Asylum of Darkness (2017)

Asylum of Darkness: Directed by Jay Woelfel. With Nick Baldasare, Amanda Howell, Richard Hatch, Tim Thomerson. After awakening in a mental asylum, a patient plans an escape to freedom, but finds an even more disturbing, supernatural world on the outside, one that threatens to keep him trapped in madness forever.

“I decided to watch this because it stars Tim Thomerson and the late Richard Hatch, both sci-fi stars of yesteryear (Trancers and Battlestar Galactica respectively). The six reviews as of this writing were also above average, praising the twisty, innovative, and unpredictable plot. Well, apparently I watched a different film. This thing is a boring unfocused mess. It jumps from scene to scene with no discernible pattern or purpose, let alone character development. People are slashed, tentacled monsters crawl into orifices, and all to absolutely zero purpose. The excuse (as stated in the IMDb summary) is that the main character is committed to an asylum and therefore insane. But this proves nothing and is no reason to abandon screenplay logic. It is also childishly easy to predict which episodes arenu0026#39;t real. If the six critics listed call this stew u0026quot;unpredictableu0026quot;, then I recommend viewing 1990u0026#39;s u0026quot;Brain Deadu0026quot;, starring Bill Pullman and Bill Paxton. Now THAT is a disorienting and effective asylum chiller. Or if itu0026#39;s inspired gore youu0026#39;re after, try the blood-spattered u0026quot;Insanitariumu0026quot; from 2008 instead. Either one is preferable to u0026quot;AODu0026quot;. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eNow for the acting. As I said above, it was Thomerson and Hatch that initially drew me in. Somehow I think both of them knew exactly what they were signing up for, and totally mailed it in. Iu0026#39;ve seen boards that are less wooden. As for the main star (Nick Baldasare), the less said about his sleepy zombie-like acting, the better. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWere I forced to praise something (anything?) about this film, it would be the gore and monster effects, which are fine. Blood is blood, and a gouged eyeball is a gouged eyeball. But there are far better asylum films to choose from. I strongly suggest you do so.”