Asylum of Darkness (2017) Directed by Jay Woelfel




Some movies are just too full of itself. What sounds and seems like a straightforward and formulaic enough genre flick actually attempts to be something completely different, which in this case works out quite disastrously.

The movie starts off good and 'normal' enough. I was actually quite liking the movie at first. Sure, it seemed like a typical horror movie, set inside an asylum but it also seemed to have plenty of originality in it and a good enough style of its own. Well, the style actually rapidly became the movie its biggest problem however. The movie completely derails after the fist 10 minutes, when the movie suddenly decides to be all 'style' and very little little 'substance'. Things become messy and unappealing to watch.

Seems that Jay Woelfel have seen one or two too many David Lynch movies. But watching movies doesn't make you an expert on making movies though. It's not a particularly thought provoking or clever movie with any of its themes or story developments. The movie just simply muddles on, without ever heading into a clear direction with anything. Guess point of the movie is to give you a look inside the mind of an insane person but when a movie doesn't handle anything in an interesting enough way, there simply is very little to enjoy.

The movie in fact is way worse then I'm making it sound right now. It's just a complete- unappealing mess that offers absolutely nothing. It's not fun, it's not interesting, it's not exciting. It's annoying and hard to watch instead. Even probably impossible to finish for most people, also especially considering its running time, which is way too long.

Who knows, maybe this movie still could have worked out, if only it got done by a more capable director and with a bigger budget available. The low budget of the movie is pretty apparent. The movie lacks a good and professional enough look and feel to it. The sets, the costumes, the makeup. It's all just a tad bit too amateur-like looking, which definitely does take you out of the movie at times. But well, that's not too big of a problem, since it's hard to get into the movie in the first place.

Just don't watch it.

3/10

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