Asylum is a magnificently gory, stylish, and disturbing film.
A group of college freshmen discover that their dorm was once a mental hospital where unspeakable experiments were performed by a deranged physician trying to "cure" troubled teens. But now the mad doctor's ghost is back to continue his torturous work.
David R. Ellis is an underrated director who continues to deliver fun little films, whether it is the nonstop thrills of something like "Cellular" or the kitschy fun of a "Snakes on a Plane." Asylum continues his winning streak.
Asylum has a standard mad doctor plot not unlike that seen in the "House on Haunted Hill" films but does some neat things with it. The plot develops gradually, introducing the main character of Madison, played by the undeniably cute Sarah Roemer ("Disturbia"), and the other college students unlucky enough to live in a haunted asylum turn dorm. Too many horror films rush right into the killing of nameless victims we haven't learned anything about and thus couldn't give a damn whether they live or die. True to form though, Ellis takes the time to develop the characters enough so that we have enough information to determined whether we like them or not. He has done this in every one of his films and it makes them more successful as a result.
The film also boasts some very nice gore arising from creative death sequences, another area in which Ellis excels (see the brilliantly diabolical "Final Destination 2" for proof). The gore is even more effective because of the dark atmosphere in which it occurs. The scenes in which the characters die all harken back to problems from their past, mixing a flashback of a disturbing moment from their childhood with the character of the doctor taking place of the person at the core of their bad memory. The scenes closely resemble those seen in "The Butterfly Effect" and match them for their unsettling nature.
The entire cast gives decent to good performances. Roemer is the emotional center of the film and effortlessly garners sympathy. The rest of the cast fills their roles quite well, lending strong support.
An imminently watchable film, Asylum delivers a stellar mix of gore and character, making for a satisfying cinematic experience.
No comments:
Post a Comment