Asylum of Darkness

A funny & evil low budget film with a biblical message.It would be scary if it was in the 70's- now in 2020 its very funny. I was laughing the whole time instead of being freaked out!

Oh wait for the credits that roll upwards going down..

Dwight Stroud (Nick Baldasare) is a dangerous psychiatric prisoner who breaks out of the asylum and assumes another man's life, but he's tortured and haunted by crazy visions that may or may not be delusions.

Writer/director Jay Woelfel has never gotten the budget or recognition of Croenenberg or Lynch, but like those filmmakers, he's got a unique style all his own. Most of his films are slowly paced, hallucinogenic, psychological mindforks with very low budgets, some amateur Ohio actors, and a Lovecraftian creature. If you're down with that, Asylum of Darkness is an enjoyable ride, but if you want a more "Hollywood" movie, look elsewhere for your entertainment.

Up front, I gotta say, the film's title and poster are misleading. Only a tiny fraction of the film takes place in an asylum, and the poster makes it look like some fast-paced monster movie. That's bad marketing, hence the low IMDb rating from folks who expected something very different.

The story and tone zigzag in a way that's engaging if you can roll with it. Every time it seems like the plot's settling into normality, something really weird happens -- but it feels a little long and could stand to be tightened by 15 minutes. The practical FX are generally very good, and the ones that aren't are serviceable.

Nick Baldasare has grown as an actor since "Beyond Dream's Door" and "Heartland of Darkness" (both shot in 1989), and he does a fine job in the lead. Amanda Howell is genuinely charming as his love interest, Richard Hatch camps it up as a crazed doctor, Tim Thomerson is Tim Thomerson, and likewise, you get what you'd expect from Tiffany Shepis.

All in all, I enjoyed it and don't feel like it was a waste of 2 hours, but I knew what I was getting into with this director.

A murderer (Nick Baldasare), who has been assigned to a mental institution after being declared "not guilty by reason of insanity," escapes the state hospital and assumes the identity of another man. Curiously, the man's wife accepts him (Amanda Howell) and the hallucinatory story proceeds from there.

"Asylum of Darkness" (2013) was originally called "Season of Darkness" when it was screened at a festival, but the distributor adjusted the title for its 2017 release. It was written, scored and directed by Jay Woelfel for $200,000, shot in his hometown of Columbus, Ohio. Despite the micro-budget, it's artistic in its depiction of reality from the delusional mind of an insane person. The old school practical effects are mostly effective, but sometimes cartoonish and goofy.

It's technically superior to Woelfel's spare-change budgeted "Ghost Story" (2004); and the story is more compelling compared to his "Closed for the Season" (2010). Unfortunately, it's overlong and Tiffany Shepis' role is too small; she should've played the wife IMHO.

However, if you like artsy indies and are patient, you'll probably find something to appreciate. It's too puzzling for my tastes, but at least it's different.

Richard Hatch and Tim Thomerson appear in peripheral roles. It runs 1 hours, 57 minutes.

GRADE: C.

After awakening in a mental asylum, a patient plans his escape to freedom and manages to successfully enter modern society only for his constant visions and psychological problems to continually manifest themselves in order to drag him back to the asylum and forces him to find out why.

For the most part, this one wasn't all that bad of an effort. One of the strongest aspects here is the fact that this one generates a really impressive and somewhat disorienting atmosphere that's really engaging and appealing. The fact that majority of the first half concerns the ability to make it nearly impossible to tell what's going on here, as the atmosphere found within this section of whether or not he's really going through the insanity of the situation with his weird visions of people with distorted faces following his dreams gives the film quite an odd start. As well, the rather odd manner in which this is jokingly referred to as a normal situation by the staff despite the obvious discomfort of the visions makes for a chilling setup here. The way in which he continually experiences the strange faceless beings and creatures coming after him, from the hallucinatory chase in the house, his encounter in the cemetery or the continued visions he has with the strange creatures while being around his wife which gives this some solid work to build off of. The second half gets the creatures to interact with him a little more vigorously, letting the hospital encounter, a stellar hallucination sequence where he cuts up the members of a boardroom meeting as well as the finale in the underground bunker that resolves this nicely all giving it a solid amount of gore and solid creature make-up for the different demonic creatures here. However, none of these factors can overcome the fact that there's just no reason for anything that happens here. It just goes from one seemingly unconnected sequence to another that all supposedly feature his deteriorating mental state yet nothing is really done about making sure it all relates to anything. The fact that he's insane and supposedly living a different person's life is no excuse for why nothing here makes sense, why it goes from him in the asylum to suddenly now a husband and living with the wife despite being two different people as none of this is explained. The chance to explain it all never comes as to why they believe he's the dead person and is able to suddenly become a different person as the flimsy nature it occurs here is begging for more of an explanation yet it never occurs. Likewise, the fact that the film is so bland and lifeless doesn't really do it many favors either, taking far too long to get the switch going and featuring way too much downtime to really be of much interest. The endless scenes of him at the book-signing, trying to appeal to his wife's good side to get her to trust him following the behavior switch and in general just going around trying to uncover his true identity make this one so dreary and dull that it sloughs along at a bland clip, and with a nearly two-hour running time it really could've been put to far better use moving the pace of this one along. These two issues here are in fact so crippling that they manage to overcome much of what good this film accomplishes.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.

The concept/idea was interesting but really stretched out being a 2 hour movie, acting is pretty bad and some of the scenes are ridiculous- maybe a once off watch but definitely wouldn't watch again and would not recommend