Since Halloween is a year round event in my brain, I am always thinking of horror movies that I don’t see a lot of people talking about. That is what I love about Repulsive Reviews, you got movies of all sizes reviewed here. I love digging into Tubi, Roku, or Shudder to see if I missed an unknown gem of a horror movie. Today I will be reviewing a little movie from 2011 called Asylum Blackout (also known as The Incident) that I found on Amazon by accident.
SYNOPSIS:
A group of cooks at a remote asylum for the criminally insane get locked in with the inmates during a massive thunderstorm.
RANDOM THOUGHTS:
The movie takes place in 1989 and it follows George, Max, and Ricky who are in a band trying to break through the slowly forming grunge music scene in Washington state. They are making ends meet until they hit the big time by working as cooks at an asylum for the criminally insane. The inmates are medicated into submission, so the guys jobs as cooks are pretty mundane. George, as the head chef, works hard to make higher quality meals for the inmates than the usual hospital slop. He also makes sure he and his co-workers treat the inmates with respect, unlike the rest of the asylum staff. There is one inmate in particular named Harry Green (played by the evil Richard Brake) that absolutely creeps everyone out. One night during a strong storm, the power goes out, which allows all doors and gates in the facility to open up, giving the inmates free rein of the place. Sounds kinda generic and boring up till now, but this is where the horror comes in. This movie creeped me the F out big time! I don’t know if it was the acting, the script, or the director, but the way this movie progresses, it actually makes you feel like you are in the asylum trapped like the main characters. Once the lights go out, Asylum Blackout takes a very claustrophobic and very creepy turn.
WRAP UP:
This movie was directed by Alexandre Courtes who is relatively unknown unless you are in the music video business; he’s done music videos for U2, Alice in Chains, and Jamiroquai to name a few. Asylum Blackout was his first time directing a feature film. It also marked S. Craig Zahler’s first writing credit. (You horror fans will recognize him as the director of Brawl in Cell Block 99 and one of my personal favorites, Bone Tomahawk.) Almost all the crew is Canadian and no big names pop out, but whoever did the gore FX was AMAZING!!
While the first 30 mins is a bit slow, the last hour is a roller coaster of tense, creepy horror that everyone needs to check out. Asylum Blackout is currently available on Amazon Prime for rent or free on the Roku Channel.
MY GRADE:
A
