Asylum Makes A Good Film?

Asylum Makes a Good Film?

By: Darkness After Dawn

Typically when you hear a movie is made by Asylum you find yourself thinking twice before picking it up, let alone taking it home to watch. The production company notorious for bad horror films may have found its golden egg.


With Asylum’s long list of Z-Movies like Transmorphers (2007), Hillside Cannibals (2006), DaVinci Treasure (2006), Pirates of Treasure Island (2006), Snakes on a Train (2006), Halloween Night (2006), among many more you can’t help but brush them off when walking through the movie rentals, or browsing your DVD clearance racks. But this needle in the haystack, so to speak, may well be worth the viewing.

This diamond in the rough I’m speaking about is Asylum’s “Haunting of Winchester House 3D” (2009). I found it absolutely captivating. Normally when daring the inevitable, and actually trying to watch their horrendous films, I end up shutting it off and finding something less mind dulling, like cartoons, to watch.As a history buff, I actually knew about the story of the Winchester House and found the movie compelling in its rights to staying true to the Winchester Legends. The 3D effects weren’t too bad either but “could have been used more properly,” as That Damned Reviewer complained while watching along side me. The story line had a very “Sixth Sense” twist to it, and made for an interesting and “Shit! I should have known!” reaction to the ending. Normally I find myself guessing the ending by the middle of the film; not this one. Surprisingly I didn’t catch on until the last second as the ending twisted into realization and was being unraveled.The Haunting of Winchester House swept me up in its suspense, storyline, and cheap scares. The only thing that bothered me so much was the daughter’s voice. She appears to be in her preteens, yet she talks like a 5 year old. What….the….hell?! Was she mentally retarded? They should have picked a different actress that would have portrayed the character better; not like a baby, but like a 12 year old girl.

Even though it was a response to Lionsgate’s “Haunting in Connecticut”, Asylum actually made a movie that had a better script and story line then the rest of their garbage that I’ve come across. Maybe Asylum should stick to working around actual history then ripping off other movies. They might actually make better films this way.If you can get your hands on this gem, go ahead and snatch it up. I doubt Asylum will be releasing anything as good as this one ever again.