movies, that are actually well told with what they got. Four out of five copper masks.

Entertainment Values: It’s not quite as batshit as the other Ritter movies, although it is not without decent twists. The acting is right on that sweet spot of a mix of people doing their best, a bit of scenery chewing, and entertaining to watch. Again, it’s what you expect from Tim, and the more I watch, the more I love It’s not as bonkers as the rest, but still plenty entertaining. Three out of five dead babies.