The Amityville Asylum

Lisa Templeton is hired as part of a cleaning crew at a hospital for the mentally disabled. She soon discovers that things are not what they seem.

I enjoyed a few things about the movie. The story kept me interested the entire time and it took a turn I was not quite expecting. With low budget films we cant expect great acting and this film is no different. The horror scenes are not well supported by the special effects. Overall I would put this film at the bottom of my list on horror movies to watch. Definitely not something I would watch twice but its worth an hour to kill.

Was drawn into seeing 'The Amityville Asylum', with a cool poster/cover, a truly great premise and as someone with a general appreciation for the genre it fits under. That it was low-budget, which from frequent personal experience is rarely a good sign due to that there are so many poor ones out there (though there are decent to good ones as well), made me though apprehensive.

It is sadly however yet another film seen recently, hence some reiteration because the exact same strengths and flaws present in those films are here, that to me was incredibly disappointing considering its potential which it doesn't do anywhere near enough with. 'The Amityville Asylum' is really very bad, with so many huge flaws and doesn't do anything with any potential it had. There is net to nothing good here in 'The Amityville Asylum', just amateur hour all round. The idea was great and the camera work is decent with some atmosphere, but the good things end there.

Going on to the negatives, the story does feel over-stretched and some of it comes over as vague and under-explained in the last third where the film especially became duller, more predictable, more senseless and less unsettled and never gaining momentum. All the characters are too sketchy and with cardboard thin and colourless personalities and with nowhere near enough to make one want to endear to them. Their annoying and illogical decision making and behaviours frustrates. The chemistry is bland and unfocused.

The sound quality is obvious and utilised cheaply (being too loud in the build ups and people's reactions), the effects are shoddy and nearly all of the acting is lacking severely on the whole, that's actually an understatement as the worst of it is horrendous. There is no sense of horror or engagement with the awful predicament they're in, and no connecting with the character, it just reeks of indifference and complete blankness which makes the viewer not care less too.

Dialogue can be stilted and rambling while the pace and film drags on forever, apparent from the very start, never recovering that interest is lost fast. The ending has no build-up and just ends ridiculously. Found too many of the supposedly shocking moments not surprising or scary and the atmosphere dreary, due to the excessive obviousness, a lot of dumb and vague moments and explanations and the lack of tension and suspense. Thrills are none, thanks to stodginess and excessive over-familiarity, and found myself never invested in the drama, which tended to be indifferently acted, interminably paced and statically directed.

A lot of 'The Amityville Asylum' has really dull and going nowhere plot elements and often nonsensical and confusing character motivations, while too many of the things to make you shocked are far from creative or unsettling. It all feels rather tame while the threat completely lacks menace and looks terrible.

Nothing freaky or interesting, no development and too derivative, while everything is unimaginative and are more odd than scary, completely failing to show any sense of dread. There is nothing interesting or illuminating with what the film was trying to do and the drama is overwrought with no momentum and a lot of weirdness. The direction is barely there and disorganised and the music is ill-fitting. 'The Amityville Asylum' is very amateurish visually, too drearily lit and shoddily designed effects-wise.

Overall, very bad. 2/10 Bethany Cox

B Movies seem to be making a big come back this year and this one fits right in there with other legends of the genre ticking every box to ensure that it'll mark low and leave you wondering why you bothered.

Woeful script? Score. Actually the script wasn't so bad although more than a little clichéd. If only the delivery wasn't so abysmal. Acting? Hackneyed characters with poor back-stories. Brought to "life" through the art of people pretending to be someone they're not. Or maybe they were good characters, hackneyed in to existence through bad acting. Scares? You'd think that borrowing the Amityville legend would lend some worthwhile thrills, but you'd be wrong.

The best thing I can say about this movie is that it was only 86 minutes long. Which was plenty.

The DVD slipcase artwork is probably the best thing about this film. This film is so bad I'd rather watch the newest incarnation of Ghostbusters and that was an absolute pile of turd that robbed me of 2 hours of my life.

Looked really good, and scary from the cover, and description, but it was absolutely the worst movie i have ever seen in my life ! But it made me laugh, with the terrible acting, bad directing, and script was so bad... no more words can describe how bad this was, now i will burn it, and dance all over the ashes of this DVD... totally ripped off, i want my cash back, and the 2 hours i wasted of my life watching this terrible film, i wish that i had just watched Barney, or mickey mouse. I would rather someone set fire to me, and burn my eyeballs off than for me to have to sit and watch it again. As for the sound track, it was like a 2 year old in a school class room.