ASYLUM BLACKOUT (2012) Review

Directed by: Alexandre Courtes

Starring: Rupert Evans, Dave Legeno, Richard Brake

George (Evans) and his friends are wannabe rockstars. They work in the kitchen of an asylum to scrape together enough money to buy themselves some studio time. Unfortunately while working at said asylum one night, a storm rolls in and knocks out the power. Along with a few orderlies they find themselves in the dark and surrounded by patients who need to be taken back to their rooms until the power is up and running. While escorting the patients to their rooms some major shit goes down and they soon find themselves trapped in an asylum with a horde of violent patients. Not good.

I've always found movies involving crazy people to be a bit lazy. Ridiculous plot points which seemingly happen for no reason can simply be explained by saying "well they're crazy, so anything can happen"

There are a few such moments in ASYLUM BLACKOUT but for the most part it is actually not too bad a film. The first half hour or so helps us to get to know George and his aspiring musician friends as they work their day jobs in the kitchen as well as spending time in the studio and playing gigs. Personally I really couldn't give a single fuck about George and his struggling musical career and I thought this half hour was too long and unnecessary. But when the lights go out and the crazies take over things get much more interesting indeed.
And unfortunately for our musician friends this movie is set in the 80s. No cell phones here.

With the asylum blackout underway and the patients running free, there is plenty of tension, claustrophobia and terror as George and friends try to keep themselves safe. Unfortunately all of this gathered tension is basically flushed right down the toilet once the movie degenerates into gore and torture. Don't get me wrong, I love me some gore but I just don't think this movie should have gone down that path. But even the gore and death scenes are pretty tame compared to a lot of other movies so even gorehounds will likely be disappointed here. Basically the film had two choices; either keep up with the tension or ramp up the gore, but it did neither.

The good news is that ASYLUM BLACKOUT looks great and creates a chilling atmosphere. The darkened corridors lined with half open cell doors are super creepy and the insane screaming and laughing from the patients is downright disturbing. The acting is also solid but the writing is unfortunately not so good.
There is no doubt that you can easily sit down and enjoy ASYLUM BLACKOUT, but it's just disappointing because it could have been so much more.

THE WARD (2011) Review

Directed by: John Carpenter

Starring: Amber Heard, Mamie Gummer, Danielle Panabaker, Jared Harris

I'm a huge fan of John Carpenter's films (well most of them) so I was pretty excited to see his newest film, even if his last directorial effort (Ghosts of Mars) was a huge disappointment. Then I watched the trailer for The Ward, and speaking of disappointments this seemed like it would be another. But I'm always willing to give any horror film a chance, even if I'm expecting it to be terrible. I have been pleasantly surprised in the past.

The Ward is set in Oregon in 1966 and centers on a young girl Kristen, (Amber Heard) who is picked up by the police for torching a local farmhouse. She is taken to the North Bend psychiatric hospital and begins her treatment under Dr Stringer, (Jared Harris) who believes that some underlying traumatic experience led her to burn down the house.

But soon Kristen finds herself and her fellow patients being haunted by the ghost of a former patient named Alice. What follows is a fairly predictable and generic fright-fest, which uses almost every cliche know to horror cinema. There are plenty of those 'who's behind the door?' and 'is there somebody on the other side of the window?' moments, as well as the familiar and overused 'ghost appearing in the mirror' trick.

Even so, the film does have it's tense moments, although they are entirely unoriginal.

For me, the best part of the film was the clever twist towards the end, which even though I had some idea of what it was, I never fully worked it out until it was revealed.

The Ward is also let down by some pretty average performances across the board, and I eventually found myself rooting for the ghost so that I didn't have to endure these characters any longer.

If you're one of those people who aren't looking for a film that breaks any kind of new ground or provide any new or genuine scares, then this film is a great way to spend an hour and a half. Anybody else however, will most likely find this to be another big disappointment, especially coming from John Carpenter.