Search - Asylum of Terror on DVD

Asylum Of Bad Acting

Robert Meeks | Winchester, KY United States | 06/08/2004

(2 out of 5 stars)

"I was lucky to have rented the tape of this movie, rather than having bought it. This is an indie production shot on 16mm film stock as I have been informed in the comments section (I originally thought it was shot on video, but that was my mistake).

The picture and sound quality both suffer; this is a result of the production and does not refer to the DVD. I will handle different aspects of the movie seperately. Since it has been a while since I have seen this movie, I do not recall the names of the actors and characters (and even if I saw it again today, I doubt I would still recall their names).

The Plot: A group of teens? (young adults?) are putting on a haunted house show at an abandoned prison (for the criminally insane?) which is reputed to be haunted, according to what they tell their customers. The prison was shut down as the result of a fire. They call their show the Asylum Of Terror (evil laugh included). The inmate responsible for the fire has escaped from somewhere else and begins a killing spree back at his old haunt. Yep, that about covers the plot.

Production: though it appears as though the movie was done on video, if this was shot on 16mm film stock, it was either done poorly, a bad transfer, or a combination of both. The camera work varies between good, acceptable and poor. There are a few scenes where it would have benefitted the cameraman to turn off the autofocus. One in particular involves a couple in a car where when one is in focus the other is completely out of focus. The sound suffers much the same where someone more distant from the camera would be that much weaker in volume, especially the actor playing the killer; several times you can barely hear what he is saying. The positive side of the production is the editing; they did a good job with what they had available. There is a scene where the killer sees his dead cellmate and the cellmate is laughing and the shot transitions between the cellmates normal face and a skull face several times. The transitions are well done and the sound is consistent throuhout the transitions. The actor playing the cellmate and the team responsible for the shoot deserve credit.

Acting: There are 3 good performances in this movie. I have already mentioned the actor playing the killer's cellmate. The actor who is the main player of this movie does a good job, particularly in a scene where he in showing one of the crew how to ham it up for the customers. There is also an attractive blond woman who unfortunately gets chainsawed, however, she really makes that scene happen. Most of the other acting(?) is no more than line reading.

Overall this movie is not very entertaining unless you just have to see every slasher flick that comes out. The bad acting of most of the players is humorous at times. The plot is obvious at the beginning and it adds nothing when it is discovered that the killer was the one responsible for the fire. Aside from the good points I have mentioned, I found myself just waiting for the movie to end. I gave the movie two stars for the aspects which I have mentioned. They do deserve credit for putting this together and getting it distibuted. There are quite a few film-maker hopefuls who do not make it this far.-Bob"

My favorite part of the sandwhich is the cheese

Jesse Adams | reading, PA USA | 11/21/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I'm sure you all think you've seen the worst horror movie ever ... from the "gore gore girls" to such classics as "evil dead". But the combination of common halloween props... to a murderer wearing a black and gray windbreaker... to the wonderful camp value of the cut away shot to blood hitting the wall, on almost every single murder..., well you catch my drift. I think this film was shot in a high school gymnasium.. either that or alot of asylums have basketball hoops. Yet the fact still remains... if movies are supposed to be an escape, and fun.. this movie gets 5 flickering light bulbs! You can't keep a bad film down! All hail asylum of terror!"

WhAt!?

JoAnNe | here | 06/25/2002

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I give this movie a 1 only because it started out good.In the end, the movie lost my attention completely. It was about an old prison opening up as a haunted house. A bunch of people were watiing outside to enter. (the sound in this movie was like distint and horrible.) The people weren't really good at acting it seemed like, that was a bad part. The haunted house turned out to be really stupid, i think. There was a killer roaming around the haunted house first dressed as Jason Voorhees, than as Michael Myers. It was such a copy of Friday the 13th and Halloween. After that happened, the movie just got lamer and lamer. I really don't reccommend it."