Sarah Roemer is the only positive in ASYLUM(2008).
© 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Mania Grade: D
DVD: Asylum
Rating: Unrated
Starring: Sarah Roemer, Jake Muxworthy, Mark Rolston, Ellen Hollman
Written By: Ethan Lawrence
Directed By: David R. Ellis
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Original Year of Release: 2008
Extras: None
Buy it now!
DVD: Asylum
Rating: Unrated
Starring: Sarah Roemer, Jake Muxworthy, Mark Rolston, Ellen Hollman
Written By: Ethan Lawrence
Directed By: David R. Ellis
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Original Year of Release: 2008
Extras: None
Buy it now!
DVD Review of Asylum
By: Tim JansonReview Date: Wednesday, July 30, 2008
A remake of the Wes Craven classic Nightmare on Elm Street is in the works but Director David Lawrence decided to get a jump on things with his own remake, specifically of Nightmare one Elm St. part 3: Dream Warriors in spirit if not in name. A group of college freshmen on the campus of Richard Miller University move into a newly renovated dormitory. The building had once been home to the Burke Asylum where, decades earlier, crazed Dr. Burke performed all manner of horrific experiments on his mostly teenaged patients before they finally rose up and killed the good doctor.
Most of the building has been renovated but there is still an old wing that is locked off. Sure you guess it…it’s not long before curiosity gets the better of our young heroes and thy go off to explore the spooky, rundown former asylum. But we’re getting a bit ahead of ourselves. Asylum pulls out the horror playbook and runs it like clockwork. Our group of students has the usual mix: obnoxious jock, brainy and shy nerd, blond slut, the sensitive and understanding male hero, etc. The group is fronted by Madison (Sarah Roemer of Disturbia) who watched as her mentally ill father took his own life when she was just eight years old. Sarah’s brother also committed suicide on the same campus a year earlier and she has come to the school to deal with the tragedy and find closure.
Sarah is not the only one with problems, though. This group could not possibly find its way together in the real world. Each of them have skeletons in their closest. Some were abused by their parents or boyfriends, some are former drug addicts and self-mutilators as well. These are the perfect fodder for Dr. Burke who has returned in Freddy Kreuger fashion to prey upon the students. Like Freddy, Burke seemingly has the ability to play upon what they fear most and change their reality, taking them back to their abusive relationships or making them relive traumas just before he kills them. The problem is that Burke isn’t as nearly entertaining as Freddy. There are no witty quips or one-liners and he looks like a refuge from a bondage session.
One could excuse the plot’s total lack of originality if there were anything resembling actual scares. This is a 90-minute move and we are more than a third of the way in before anything happens. It doesn’t exactly grab the viewer! We don’t know if Burke is a ghost or demon or something else. He has that annoying knack of seemingly being able to teleport. Our students run as fast as they can to get away but he appears in front of them somehow. Yet, when they lock themselves inside of a room, he is unable to get in.
Roemer is the only positive to the film mainly because she’s the only actor who isn’t excruciatingly annoying. There’s no suspense and no scares, just lots of warmed over horror clichés that we’ve seen too many times. That’s a bit of a surprise as Ellis has directed a couple of decent films (Final Destination 2, Cellular) but this isn’t one of them.
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However, I guess I should actually talk a little about this movie or horror movies in general. I'll admit that I'm tired of watching horror movies with teenagers in danger. We all know that they are going to do something stupid and be killed so we can't help but root for the bad guy. Hell if we had to deal with those stereotypical kids for too long we would probably stereotypically kill them ourselves.