The Fifth Floor

1978 "The Nightmare Is Knowing You're Sane."
5| 1h30m| R| en| More Info
Released: 15 November 1978 Released
Producted By: Hickmar Productions
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Synopsis

A young woman collapses on the disco dance floor of what's revealed to be strychnine poisoning. Assuming that this is an attempt at suicide, her boyfriend and doctor have her committed to the Fifth Floor, an asylum with obviously crazy inmates and a predatory orderly. The problem is, she's still sane!

... View More
Stream Online

Stream with Freevee

Director

Producted By

Hickmar Productions

AD
AD

Watch Free for 30 Days

All Prime Video Movies and TV Shows. Cancel anytime. Watch Now

Trailers & Images

Reviews

Vashirdfel Simply A Masterpiece
Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.
Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.
Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.
preppy-3 I caught this in 1980 as part of a double bill at a theatre. The other film was the sick "Don't Go In The House". This was only a little better but that's very faint praise.Supposedly based on a true story (I have my doubts) this is about a college girl who is wrongly sent to an insane asylum by a vengeful boyfriend. OK--just the basic premise is silly. Really--a BOYFRIEND has his girlfriend committed???? Where's her family? On what charges? So--right off the bat--it doesn't make sense. In the asylum we meet the yawningly familiar type of lovable psychos. We also meet the nasty orderly--he's played by Bo Hopkins so you KNOW he's evil. The film is filled with the regular pointless female nudity, a dull plot and pretty terrible acting. Only Hopkins (who is obviously having fun) even tries to give a good performance. For his acting alone I give this a 2. Otherwise it's pretty run of the mill and dreary.
Jack Spencer Really only one reason to see this movie, and that is the performance of Bo Hopkins. He makes almost any role he does come alive, especially a villain. I told him that, when I had the chance to meet him several years ago. He didn't exactly agree with me about his role here, but he remembered this movie, and said the production values were very good. The story is enthralling, and you squirm, because you know it can happen to you. Tension throughout, and you do get sucked in, but you feel about the same way at the end as if you drank cheap malt liquor the night before. Tired, and with a bit of a headache. But if you are a Hopkins fan, it is worth a peek.
adriangr The Fifth Floor is an engaging piece of work that was much better than I expected. Using a tag line like "From the disco floor to the insane asylum" is asking for trouble but the film deserves better than that.Dianne Hull plays Kelly, a friendly girl who works at a disco club (not sure what as!), who has a sudden seizure one night while dancing and is rushed to hospital. When it is found that she has strychnine poisoning, Kelly claims that she has been poisoned, but alas for her, no-one believes her and she is sent to a psychiatrist as a possible suicide, which, due to a few more misunderstandings, leads her to being incarcerated on the "Fifth Floor", which is a special secure ward for the insane. Can she establish her sanity and get out of the place and back to normality? What I liked about the film is that it plays the scenario of Kelly's plight out quite seriously. The more she complains, accuses the staff of lying and refuses to take treatment ( a very good performance here by Dianne Hull), the more deeply she gets herself trapped. While watching you find yourself thinking: "Yes I guess that's exactly what a mad person would do and say as well", and her plight struck me as all too believable. The biggest spanner in the works for poor Kelly is a corrupt and lascivious orderly called Carl (effectlively played by Bo Hopkins) who likes to sexually assault the younger female inmates and then blame their later accusations on hysteria. He takes a shine to Kelly and the two scenes in which he abuses her are quite unpleasant. Thrown into this are some good minor performances by the other inmates that Kelly befriends, including a pregnant girl called Cathy and a seriously unhappy and troubled woman named Melanie, played with genuine feeling and impressive intensity by Sharon Farrell.So, although the plot is nothing new (sane person committed to an asylum by mistake), the film does a good job of handling it. Although the situation is kept small scale, you can certainly feel for the central character, and with great performances all round and a couple of rather surprisingly brutal scenes, it all goes towards making "The Fifth Floor" a place you really should visit.
emm Long live Film Ventures! Once again, all movie and no substance really pays off big time! THE FIFTH FLOOR is best classified as light exploitation that adds Robert "Freddy Krueger" Englund in his early embarrassment of a movie role. Yes, the 50s and 60s were ridiculous, but the late 70s makes things even worse by cashing in on the disco fad. That's all the fun this one has to offer. Where, by golly, did the REAL ending go??? Try checking out this film, plus FVI's all-time schlocker DON'T GO IN THE HOUSE for nostalgia's sake. And remember, don't forget to put on those dusty polyester jackets and play those scratchy records of the Bee Gees! Now that's weird!