| Asylum of the Damned | |
| Director: | Philip J Jones |
| Producer: | Scott Bedno |
| Starring: | Matt Stasi Bruce Payne |
| Music: |
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| Cinematography: | Mark Melville |
| Editing: | John Dorsett |
| Runtime: | 90 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
Asylum of the Damned, Columbia Tristar (2004), also known as Hellborn, CDA Entertainment, is a 2003 horror film written by Matt McCombs, directed by Philip J Jones and starring Matt Stasi and Bruce Payne.[1]
A young psychology student, named James Bishop (Matt Stasi), is recruited by St. Andrews Mental Hospital. He is given the opportunity to care for mentally ill patients under the tutelage of Dr McCort (Bruce Payne). James' enthusiasm for his new job soon develops into concern when some of the patients die mysteriously. When James seeks to learn more about the deaths, he notes a change in the behaviour of his colleagues. James comes to realise that a Devil has taken over the minds of the patients and that his colleagues are allowing it to harvest them.
A reviewer in Fangoria stated that 'at the three-quarters mark it becomes clear that this is the old Karloff-Lugosi The Black Cat dished up anew with Payne and the nuthouse staff substituting for Boris and his cultists and a Demon added'.[2] The reviewer stated that the filmmakers did a good job of setting the eerie stage' and that the 'movie succeeded nicely in grabbing and holding the interest'.[2] The reviewer also stated that Bruce Payne's Dr McCort seemed 'based on some old Vincent Price performance'.[2] Scott C. stated that he enjoyed 'Payne’s take on Dr McCort, as a charming man who enjoys being evil, but the rest of the cast is on autopilot or thorazine'.[3] Francis Barbier described the film as a 'cinematic waste, without any trace of intelligence or originality' and 'transcendently moronic'.[4] Ian Jane lamented that 'the film very quickly falls prey to some seriously predictable and overly cliché characters and plot points that ultimately result in a film that isn't so much scary as it is just plain boring'.[5]