Asylum (2007) Synopsis:
The story is about a group of college freshmen who learn that their dorm was once a notorious asylum.
Asylum (2007) Movie Review:
While most critics take an opinion that many may choose to express in a mere few words (i.e. “That movie was alright. No need to rush to see it though”), and turn those opinions into (ideally) intelligent and insightful reviews spanning several hundred words, I’ll try and save you some time by saying of the new DVD release “Asylum”:
THIS MOVIE WAS DIRECTED BY THE SAME GUY WHO DIRECTED “SNAKES ON A PLANE”.
I guess that answers any immediate questions of why it was so cruelly robbed of any showings at a theater near you.
Are you still there? Probably not. But on the off chance that my previous warning didn’t send you running to the nearest multiplex (where you know you’ll be safe and far from “Asylum”), I guess I’ll elaborate as to why seeing “Snakes on a Plane” and then “Asylum” (even two years later) felt a lot like getting Novocain shots at the dentist and then following it up by getting audited.
Despite it’s “so bad it’s good” marketing campaign, “Snakes on a Plane” was only so bad it was bad, due to a complete lack of sense of direction as to how scary, campy, realistic, or funny the film should have been. In the end, it tried to do everything, and succeeded at nothing.
“Asylum” on the other hand, has a much stronger internal sense of identity, and is a better movie as a result. Yet saying a movie is better than “Snakes on a Plane”, is a lot like saying you found something more appealing to do this weekend than read an entire twenty-six volume encyclopedia.
Although “Snakes on a Plane” director David R. Ellis, didn’t attempt to put much in the way of humor or camp into “Asylum”, it’s too gross to be a horror movie in the classic sense, and still to tame to be branded with the recently minted label “torture porn”.
Throughout the eighties, it seemed that victims of horror icons such as Jason Voorhees were constantly stalking and killing groups of nondescript and interchangeable teenagers, to the point where the nameless and often faceless victims ran together and were as bland and forgettable as they were disposable. This changed and evolved over the years, and by the time the 2004 remake of “Dawn of the Dead” rolled around, it felt as though every horror movie included the villain or zombies of choice stalking and killing The Breakfast Club. The movies may have changed so the victims were no longer simply bland non-entities craving sex and drugs and getting killed in the process, yet the creation and execution of each character felt like the endless rehashing of one high school film cliché after another.
And so goes “Asylum”. The Jock, The Brain, The Beauty, The Recluse, and The Rebel all show up. They’re giving what might be interesting back stories, if they didn’t also seem clichéd and forced.
I wish every one in this movie would get a plane. A plane with snakes.
The DVD includes no special features.
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Asylum (2007) review written by: Jackson Truax
12th October, 2008 
