First, outside of some names, this is not the H.P. Lovecraft novel or the Full Moon movie The Lurking Fear*. Instead, it’s the tale of a small town that has lured in a reality show to see the Martense, a therapy hospital that was ground zero for a tortured-filled existence for the mentally ill and criminally insane.

As the crew films Andrew Seville (Robert Davi), he reveals the past of the Martense, which was built by Dr. Oliver Martense, who had heterochromia iridium, which gave him two different colored eyes. He believed that bodily fluids and their magnetic properties could be used to heal people from their mental illnesses. Some would have called the way he treated his patients barbaric, however.

Now, as the crew enters the closed-down asylum, they’re about to deal not only with how frightening the place is but the fact that it may contain actual demons.

As the reality crew and their Hollywood big-shot director sit outside, Officer Hansen (Michael Madsen) comes to kick them out. However, they have permission to be there from his boss, Sheriff Nassar (Christopher Mormando), who arrives there with Officer Quade (Gianni Capaldi). The crew — which includes Mike (Jonathan Camp), Marlene (Laticia Rolle), Molly (Skye Stracke) and Mike’s fiancee Crystal (Elisabetta Fantone) — gets trapped inside the asylum with Seville, who may not be the most trustworthy person.

Directed and written by Darren Dalton (who was in Red Dawn and The Outsiders before becoming a director; he’s also written The Day That Time Forgot and The Day the Earth Stopped) and Robert Killings (who wrote the movie American Fright Fest and appears in this movie as David), The Lurking Fear sets up a lot of suspense as to what’s happening that gets revealed by its closed captioning, as it says “monster makes noises” which let me know that hey — there are monsters and people haven’t lost their minds.

Some of those monsters are all little kids with different colored eyes, so that means that Dr. Oliver Martense was sleeping with his patients and has created an entire family inside this place that has lived since the patients went insane and ate everyone. Seville is also behind all of it, orchestrating the deaths of the crew. Davi is having the time of his life making this movie, devouring the scenery and asking for seconds.

And then Madsen takes over for him because they were brothers! What!?! This also ends with Crystal watching babies be born and their umbilical cords get bitten as everything gets so dark that we don’t know if we’re watching the strange mutant kids eating afterbirth or the baby. Or the mother? Man, this went all art movie at the end and super slow motion, which doesn’t match the rest of the film, but hey, Madsen isn’t even listed on the movie’s IMDB, so who can say with this thing? It feels like it has something to say about money, small towns, and Hollywood, but it eventually ends. That’s a bold choice.

*The Lovecraft story also inspired Bleeders.

You can watch this on Tubi.