The Asylum Tapes Review

The Asylum Tapes Review

 Year: 2012

Stars: Oliver Stone, Alexander Wraith and Sean Stone
Directed: Sean Stone
Running Time: 79mins approx.

 

 

Way hey another lost tape of some idiots who went into some where haunted and died/disappeared. So this "real footage" film was made for a low budget of just $3million. The film goes under another name of Greystone Park for some reason.
It starts of quite confusing; fuzzy images of torture in the asylum that flicker so badly you really want to skip past to the main feature.

I was surprised to see Oliver Stone in here on a table that’s intermittently put in-between flashes of the group getting ready to go to the asylum. Though he is the dad to the guy who wrote and stars in this. The table scenes are not real footage, though at least it feels like that as there’s no shaky cam.
Anyway they all tell ghost stories by candlelight with Oliver’s character telling of a mad Kate. As said this is in-between scenes of three of them getting ready.
All the actors in this movie use their real names possibly to enhance the feeling that these tapes are real.
Now that I’ll say there’s some pretty decent writing for most of the film and actually some reasonably standard acting for most of it too though this quickly degenerates when they start trying to act angry at each other and mad later on.
So they get to the asylum and it’s lit? I don’t know if this standard in America to keep derelict buildings semi lit?
Anyway some exploring ensues, this reminds of most of the TV programs we see that go explore haunted places, like most haunted. For the first part at least, there’s pictures being taken, stories being told like of a guy in a gas mask in chains that haunts the halls, a few little screams, and AN AMAZING ABUNDANCE of burnt dolls heads.

 

Anyway a little ways into the movie we start seeing little shadows in the corners of the film or some scary face in a window only flashes that the people there seemingly don’t notice. These little effects for the budget are pretty cool and some of the scares are cool. You can almost believe that the actors are genuinely scared up till this certain point.
The point where the film quickly goes down the toilet is when Alex disappears and they find him in a corner a few minutes later a little bonkers, not good acting at this point.
One thing that made me smile around this point is the Evil Dead sound effect they use. Then its immediately detracted because every major film transition they do is done by suddenly going very shaky cam, the camera cutting out and they will suddenly be somewhere different without an explanation other than one of them ran off.
That is about the only annoying bit in this film but it could put some off.

 

Later on in the film after a bunch more scares and some creepy exploring and others mental state degenerating. They are looking for a way out when they are jumped upon by some other friends who have been scaring them.
Almost right away scary shit starts happening again. We get another shaky cam transition it’s around this point everyone disappears from one scene to the next.
Sean and Antonela get separated from Alex and the other two new people, though they are quickly found with Alex trying to get them out of a locked room. They are brutally thrown around the room and killed, when they get in the room their bodies have mysteriously vanished.

 

The film now degenerates into each of the team vanishing with shaky fuzzy effects. First Alex, then Antonela after she locks Sean in a room.
While looking for Anton Sean finds a way outside though it’s just a veranda. As far as I can tell something snaps and he draws a knife given to him while their packing at the beginning and turns to face whatever is troubling him.
It turns out to be some apparition of the gas mask guy who seemingly beats him to death. The next scene we see Alex looking worse for wear come up to the camera which was placed on the ground Sean magically pops up to accusing Alex for all of it and that he’s covered in blood.

 

They both put this aside and go look for Antonela, they find her in the chapel seeming possessed with all devil worshiping shit around. Approaching her, she spins around and is suddenly the crazy Kate with grey hair and glowing green eyes.
The movie ends with a table scene and Sean strangely in a Stetson hat and overcoat in the basement of the asylum where he turns and walks off leaving his shadow on the wall.

 

This film for what it is isn’t all that bad there’s the bad stuff which I have outlined but there’s some pretty good writing and ok acting that stops this from getting too bad compared to a lot of other lost tape films out there.
Trust me by no means a good film but you could do worse if you can’t find anything else to occupy you for an hour and twenty minutes.
This film gets a strong 2 stars from me because of the decent way its wrote and directed, no surprise with a daddy like Oliver Stone helping out.