Samhain Project #6 : Stonehearst Asylum

 

     This was a blu ray I found at The Dollar Tree.  Odd.  With its cast, production values, Edgar Allan Poe source material,  and director, Brad Anderson (Session 9), I thought that it had the pedigree to be a gothic creep-inducer.  The players here are Jim Sturgess, Kate Beckinsale, Ben Kingsley, David Thewlis, and if that isn't enough, toss in a sprinkling of two of my faves, Brendan Gleeson and THE Michael Caine (Remember The Hand?). 

     It kinda suffers from The VVitch syndrome; great performances, terrific scenery and aura, but it's not scary.  It's like a Merchant-Ivory gothic horror melodrama, and that ain't a bad thing necessarily, but it was marketed as a horror film, man.  When you see what Brad Anderson did with the infamous Danvers Asylum in Session 9, I couldn't wait to see where this went. (sigh)  I can't not recommend it, because it's got its heart in the right place, and everyone is giving it a hundred percent, but I was disappointed in the end result; which, really and truly is not the film's fault.   Not at all.

     It's like blaming My Sharona or More Than a Feeling because the damn radio stations couldn't stop playing them.

     The plot is this: a doctor visits an insane asylum as the eve of 1899 comes to an end. He's to receive clinical training as an alienist, or asylum doctor.  (Where did that term go, and thank god it went).  All is not as it seems, as our hero, (Mr. Sturgess) finds that the lunatics are literally running the asylum, but was it being run properly before this patient-led coup took place?  Again, a film in my October movie exploration that offers more questions than answers in the long run, and honestly, there probably aren't any right ones. 

     Worth a watch?  Sure.  In November.