So Sad About Gloria, Loonies and Romance

We live in an enlightened time. Total whack-balls used to be put in mental asylums. Not anymore. Today we drug them, make them promise to keep taking their psycho-tropic drugs, and send them to your neighborhoods. Back then we locked them in cells, sometime in straight jackets. Today we set them up next door to you. They go to church with you...the supermarket with you...they babysit your children...and even teach them in school. Back then, their confinement kept us all safe. Today, we are still safe until they decide to stop taking their meds...which they will decide...then God help you as they reach for an axe or a chainsaw. Hence 1975's "So Sad About Gloria."

The very beautiful...but quite insane...Gloria (Lori Saunders) has just been released from a mental hospital. This is always a good idea. She still has visions of an axe-man trying to break open a coffin...but other than that...well, you know. Upon release she goes to live with her Uncle Rick (Dean Jagger), as her dad's violent death was what sent her into insanity. Their loaded, actually she's loaded. Uncle Rick lives in the family mansion but all the money is hers...unless something happens to her. What could happen to her? Her doctor has warned Uncle Rick that she is to be kept free from any stress or scares.

As she rides her horse she meets the weird but handsome Chris (Robert Ginnaven). He sweeps her off her feet. Oh yeah, nearby, a sultry brunette (Brenda Evans) is axed to pieces in her bedroom. This murder will go unsolved. As decent as Chris appears, after he marries Gloria he moves them into the same house the aforementioned lovely was chopped up. This unsettles her and eventually she will hear strange noises and her visions and dreams of the axe-man trying to open a coffin increase. As Gloria begins to lose it again, axe-men seem to come out of the woodwork. Unstable, vulnerable, and very wealthy, Gloria seems defenseless against any axe-man or evil-doer that may prey on her.

Is Gloria still insane and if so, is she criminally insane? Is the handsome and smooth Chris after more than the love of the beautiful Gloria? May the diminutive beauty, herself, be the axe-wielding maniac? Veteran horror fans may find this one predictable and slow, though the ending is terrific. Still, at very least, "So Sad About Gloria" may be a decades old warning about the virtue of mental asylums. Remember, in 2018, one in three human beings is total-nutsoid...good luck trying to figure out who those one-third are before they manifest their insanity.