Asylum Blackout (I) (2011) User Reviews

Solid and Entertaining Movie, With One Exception

[eckmanmj-1 · 7/10 · 20 August 2012]

My wife and I just watched Asylum Blackout (or The Incident...which one is it) last night and I have to say, we mostly enjoyed this movie. At one point, shortly after the blackout (this isn't a spoiler since its in the name) we both agreed that this movie was doing a real good job at showing what it might be like to be trapped inside a building with the criminally insane and having no power.

The look, feel, setting, and plot to this movie are all well done. Even the acting, especially the performance of the main character George, done by Rupert Evans, is very good. George is a likable character that I could easily sympathize with. He's a struggling musician working a crummy job trying to make ends meet with people who are less than motivated. When things start to go badly, George's decisions don't follow the typical 'forehead slappers' that often happen in movies like this. He makes logical decisions regarding his survival and doesn't fall victim to many of the typical clichés you see in type type of movie.

There is a lot of gore in this movie, which some may interpret as a horror movie, but I wouldn't go as far as to say this is straight up horror. Its more like a "terror/thriller". If you can inject yourself into the characters and imagine what it would be like to be in their situation, it would be scary as he**. This, by far is the biggest asset to this movie.

Sadly, as with many movies of this type, there is a twist. I wont tell you what it is, but the twist didn't work for my wife and I. Reading through the other reviews for this movie, I am not alone.

Frankly, had this movie been as simple as "four guys get trapped in a mental hospital with no power", that would have been a very good movie. Instead, the filmmakers tried to add depth to the story by including twists, that simply did not need to be there.

I am actually getting sick and tired of movies with twists in them. M. Night Shyamalan did a good job early in his career with the twist ending, but come on people, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar!

Asylum Blackout is a good movie, with a good plot, a creepy setting, good acting, and lots of gore, but the filmmakers tried to make it into something that didn't, and by the end of the movie, I found myself frustrated and disappointed. I recommend seeing it, if only for the first 90% of the movie.

If any aspiring filmmakers read this review, please understand that not ever movie needs a twist or some type of profound deeper meaning to be revealed at the end. If you want to make a scary movie, make a scary movie and focus on the scares and be done with it! People will still enjoy your movie! Movies with twists have become so common these days, that I think a good twist ending to a movie would be no twist at all!

misunderstood and politicized

[cellocolin · 7/10 · 18 February 2021]

This is an excellent and original movie with nice acting and a good script. It is unfairly maligned by the low IQ reviewers on this site because they think the ending is saying that the whole movie was a dream - it's not, it's showing the character having PTSD nightmares after the fact

Asylum Blackout

[hobgoblinlol · 7/10 · 10 September 2012]

One of the best horror movies i've seen lately. With great atmosphere and suspense. The set up is great and i really enjoyed the movie. It also contains some nice gore and other violent scenes along with some intense moments.

The idea is not entirely new, but it's rare and should be used more often. Inmates rioting in the asylum is a good idea for a movie and can be great if done right.

Watch this movie you'll enjoy it especially if you like insanity like me.

7/10

Better Than expected

[freakyjoe13 · 6/10 · 7 December 2012]

Found the movie on netflix so we decided to watch it. I had never heard of the film or any of the actors in it and the title gave me the assumption this film would be pretty bad. But i was delightfully mistaken.

it's Not great but for a low budget horror film its pretty darn good. it took a little long getting in but after that it had great pace and intensity. It had some very shocking and gory scenes but never really crossed the line.

some parts of the film don't make the most sense and leave you questioning what happened. but all in all the setting and the disturbed inmates made for a truly scary film. very good for what it was and better than a lot of big budget films out there. i would give it a view

******/10

Solid, Intense Thriller...but ending really pissed me off

[Sandoz · 7/10 · 7 July 2019]

It was a good, solid thriller (which reminded me a lot of Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13) but it seems someone just couldn't resist throwing in a head-trippy twist to negate or at least question everything we just saw as a "was the main character insane?", or "was it all a dream?" finish.

Really, this sort of ending has been done to death so often that calling it trite or hackneyed doesn't begin to describe how cheap and contrived it has become in our post-modern age. Because of it, a film I would have rated higher I now have to lower to about a 7.

Note to filmmakers (any and all): It's ok--really, it is!--to just END your story after all the action resolves itself...you don't always need to try and come up with slam-bang shock or eerie moment for some kind of BIG FINISH! To your story. It's really only a tired, over-used gimmick nowadays.

Simply there

[movieman_kev · 5/10 · 12 January 2013]

Two aspiring musicians whom are working as cooks in a secluded mental asylum to make ends meet and to further finance their dead-end dream job are in the aforementioned hospital when the power goes out and the patients revolt, leaving the cooks and rest of the workers to fight for their lives.

Apart from some brutal scenes the movie seemed a tad on the tame side considering a promising set-up premise. The acting is merely serviceable for the most part but the main heavy is well-acted and steals every scene he's in. The film also boasts a lame twist ending that was unneeded. All in all I was just left with a Meh feeling, Not good enough to praise nor awful enough to mock. It just... Is.

good, solid horror

[pseawrig · 7/10 · 5 March 2013]

This film is a solid take on the crazed maniac horror film. It is simply told and soundly directed. There are some really great suspense scenes, good performances, and compelling cinematography. Oh, there is also a confusing ending. In fact, the movie rushes through some really fuzzy plot maneuvering in its last ten minutes, as if it had somewhere to get to in a hurry. That said, the weak ending does not ruin the film. In fact, just tune out five minutes early and you've got a really good movie.

What I want to point out is this film's satisfying dramatic structure. The film's protagonist is a young, handsome member of a late-80s grunge band. He works a tough job to make ends meet and has apparently gotten his friends jobs to help them out. One of his friends is sweet, but unreliable. Another of his friends is reliable, but snarly. Our hero, however, is both reliable and warm. He is eminently likable. The character of George made me care about this horror movie. He drove my interest in the film. I wanted George to make it through the horror.

Other (often new) horror directors could learn from this. A movie needs a likable, rational hero to be any good. Also, tell a real story; do not just string together some mish mash of allusions to other movies. It is fine to repeat imagery from previous horror films, as this film does, but ground your film in a coherent real life situation. Asylum Blackout works because it gives its characters dignity and its story world depth. It kept me in the moment from beginning to end.

Atmospheric film with letdown ending

[gregsrants · 18 September 2011]

In Alexandre Courtès' film The Incident, the setting is Washington 1989 where we are introduced to a group of young band members that work in the kitchen of an insane asylum. The asylum is a concrete mass in the middle of nowhere. Its heavy doors and locked cages are highly monitored and every door, elevator and room requires either keys of a combination code. Patients in the asylum walk around like zombies and follow strict patterns in an effort to get fed at the fortified kitchen.

George (Rupert Evans), Max (Kenny Doughty) and Ricky (Joseph Kennedy) have just played a gig the night before when George is requested to come in early to accept a delivery of supplies for the kitchen. On little to no sleep, George makes his way to the compound and begins prepping for the daily meals when he is met by his fellow workers/band members.

But on this dark and rainy evening, a power outage throws the asylum into darkness. The patients are confused and get irritatingly irrational. All doors become unlocked and the monitoring station goes blind. George and the others are asked to assist in getting the excited patients back to their holding cells, but when two patients violently escape their escort, it begins a night of terror where the patients indeed run the asylum and where the guards and the young kitchen workers run from their lives from the horde of dangerously rabid maniacs.

Director Alexandre Courtes makes his feature film debut with The Incident after a fairly successful career directing music videos for bands such as U2 and The White Stripes. Courtes takes his time in unleashing the terrors that will be the mainstay of the film and uses the first 30 minutes to introduce us to the characters on both sides of the protective glass. Great effort is spent in giving us a tour of the facility and having the audience recognize the fortress as a heavily locked-down institution. We are also introduced to Harry Green (Richard Brake) – an asylum patient that George believes is the ringleader of the horde when the proverbial poop hits the fan.

When the patients begin to overrun the facility, the screenplay as written by S.Craig Zahler and Jérôme Fansten has the characters doing what is rarely evident in today's horror films – he has the characters acting intelligently and making the right decisions (even if it comes with unexpected consequences). George and his surviving followers attempt to make their way to an office to find a phone. They also equip themselves with knives and other weapons and hide out when they find safe haven rather than wandering the halls as bait for the manic fish.

The film is complimented by the great atmosphere of the setting much like the abandoned asylum in Session 9 and without windows or doors leading to an escape, you can't help but feel for the helplessness of the situation.

Courtes doesn't spend time on the background of the inmates or the guards. It doesn't matter. Hell is going to break loose and most people with either end up dead or running form impending death. Backstory does not matter.

There is a bit of a letdown in a twist implemented near the end of the film. The Incident was smart enough without having to try and M. Night itself and we think it would have had a more satisfying ending if things just ended as they were (thought to have) played out.

Still, The Incident is an above average horror film with a few good kills (ok, one) and one scene that had two audience members at the Toronto International Film Festival faint in recognition. It might not be the best asylum film ever (or even in the top 25), but it was refreshing to watching smart individuals acting smart when their lives were on the line and we appreciated the effort.

www.killerreviews.com

Sadistic Torture Film with an Unclear and Unintelligible Conclusion

[claudio_carvalho · 3/10 · 19 September 2012]

In 1989, in Washington, the friends George (Rupert Evans), Max (Kenny Doughty) and Ricky (Joseph Kennedy) are aspirant musicians that play in a band in their leisure time. They work as cooks in the Sans Asylum to earn money to pay their bills, including renting a studio to record their songs. The asylum is located in an isolated area and is monitored by a team led by the security guard J.B. (Dave Legeno). The deranged inmates are criminals and they take pills to stay calm.

One day, George has a concert during the night but J.B. asks him to arrive early in the morning to receive the supplies for the kitchen. George leaves his girlfriend Lynn (Anna Skellern) without sleeping and heads to the asylum. While he is preparing the meals for the insane inmates with his colleagues, there is a storm and a power outage in the area and the monitoring system fails. With the mental hospital in the darkness, the inmates led by the cruel Harry Green (Richard Brake) attack the guards and staff. George and the other kitchen workers hide from the horde of violent madmen. Will they survive?

"The Incident" is a sadistic torture film with an unclear and unintelligible conclusion. The situation is absurd since there are just a few guards to control violent criminals and the security is based on systems that stop working with a power outage. Further, how could take one hour to the police to reach the institution in a rebellion? Every situation is a pretext for torture, violence and gore. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "Desespero" ("Despair")

Cringe worthy solid horror effort on a shoe string budget

[Robert_duder · 7/10 · 11 January 2013]

I had very little expectations for this film. I have seen a ton of low budget horror the last little while and most of it is just awful. The concept for this film is intriguing and with a big budget could be really interested. Imagine if the Saw guys got a hold of this sort of concept? So I was pleasantly surprised (and disturbed) that this actually turned out to be a solid horror flick. They attempt to introduce a few of the characters and then the storm makes all the rest come crashing down. The single only issue with the film I thought was that the character development was weak in a lot of ways. I think they could have done this so much better had we seen a specific and well developed group of the inmates that we feared and understood. In this case, the inmates are all faceless and insane so we don't get one or two clear villains. We also really only get one hero that we get to know. Still the violence is brutal and will certainly make you cringe. The dark and gritty setting of the Asylum is well done especially given the low budget they were dealing with. I was thoroughly impressed with how we see the deterioration of the mental states of the victims as they try to deal with this situation they are in.

Rupert Evans is our main protagonist. He does a great job with only a little character development. They sort of force the concept that he has a beautiful woman at home that loves him and he seems like he's sort of at an impasse with his career. You get to know him just enough to really care about him and understand the horror he is going through. I wish I could specifically talk about the rest of the cast because there are some very good and disturbing performances but none of them really stand out. They don't get any character depth at all and are simply there to serve one or two purposes which they do and they do well but you won't ever remember any of their specific characters. I thought they were going to really go somewhere with the character played by Kenny Doughty but the depth is just not there although he gives a great performance in a small supporting way.

If you can get past the lack of characters you'll really enjoy the rest of the movie for its story and gore and horror genre elements. Especially towards the end of the film you'll really see some really twisted kills and torture scenes but without being completely gratuitous. As with many indie films, especially horror ones, the director is a newcomer to the scene. Still I give Alexandre Courtes kudos because he knows the genre well and uses scenes to really get under your skin. The concept of how the film plays with your mind and really shows you the mental instability of Evan's character will appeal to those that like a really twisted story. I'm still not sure I entirely understand the ending of the film and yet I didn't hate the ending either. For a low budget horror film this was worth seeing and while it isn't perfect, it fills the quota well. 7/10

Lacking focus and unrealistic

[chaugnurfaugn-269-83012 · 4/10 · 14 May 2012]

An unrecognisable Rupert Evans and Kenny Doughty star as wannabe rockers consigned to the menial duties of cooks in an insane asylum in order to pay for life's necessities. When an electrical storm blows out the asylum's wiring the inmates are let loose and the cooks face a battle for survival.

What director Alexandre Courtès and writers S. Craig Zahler and Jérôme Fansten fail to understand in setting their plot premise is that asylums of this type simply do not exist. Violent and criminally insane inmates are held in secure units within prison establishments. And even if there were some kind of unique, stand-alone building for the containment of what must surely be (if the brutal shenanigans of the escaped lunatics is any measure) some of the most immeasurably psychotic human beings on the planet, there would be more than a dozen unarmed security personnel guarding them and contingencies in place to ensure any kind of riot situation would be immediately crushed.

When George and gang finally reach a telephone the cops insist it will be an hour at least before they can make a rescue. This is patently absurd. Not only would the cops be immediately en-route, making the asylum priority A1, they would be accompanied by SWAT and maybe even military. Immediately.

Moreover, even the highest level security wing of a prison would fail to provide such instant and unadulterated violence. Rioting prisoners tend to focus on the institution, banding together to damage property with, perhaps, a few grudges indulged and some skirmishing between prisoners. A complete blood-fest free-for-all, akin to a prison full of zombies rather than human beings, is what we get instead.

So there's a suspension of disbelief problem here, in no way shored up by the long winded prologue revealing George's musical ambitions, his life with girlfriend Lyn and the activities of his fellow band mates.

In short, this is an excuse to put a few 'victims' in a horrific situation then enact some cruel torture and imaginative killing.

The 'twist' at the end was a confusing addition, revealing this to be something more than just a gore-fest. Though quite why more was not made of this cross-genre attempt is hard to understand since it would have fleshed out and made interesting an otherwise one dimensional story.

Frankly, the final twist will be utterly lost on the kind of bloodthirsty bottom feeding gore-fan for whom this movie will hold the most appeal. And in the gore stakes it doesn't exactly go for broke beyond some creativity in how some of the characters are dispatched, so even the target demographic will be left somewhat disappointed.

I will award four points to this otherwise hopeless mess, however, for the acting skills of the main protagonists, not least Richard Bake's toothy grinned portrayal of Harry, a walking nightmare and a villain worthy of far greater exposure than he gets in Asylum Blackout.

More horrific than most zombie or 'insane' movies.

[Fella_shibby · 9/10 · 12 August 2021]

I first saw this in 2012 on a dvd which I own.

Revisited it recently.

This movie has plenty of atmosphere, tension n gore.

In order to make ends meet, three fellas from a musical band team, work in the cafeteria of an asylum for the criminally insane located far off from the city. The head chef, George, turns up for his cafeteria shift without sleeping the previous night and due to exhaustion, cuts himself and later loses his temper at his band mates. George is asked by his mates to take a nap when he shouts at Harry, an inmate. George somehow has the notion that Harry is convincing other inmates to spit out the pills. George is awakened later by his friend cos of a power failure and because the exterior doors are electronically locked, everyone is now trapped inside the building.

One of the best part is that inspite of the movie taking place during a power failure, none of the scenes are shot in the dark and the annoying flickering lights are zilch.

Check out for the character of Max.

The reaction of George when he sees Max's nose is genuine acting and the way Max gets dizzy n collapses, is top notch acting.

Also the scene where George sees the female nurse lying on the ground and the assumed sexual violation and George's reaction is top notch acting again.

Poor Max, first his nose gets bitten n severed off n later he gets the same fate like Mitzi from Rituals (1977).

Cooks vs crazies.

[BA_Harrison · 7/10 · 12 October 2022]

The Incident is a taut, gory thriller from the pen of S. Craig Zahler (writer of Bone Tomahawk, Brawl in Cell Block 99 and Dragged Across Concrete) and directed by music video maestro Alexandre Courtès (The White Stripes' Seven Nation Army). It takes a simple premise - the lunatics have taken over the asylum - focusing on George (Rupert Evans), Max (Kenny Doughty), Ricky (Jospeh Kennedy) and William (Marcus Garvey), a group of cooks caught in the middle of the outbreak. A fight for survival ensues, as the inmates turn violent, killing anyone they encounter.

A little suspension of disbelief is required to get the most of this movie - it's hard to believe that all of the prisoners would immediately go on a killing spree, that there would be so few guards, or that the authorities wouldn't be on the scene within minutes of being alerted - but if you're able to turn a blind eye to such trifling matters, there's a lot of fun to be had with this nightmare situation.

Courtès delivers plenty of nail-biting tension (Ricky trapped in a meat locker) and graphic brutality (Max, in particular, suffers a lot!), while Zahler's script ensures that the main characters behave in a fairly plausible fashion throughout, resorting to violence to defend themselves. The ending of the film seems to have baffled/upset a lot of viewers, who appear to have interpreted it as an M. Night Shyamalan-style twist, whereas I thought it was fairly straight-forward, the sole survivor suffering from nightmares and hallucinations caused by PTSD.

I really wanted to enjoy this

[nightwatch4773 · 2/10 · 13 April 2013]

I just love films set in a dilapidated derelict insane asylums/prisons. In 2001 Session 9 just creeped me into session 10. In 2008 Finland gave us an interesting offering with Skeleton Crew and a year later Afterdark brought us Asylum which was a little funny but none the less scary. So when I finally got my hands on this one I was very excited. The excitement lasted 5 minutes....... The acting was awful by the main group of protagonists and for such a large facility why the hell were there only 2 or 3 security guards. Add to this temerity that an insane asylum for hardened criminals doesn't have a back up power supply for I don't know MAYBE a power outage. Wow it was all so over the top and than add in that the cops don't show up until the end........Come on here guys!!!! a beautiful haunting setting put to waste by lazy film making.

What just happened?

[kosmasp · 7/10 · 14 September 2012]

Anna Skellern is definitely underused in this movie. Just wanted to write that upfront. But it's not a movie about her. It's a movie about an Asylum (as an alternate title does suggest, original title being "The Incident") and the people within. It's also a movie about madness and reality shifting (sort of).

I couldn't really start to explain what the ending is. Apart from the fact it that it would be a spoiler, it's one of those endings that will split the audience. Some will find it amazing, what the director did there and some will think he's full of himself. One thing is for sure: Up until that moment (or rather moments), the movie is pretty straightforward and has an edgy feel to it. And it is pretty good in scaring you (visually with some hard to stomach violent scenes, so not for the faint hearted then), too. If that is something you like, then go ahead and give it a try

Meh..Average Horror yarn

[Indifferent_Observer · 6/10 · 8 May 2012]

I just finished watching Asylum Blackout. After seeing the IMDb rating I have to say I was expecting a lot more then what I got. I mean we had an Asylum with inmates on the loose, decent acting and production, how could this go wrong?

I don't know, but the movie just didn't do it for me. Some call it torture porn, whatever its called a bunch of people torturing other people just isn't enough to carry a storyline anymore. Maybe for some, but not for a seasoned horror fan like myself.

That doesn't make it a bad movie though, quite the contrary. This movie will find its audience and its good and high quality for what it is. It has some good gore and some sadistic scenes, but to me it lacks rhyme and/or reason. I guess some could argue that its in an asylum with a bunch of nuts and there doesn't have to be rhyme or reason, but I disagree as this is still a movie. There should have been some side stories, something to keep the audience involved and interested, but there wasn't and the so called twist? Ill just say unfortunately it fell short with me.

6/10 stars. Great acting, Great production, decent gory shots, but a weak script and sad storyline with not much going on besides.

I would recommend this movie to those who like a good torture porn flick.

Creepy Psychological Thriller Turns Torture Flick

[prettycleverfilmgal · 19 September 2011]

At the first TIFF screening of Alexandre Courtes' The Incident two young ladies fainted and had to be carted away by ambulance. I wasn't at that screening, but I bet I can guess when they passed out. The Incident starts out as a promising creepy but psychological thriller, and then… takes a sharp right into a straight-up torture flick. I didn't faint, but I did gag a few times. I left the theater shaky and disoriented, kind of like when you narrowly miss being in a terrible accident, but I was left ultimately disappointed in the uncapitalized promise of the movie.

So what if the inmates really did run the asylum? This question is the foundation of The Incident. We follow aspiring rock star George (Rupert Evans) and his garage band mates. Like most aspiring rock stars, George and his friends have day jobs, in this case they cook and serve to inmates at the Sans Asylum for the criminally insane. We spend a lot of time getting to know George and his band and become familiar with the interpersonal tensions (creative differences?) in the band. And then a terrible storm knocks out the power at Sans, effectively locking the staff inside while the loonies run rampant through the halls. Thank goodness Courtes tells us very specifically that we're in 1989, since cell phone service would severely handicap this plot.

The basic setup for The Incident is the perfect foundation for a creepy shriek fest. There are some deliciously tense minutes when our intrepid heroes roam through the hallways trying to locate a phone (rotary, no doubt). Each dimly lit corridor has twenty slightly ajar cell doors shooting of it. There is no doubt that an insane inmate lurks behind each one, and the only question is will he be a sadistic killer or a benign nut job? Leaving aside the jump in your seat frights, just seeing a shuffling figure crossing the hall in the distance sends a little chill down the spine.

The Incident - Alexandre Courtes And then, for some reason, Courtes takes all of this dramatic tension, all of the psychological fright, and flushes it down the toilet. Or rather, boils in a pot of inmate urine along with a sundry of human body parts. Guards are decapitated, noses are ripped from faces, George gets a light flaying… you get the picture. I'm not a big fan of slash and gore in the first place. After I've been elevated to a state of high tension, all this gore and sadism culminates in some pronounced nausea. Worst of all, it feels cheap, as if Courtes (famous for directing music videos – this is his first feature) had no idea what to do with all of the narrative capital he had accumulated.

The wrap up of The Incident is what you will expect. I think I can tell you, with out spoiling because you'll see it a mile away, George ends up quite mad. But Courtes does not provide a clear narrative path to get us there. There are some seriously unresolved narrative issues which are ultimately just ignored. The Incident does not conclude so much as it just stops. In fairness, after all the sadism you've watched, the stopping is a relief, but still not a conclusion.

Better than I expected, but still...

[sammannew · 5/10 · 28 July 2013]

...this movie could have easily been a whole lot better. The Director seems stuck and confused, so he adds unnecessary and let's be honest unrealistic sub-plots to keep you interested, but, I almost stopped watching I got that uninterested in what was going on. The Director should have kept this simple and to the point, 4 guys trapped in an Asylum, yes, but all the other stuff going on? No, I don't want to go into much detail because it might give away spoilers, but let me just say that the acting was stiff, the pretend accents made me cringe, some of the shots with the lighting were so fake and I got lost in what was the main plot. Other than that, I've seen worse, if you switch your brain off in this movie, you can easily enjoy it.

The Lunatics have taken over the asylum!

[Coventry · 7/10 · 2 March 2015]

What horror concept is more traditional and effective than the setting of an asylum for the mentally insane during a thunderstorm and a power blackout? Writer S. Craig Zahler and director Alexandre Courtès may perhaps not have had a lot of financial means at their disposal, but they definitely know their genre classics and they also know how to build up a suspenseful atmosphere and petrify the audience through simple tricks. "The Incident", a.k.a. "Asylum Blackout" which naturally is a much more appealing and appetizing title for a low-budget horror flick, first caught my attention because it's a partially Belgian co-production (I'm from Belgium, hence…) and it premiered at the Brussels' International Festival of Fantastic Films a few years ago. Via this website, I learned that the film was largely shot in Belgium but I can't quite figure out whether the director is Belgian or not. Either way, being a Belgian horror freak, I'm still very proud to see a link with my country, especially because I liked "The Incident" quite a lot. Admittedly the film starts out a little too slow and primitive, while the confusing and open-for-interpretation climax is arguably annoying, but everything in between is a nice demonstration of sadistic, raw and nerve-wrecking terror! George and his two pals Max and Ricky form an aspiring rock-band, but they hardly have the money to pay for a session at the recording studio. Therefore they also work together in the kitchen of the sinister Sans asylum, geographically isolated somewhere in the state of Washington. Near the end of a long working day, a heavy thunderstorm breaks loose and lightening causes a power failure inside the asylum. The cell doors unlock automatically and the patients – all of them dangerous lunatics on heavy medication – turn against the wardens. George and his friend attempt to hide in storage rooms and offices but the crazies, led by the vicious inmate Harry Green, hunt them down as well. "The Incident" features some of the most efficiently disturbing sequences I've seen in a long time. The scene where a couple of nut cases are trying to break through the freezer door, behind which Ricky is hiding, is downright petrifying. And so is the excruciatingly painful murder of a certain character on top of the cooking stove and a torture sequence involving a peeling knife. I must say the supportive characters depicting the mental patients are extremely well-chosen as well. Harry Green (Richard Brake) looks like evil personified and many other unknown actors are aptly cast based on their looks as well (Darren Kent, the hairless guy…). The film allegedly takes place in the year 1989, which is quite clever because this way the writers didn't have to take into account mobile phones, GPS systems etc… I'm not going to go too much into detail about the bizarre ending. It didn't bother me that much because, by the time of the climax, I was already seriously impressed by the level of sickness and disturbance of "The Incident". This definitely isn't for sensitive and/or easily offended viewers!

Watch for the violence

[Groverdox · 5/10 · 6 November 2019]

Once you saw the name "S. Craig Zahler" in the opening credits for "Asylum Blackout", aka "The Incident", you knew what to expect. If ever there was a guy whose movies exist purely to show violence, Zahler is that one. His movies have plots that are relayed so badly and told so leisurely you know he doesn't really care about them. They may or may not have climaxes, but the real pay off in a Zahler flick is the violence. These movies have some fairly violent moments scattered throughout, and then they climax with something gruesome and creative you may not have scene before. "Bone Tomahawk" had the bisection scene, "Brawl in Cell Block 99" had Vince Vaughn stomping people's heads and faces off, and "Asylum Blackout" features a man losing his nose.

Perhaps because it was directed by someone other than Zahler, the film has a more typical plot: a group of cooks at an asylum for criminally insane people find themselves having to fight for survival when the titular blackout frees the inmates. Zahler's influence is felt, however, in the fact that the movie generates no suspense whatsoever, or really any interest at all. The protagonists are impossible to tell apart, and certainly impossible to care about. I was surprised when I realised who the hero was supposed to be; he's utterly unprepossessing.

The villains are even worse. Not a one is memorable and certainly none are scary. The movie has no atmosphere, like everything else with Zahler's name on it. It feels like a flimsy justification to show his elaborately realised violence.

Viewed this at Tiff 2011 Midnight Madness

[nikkd · 7/10 · 7 October 2015]

And all I can say is that it was madness. Not sure if any other reviewed was at the same showing but they actually had to call the ambulance because a few girls passed out and were hyperventilating. Lets just say it was pretty gory. The plot itself was pretty basic. A couple of young musicians work in the cafeteria to make ends meet. Bad storm results in a power outage. Then all the inmates are running amok since the doors are opened due to the lack of power. Total mayhem ensures. I enjoyed it. The story like I said was pretty basic, with a few twists here and their along with some suspense. I gave it a 7 because I like the mayhem. It made me feel like that's what would happen under those same circumstances. I am sure you will enjoy this film just don't watch it if you have a weak stomach, or after eating a big meal lol

Oh another dark corridor, shine your torch.....

[FlashCallahan · 2/10 · 28 March 2013]

George, Max and Ricky are musicians who work as cooks in the Sans Asylum to earn money to rent a studio to record their songs.

The asylum is in an isolated area and is monitored by a team led by the security guard J.B.

George has a concert but J.B. asks him to arrive early in the morning to receive the supplies for the kitchen. While he is preparing the meals for the inmates, there is a storm and a power cut.

With the hospital in darkness, the inmates attack the guards and staff. George and the other kitchen workers hide from the horde of violent madmen.....

Well here we go, it's another one of those silly movies, where people run around dark corridors flashing a torch, and saying to the inmates 'look, here I am, I'm supposed to be hiding, but I'm flashing a torch'.

But this one tries to be clever by adding a really intelligent ending, which falls flat on its face.

It's not the actors faults, they are really good, especially the performances of the inmates,its just the slap dash writing, they had something good to work with, but instead go for the awful stalk and slash and up the gore, whilst thinking 'it doesn't matter, we have this great ending'.

It's not great, and the film fails.

Only 5 out of 10 stars?!?!

[dadicer · 8/10 · 8 October 2012]

You guys are way too critical.

I was watching this expecting it to be another run of the mill low budget flick, especially with the rating which almost convinced me not to watch it at all.

Any movie that has you really thinking about it after its over is way better than the fluff I have seen come out recently and this one had me pondering the ending over and over.

IMDb should start having some categories based on genre that can be rated so the ratings are not so lump sum weighted.

Anyway anybody looking for a good weekend movie this one is worth a watch.

Notable for some very brutal scenes and an ambiguous gay angle

[GSeditor · 6/10 · 16 July 2012]

THE INCIDENT takes its time in setting the events in motion. About half an hour passes till the riot breaks out at the asylum and until then, we get to know the main protagonists. I think this introductory half hour was way too long, the filmmakers could have been more economical in this regard. Once the riot begins, the movie does become thrilling to some degree. There are several gory instances and one quite shocking scene towards the end. The revelation at the end is somewhat confusing. It is neither spelled out understandably nor quite an open-end either. It feels more like the filmmakers intended it to be comprehensible, but could not make it so. My issue with the movie is that there appears to be a gay angle which is not developed satisfactorily.

So bad that I took a solemn vow...

[jmckee-18991 · 3/10 · 5 March 2018]

Here's the story: I am a firefighter. In 2012, I turned on this movie one weekend afternoon. Two co-workers watched it with me. When it was over, the other two guys gave me such a hard time that I vowed never to touch the remote again at work...and I haven't.