Asylum Movie
Storyline
TAGLINES
Once you're in, you can never get out.
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 Dr. Burke that is seeking for tortured souls.
| Sarah Roemer | Madison McBride |
| Jake Muxworthy | Holt |
| Mark Rolston | Doctor Burke |
| Travis Van Winkle | Tommy |
| Ellen Hollman | Ivy |
| Carolina Garcia | Maya |
| Cody Kasch | String |
| Lin Shaye | String's Mother |
| Joe Inscoe | Wilbur Mackey |
| Gabe Wood | Officer Kelso |
| Randall Sims | Rez |
| Andrea Powell | Carol McBride |
| Pete Burris | Lloyd McBride |
| Caroline Kent | Madison, age 11 |
| Brantley Pollock | Brandon, age 12 |
| David R. Ellis |
3.90 out of 10 (638 votes)
Visitor Reviews
by the numbers and too dark
posted on 22 Aug 2009OK, 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?
My Review
posted on 02 Aug 2009Back in the 30s, Doctor Burke (Mark Rolston) tried to treat teenagers suffering from craziness, but his methods proved more deadly than helpful, and the other patients killed him.Now, in modern time, the building is now a college dorm. Six unwitting students - each with their own deep, dark secret - have the dumb luck to be living in that dorm.We got our stock characters, including the survivor girl Madison (Sarah Roemer), the brooding bad boy with the heart of gold Holt (Jake Muxworthy), the shy computer geek String (Cody Kasch), the whorish Ivy (Ellen Hollman), the dumb jock Tommy (Travis Van Winkle) and the Spanish kick-butt-and-take-names girl Maya (Carolina Garcia). One by one they become victims (or survivors) of the mad doctor, with only one outrageous way of killing him.Let's go through our checklist of horror movie clichés: 1) Stock characters - check 2) Characters with seedy pasts that you know will come into play - check 3) A cop who has no clue what he's doing - check 4) A creepy janitor who knows the whole history - check 5) A supernatural killer - checkYep...basically this is just yet another horror flick that will be easily forgotten an hour after watching it.
Great movie is GREAT
posted on 19 Jul 2009Can someone please explain to me how this movie only has a measly 3.9 rating? Come on! This movie was GREAT!!!! Sure it might not have been too original a story, but then again what is? We have about 10.000 remakes done in Hollywood every year, most of them worthless, and to that aspect this movie at least tried to create it's own new bad guy. And in my mind it was a great success! Mark Rolston as Doctor Burke was a bad guy I would love to see again. And I sincerely hope they will make at least one sequel. The whole movie kind of reminded me of Nightmare on Elm street, particularly the Dream Warriors, but it was just so neatly done. Even the lighting was eerie and great. I said it before I'm a horror fan and with this movie even I had my tense moments, particularly at the ending. The graphics were great, the gore was good and all in all this movie just plain delivered. I don't think any true horror fan would be disappointed at this movie. Truly original, no, but great mad fun, YES. Certainly! Sequel, PLEASE!!
You're wasting your time, watch something else!
posted on 11 Jun 2009This 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!
Flawed, but enjoyable, asylum horror
posted on 20 May 2009Freshman Madison (Sarah Roemer of Disturbia) at a small university learns that her dormitory was once the home of an infamous mental institution known for its unsavoury practices on its patients. As the paranormal occurrences increase (including her weird hallucinations), Madison must unlock the secret of her haunted dorm to save herself and her new friends.As a hound for 'asylum' horror, I decided to check this new flick out as soon as possible. At this point, I'm used to the unoriginal plots in asylum horror. It's usually either an unknown patient in a non-patient role, or an insane doctor, or the ghosts of the past, etc. So, I've come to expect the normal amount of clichés in this subgenre. And, while Asylum had a few more than normal as it also adopted the clichés of children's psychology and college horror, I could look past them. In addition to the clichéd writing, the dialogue, though great for a couple of the characters, is annoying for some of the others, especially the overly sexy Ivy (Ellen Hollman) and the Stiffler-wannabe Tommy (Travis van Winkle (heh)). What I do like about Tommy, however, is that he actually is likable when he becomes insecure. . . but, when he turns back on, annoying as hell. The story moves well, but takes almost no risks to separate it from the countless other films like it. There are some fairly creepy moments (doctors looming in shadows, the decrepit asylum hall, etc.) and the kills are pretty fantastic, and these are what makes it worth the 94 minutes (although the last 10 or so are laughably cheesy). Also, any cameo by Lin Shaye is worthy of a watch. Especially one as hilarious as this. Overall, the film is made up of a mediocre script and unremarkable actors, but also a beautiful setting and some good gore & kills. It's Ellis's direction that helps to make the film the slightly above average thriller than it ends up being. I can recommend a rental for those looking for a modern slasher without much thinking necessary.Final verdict: 6/10.
Cliché Cliché Cliché
posted on 30 Apr 2009I 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.
"Give Me Your Suffering"
posted on 26 Apr 2009My 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.
A mad doctor haunts an asylum...
posted on 20 Apr 2009Common teenager horror movie... Teens go to college, first everything seems to be fine, but soon they finds out the dorm they stays in used to be an asylum for mental patients that was tortured by an insane doctor. It also seems that all the new students that lives in the "asylum" has had some issues in their earlier lives, and now the doctor has come back to "cure" them.The plot is very lame, and it is very hard to find anything in this movie interesting. useless effects, bad mood, terrible acting... this movie is not scary, and its not bad in a way that makes it funny, it is bad in a way that makes you wanna cut open your wrists just so you have no possibilities to watch it ever again.See this if you want to be more bored than you were before you did anything, yes, it is actually better to do nothing than watch this piece of crap.
Cliché In The Worst Way
posted on 16 Apr 2009How to begin with this one? Well… it starts out with a horror movie cliché. It then sticks to that theme for the rest of the movie.To begin with, we are introduced to Madison. We are shown her as a child walking down a dark hallway in her parents home while her parents are heard to be yelling. Hmm… where have I seen this before. Oh, right. Everywhere. Anyway, it turns out that they weren't fighting. The reality is that her father is insane and pitching some sort of hissy fit, and her mother is trying to calm him down. He shoots himself. This sounds dramatic, but in this movie it just comes off as boring.Years later, Madison is attending orientation for college. I don't know what sort of private university this is, but I have never seen dorms an eighth as nice as these. It is mentioned that Madison and the other characters will be staying in the new dorms, but the building looks old and much nicer than anyplace a college student has ever stayed. It is explained that the building used to be an old asylum (clever title isn't it). This just makes it seem stranger that the place is so nice. Generally speaking, old asylums weren't very nice places.I guess I should introduce the characters. The movie had the good manners to do so. There is actually a scene in this movie where all the main characters gather round in a circle and introduce themselves. Saves the filmmakers the trouble of giving them back story. There is the nice guy (whom Madison nearly pepper sprays for rudeness). There is the loud mouth douche bag guy. There is the somewhat standoffish Latin girl. There is the nerdy guy (this college age male plays with a cat's cradle). There is the slutty chick (she never has sex with anyone, but she says slutty things all the time). That covers the students.There are also some other characters that should be mentioned. There is the campus police guy who doesn't believe anything supernatural is happening (in his defense, he survives the movie without ever seeing anything even slightly otherworldly). There is the slow witted maintenance man who knows all about the secrets of the old asylum (it bares mentioning that though this is the sort of character that other characters humor he is scene to be doing the work of an electrician, poorly I should mention). There is the grad student in charge of the watching over the kids (this guy is a jerk and he never dies or gets any comeuppance, in fact, it's like they forgot about this character halfway through the movie). Finally, there is the ghost of the doctor who ran the old asylum (he is sort of a tenth rate Freddy Krueger. He doesn't kill people in there dreams, he just appears to people causing them to relive some painful memory. He then says that he can help them. He proceeds to kill them in some manner in keeping with the theme of their memory. At least, he does this for a while. Towards the end he gets lazy and just starts stabbing people).I know it seems like I have described these characters as undeveloped, one dimensional stereotypes. That is how the movie shows them. As such, you really don't care about them.Anyway, on to the plot. The kids stay in the dorm. They go into the old abandoned section (nobody dies there). The lights blink all creepy like (a character even comments on how creepy this is, but I would like to point out that there is a slow witted man doing electrical work at this building. Maybe that has something to do with the blinking lights. Hmmm…) The doctor kills people one at a time until it is really monotonous. Madison (She might be insane. She sees things that aren't there. It might just be the ghosts and all, but I don't think so. At one point she seems an image of her dead brother shoot himself. This doesn't really seem to bother her that much. Madison is weird) and the nice guy try to investigate. They suspect the creepy maintenance guy. This is annoying since the audience knows that it is a ghost killing people. He acts like he is going to reveal some great big secret about the old asylum, but he really doesn't tell us anything we don't already know. The remaining characters (those who haven't died or been forgotten by the director) try to flee. The ghost chases them. For some reason doors stop this ghost who can appear anywhere. At one point the ghost takes off his lab coat to reveal that he is inexplicably wearing a weird S&M outfit underneath. He keeps chasing them. Even after they escape the building he keeps chasing them (this is strange). They end up in a clearing in the woods. Madison stabs the ghost. The souls of his victims leak out of him and he disappears. Madison and nice guy go away. The end.I would just like to say something about that ending. Madison had no reason to suspect that stabbing the ghost would kill him. (By the way, why does it?) Also, we were never really told that the doctor was holding on to his victims souls. It seems like this ending was sort of a half effort rip off of the ending to Mortal Kombat the movie. That the filmmakers chose to end their movie this way should really tell you something. Don't bother watching this. It isn't scary. It isn't so bad it's good. It's just bad.
Disney Channel's Attempt of a Horror Movie
posted on 25 Mar 2009Okay, so first of all, this movie was made in 2008. It shouldve been better since we have improved with special effects over the years. Horror fans seek something new and different than all this "Re-imagining crap we keep getting of a lot of classic horror films. Anyway, throughout this movie, I saw a lot of scenes and themes from older, better and classic movies. For example, our "Killer" is bacially a phsycopath man who goes around killing teens in twisted and nasty ways. Just like the "Saw" series, except the dude is already dead. What the hell? So he is a ghost that is miracurosly alive and in good shape coming back for his so called "Revenge" just like Nightmare on Elm Street or Friday the 13th. Burke is the killer's name and he has the Kruegar/Voorhees/Black Christmas theme to him. Next...we have our "wonderful" death scenes. Which are just like Black Christmas with the gouging of the eyes, ripping of the lips and tongue, hanging someone hanging from a string, chopping a girls head off...typical nasty crap. It is also very much Nightmare on Elm Street. The killer appears to his victims after the lights go out and he is able to transform into people's parents and make them re-live their worst nightmare. Just like Freddy Krueger.So I have made this clear that I hate this movie. Its plain stupid and retardedly messed up. I will explain more on the message boards.Directors...don't mess with the classics!!!! ~Sam~
give me your suffering
posted on 11 Nov 2008What to think of this movie. It's Mark Rolston who makes the movie, appeared before in Corman's Humanoids from the deep and Saw V he gives a perfect performance, made me even think a bit of pinhead from hellraiser. He's got the face to play a killer. But the hardest part is the storyline. Too poor. They could have made an excellent flick but there isn't enough "suffering" in it, not that much gore or blood. The youth that is going to be killed are the typical kind of kids appearing in a horror movie. The oversexed mr macho guy, the sexy girl, the nerd, the thinking girl, the bastard boss,...They all play very well but again, their own storyline isn't worked out enough. Even the usual nudity doens't give it a surplus value. It's a shame because in a time of torture porn they could have made a classic one. They should have known when you use a sentence like "give me your suffering" that you should give people real suffering. Watch it for Rolston's performance, no more no less.
Awful, awful, awful... and it could have been so good.
posted on 14 Oct 2008I've only given this two stars because the romantic lead couple were actually quite good.I didn't think the script was particularly bad for a horror but it was about as scary a basket of kittens sitting on my grans knee.If they'd gone for the psychological horror angle rather than the gore angle this could have been a good low budget horror movie rather than a horror movie with really low budget crap gore special effects.And at the end after they'd killed the doctor and they were walking along a sunlit road................THEY DIDN'T EVEN HAVE THE DOCTOR DRIVING ALONG IN A CAR THEY WERE TRYING TO HITCH!!! Stupid f***ers.Guess they knew they weren't getting a sequel though.
Competently shot and edited, but everything else sucks.
posted on 23 Aug 2008"Asylum" isn't actually offensive or incompetent, so I couldn't give it a single star. In fact, the film is shot fairly well (if you like dark scenes where you can't tell what's going on) and the direction is acceptable. The acting varies wildly, but is certainly a step up from most of the horror trash being churned out these days. The SFX range from pretty scary and subtle to just plain laughable (see the last scene, for example.) What really makes this film a bore is the lousy plot and script. It truly does play like it was filmed from a script assembled by throwing the scripts from classic horror movies (and some that aren't so classic) up in the air and then picking up random pages after they fall. Not every horror film cliché appears in this film, but there are no scenes in this film that are not horror clichés. The dialogue is just totally unrealistic. No suspense...no character development...no logic.So who's fault is this big mess? I've got to pick on the director. He had to have seen what he was working with. It's possible to film a decent story from a weak script, but he apparently decided not to put forth the effort. The result is, to use a cliché, "cliche-ridden."Final recommendation...you probably won't hate it or throw beer cans at the screen, but it's not going to surprise you or scare you. I'd suggest avoiding this film.
A fun little horror item, nothing more.
posted on 06 Jul 2008The ghost of an insane doctor murdered by his own patients many years ago returns to mutilate some college kids, using their own troubled past to help weaken them for the slaughter, their only hope is to free the tortured souls of his previous victims that are trapped within him. Despite the negative reviews this film has received so far, I on the other hand happened to be entertained by this little scare fest which happens to carry itself well within the genre, I mean sure the film is loaded with all the stock characters you usually see in films like this & really it brings nothing new to the party that you haven't seen before, but the film never once tried to make itself look like an Oscar winner, nor does it try to be, which is more than one can say about most crappy Hollywood produced horror movies. The film has several creepy moments, cool death scenes (though a few are a little on the gross side), suspense & a great set of actors. The villain in particular is creepy & Director David R. Ellis continues to impress with his work in the genre & horror fans looking for a fun no brainer style horror movie should find this mildly amusing. Definenetly recommended!**** stars
The most horrifying horror movie (in a bad way)
posted on 29 Apr 2008This must be the worst "horror" movie i've ever seen and i've seen a lot of horror movies.Hmm i guess you could compare this crapp**y piece of shi**t to Disaster Movie if anyone has seen it. The main difference is that D.M. has its highlights where you can at least smile a bit, at Asylum there is no single scene where you could be just a bit frightened, well maybe just at the thought how much of good old money was spent for making this, while it could be put to better more not-stupid things, like i don't know THROWING IT TO GARBAGE! I apologize for bad language but see the movie and you will understand.
I Would Like to Give My Suffering for Watching This Movie
posted on 21 Apr 2008The teenager Madison McBride (Sarah Roemer) is traumatized by the loss of her deranged father when she was nine year–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 (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")
A good film for the mentally retarded
posted on 22 Aug 2009Can you make a film as bad as this? This is a film made by vacuous brain for the mentally retarded with an open mind. A film without consistency, without history, in which characters are fake, some comic situations pretending to fear. A movie that replaces the dialogue non-existent by noises to which most unpleasant and not come to story. A film bad, bad, bad to save credits and little else. Please no more movies like this which is a catalog of what imperfect, a manual of what not to do in the movies.Could be a few teenagers in college so stupid, drug addicts, mentally retarded, with so many traumas fools? If this is so poor and poor college students. But is there anyone who will explore thinking about the future? It seems that the only thing important is the alcohol, marijuana and sex and little else. Poor teenagers who have to be better this movie whose name they can give you is that is bullshit about the size of a piano.