Asylum

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.

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.

If you got this movie expecting a $100 million production costs and over the top gore your going to walk away disappointed. If you are like me, a genre fan than you may be pleasantly surprised. The acting in this flick, along with production, and everything else was well above expectations. The script is decent and not as flawed as some would like you to believe. If you pay attention it all makes sense in the end.(This isn't a movie that requires 2-3 watches to get it). Good genre movies like this are constantly passed over by a lot of people(including myself) due to the backslapping phenomenon here at IBMD that ruins the rating system.

You know the one where one person says, "Worst movie ever", then gets followed by 50 other sheep who can't think or form an opinion for themselves saying the same thing and voting the same way even though more then likely they never even saw the film. I wish I could say that this type of behavior will stop, but it never will and it works on both sides. If you notice, a lot of movies at IBMD will be rated terribly long before they are even released to anyone. Then a few people with backbone will stand up and eventually the ratings will rise. I see this with almost EVERY release that goes straight to DVD and even some big Hollywood releases.

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About this movie, It definitely DOESN'T deserve the rating it has. It should at least be in the 5-6 range. This isn't some ridiculous movie made by some idiot kid with no talent and a camcorder with a bunch of his no talent friends attempting to act. This is a low budget above par scare fair with good effects, a decent story, and great acting. Obviously a movie like this won't ever win any awards, but if you take it for what it is and your a genre fan this movie wont disappoint at all.

I gave this movie a 7. I wish I could give it more, but it really is only deserving of a 5, maybe 6 at most. I added another star to try and make up for the pitiful IBMD zombies who refuse to think for themselves.

For the Horror buffs who follow my reviews for their horror pics, I would give this one a watch. Don't expect a "classic" or "gem". Its just a "Decent horror flick" thats totally undeserving of IBMD's rating.

What to think of this movie. It's Mark Rolston who makes the movie, appeared before in Corman's Humanoids from the deep and Saw V he gives a perfect performance, made me even think a bit of pinhead from hellraiser. He's got the face to play a killer. But the hardest part is the storyline. Too poor. They could have made an excellent flick but there isn't enough "suffering" in it, not that much gore or blood. The youth that is going to be killed are the typical kind of kids appearing in a horror movie. The oversexed mr macho guy, the sexy girl, the nerd, the thinking girl, the bastard boss,...They all play very well but again, their own storyline isn't worked out enough. Even the usual nudity doens't give it a surplus value. It's a shame because in a time of torture porn they could have made a classic one. They should have known when you use a sentence like "give me your suffering" that you should give people real suffering. Watch it for Rolston's performance, no more no less.

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.