
<p>I’ve been on a penchant of late. Starting with John Waters’ early work (and unfortunately, <a href="https://philosophyinfilm.com/2025/08/15/review-a-dirty-shame-2004/">A Dirty Shame</a>), my wife and I are working our way through some of the campiest and most outrageous 70s, low-budget exploitation films we can find. We came across <em>Criminally Insane</em> (1975), also known as <em>Crazy Fat Ethel</em>, and whatever you decide to call it, the name fits. </p>



<p>Before I go any further, I will tell you that <em>Criminally Insane</em> is definitely worth watching, but the sequel is not. I couldn’t get more than 30 minutes into <em>Criminally Insane 2</em> (and it’s only an hour long) before I realized just how bad it was. It had almost no story of its own. Instead, the same actress spends the first half recounting memories from the first film. And these aren’t just quick flashbacks. I was literally rewatching long sequences from the film I had just seen a day or two prior. </p>



<p>The second film also lacks all of the 70s lo-fi creepiness, replacing it with an ugly 80s home-movie aesthetic. Long story short: watch <em>Criminally Insane</em>, aka <em>Crazy Fat Ethel</em>, and don’t go any further. </p>



<p>Despite my enjoyment of <em>Criminally Insane</em>, it won’t be winning any awards for technical achievements in filmmaking. There are times when the sound cuts out, becomes muffled, or simply doesn’t match the action on screen. The editing is choppy, and jarring shifts in both image quality and lighting pop up all the time. However, if you’re looking for campy films, these kinds of issues only improve the viewing experience. ;</p>



<p>The story is not hard to wrap your head around. A young woman, Ethel Janowski (Priscilla Alden), returns home from a facility that treated her violent nature and melancholy with a strict diet and electroshock therapy. Doctor Gerard (Cliff McDonald) reluctantly puts Ethel under the care of her grandmother (Jane Lambert) to see if she can be safely reintroduced to society. </p>



<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-large"><img src="https://philosophyinfilm.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Criminally-Insane-100-1024x680.png" alt="Crazy Fat Ethel kitchen scene" class="wp-image-3017"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><em>Criminally Insane</em> (1975)</figcaption></figure>



<p>At their home, Ethel shows little interest in finding a job. She sits around, eats, and watches television. Ethel’s overeating becomes such an issue that her grandmother restricts Ethel&#8217;s access to food on the grounds that Ethel’s unemployment checks are not nearly enough to pay for it. </p>



<p>When Ethel confronts her grandmother about locking up all the food, the grandmother threatens to call Dr. Gerard, causing Ethel to grab a knife and stab her grandmother in the back. Even after her grandmother lies dead on the floor, Ethel begins stabbing the old woman’s hand to get at the key, before calmly returning to the kitchen, unlocking the food cabinet, and eating some cookies. </p>



<p>Ethel moves her grandmother’s body into an upstairs bedroom. Without any more food or money, Ethel resorts to even more violence to continue her obsessive eating habit. As the bodies start to pile up, Ethel’s sister, Rosalie (Lisa Farros), returns home and uses the home to work as a prostitute. ;</p>



<p>Ethel agrees to the arrangement, as Rosalie pays her to use the house. However, when Rosalie and her violent boyfriend/pimp, John (Michael Flood), become suspicious of the grandmother’s absence, and a detective starts snooping around looking for missing people, Ethel must resort to even more violence to conceal her murder spree.</p>



<p>What sets <em>Crazy Fat Ethel</em> apart from other slasher films of the time is that it gives the anti-hero a very authentic backstory. She’s overweight, depressed, and prone to violent mood swings (as well as anti-Semitic outbursts). She’s also undergone questionable treatments that have likely worsened her mental state. When she doesn’t get her way, things go south quickly. She’s not like Jason or Michael Myers, whose bloodlust goes largely unexplained; Ethel is simply a depressed, angry, food-obsessed woman who will stop at nothing to be a glutton. </p>



<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-large"><img src="https://philosophyinfilm.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Michael_Flood_and_Priscilla_Alden_San_francisco_1970s-1024x695.jpg" alt="Criminally Insane (1975)" class="wp-image-3019"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><em>Criminally Insane </em>(1975)</figcaption></figure>



<p>As you might have imagined, the killings are very cheaply done, with some poorly-staged “stabs” and bright red paint splashed across the bodies. The ending, however sudden, does make the film a bit more “infamous” and feeds (pun intended) a bit more weight to the narrative. In any case, this isn’t the kind of film you watch for Hitchcockian storytelling or award-winning performances. It’s the kind of film that makes you laugh, groan, and feel squeamish at varying intervals. ;</p>



<p>The soundtrack and the claustrophobic house do a lot of the heavy lifting to make this film horrific. The music creates an uncomfortable atmosphere, even when not much is happening on-screen. The house feels too small for Ethel, especially as she adds more bodies to the pile. ;</p>



<p>This is also where the tension continues to build, even though the film is just over an hour long. Since Ethel is not, ostensibly, all that bright, she doesn’t make the best decisions when trying to conceal multiple murders. We feel the tension as the inevitable repercussions of her actions close in on her, culminating in the exaggerated, yet very brief, closing shot. </p>



<p>If you’re into low-budget horror, campy 70s films, or you just have a free hour with nothing else to do, I would recommend watching <em>Criminally Insane</em>. Again, it’s by no means a great film, but it’s surprisingly entertaining, especially for a film made on such a tight budget. </p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading has-medium-font-size">Criminally Insane (1975) Movie Rating: ★★½ ; out of 5</h3>



<p>If you’d like to watch <em>Criminally Insane</em> (1975), the film is currently available to <a href="https://amzn.to/4nV3eUe" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener sponsored nofollow">stream via Amazon</a>. For more film reviews like this one, be sure to check out the <a href="https://philosophyinfilm.com/">Philosophy in Film</a> homepage!</p>

Criminally Insane (1975), Crazy Fat Ethel Lives Up to Her Name
