Rating: 
Summary: This was a great movie
Review: All I can say is... wow, this was a real find. I am a huge thriller fan and this movie has it all!!! If you liked Seven, Silence of the Lambs, and Halloween, then you will love DARK ASYLUM. The directing was solid, the acting was right on, and the pace was non-stop. This is a must-rent and a must-have for your video collection. I rented this movie with a new girlfriend and she was practically sitting in my lap within ten minutes!!! BE BUT WARNED: DON'T WATCH THIS MOVIE ALONE - YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO SLEEP!!!
Rating:
Summary: A RARE GEM OF A THRILLER!!!
Review: All I can say is... wow, this was a real find. I am a huge thriller fan and this movie has it all!!! If you liked Seven, Silence of the Lambs, and Halloween, then you will love DARK ASYLUM. The directing was solid, the acting was right on, and the pace was non-stop. This is a must-rent and a must-have for your video collection. I rented this movie with a new girlfriend and she was practically sitting in my lap within ten minutes!!! BE BUT WARNED: DON'T WATCH THIS MOVIE ALONE - YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO SLEEP!!!
Rating: 
Summary: dont waste your time!!!
Review: At first apperarance this move seemed pretty cool, psychological thriller, deranged killer, mental hospital. But what actually transpired was pure low budget, poorly acted, contrived drivel! The plot was so predictable (ever hear of plot twists guys? thats what most psycho thrillers have!) As for the deranged killer, i thought i was watching one of those old Frankenstein monster movies from the 40's! all this guy need was the bolts in the neck! Lets not even talk about quality of acting, even for a 'B' movie
Dont waste your time buy Memento instead
Rating:
Summary: AWSOME THRILLER!
Review: DARK ASYLUM is a good example for how direct-to-video movies should be. Movies this good are far and few when it comes to the home video market, and DARK ASYLUM delivers! Not so much a horror movie but a thriller, DARK ASYLUM is a suspense filled trip as two people run for their lives, trapped in a mental hospital with a psychopathic killer on their trail! The acting is GREAT and lead actress gives one hell of a kick [rear]performance. Judd Nelson also appears as the janitor who is the only person who knows the ins and outs to the hospital. He gives a great performance and provides some great moments of comic relief (there are at least 3 really funny moments that just crack me up). And unlike other movies, the small moments of comedy are NOT distracting to the suspense. The killer (aka "The Trasher") is creepy and HUGE! which makes the suspense all that more tense. I for one would NEVER want to be trapped in ANY place with this guy! This is one of the those movies that starts off with a kick and keeps 'em coming right to the end! I had a great time watching this movie and got right into it. It's like a cross between good old fashion slasher movies and dark thrillers like SEVEN. There are some definite hints and homages to HALLOWEEN H20 towards the end, but its done just as well here, if not better. Gore fans might be disappointed since DARK ASYLUM has practically no blood shed. But trust me, this movie is so suspesful and fun that you'll never even notice the lack of red stuff. I can't say it enough.....THIS IS A GREAT THRILLER and the DVD print is clear and crisp and just looks mint. SEE IT!
Rating:
Summary: Dark Asylum is ridiculous and unbelievable
Review: I was stunned when I saw that this terrible film was rated 2 1/2 stars on my TIVO. This film was so bad that it was actually humorous to watch at times. The entire movie depends on countless bad decisions and unbelievable events to make the story work.
If you would like to save your time from seeing a bad movie read on. However, please note that some of this information will reveal the storyline which can ruin it, so if you plan on seeing this movie, I suggest you do not read any further.
The basic plot is that there is a mad man called the thrasher who kills people. He is caught early on in the film and is sent to a temporary holding facility at an old asylum which will be closed down at the end of the month. In addition, the movie has two other main characters, a female psychologist and a janitor (who is also a patient of the facility).
The movie has absolutely no character development. We never learn anything about the life of the thrasher and why he kills. We never learn anything about the janitor (a patient of the facility) who has been locked up for 16 years and only let outside twice during that time. Worse, we know very little about the psychologist and why she is so obsessed with an old case she handled there.
Now the story is totally unbelievable. They lock up the thrasher in a facility for one hour with a security guard, 4 police officers, and a host of psychologists. The thrasher is locked in a padded room, cuffed on his ankles with a straight jacket. The padded room has another viewing room on the other side with a one way mirror.
You would think that with someone who is so dangerous, the facility would post at least 1 to 2 officers at all times within the viewing room (considering this is an old facility not equipped to handle this person and we are only talking about a 1 hour holding time). But no, the police spend their time assembling a cage far away from this area and the security guard is no where to be found.
While the thrasher was left unattended, he was able to chew off the straight jacket and break the mechanism locking his feet to the chair. Mind you, this was all done while under heavy sedation.
After freeing himself, the psychologist tries to communicate with him through a one way mirror. She had a co-worker with her who wished to enter the padded cell to interview the thrasher as the one-way mirror communication wasn't working. Against all good judgment and regulations, this co-worker is allowed to enter the padded room. While in there, you would think the female psychologist would keep a close eye on her co-worker, but no, she immediately turns her back on him and makes a 3 minute cell phone call. She is in the viewing room but is facing away from the window during the entire time the co-worker is interviewing the thrasher allowing the newly freed thrasher to kill her co-worker. It would have been no effort to make her call and face the window at the same time (but in Hollywood, this would not work as it would have given her time to summon help while the thrasher kills her co-worker).
The thrasher than takes a chair and smashes the one-way window with one swipe. Keep in mind that later in the film, the psychologist shoots about 5-6 rounds of bullets in a similar window at a control room without even damaging it. There is no explanation as to why this particular window was not reinforced like the others (completely unbelievable).
Now the thrasher is running amuck in the asylum and this gets the attention of the 4 cops. The thrasher lays a trap to kill them by filling a light bulb with butane to make a bomb. Now this is really stupid. Here you have a facility that allows its patients to roam freely to do janitorial work and they just happen to have such dangerous items as a can of butane laying around for anyone to grab. Why do they even need a can of butane to begin with?
The thrasher kills all four police officers and the security crew while under heavy sedation and unarmed. By now you have a good idea how ridiculous this film is. The thrasher spends the remaining hour looking for a key to open the gates as the cops locked it down before being killed.
The psychologist and janitor struggle to find a way out as well. One idea would be to set off the sprinklers to get the fire departments attention, except that the fire sprinkler suppression system was turned off (why, I have no idea, no facility would be allowed to have patients locked in their rooms with a non-functioning fire suppression system).
During the next hour the thrasher spends his time chasing the psychologist and janitor through one ridiculous and unbelievable chase after another (I will spare you all the details).
In the end, the thrasher and the psychologist face off at the exit. The psychologist tries to lay a trap by placing the key that opens the gates in an electrically charged puddle of water. She then rigs the door with 3 hydrogen tanks ready to explode (again, what is this facility doing with these hydrogen tanks????).
The thrasher reaches down and gets the key while being electrocuted for 10 - 15 seconds and ends up fine (yeah right!). Once he has the key, he realizes the psychologist is willing to commit suicide to stop him so he can't use the door. He then tells the psychologist that he studied up on her and her family (she had left her briefcase in the viewing room with her personal information), and he has plans to kill her daughter.
Here is where it gets even more ridiculous. The thrasher tells the psychologist that he doesn't need to bother with the main gate as he will simply go into the basement boiler room and exit through the sewers. OK, so the thrasher wasted an hour looking for a key, electrocutes himself getting it, when all the time he knew or should have know he could escape from the boiler room. Can you see how stupid this movie is?
As soon as he goes down to the boiler rooms, the cops arrive with their sirens on with many units. These cops arrived at their scheduled time. But if they had to come in full force and in such a hurry (remember, no one was able to contact them so they have no clue what is happening), you would think they would have left more than 4 officers there in the first place.
The psychologist tells what happened and they send several teams after him fully armed in 4 by 4 formation. The psychologist believing the cops are inept, grabs a shotgun from a police car (aren't they suppose to have those locked down) and runs inside into the basement boiler room. There she finds 4 dead swat people from one of the 4 by 4 formations. We know the thrasher killed them but we don't know how for a good reason. How can the thrasher kill 4 highly trained, fully armed swat people without even having a weapon of his own on him? Dumb and unbelievable.
The thrasher is able to get to the psychologists home within minutes going through the sewers (it is nice how the director makes her home so conveniently close to the asylum).
I will not tell you how the movie ends except to say that it gets even more unbelievable and ridiculous.
In all, a total waste of time to watch unless you find watching bad movies funny.
Rating:
Summary: "Die Hard" at You Know Where
Review: Just another Grade-B thriller distributed from Lions Gate Films. A serial killer who terrorized a city from underground finally gets caught, but as a rookie cop shoots him in the feet unnecessarily, he is transported to an abandoned hospital (don't ask me why). Now he is unleashed in this deserted hospital after killing all the guarding cops, and the heroine psychologist Paulina Porizkova and her help Judd Nelson are the only hope that can stop him running away again. Jurgen Prochnow, now a regular face in this kind of film, appears.The setting is not particularly new, but with a good script it could have been better. As it is, the film is filled with clithe, and thrill is gone before the movie is half over. The most incredible casting includes Larry Drake (of "Dr. Giggles" and "Darkman") as the killer, who chases Porizkova all around the building. Considering his physical presence, it wouldn't take much time for him to reach her, and take the key to get out of the building, but it does. Very far-fetched, at best. Strictly for those who have nothing to do, or fans of the two leads.
Rating: 
Summary: A different look at Dark Asylum...
Review: just by reading the back of this DVD case at a video store, i was quite interested. a maniac gets loose in an abandoned insane asylum and they try to catch him? not only would the structure of the asylum be interesting to check out, but im always interested in seeing what hollywood puts out as the dangerously mentally ill. well, heres my overview on this movie. a serial killer, "the trasher", is caught and sent to an asylum for the criminally insane which is about to be shut down. through his own animalistic tricks, the trasher breaks loose. after the survivor staff members rush out and program the asylum on lock-down, the remainders (including psychiatrist maggie) are stuck in this maze of a cage with a nutcase lunatic. maggie must team up with the janitor (which you'll soon find out is an inmate). through mind games and many "suprises", maggie and her friend eventually...well, you'll see. the first time i saw the trasher he reminded me of malcom rivers of Identity. huge, hairless man in a straight-jacket. this movie is very low budget, putting aside the few explosions you must endure. and here's one point about the movie that some like and some hate-- it seems like that loony never dies! he keeps coming back. there is no big psychological twist except when you find out "who" maggie is, which isn't all that big. while this movie has hardly any substance, it sells on suspense and simplicity. somehow, you leave satisfied with a real-to-life terror. then again, there's nothing to fear when you are the feared. anyway, i recomend a rental at first. nonetheless, there's just something about this film that you can't let go. (maybe its just me)
Rating: 
Summary: Not that bad
Review: one of the reviewers said not be able to sleep if you watch it alone? hahaha umm ok. i got the movie cause i figured it would have some suspenseful parts but there was none really to say the least, maybe a couple of small ones but nothin big. was a very predictable movie for the most part it seemed like but it was also pretty entertaining and fun to watch for the most part. think larry drake played the bad guy and he did a pretty good job of playing the mental patient, good acting all around for a half decent storyline. all in all it is worth checking out.
Rating:
Summary: dark asylum, but not that dark
Review: one of the reviewers said not be able to sleep if you watch it alone? hahaha umm ok. i got the movie cause i figured it would have some suspenseful parts but there was none really to say the least, maybe a couple of small ones but nothin big. was a very predictable movie for the most part it seemed like but it was also pretty entertaining and fun to watch for the most part. think larry drake played the bad guy and he did a pretty good job of playing the mental patient, good acting all around for a half decent storyline. all in all it is worth checking out.
Rating:
Summary: NUTHOUSE BLUES
Review: There are so many implausibilities and coincidences in DARK ASYLUM, one would think at least one of them would be suspenseful. Alas and alack, no such luck. We get the ever interminably boring Larry Drake as the Trasher, a serial killer who has murdered several people and hidden their bodies in the cities sewer system. They catch him and lock him up in a soon to be closed down asylum, waiting for the feds to pick him up at midnight. This asylum also houses Dr. Jurgen Prochnow, an elderly psychiatrist who wants one last chance to make Drake talk. Paulina Portikova couldn't be more trite and boring if she tried; Judd Nelson as an inmate and janitor tries hard but his scenes are so small that he can't save the sinking ship. The cops are all stupid, and why in the world are there hand grenades in a mental hospital? Little suspense is generated, and the film's climactic ending routine.
Some of the camera work is interesting, so it's not a total bomb...but it's not far!
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