Asylum

I wasn't expecting anything when I saw this movie for free. If I would've had to pay for it I wouldn't have watched it in the first place. The story copies everything from other horror movies. This one feels mostly like Nightmare on Elm Street though, but done incompetently. You have the usual stereotypes, and none of them can act well enough to make you care about them. One of the things I did like at first was the rapid dialog. I found it hysterical at first because it seemed almost natural the way it was spoken, but then it becomes totally repetitive and soon falls apart when the killer finally shows up. And when I say falls apart, I mean it for all the characters. I think maybe the director realized he was just making another useless horror movie and decided to stop caring.

This movie had cliché written all over it. All the ideas have been done to death, and the director offers nothing more to the table to make it work in anyway. THe killer was laughable as was most of this movie. I would not recommend this pile of Pooh to anyone.

When given a good script and actors, Ellis can make half decent, watchable movies, but I think he's basically doomed to make derivative, highly clichéd horror movies for the next ten years, with most of them probably going direct-to-video, before fading into deserved obscurity.

Asylum is an annoying pastiche of past horror movies, drawing most of its influence from Wes Craven's Nightmare on Elm Street. It's populated by tired stereotypes (the jock, the nerd, the slut, the weird girl, etc) who dutifully recite their two minutes of back story prior to their grisly death. Yes, it's nice to find any degree of back story whatsoever in a low budget horror movie, but the writing is so terrible and the characters are all so annoying that I just wanted them all to just shut up.

The special effects and gore were fairly well done, which might make up for the terrible writing and directing, if you're obsessed with slasher movies. If all you want out of a movie is to see annoying, stereotypical teens butchered by a ghost, then you could do worse than this movie, but I'm not sure why you would waste your time.

The teenager Madison McBride (Sarah Roemer) is traumatized by the loss of her deranged father when she was nine year–old and the suicide of her beloved brother Brandon one year ago. She decides to join the Richard Miller University, where Brandon committed suicide, to overcome her demons. While walking to her dorm, she meets the weird janitor Wilbur Mackey (Joe Inscoe) that tells her that the place is haunted. Madison befriends the recovering drug addicted Holt (Jake Muxworthy); the geek outcast String (Cody Kasch); the sexually abused Ivy (Ellen Hollman) and Maya (Carolina Garcia); and the joker athlete Tommy (Travis Van Winkle). All the schoolmates have traumas and the veteran Rez (Randall Sims) is responsible for them. String discovers in Internet that in 1935, their dorm together with an attached abandoned section was an asylum administrated by Dr. Magnus Burke (Mark Rolston) and considered a safe refugee for troubled teenagers with state-of-art treatment. However, in 1939, the interns uprose against the insane doctor, killing and disclosing the truth about his treatment. Sooner they find that their dorm is haunted by Dr. Burke that is seeking for tortured souls.

The lame "Asylum" is a forgettable collection of clichés that do not frighten or make laugh. The villain Dr. Burke slightly recalls Freddy Krueger with his sharp blades and bringing nightmarish memories to his victims. The characters are destroyed the same way they appear, without any development or care with the consequences. In accordance with the story, Mackey was eleven year-old in 1939. Therefore, in 2007, he would be seventy-nine year-old, still working and in an excellent shape. In the end, I would like to give my suffering for watching this terrible movie. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "Asylum – Não Estamos Sozinhos" ("Asylum – We Are not Alone")

From director David R. Ellis (whose prior credits include "Final Destination 2" and "Snakes on a Plane") comes "Asylum," a psychological horror film in which a group of college students come to find that their campus was once the spot where a mad-doctor practiced his own twisted brand of medicine. A Freddy Krueger type whose patients eventually turned on him, the doctor still haunts the halls, preying on the students and tapping into their deep-seeded emotional scars.

The film hinges on an assortment of clichés, but that's not to say that some enjoyment can't be milked from it. While you can see nearly every moment coming from miles away, the film gets by with a bit of style and energy, courtesy of Ellis. Its story is really "A Nightmare on Elm Street"-lite, but fans of the 80's franchise (as well as other similar films from the era) may just get some thrills from seeing a film pay tribute to or at least attempting to live up to its legacy (they'll also appreciate a role by Lin Shaye as the mother of one of the students).

The true weakness of the film is in its paper-thin script and characters and its over-reliance on gross-out gore over suspense. You might squirm in your seat during a scene where a character gets his lips ripped off and his tongue cut-out, but you won't necessarily care about the character himself, which is always a bad thing for a horror movie. Also, the final act reaches some ridiculous territory and will no doubt leave your eyes rolling. Go into "Asylum" with low-expectations of some fluff-horror, and you might just appreciate what the film has to offer.

Looking back on Asylum, it did a lot of things well. The mood was set right, the viewer was able to get familiar with the group of teens before they go, and the deaths were deep and interesting. However I had the vibe during and after the movie that it was not above average. A few more big name actors could've helped. Also the story is forced on you, a little unbelievable and makes no ammends.

Asylum does a good job of setting up a scary plot. They are college students who are living in a dorm that was once an insane asylum run by a doctor who was killed by his patients for his brutal techniques. The deaths were very well thought out. The mood emanates very well and there are plenty of scary moments.

The biggest problem with asylum was the linear, predictable and unforgiving and under explained plot. A little twist here and a cliff hanger there really would've helped. The acting was good for a horror movie, but no one really stuck. Maybe if there was a little more focus on the main character and a bigger named actress it may have stuck more.

I would recommend this movie to any horror movie fan. It's not great but will have at least a couple parts you admire. If anything at the end you wont be upset you watched it.