Shock Corridor

(Samuel Fuller, US 1963, 88 min., 35mm)

12 Postcards from Prison. Johnny Barrett, a reporter obsessed with winning a Pulitzer Prize, goes undercover in a mental hospital in order to solve a murder, only to cross the line between sanity and madness. This is a film of literal and psychological interiors, a striking presentation of Fuller’s storytelling. His combination of a bold use of footage shot for other films and a variety of rule-breaking visual effects (intense close-ups, shock cutting, inexplicable camera movements) made Shock Corridor one of the most audacious B-movies of the 1960s.