Just OK........
Added 3/1/2006
I bought this movie first, because it claims to be a horror movie and also I love any movie about insane asylums. I've seen much worse movies but this one isn't great by no stretch of the imagination. I must admit that Larry Drake does play the role of a deranged psycho pretty good. He has that psycho look.... bald, evil looking, wearing a straight jacket and all. We find him loose in the asylum with a female psychiatrist trapped there in a maze trying to hide from the psycho! She finds aid in the janitor, played by Judd Nelson ( who is weird himself! ) only to find out he was also an inmate of the looney bin. Not a slasher or gore film. At times, a bit boring, at times not. I'd suggest just Rent it only!!
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Bloody awful.
Added 1/12/2006
Dark Asylum (Gregory Gieras, 2001)
Gieras, who was also responsible for the ultimately stupid Centipede! Three years later, makes his most high-profile film to date. And despite having scored the cast of his career by a mile, they're not enough to keep this leaky ship afloat.
Maggie (Her Alibi's Paulina Porizkova, who should have realized she had no future in film a decade and a half ago) is a psychiatrist who works long days, living with her grandmother and raising a daughter on her own. (Why the father is not in the picture is briefly discussed, then dropped when it is revealed to be an obvious red herring.) She gets a call one night to go to an asylum in the process of closing down, where her old acquaintance Conrad (The DaVinci Code's Jurgen Prochnow) is holding a vicious serial killer known as The Trasher (Darkman's Larry Drake) until the FBI can come round to pick him up. Conrad wants to get the Trasher to talk, and get a book deal out of it, since his livelihood, the asylum, is on its way out, and enlists Maggie to help. All well and good, until things go horribly wrong. The only person left that Maggie has to turn to is the janitor, Quintz (brat packer Judd Nelson, whose career basically disappeared after New Jack City).
It may all sound like it could hold a modicum of interest, but, well, it doesn't. While it wouldn't be fair to say Centipede! Is a better film, it's certainly not a worse one, either. A wooden script combines with some truly painful acting, especially on Proizkova's part, to make this one, at best, something you'd have on in the background at a party for people to laugh at. *
3 out of 4 people found this helpful.
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An Entertaining By-The-Numbers B-Movie
Added 11/27/2005
DARK ASYLUM bills itself as a taut psychological thriller. If you are looking for such in this movie, then you will be disappointed. I was looking for nothing more than a slasher type b-movie and DARK ASYLUM delivered the goods. DARK ASYLUM has a basic plot where a serial killer known as the Trasher (Larry Drake) is captured by the police, sustaining a gunshot injury, and is taken to the Crestwood Asylum, which is in the process of being closed down and has only one other patient still left. Maggie Belham (Paulina Porizkova) is called in to do an evaluation of the Trasher before the feds come to pick him up at midnight. The Trasher, however, is not through with his reign of terror as he effects an escape. Being that the floor of the asylum being used has emergency lockdown, Maggie finds herself trapped in an otherwise abandoned asylum with the Trasher on her heels and no one to depend on except for the one patient, the janitor (Judd Nelson), left at the asylum. They must try to survive until the feds arrive, escape, or destroy the Trasher. DARK ASYLUM has strong and weak points. Its strength is in Gieras' taut direction and Drake's portrayal of the Trasher, a character who is a large, menacing killer who is also more than capable of outsmarting his prey. Its weaknesses are a basic plot with nothing more to add and some, at best, half-hearted performances. While Drake and Porizkova deliver on their performances, Nelson performs his role but really does not bring anything to it, other than comic relief. DARK ASYLUM has several edge of your seat moments, doses of humor, and a pace which keeps it moving. If you are looking for an intense and intelligent psychological thriller, you will not find it here. If you just want to sit back and enjoy a by-the-numbers b-movie, then DARK ASYLUM delivers.--Bob
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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Rock N' Roll!
Added 10/18/2004
This suspense filled movie about a diabolical, insane killer, a helplessly trapped psychiatrist, and a caught up in the mix janitor gives new meaning to the term astonishing! The doctor, played saucily by Paulina Porizkova, becomes trapped in an insane asylum at night with no way out. The deranged lunatic, performed admirably by Larry Drake Jr., hunts her down, as they play cat and mouse. Meanwhile, a hapless janitor, played brilliantly by Judd Nelson (The Breakfast Club), tries to help the doctor, and survive the night. Will the sun rise before "The Thrasher" catches the doctor and janitor?
Rent or buy this exciting movie and find out!
Also: great directing by Gregory Gieras.
1 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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NUTHOUSE BLUES
Added 10/7/2004
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!
1 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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Just OK........
Added 3/1/2006
I bought this movie first, because it claims to be a horror movie and also I love any movie about insane asylums. I've seen much worse movies but this one isn't great by no stretch of the imagination. I must admit that Larry Drake does play the role of a deranged psycho pretty good. He has that psycho look.... bald, evil looking, wearing a straight jacket and all. We find him loose in the asylum with a female psychiatrist trapped there in a maze trying to hide from the psycho! She finds aid in the janitor, played by Judd Nelson ( who is weird himself! ) only to find out he was also an inmate of the looney bin. Not a slasher or gore film. At times, a bit boring, at times not. I'd suggest just Rent it only!!
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Bloody awful.
Added 1/12/2006
Dark Asylum (Gregory Gieras, 2001)
Gieras, who was also responsible for the ultimately stupid Centipede! Three years later, makes his most high-profile film to date. And despite having scored the cast of his career by a mile, they're not enough to keep this leaky ship afloat.
Maggie (Her Alibi's Paulina Porizkova, who should have realized she had no future in film a decade and a half ago) is a psychiatrist who works long days, living with her grandmother and raising a daughter on her own. (Why the father is not in the picture is briefly discussed, then dropped when it is revealed to be an obvious red herring.) She gets a call one night to go to an asylum in the process of closing down, where her old acquaintance Conrad (The DaVinci Code's Jurgen Prochnow) is holding a vicious serial killer known as The Trasher (Darkman's Larry Drake) until the FBI can come round to pick him up. Conrad wants to get the Trasher to talk, and get a book deal out of it, since his livelihood, the asylum, is on its way out, and enlists Maggie to help. All well and good, until things go horribly wrong. The only person left that Maggie has to turn to is the janitor, Quintz (brat packer Judd Nelson, whose career basically disappeared after New Jack City).
It may all sound like it could hold a modicum of interest, but, well, it doesn't. While it wouldn't be fair to say Centipede! Is a better film, it's certainly not a worse one, either. A wooden script combines with some truly painful acting, especially on Proizkova's part, to make this one, at best, something you'd have on in the background at a party for people to laugh at. *
3 out of 4 people found this helpful.
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An Entertaining By-The-Numbers B-Movie
Added 11/27/2005
DARK ASYLUM bills itself as a taut psychological thriller. If you are looking for such in this movie, then you will be disappointed. I was looking for nothing more than a slasher type b-movie and DARK ASYLUM delivered the goods. DARK ASYLUM has a basic plot where a serial killer known as the Trasher (Larry Drake) is captured by the police, sustaining a gunshot injury, and is taken to the Crestwood Asylum, which is in the process of being closed down and has only one other patient still left. Maggie Belham (Paulina Porizkova) is called in to do an evaluation of the Trasher before the feds come to pick him up at midnight. The Trasher, however, is not through with his reign of terror as he effects an escape. Being that the floor of the asylum being used has emergency lockdown, Maggie finds herself trapped in an otherwise abandoned asylum with the Trasher on her heels and no one to depend on except for the one patient, the janitor (Judd Nelson), left at the asylum. They must try to survive until the feds arrive, escape, or destroy the Trasher. DARK ASYLUM has strong and weak points. Its strength is in Gieras' taut direction and Drake's portrayal of the Trasher, a character who is a large, menacing killer who is also more than capable of outsmarting his prey. Its weaknesses are a basic plot with nothing more to add and some, at best, half-hearted performances. While Drake and Porizkova deliver on their performances, Nelson performs his role but really does not bring anything to it, other than comic relief. DARK ASYLUM has several edge of your seat moments, doses of humor, and a pace which keeps it moving. If you are looking for an intense and intelligent psychological thriller, you will not find it here. If you just want to sit back and enjoy a by-the-numbers b-movie, then DARK ASYLUM delivers.--Bob
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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