There always seems to be something about lower budget and amateur films that make themselves instantly recognizable. Most likely it's due to the quality of the camera. I never begrudge a movie being or looking amateur. As such, I was not at all bothered by how this film began, with two adult actors doing a somewhat shaky acting job but not outright bad or offensive.
Once their role in the cold open was done, we open to the main characters; a bunch of late teen/early 20s type kids, with one of them shrieking at his father as he packs up for a trip to the asylum. I was watching this entire scene from inside the guy's house to into the car and I cannot for the life of me remember what the point of the scene was or what it was about. If it was an exposition dump, it was so colossally boring that it failed outright.
Once it gets to the asylum, it picks up significantly, with an older man acting as their daytime guide with a sharp wit and deadpan affect, made me laugh every time he corrected them (such as claiming the name of the movie with the Chuckie doll is "Child's Play", not "Chuckie").
As soon as he's out, the film becomes significantly worse, as the kids start lingering about the asylum at night and encountering some "ghostly" encounters that range from completely indistinguishable from a non-paranormal prank or act of sabotage, to blatantly added-in-later sound effects.
What really completely destroys the rest of the film are pointless, cynically gory flashbacks involving the supposed "doctor" of the asylum, who looks and sounds as young, if not younger than the camera people there. Not sure how a kid who can't possibly be older than 25 can somehow be a doctor and head of an asylum. All his acting cues are over the top to the point where it is inexplicable as to how all the people around him are just standing around listening to him shriek incoherently and rage nonstop, even as he is actively killing other people in front of them.
Every flashback scene like this supposedly serves to fill in plot points about the history of the asylum, thus doing literally the exact opposite of what a good horror mystery should do (show us spooky stuff, and indirectly infer background points with them). As well, these scenes are not only incredibly badly acted, but somehow manage to look like they were shot on a stage rather than the set.
And the copious gore and murder depicted is so cynical and lazy as to evoke distaste not in the character, but in the movie itself. There's one flashback in particular where the doctor is inexplicably shrieking at a nurse, then uses a gun to murder a bunch of children. It's so poorly executed and poorly shot that it feels insulting, like a deliberate bit of mockery of the genre as a whole.
Somehow I managed to get 52 minutes into the film before giving up in cynical disgust. The LEAST that I can say about this is that most of the actors, despite several of them not being very good, are at the very least trying their best and are giving fairly decent performances, with the exception of the doctor.
Once their role in the cold open was done, we open to the main characters; a bunch of late teen/early 20s type kids, with one of them shrieking at his father as he packs up for a trip to the asylum. I was watching this entire scene from inside the guy's house to into the car and I cannot for the life of me remember what the point of the scene was or what it was about. If it was an exposition dump, it was so colossally boring that it failed outright.
Once it gets to the asylum, it picks up significantly, with an older man acting as their daytime guide with a sharp wit and deadpan affect, made me laugh every time he corrected them (such as claiming the name of the movie with the Chuckie doll is "Child's Play", not "Chuckie").
As soon as he's out, the film becomes significantly worse, as the kids start lingering about the asylum at night and encountering some "ghostly" encounters that range from completely indistinguishable from a non-paranormal prank or act of sabotage, to blatantly added-in-later sound effects.
What really completely destroys the rest of the film are pointless, cynically gory flashbacks involving the supposed "doctor" of the asylum, who looks and sounds as young, if not younger than the camera people there. Not sure how a kid who can't possibly be older than 25 can somehow be a doctor and head of an asylum. All his acting cues are over the top to the point where it is inexplicable as to how all the people around him are just standing around listening to him shriek incoherently and rage nonstop, even as he is actively killing other people in front of them.
Every flashback scene like this supposedly serves to fill in plot points about the history of the asylum, thus doing literally the exact opposite of what a good horror mystery should do (show us spooky stuff, and indirectly infer background points with them). As well, these scenes are not only incredibly badly acted, but somehow manage to look like they were shot on a stage rather than the set.
And the copious gore and murder depicted is so cynical and lazy as to evoke distaste not in the character, but in the movie itself. There's one flashback in particular where the doctor is inexplicably shrieking at a nurse, then uses a gun to murder a bunch of children. It's so poorly executed and poorly shot that it feels insulting, like a deliberate bit of mockery of the genre as a whole.
Somehow I managed to get 52 minutes into the film before giving up in cynical disgust. The LEAST that I can say about this is that most of the actors, despite several of them not being very good, are at the very least trying their best and are giving fairly decent performances, with the exception of the doctor.