The Asylum (2015) (aka: Exeter) Stephen Lang, Kevin Chapman, Kelly Blatz, Brittany Curran, Brett Dier, Gage Golightly Movie Review

The Asylum (2015)   2/52/52/52/52/5


The Asylum (2015) (aka: Exeter)

All Kinds of Everything

Following a drink and drug fuelled party at long time condemned asylum a group of teenage friends decide to dabble with the occult. But things turn strange when one of the group seems to become possessed. As the friends try to escape they find that all the exits have become locked and so attempt to perform an exorcism on their friend. That just makes things worse as it leads to another, more terrifying spirit to be released forcing the friends to head deep into the old building to try and find a way out.

I have long accepted that when it comes to horror movies every so often someone will revisit a familiar theme and try and make a new movie to appeal to a new generation of horror fans and horror virgins. But whilst accepting of this fact it doesn't mean that I enjoy these movies which simply go over old ground but in a way younger generations might get a kick out of. This is the trouble with "The Asylum", which is also known as "Exeter", because it is extremely cliche filled with teens partying in an abandoned asylum which has a dark, disturbing history and having to deal with the paranormal which they inadvertently unleash.

The thing about "The Asylum" is that it seems to be aware of how derivative it is and so has gone to town when it comes to being graphic starting with an opening scene involving a topless woman shooting up and ending up dead. Among the visual treats along the way we not only have a priest inadvertently hit in a speeding car but he ends up going through the window with his head ending up in a girls lap. Yes it is that graphic and also that kind of perversely funny with other scenes trying for that same sort of dark amusement combined with graphic horror and effects. But it does mean that if you watched "The Asylum" for anything other than the visual gratification of graphic deaths you are likely going to find its derivative nature predictably tedious.

What this all boils down to is that I can appreciate what the intention was with "The Asylum" and I reckon for the right audience it would be entertaining especially with its graphic horror orientated nature. But for me it just felt like someone had take one of those old abandoned mental institution horror movies and threw a lot of money into the special effects as well as some dark humour when it comes to the dumb nature of the teenagers.


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