The Asylum (2000)

 

Picture: C     Sound: B-     Extras: C     Film: C

 

 

Doing thrillers set around mental institutes is very hard to do these days.  Alfred Hitchcock’s Spellbound (1945, reviewed elsewhere on this site) is one of the first and best, and by the 1960s and 1970s, there was still room to do such thrillers and not worry about being politically correct.  Roy Ward Baker even did an anthology Horror film on the subject called Asylum in 1972, so here was a new film from 2000 with the same title, also from England.  I had to see it.

 

This Asylum is the directorial debut of a man named John Stewart, not to be confused with any Americans of that name.  It is simply a film as to whether Jenny (Stephanie Pitt) or some others form that period (Patrick Mower, Ingrid Pitt, Robin Askwith, Colin Baker) from the long-closed asylum killed Jenny’s mother.  This simple set up never takes off, no matter how seriously it is done.  Stewart wrote the screenplay, which does not have enough suspense, then starts throwing in slasher film elements and even a bit out of Sidney J. Furie’s The Ipcress File (1965) that seems very desperate.

 

I liked the cast and acting, but they do not have chemistry and cannot push the material forward.  The effort also seems to be underway here to try to revive a British Horror Cinema of the past, but it sadly does not click.  I was hoping it would, as Stewart seems to have his influence from the right place and even tries to emulate British Horror TV, but all it ends up being is a faded shadow of the originals.  Better luck next time John.

 

The 1.85 X 1 letterboxed image is average, in part because Stewart has cinematographer Nathan Sheppard go out of his way to emulate British Horror TV, as well as British Cinema and anything else they can come up with.  The colors are purposely odd.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo has some Pro Logic surrounds and is the highlight of the DVD, until the sound effects become a substitute for suspense.  It is not as well thought out as it should have been and Christopher Slaski’s score is not memorable.  The few extras include notes on the making of the film, very brief filmographies of director Stewart and four of the leads, and a text interview with the director.  This is only for the most curious.  Others can skip it.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo