Director: Andrew Jones
Year: 2013
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
Taking a job at an insane asylum, a young woman working the cleaning shift at the facility begins to feel uneasy about working there when a series of bizarre sightings have her convinced something isn’t right with the facility, and the longer she stays there finds the truth darker than she expected.
Review:
This was a decent enough if somewhat problematic genre effort. Among its better aspects here comes from the solid enough setup that provides some worthwhile motivations for what's eventually going on. With the mundane work done at the beginning involving how the early stages of the work go with her arriving at the facility and meeting up with her co-worker which puts them through the paces of what goes on there, the fact that it goes as well as it does with the various sightings and misgivings about being there works this rather nicely by giving off the idea of her inexperience providing the cause for all the disruptions caused while working there.
That allows for the film to work towards a solid enough series of encounters suggesting the paranormal operating within the sanitarium. Again starting nicely with the first stages being simply strange whispers or hallucinations that point to something unusual happening around the building which no one believes, it sets up the type of environment necessary here where the later encounters and visions that signal the occult work being done by the one patient in the facility. The series of reveals here that come about from this, including the connection to the titular location and the culprits responsible for the gruesome visions she had, turn this into a more frantic section than expected with some solid gore to generate a bit more to like than expected.
There are some issues present that hold this one down. The main aspect against it is the low-key and sluggish pacing that spends far too much of the running time on building up the idea of what’s going on through more talking scenes than anything else. Whether it be her talking with the co-worker about the qualms of the job, the other staff at the facility about the potential hauntings at the site, or the best friend about the history of the location, this tends to favor a more lethargic route than some will like which provides the sluggish mentality that won’t win most others. There are just a few bits of action in the final few minutes so the rest of this one tends to slowly work its way there at a slow-going tempo.
It also leads into the last big issue here but it’s also quite obvious low-budget origins do shine through quite heavily. The lack of action here means this one works without any kind of all-out gore or bloodshed until the end, while the other special effects featured here are so flimsy it can potentially distract from what’s going on here so it never has much of a chance to get going here with these limitations and then when they occur it’s all handled so underwhelmingly with obviously fake CGI or some silly practical effects that are fine in concept but somewhat silly in execution. Combined with a weird digitized presentation that makes everything look darker than it should even though they’re already in an asylum at night, there are some issues present that hold it down.
Overview: **.5/5
Intriguing enough at points but let down by some big flaws, this comes off better than expected not just with the intonations from the title but other factors as well which makes it fine for what it is. Those who are curious about this one either for the approach or the franchise connection it tenuously shares will be the most likely ones for the film while most others should heed caution here.
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