It's cheesy & sleazy slasher time: this low, low budget horror film stars Michael Rogen as Mitch Hansen, a slimeball lawyer who gets into a nasty traffic accident. Horribly mutilated, he wakes up on the autopsy table and lives on to take up residence at an abandoned insane asylum. (They'll never run out of those in horror films.) 10 years later, he terrorizes the utter morons who come to the place, and who are totally dismissive of the legend surrounding it.
"Doom Asylum" does have a savvy, knowing quality about it, creating deliberately inane characters and not caring about the incredible amateurishness of the performances. Its script IS positively goofy, complete with quips by the psycho-killer antagonist, some solid gore gags, and a dose of skin. The location the film-makers found is also amusingly decrepit, adding a *bit* of atmosphere to the proceedings.
Future 'Sex and the City' co-star Kristin Davis made her film debut here (playing an obvious psychology major who is one of the more annoying characters), giving the movie some curiosity value nowadays. "Name" performances include Penthouse Pet Patty Mullen ("Frankenhooker") as flamboyant punk chick Tina, and B movie perennial Ruth Collins ("Galactic Gigolo") in a dual role.
The most notorious thing about "Doom Asylum" is the fact that co-story author / director Richard Friedman (whose credits include "Death Mask" and episodes of 'Friday the 13th: the Series' and 'Tales from the Darkside') KNEW that there wasn't enough "story" here to fill even 79 minutes. So they kill lots of time by having Hansen watch old Tod Slaughter movies!
Overall, this is amusing garbage that die hard slasher aficionados may want to seek out. Nobody else need apply.
Five out of 10.
"Doom Asylum" does have a savvy, knowing quality about it, creating deliberately inane characters and not caring about the incredible amateurishness of the performances. Its script IS positively goofy, complete with quips by the psycho-killer antagonist, some solid gore gags, and a dose of skin. The location the film-makers found is also amusingly decrepit, adding a *bit* of atmosphere to the proceedings.
Future 'Sex and the City' co-star Kristin Davis made her film debut here (playing an obvious psychology major who is one of the more annoying characters), giving the movie some curiosity value nowadays. "Name" performances include Penthouse Pet Patty Mullen ("Frankenhooker") as flamboyant punk chick Tina, and B movie perennial Ruth Collins ("Galactic Gigolo") in a dual role.
The most notorious thing about "Doom Asylum" is the fact that co-story author / director Richard Friedman (whose credits include "Death Mask" and episodes of 'Friday the 13th: the Series' and 'Tales from the Darkside') KNEW that there wasn't enough "story" here to fill even 79 minutes. So they kill lots of time by having Hansen watch old Tod Slaughter movies!
Overall, this is amusing garbage that die hard slasher aficionados may want to seek out. Nobody else need apply.
Five out of 10.