"Escaping the Madhouse: The Nellie Bly Story"

In 1887 New York, one woman that went by the pen name Nellie Bly changed the world of journalism becoming the first investigative journalist and writing a ninety-six page piece that would shock the world with the horrors she witnessed inside the walls of a madhouse. This year, Christina Ricci portrays Nellie Bly and her ten day nightmare.

Finding herself with no memory other than the name Nellie Brown (Christina Ricci), this young woman makes headlines in all the papers as to who is the insane girl that showed up on the streets and was brought to the women's insane asylum on Blackwell's Island just outside the city. Under the care of Matron Grady (Judith Light) and Dr. Josiah (Josh Bowman) Nellie undergoes the worst treatment imaginable from bathing in cold filthy water to the harsh labor and abusive treatment from Matron Grady and her staff of nurses in deplorable conditions. Nellie comes to find many of the women there are as sane as the next person and are wrongfully there from a woman of good family named Lottie Hollister (Anja Savcic) to a woman who had no other means in the world (Angela Narth) yet everyone, even Dr. Josiah starts to make Nellie question her sanity as she watches those around her deteriorate from Grady's torturous "treatments".

Shockingly horrific, enough to make you question your sanity. While Lifetime has succeeded at capturing a mind-gripping thriller once again and capture the fear that one might have experienced in a very place like the real Nellie Bly experienced, its fails to account for its historical accuracy in which I found out were more deplorable conditions and abusive than portrayed and focused more on fictionalized characters made to make the film more suspenseful and to have "Nellie" interact with someone. The only purpose for such a thing seems to be how the sane were driven mad which is the only real accuracy about them. While I found this film excellent as far as its story telling, I would have been more impressed with more accuracy from this brave journalist's accounts being used, yet it still gets to escape with three G.M.Stars and my approval for one of Christina's best roles of horror since "Cursed".

⭐⭐⭐
Green Mountain Stars

"Escaping the Madhouse: The Nellie Bly Story" is currently only available on Lifetime.