The Incident

Having seen and liked all three of S. Craig Zahler's directed films, I decided to check this one out after reading the many positive reviews on this site. Needless to say I was disappointed. I don't know what Zahler was thinking when he wrote this film but it completely lacks the conviction that his later films have. The plot is confused on whether it wants to be a siege thriller or a torture porn. The concept itself is quite terrifying and had a lot of potential that wasn't utilized here. It started off with a choppy exposition and then slowly built up promise until it all came crashing down by deciding to take an unnecessarily gory turn. It was capped off by a weird twist that didn't benefit the film.

The dialogue was actually fairly realistic and the characters made largely sensible choices for the most part, which was a breath of fresh air in such a trite genre. Unfortunately the audio quality was very unrefined and I could only understand about 75% of what they were saying. The lighting could've been better as well. This film had the potential to be a tense and original asylum thriller but unfortunately had too simple a plot and couldn't make up its mind. I don't recommend that people waste their time watching this.

Side question: How does this mess get produced when Brigands of Rattleborge is still rotting in Warner Bros' vault?

Found the movie on netflix so we decided to watch it. I had never heard of the film or any of the actors in it and the title gave me the assumption this film would be pretty bad. But i was delightfully mistaken.

it's Not great but for a low budget horror film its pretty darn good. it took a little long getting in but after that it had great pace and intensity. It had some very shocking and gory scenes but never really crossed the line.

some parts of the film don't make the most sense and leave you questioning what happened. but all in all the setting and the disturbed inmates made for a truly scary film. very good for what it was and better than a lot of big budget films out there. i would give it a view

******/10

Two aspiring musicians whom are working as cooks in a secluded mental asylum to make ends meet and to further finance their dead-end dream job are in the aforementioned hospital when the power goes out and the patients revolt, leaving the cooks and rest of the workers to fight for their lives.

Apart from some brutal scenes the movie seemed a tad on the tame side considering a promising set-up premise. The acting is merely serviceable for the most part but the main heavy is well-acted and steals every scene he's in. The film also boasts a lame twist ending that was unneeded. All in all I was just left with a Meh feeling, Not good enough to praise nor awful enough to mock. It just... Is.

This film is a solid take on the crazed maniac horror film. It is simply told and soundly directed. There are some really great suspense scenes, good performances, and compelling cinematography. Oh, there is also a confusing ending. In fact, the movie rushes through some really fuzzy plot maneuvering in its last ten minutes, as if it had somewhere to get to in a hurry. That said, the weak ending does not ruin the film. In fact, just tune out five minutes early and you've got a really good movie.

What I want to point out is this film's satisfying dramatic structure. The film's protagonist is a young, handsome member of a late-80s grunge band. He works a tough job to make ends meet and has apparently gotten his friends jobs to help them out. One of his friends is sweet, but unreliable. Another of his friends is reliable, but snarly. Our hero, however, is both reliable and warm. He is eminently likable. The character of George made me care about this horror movie. He drove my interest in the film. I wanted George to make it through the horror.

Other (often new) horror directors could learn from this. A movie needs a likable, rational hero to be any good. Also, tell a real story; do not just string together some mish mash of allusions to other movies. It is fine to repeat imagery from previous horror films, as this film does, but ground your film in a coherent real life situation. Asylum Blackout works because it gives its characters dignity and its story world depth. It kept me in the moment from beginning to end.

You guys are way too critical.

I was watching this expecting it to be another run of the mill low budget flick, especially with the rating which almost convinced me not to watch it at all.

Any movie that has you really thinking about it after its over is way better than the fluff I have seen come out recently and this one had me pondering the ending over and over.

IMDb should start having some categories based on genre that can be rated so the ratings are not so lump sum weighted.

Anyway anybody looking for a good weekend movie this one is worth a watch.