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Rosie (Kim Kleemichen), the only teen who survived the events of Play Hooky, has since fallen into a state of catatonia - and is thus locked away into a mental facility that's supposed to be the best place for people with her condition. But the place is run down, short on funds, and quite some of the personnel are morally questionable - which might explain the signs of rape that eventually show up on Rosie's body. Now the headnurse tries to run a tight ship, trying her best to seem as resolute as can be - but the truth is, she's the one who's least up to her task, and she does have her own agenda, too. And then the worst scenario possible happens: Due to a major fuck-up, Charles DeWitt (Tom Petrone), the actual killer from Play Hooky, is relocated to the institution, and while there are rules set up to prevent them from ever meeting, they're hardly ever enforced, and coming face to face with Charles, Rosie retreats into herself more and more while Charles, who really has the mind of a 12 year old child that can't tell right from wrong rather than that of a brutal killer, gets more and more excited. Thing is, Charles is by no means the person Rosie has to fear most among all the institution's staff and inmates ...

The idea behind Catatonia is an interesting one for sure: While it's a direct (and logical) sequel to Play Hooky (as mentioned above of course), it ditches both that movie's found footage approach and its slasher formula for a psycho-thriller narrative with strong associative undercurrents. And that makes the film work more than well enough in its own right: Catatonia is an intentionally maze-like structured story that keeps one guessing throughout and keeps the suspense high at all times (even in the "dream"-sequences), and the whole thing is carried by a bunch of well fleshed out characters played by a very able cast. Plus the surprise twist at the end is almost worth the price of admission in itself.

So in all, really good genre entertainment! 

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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