The Incident

What horror concept is more traditional and effective than the setting of an asylum for the mentally insane during a thunderstorm and a power blackout? Writer S. Craig Zahler and director Alexandre Courtès may perhaps not have had a lot of financial means at their disposal, but they definitely know their genre classics and they also know how to build up a suspenseful atmosphere and petrify the audience through simple tricks. "The Incident", a.k.a. "Asylum Blackout" which naturally is a much more appealing and appetizing title for a low-budget horror flick, first caught my attention because it's a partially Belgian co-production (I'm from Belgium, hence…) and it premiered at the Brussels' International Festival of Fantastic Films a few years ago. Via this website, I learned that the film was largely shot in Belgium but I can't quite figure out whether the director is Belgian or not. Either way, being a Belgian horror freak, I'm still very proud to see a link with my country, especially because I liked "The Incident" quite a lot. Admittedly the film starts out a little too slow and primitive, while the confusing and open-for-interpretation climax is arguably annoying, but everything in between is a nice demonstration of sadistic, raw and nerve-wrecking terror! George and his two pals Max and Ricky form an aspiring rock-band, but they hardly have the money to pay for a session at the recording studio. Therefore they also work together in the kitchen of the sinister Sans asylum, geographically isolated somewhere in the state of Washington. Near the end of a long working day, a heavy thunderstorm breaks loose and lightening causes a power failure inside the asylum. The cell doors unlock automatically and the patients – all of them dangerous lunatics on heavy medication – turn against the wardens. George and his friend attempt to hide in storage rooms and offices but the crazies, led by the vicious inmate Harry Green, hunt them down as well. "The Incident" features some of the most efficiently disturbing sequences I've seen in a long time. The scene where a couple of nut cases are trying to break through the freezer door, behind which Ricky is hiding, is downright petrifying. And so is the excruciatingly painful murder of a certain character on top of the cooking stove and a torture sequence involving a peeling knife. I must say the supportive characters depicting the mental patients are extremely well-chosen as well. Harry Green (Richard Brake) looks like evil personified and many other unknown actors are aptly cast based on their looks as well (Darren Kent, the hairless guy…). The film allegedly takes place in the year 1989, which is quite clever because this way the writers didn't have to take into account mobile phones, GPS systems etc… I'm not going to go too much into detail about the bizarre ending. It didn't bother me that much because, by the time of the climax, I was already seriously impressed by the level of sickness and disturbance of "The Incident". This definitely isn't for sensitive and/or easily offended viewers!

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.

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?

I first saw this in 2012 on a dvd which I own.

Revisited it recently.

This movie has plenty of atmosphere, tension n gore.

In order to make ends meet, three fellas from a musical band team, work in the cafeteria of an asylum for the criminally insane located far off from the city. The head chef, George, turns up for his cafeteria shift without sleeping the previous night and due to exhaustion, cuts himself and later loses his temper at his band mates. George is asked by his mates to take a nap when he shouts at Harry, an inmate. George somehow has the notion that Harry is convincing other inmates to spit out the pills. George is awakened later by his friend cos of a power failure and because the exterior doors are electronically locked, everyone is now trapped inside the building.

One of the best part is that inspite of the movie taking place during a power failure, none of the scenes are shot in the dark and the annoying flickering lights are zilch.

Check out for the character of Max.

The reaction of George when he sees Max's nose is genuine acting and the way Max gets dizzy n collapses, is top notch acting.

Also the scene where George sees the female nurse lying on the ground and the assumed sexual violation and George's reaction is top notch acting again.

Poor Max, first his nose gets bitten n severed off n later he gets the same fate like Mitzi from Rituals (1977).

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