Asylum (2008)

From director David R. Ellis (whose prior credits include "Final Destination 2" and "Snakes on a Plane") comes "Asylum," a psychological horror film in which a group of college students come to find that their campus was once the spot where a mad-doctor practiced his own twisted brand of medicine. A Freddy Krueger type whose patients eventually turned on him, the doctor still haunts the halls, preying on the students and tapping into their deep-seeded emotional scars.The film hinges on an assortment of clichés, but that's not to say that some enjoyment can't be milked from it. While you can see nearly every moment coming from miles away, the film gets by with a bit of style and energy, courtesy of Ellis. Its story is really "A Nightmare on Elm Street"-lite, but fans of the 80's franchise (as well as other similar films from the era) may just get some thrills from seeing a film pay tribute to or at least attempting to live up to its legacy (they'll also appreciate a role by Lin Shaye as the mother of one of the students).The true weakness of the film is in its paper-thin script and characters and its over-reliance on gross-out gore over suspense. You might squirm in your seat during a scene where a character gets his lips ripped off and his tongue cut-out, but you won't necessarily care about the character himself, which is always a bad thing for a horror movie. Also, the final act reaches some ridiculous territory and will no doubt leave your eyes rolling. Go into "Asylum" with low-expectations of some fluff-horror, and you might just appreciate what the film has to offer.

Here we have the usual teen-horror shenanigans - six kids begin graduate school at a former asylum and find their troubled childhoods being manipulated and exploited by the ghost of a psychotic lobotomist. It features all the usual genre tropes - boarded up loony bin, thunder and lighting, painfully annoying college kids, flickering lights, hallucinations and hauntings. Though everyone involved does a professional job, there's nothing particularly new or original here and the clichés are presented with the typical WB gloss of perfect makeup and flattering mood lighting. The abandoned asylum is suitably creepy, though, as abandoned asylums always are, and Ellis is able to orchestrate a few good spook-house scares. The blood and gore, while graphic, are cartoonishly over-the-top and seem designed to elicit screams from teenage girls rather than serve the plot and, as a result, are oddly ineffective. The completely generic, paint-by-numbers storyline grows tedious pretty quickly, especially in a drawn out and sagging second act. The climactic showdown - all dark corridors, dreams and hallucinations, combined with a sado-masochistic, blade-wielding killer - seems to be inspired by Freddy Krueger and Pinhead in equal measure. An okay movie to play in the background with beer and pizza, and better than the usual direct-to-video dross, but nothing special.

Madison McBride (Sarah Roemer from Disturbia & Fired Up) has been newly enrolled in Richard Miller University despite the protestations of her mother. It seems the university used to be an controversial mental institution specializing in teenagers. Her and a few other teens residing in her dormitory decide to check out the abandoned section of the school. But seeing as all the new resident's have had 'troubled pasts' the ghost of the doctor of the aforementioned asylum decides to 'cure' them.This is a typically awful 'teen scream' flick with the requisite bland teenagers. This, in itself, didn't really surprise me as Director David Ellis seems to specialize in this kind of generic fare, having done Final Destination 2, Cellular & the recent the final destination 3-D) The sad thing is, is that the plot did have some potential but it was just handled so overwhelmingly badly that the film comes across as trite, badly acted & lifeless. If it wasn't readily available on Instant Netflix which i simply streamed on my Xbox 360 I doubt I would have bothered with it at all.Eye Candy: Sarah Roemer provides some fairly quick T&A)My Grade: D-

This movie has disappointed me in many ways. It is not what I expected it to be, it certainly started good but then it suddenly got worse when racism was thrown in the script. A brunette guy calls a blond guy "stupid blond guy". If this kind of racism was thrown towards a black person, everyone would have gone nuts about it but they (the producers) consider it OK to bash blonds. I'm a blond my self and I feel very offended by this racist movie. No wonder this racist movie stayed underground and did not become a successful movie. Who would want to watch such a movie? Too bad I haven't watched the trailer. Anyway one thing is certain, this racist stereotype of blonds being stupid has to stop, it offends people and besides it is not true! Even if it was true, you can't go around insulting people then expect them to buy your lame racist movie!