Asylum (2008)

Very Cool!!!

To me, this movie is perfection.

Good concept, poorly executed.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

It is very, very rare that I give a film one out of ten stars. I'm usually pretty picky when it comes to which movies I watch, and as such I'm usually always able to find a kernel of something (plot, idea, acting, effects, music, etc.) to enjoy. Sadly, watching "Asylum" provided me none of those things, and ended up being the worst film I've seen in quite some time.For a basic plot summary, "Asylum" focuses on the character of Madison (Sarah Roemer), who goes off to college at the same place her brother took his own life (mental illness runs in the family). Once in her dorm, Madison does some of the typical freshman orientation bonding as befitting a new student...but also discovers that the grounds may be haunted by ghost of The Doctor (Mark Rolston), who years early ran an insane asylum on the premises.The main problem with "Asylum" is that it is little more than a combination of every horror movie cliché you've ever seen in your life. Dimly lit corridors, insane asylum lore, ghosts, characters that spew cardboard backstory to try to give their deaths significance/meaning...this one has them all. None of these approaches work, of course, as they are only wallpaper for the fact that the film has perhaps the most embarrassing "plot" I've ever seen.This brings up the next major problem: I don't think I've ever seen a film do a worse job at creating an interesting plot, developing characters, or dialogue in general. To be completely honest, I thought (while watching) that this must be a student film project or something on the very lowest rungs of film-production. That would be the only way this utter lack of quality could be reconciled in my brain. But, consider this:-"Asylum" was made on a budget of $9 million. -It was distributed by MGM Studios. -Its director (David R. Ellis) has directed other major Hollywood films. -Roemer was likely a big draw (coming off her role in "Suburbia"), and Rolston is an acting veteran. -The credits feature an entire slate of a film team.So, it is pretty clear that this film isn't just a low-independent production or one made by students. This was meant to be a major production that turns into an utter embarrassment. Even those who are up for the cheesiest of B-horror movies will cringe at "Asylum" (we are talking cringe-worthy at the level of Mystery Science Theater 3000 here).As I've mentioned, I hate giving (most) films the bottom-feeding 1 star review, but this one deserves not an ounce more. I knew it was going to be bad after 15 minutes, and only a 90-minute runtime kept me in my seat for the duration. Look literally anywhere else for your suspense/horror fix.

I enjoyed this movie but It wasn't that scary ... I've been more scared by a video game that took place in an asylum . I would have to say the best parts were when ivy told Burke to go to hell and also when Maddison said " give me your suffering mother*****r!" That was pretty clever , I would say this movie was more sad then scary .. while I agree Burke shouldn't have been performing lobotomies on healthy teens and they did the right thing to kill him , I think they should have blessed the building before using it for anything . The only part that really scared me was when Tommy got his tongue cut out . Also Rez was a freaking creep! . The saddest parts to me were when Mackey got stabbed as a little boy and when Maddison saw the vision of her brother committing suicide . Overall for my first horror movie it was pretty OK .

There are many inconsistencies in this film. For example, Dr. Burke chases Madison and Holt from the asylum during the night to an old factory where is day! They say that Dr. Burke was killed in 1939 when Mackey was 11... As the story comes in 2007, Mackey should be 79! In the movie looks like 50! There is not a real connection between the drama of Madison and her family with a madness syndrome and two suicides with the drama of Dr. Burke. You imagine that the suicide of Madison's brother in the same asylum would have any connection with Dr. Burke, but no... This drama is never resolved. The college ambassador is a very disturbing character and he never faces Dr. Burke, as well as the police, as well as the many other resident students at the place that disappear completely from the last scenes as the main characters were alone in the place... Very poor film.

I found ASYLUM sitting on a shelf at the local DVD store, I didn't know a thing about this movie but that hasn't stopped me before, I rented it, took it home, popped it in the player and as the pre-credits rolled I noticed two familiar names, one was that of the producer Ashok Amritaj whose other credits in the horror genre includes a more popular film called TRICK'R'TREAT and the second was David R. Ellis whose credits include FINAL DESTINATION 2 and 4 and CELLULAR, so I reckoned this film should either be interesting or it should really suck since I never heard of it.The film turned out to be good after all, it wasn't something I would tell everyone about, it starts off as a ghost story setting up the mood developing the characters but later it turns more into a slasher and of course you get the usual set of clichés, but on the plus side the characters are of course your typical young teen slasher types but some of them are actually likable (halelluja a slasher with likable characters) it features pretty good cinematography that succeeds in creating atmosphere, it has a pretty cool villain that reminds me a bit of Freddy Kreuger and it doesn't resort to showcasing a bunch of tits and ass to make up for its poor script, although the script isn't that poor but its not that great either.In way after watching this film I also thought if people wanted to know how would A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET be if it was brought out today, I would say just watch this film and I'm mainly saying that because of the villain of the story who preys on his victims fears, Freddy also preys on his victims fears but he does it through their dreams, I might be wrong but that's what I think.