Directed By David R. Ellis
Starring Sarah Roemer
I’m an unabashed horror film fanatic, as if you kind reader didn’t already know that, but even being a fan I have certain standards that must be met for a film to at least be amusing.
The Movie
Madison is heading to college, the same college where her brother committed suicide. Right away I have to ask why she would choose to go to this particular University. Especially when considering the fact that her father also committed suicide you’d think she’d make other choices. Right away Madison runs into a creepy old caretaker that warns her that her dorm is haunted. So far things are wonky but it’s OK because this is a direct to DVD horror film so leaps of logic are expected.
When Madison meets the rest of her dorm mates things start to go further down hill. After some weird things happen they do very little investigation to discover that their new home was in fact an asylum where a crazy doctor experimented on his patients until he himself went insane and was murdered. Guess what? Now he’s invading the subconscious of this group of students and killing them in some really CGI laden ways.
It’s nearly impossible to invest in this film because the entire main cast is extremely annoying in a couple of ways. The main way is that the acting goes from mediocre to horrible. The other issue is that these characters are caricatures of the stereotypical horror film red shirt style characters found in horror films. The asshole character is REALLY an asshole and the slutty character is REALLY a slut although don’t get excited for nudity because you’ll be disappointed. I found myself not being able to identify with any character in this film. I didn’t even find any of the characters amusing; I wanted them to get killed in fact. The kills when they came weren’t even that much fun.
Asylum is a predictable, poorly executed A Nightmare on Elm Street rip-off with much less intriguing characters.
2/10
The Video
We were sent a check disc so I can’t say if this is what the final version looks like but this one has some major issues with compression artifacts. With that said the anamorphic widescreen presentation features solid colors and minimal grain in brighter scenes. It’s watchable but this isn’t a great example of how good DVD video can look.
6/10
The Audio
The Dolby Digital 5.1 presentation is solid with good balance and a clean mix of dialogue, score, and sound effects. The surrounds don’t get used extensively but there are a few instances of them kicking in here and there.
7/10
The Packaging and Bonus Features
Points can’t be given here for packaging and art because we were sent a check disc and unfortunately no points can be given for bonus features either because there just aren’t any.
0/10
There are better choices out there….
Overall (Not an Average) 3/10
The Review
The Movie 2/10
The Video 6/10
The Audio 7/10
The Packaging and Bonus Features 0/10
Overall (Not an Average) 3/10