The Asylum Tapes (2012)
Directed by: Sean Stone
Written by: Alexander Wraith, Sean Stone
Starring: Alexander Wraith, Antonella Lentini, John Schramm, Monique Van Vooren, Monique Zordan, Oliver Stone, Pete Antico, Sean Stone
FILM: THE ASYLUM TAPES
RATING: 15
STUDIO: REVOLVER ENTERTAINMENT
Out Now To Rent and Buy
THE HUGHES VERDICT!
To welcome my arrival back at HCF Headquarters after having been off for nearly three months, my order of the day was to review The Asylum Tapes, a new horror that bares all the markings of yet another “found footage!”. Now I have to be honest and say that out of the six of us who run HorrorCultFilms, I am probably the worst one to have been handed this in my lap and even before I pressed play on the DVD, I shouted over to Matt to watch it simply because out of all of us, he still finds the love in this genre, but having to write up tons of news stories, he give me the “Wavish” look that simply simply stated “Don’t ask…. I am busy!”
So I found myself all alone, in a dark room, cup of tea in one hand a box of Pringles in the other, hoping that some how The Asylum Tapes would differ from what has been done before. Even before I pressed play, thoughts were lingering in my head. It was about the same time last year that Matt and I got into a real heated debate about Grave Encounters, a film which he really liked and I hated and with this film looking very much similar in style and tone…… I must admit that I had to swallow the negative thoughts an just go with the flow. At the end of the day, I love my straight to horror DVD’s. Over the years I have discovered so many gems through this path that every week I get excited when I get my hands on a new one and I live in hope that it turns out to be another undiscovered beauty. While I admit, most of the films suck beyond belief, I was beginning to hope that maybe I was judging The Asylum Tapes just too damn hard. The famous saying “Don’t judge a book by its cover” was ringing through my mind so as I finally pressed play I was overcome with a feeling that maybe this could be the all new found footage horror to actually be any good…
The film starts with a huge shock, one that had me rocked to the chair and my Pringle crisps flying through the air. Here right in front of me, staring back was the figure of Mr Oliver Stone, yes the legend of the film world and I was stunned wondering “what the heck he was doing appearing in a straight to DVD horror film. It was then I realised that I really should have looked at the notes that Bat gave to me and realised that The Asylum Tapes or for our readers in America where it is called Greystone Park, is the directing debut of non other than Sean Stone. “Who?” I hear you cry, well in case you have not clicked by the surname, he is in fact the son of the Natural Born Killer’s director and so it seems the old man was pulled into the film to give it some quality and while its a brief cameo in which he tells a ghost story (not quite in style or quality of the fisherman in Carpenter’s The Fog) it still a nice touch and the horror starts well.
The film like them all tries its best to be different but the blueprint of Blair Witch overshadows everything. Here instead of Heather we get Alexander Wraith, who has been to the abandon asylum before and wants to put proof on camera. Wraith who co wrote the film along with Sean is the typical character you have seen so many times before and with Sean himself also starring in the film as a guy who does not believe in all this shit, you can see why many viewers will sigh at what is going to develop. To make up the standard trio is that of Antonella Lentini, a beautiful actresses who really offers nothing in sense of plot, just this nice to look at girl who is there for a laugh, a notion that she will soon come to regret.
The setting like in Grave Encounters is perfect. You can not get any better than an old Asylum, but with Session 9 being one of my favourite horror films of all time, I could not help but feel that I have seen all this crap before. When the trio enter the empty corridors in the middle of the night, you can’t help but be sucked into what is going to happen. That is the beauty of the found footage genre, you need to keep on watching even though what you are seeing is a load of crap. Its like human curiosity, we watch to see what actually is in the shadow and what kind of force is making that noise, the reveal 95% of the time turns out to be such a waste, but every horror fan longs for that other 5% and even when I was watching this, I was hoping to get sucked in and scared.
What I did love about The Asylum Tapes is the fact that the plot is kept simple and not once does it go down the path of fantasy which marred my experience of Grave Encounters. The simple scares are effective at the start but once we hit the half way mark you soon realise that it is the same thing over and over. Like many before and after this, it offers nothing new and soon I was quite bored because its only so much you can take of “What’s that noise?” “Quick Run!”…..”What’s that noise?” “Quick Run!”……over and over again….
The one thing I will say is that the film offers a glimpse of what the younger Stone could bring to this field. Its a confident debut that die hard fans will love and I expect our Matt to really like this film, but how can a horror film be scary when its only showing a recap of what the Blair Witch offered way back in the late 90′s…..and as for the end……well….you have to make your own mind up on that one!
Oh man, I forgot you reviewed this. Watched it last night and it is by far one of the worst found footage horrors I have ever seen. Its a good thing you reviewed it mate as I would not have been that kind!