El manicomio de la muerte

"Asylum" isn't actually offensive or incompetent, so I couldn't give it a single star. In fact, the film is shot fairly well (if you like dark scenes where you can't tell what's going on) and the direction is acceptable. The acting varies wildly, but is certainly a step up from most of the horror trash being churned out these days. The SFX range from pretty scary and subtle to just plain laughable (see the last scene, for example.)

What really makes this film a bore is the lousy plot and script. It truly does play like it was filmed from a script assembled by throwing the scripts from classic horror movies (and some that aren't so classic) up in the air and then picking up random pages after they fall. Not every horror film cliché appears in this film, but there are no scenes in this film that are not horror clichés. The dialogue is just totally unrealistic. No suspense...no character development...no logic.

So who's fault is this big mess? I've got to pick on the director. He had to have seen what he was working with. It's possible to film a decent story from a weak script, but he apparently decided not to put forth the effort. The result is, to use a cliché, "cliche-ridden."

Final recommendation...you probably won't hate it or throw beer cans at the screen, but it's not going to surprise you or scare you. I'd suggest avoiding this film.

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.

It started off badly, petered out in the middle and the less said about the end the better. Apart from that, I can't fault it. Worth a watch if you're trying to avoid the ironing or some other mundane task.

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.