Nick Millard’s 1975 horror film Criminally Insane (also known as Crazy Fat Ethel) is a deep cut cult classic. <br /><br />In the film, a morbidly obese mental patient is released into the custody of her grandmother, despite a past history of violence. When the grandmother tries to prevent the patient's gorging behavior, she is killed by her own granddaughter. The granddaughter proceeds to kill further victims, hiding the corpses within her grandmother's residence. Her efforts to dispose of the bodies backfire, alerting a neighbor.<br /><br />The critics call it "an offbeat and obscure trashy comical horror thriller...you've GOT to love Criminally Insane. This unfettered freak show of a fright flick, starring the world's portliest serial killer (yes, even bigger than John Wayne Gacy and Leatherface, combined) is so downright depraved, so tantalizing in its turgid storytelling and squalid scenarios that words cannot begin to describe its baneful beauty" and "This is the type of movie the 70s are famous for, off the wall experiments in execution and excess. Imagine Kathy Bates blown up like a balloon and running around brandishing a butcher's knife and you start to get the idea of how stellar this fright flick really is. The terror is kept to a minimum, and the storyline is just an excuse to see Ethel eat and kill, but when it's as bloody and bold as this film, who really cares". Similarly, DVD Verdict's David Johnson wrote, "This flick is deserving of its title—it is absolutely crazy" and "This is just a fun, gruesome hour of weirdness".
