Asylum tells the story of a young woman named Madison (Sarah Roemer) who leaves home to attend college at the same school her brother committed suicide at, a few years before. Immediately, flags go up. Why would she want to attend the same school that her brother committed suicide at? I guess we can except that perhaps the academic opportunities at the college were just too good to pass up, but when Madison is warned by a caretaker that her recently renovated residence has ghosts, one might think she would consider leaving.
Instead, she ignores the caretaker and begins meeting some of the other students living in her building–Tommy (Travis Van Winkle), Maya (Caroline Garcia), Holt (Jake Muxworthy), and a young computer whiz, who goes by the name String (Cody Kasch)–and the annoying floor monitor who answers to “Rez” (Randall Sims). After exploring a restricted area of their building, the students discover that the place was once an asylum. When strange things start to happen, the kids are determined to uncover the secrets hidden in the buildings past.
As it turns out, a Dr. Burke (Mark Rolston) used to conduct some very strange experiments on the premises, until he to, succumbed to madness. The good doctor was eventually murdered, but his ghost still haunts the building and the dreams of the people who live there.
After all the hype and underwhelming box office performance of Snakes on a Plane, David R. Ellis must have been running a little low on creative juices. Asylum borrows liberally from A Nightmare on Elm Street, particularly in the way Dr. Burke works his way into the subconscious of his victims. The film tries to give each of the characters their own little subplots, but none of them really add excitement to the story. Madison has had a fairly tumultuous life, having lost her father then her brother to suicide. Holt used to be fat, because his parents forced him to overeat. Now, he works out compulsively, and keeps himself in impeccable shape. Maya is consumed with having sex with all the boys she meets. String is just a sixteen-year-old computer geek with issues at home. None of these problems are unique, and as such, fail to provide any real points of interest.
Dr. Burke is sort of a cross between Freddy Krueger and Dr. Giggles. The character itself isn’t terribly original, but he takes care of his victims in an interesting fashion. I will say that how the doctor gets rid of his victims is no doubt responsible for Asylum’s R rating.
While Asylum may be disturbing for some viewers, most horror fans won’t find the film very scary, because it obvious just a few minutes in, where the story is going. The warmed over script and lack of character development, makes Asylum a strictly B-level horror movie.
The DVD is presented in widescreen. The audio is English language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. Optional subtitles are provided in English, French and Spanish.
There are no real special features to speak of.
Check out the Asylum Red band trailer.
