SYNOPSICS
Asylum (2008) is a English movie. David R. Ellis has directed this movie. Sarah Roemer,Jake Muxworthy,Mark Rolston,Travis Van Winkle are the starring of this movie. It was released in 2008. Asylum (2008) is considered one of the best Horror,Thriller movie in India and around the world.
The teenager Madison McBride is traumatized by the loss of her deranged father when she was nine years old and the suicide of her beloved brother Brandon one year ago. She decides to join the Richard Miller University, where Brandon committed suicide, to overcome her demons. While walking to her dorm, she meets the weird janitor Wilbur Mackey that tells her that the place is haunted. Madison befriends the recovering drug addicted Holt; the geek outcast String; the sexually abused Ivy and Maya; and the joker athlete Tommy. All the schoolmates have traumas and the veteran Rez is responsible for them. String discovers in Internet that in 1935, their dorm together with an attached abandoned section was an asylum administrated by Dr. Magnus Burke and considered a safe refugee for troubled teenagers with state-of-art treatment. However, in 1939, the interns uprose against the insane doctor, killing and disclosing the truth about his treatment. Sooner they find that their dorm is haunted by ...
More
Asylum (2008) Reviews
"Give Me Your Suffering"
My oh my. I've been looking forward to this movie for quite some time. I recall it filming back in 2006, and was looking forward to a release sometime in 2007. Slasher movie set in a college dorm. Pretty interesting. And I really dug David R. Ellis' last 3 films. Well, as of this writing, March 2008, the film has yet to be released theatrically, and doesn't even have a date set yet. Now that I've seen the movie, I can see why. This baby has direct to DVD written all over it. If this actually gets a theatrical release, I'll eat my hat. Where to begin? "Asylum" is horrendously written. I would be surprised if this Ethan Lawrence has actually SEEN a horror movie. I hope he has his film-making license revoked. This film felt like one awful collection of slasher clichés. 1. Cast of formulaic characters out of any B-Slasher. The main girl, her nice boyfriend, the nerd, the jock, the slut, the tough chick, the mean Resident Assistant. I assure you, you already know who will live and who will die before the movie even begins. 2. Typical inept security guards. Also the clichéd old man who warns the kids that their dorm is haunted and that they're doomed. 3. Crazy killer who murders teens as revenge for being killed 50 years ago. That's just the beginning. The "Script" is riddled with many more problems. EXPOSITION GALORE. Each of the main characters has a brainless troubled back-story which they proceed to explain for 5 minutes each. "Yada yada, my father used to molest me". "Yada yada, I used to be a druggie". "Yada yada, I used to be obese". "Yada yada, I've always been too awkward to make friends". "Yada yada, my boyfriend used to beat me". I'm not making any of this up. If someone can explain to me what the main girl's back-story (the films opening) had to do with ANYTHING, please let me know. Talk about pointless. To make it worse, when the killer confronts each of his victims, the character finds themselves suddenly transported to a place where they suffered years ago. They'll proceed to say something idiotic like, "My old bedroom, how did I get in here?! This has to be a hallucination!" This is the kind of garbage that used to fly, say, 20 years ago in your typical "Nightmare on Elm Street" sequel. Speaking of which, the villain here is nothing but a Freddy Kruger rip-off. Mad doctor who does gruesome experiments on his teen patients. They revolt and kill him. 50 years later his ghost is murdering the teens using the old Asylum as a dormitory. Although the guy was NEVER burned, his ghost still has gross flesh burns all over. Sometimes he kills people in their dreams, but sometimes his ghost just shows up in the dorm. The man's development is beyond pathetic. And don't get me started on the atrocious dialogue. Being a college student myself, I can assure you that this garbage is better suited for an 80's teen sex comedy. The clichéd hero girl has all the predictable traits. Tragic past, scary visions, she finds the dead body which disappears when she brings the cops. Everyone thinks she is crazy. And despite being big enough to house several hundred students, the only people ever in the dorm are the same 7 "victims". I dare you not to giggle at the "Day to night transitions", which are all the same stock footage of the exterior of the building with a spooky sky. Anything good to say about the flick? Sure. The whole thing is pretty well shot, with some smooth camera movements and intense colors. The main cast is all appealing too. Unfortunately the material they're given is garbage. I really enjoyed Sarah Roemer in "Disturbia", she's cute and likable. I hope she starts choosing her roles better or she'll find herself stuck in DTV limbo. Also, the guy that plays Dr. Burke hams it up pretty well. Too bad he has stupid likes like "Give me your suffering". He also gives dim-witted monologues as he tortures people about how this is curing their agony. Bah! Watching this movie is torture enough. There is some OK gore, but nothing very exciting about on par with an episode of CSI. Overall, the situation speaks for itself. This movie is pretty mediocre, and has ZERO chance of success theatrically. I wouldn't be surprised if it gets a straight to DVD debut sometime near the end of the year. I suppose if you catch it on TV one day, it might be worth checking out. But don't go out of your way.
Cliché Cliché Cliché
I wasn't expecting anything when I saw this movie for free. If I would've had to pay for it I wouldn't have watched it in the first place. The story copies everything from other horror movies. This one feels mostly like Nightmare on Elm Street though, but done incompetently. You have the usual stereotypes, and none of them can act well enough to make you care about them. One of the things I did like at first was the rapid dialog. I found it hysterical at first because it seemed almost natural the way it was spoken, but then it becomes totally repetitive and soon falls apart when the killer finally shows up. And when I say falls apart, I mean it for all the characters. I think maybe the director realized he was just making another useless horror movie and decided to stop caring. This movie had cliché written all over it. All the ideas have been done to death, and the director offers nothing more to the table to make it work in anyway. THe killer was laughable as was most of this movie. I would not recommend this pile of Pooh to anyone.
Should Have Excelled, Ended up Average
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.
I Would Like to Give My Suffering for Watching This Movie
The teenager Madison McBride (Sarah Roemer) is traumatized by the loss of her deranged father when she was nine yearold and the suicide of her beloved brother Brandon one year ago. She decides to join the Richard Miller University, where Brandon committed suicide, to overcome her demons. While walking to her dorm, she meets the weird janitor Wilbur Mackey (Joe Inscoe) that tells her that the place is haunted. Madison befriends the recovering drug addicted Holt (Jake Muxworthy); the geek outcast String (Cody Kasch); the sexually abused Ivy (Ellen Hollman) and Maya (Carolina Garcia); and the joker athlete Tommy (Travis Van Winkle). All the schoolmates have traumas and the veteran Rez (Randall Sims) is responsible for them. String discovers in Internet that in 1935, their dorm together with an attached abandoned section was an asylum administrated by Dr. Magnus Burke (Mark Rolston) and considered a safe refugee for troubled teenagers with state-of-art treatment. However, in 1939, the interns uprose against the insane doctor, killing and disclosing the truth about his treatment. Sooner they find that their dorm is haunted by Dr. Burke that is seeking for tortured souls. The lame "Asylum" is a forgettable collection of clichés that do not frighten or make laugh. The villain Dr. Burke slightly recalls Freddy Krueger with his sharp blades and bringing nightmarish memories to his victims. The characters are destroyed the same way they appear, without any development or care with the consequences. In accordance with the story, Mackey was eleven year-old in 1939. Therefore, in 2007, he would be seventy-nine year-old, still working and in an excellent shape. In the end, I would like to give my suffering for watching this terrible movie. My vote is four. Title (Brazil): "Asylum Não Estamos Sozinhos" ("Asylum We Are not Alone")
by the numbers and too dark
OK, I am getting sick of the recent trend in horror movies - that of every film being a Rembrandt picture (that is, no source of light and the background being all black). Between "The Descent", "The Ruins", and "Asylum", I have not been able to see what was happening on the screen in a long time. That being said, based on what i could hear of this film, i didn't miss much. If you took out the F word, the script would have been about 10 pages with narratives reading, "characters show up. meet each other. some you like some you don't. bad things happen. characters run through darkness. lights go out. creepy doctor appears. run. lots of unnecessarily gory deaths. meet background character who appears to know back story. run. defeat bad guy. semi-happy resolution. final pointless scare." oh for the days of "the Friday the 13th series". it is sad when Jason is the barometer of good quality. the bad part is, they don't even meet the Jason quota of nudity and deaths. the only thing that saves this is some witty dialogue in the beginning during the orientation scenes. otherwise, pointless and too damn dark. did i mention how unnecessarily dark it is?