Did you people see the same film I saw?

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Production quality is not great, but give it a chance. It's very odd, a bit twisted, but worth the watch.

ASYLUM OF DARKNESS is a typical indie mix of the horror and thriller genres, low key and shot in a non-gruesome fashion. Cast-wise the only interest is Richard Hatch, who has been making dodgy films for a couple of decades or more now. The story is about a guy who wakes up in an asylum and has to quickly figure out his situation. He manages to escape but still finds himself haunted on the outside. This one goes for the psychological approach but is generally uninteresting thanks to the hackneyed plotting and infuriatingly insubstantial plotting.

After awakening in a mental asylum, a patient plans his escape to freedom and manages to successfully enter modern society only for his constant visions and psychological problems to continually manifest themselves in order to drag him back to the asylum and forces him to find out why.For the most part, this one wasn't all that bad of an effort. One of the strongest aspects here is the fact that this one generates a really impressive and somewhat disorienting atmosphere that's really engaging and appealing. The fact that majority of the first half concerns the ability to make it nearly impossible to tell what's going on here, as the atmosphere found within this section of whether or not he's really going through the insanity of the situation with his weird visions of people with distorted faces following his dreams gives the film quite an odd start. As well, the rather odd manner in which this is jokingly referred to as a normal situation by the staff despite the obvious discomfort of the visions makes for a chilling setup here. The way in which he continually experiences the strange faceless beings and creatures coming after him, from the hallucinatory chase in the house, his encounter in the cemetery or the continued visions he has with the strange creatures while being around his wife which gives this some solid work to build off of. The second half gets the creatures to interact with him a little more vigorously, letting the hospital encounter, a stellar hallucination sequence where he cuts up the members of a boardroom meeting as well as the finale in the underground bunker that resolves this nicely all giving it a solid amount of gore and solid creature make-up for the different demonic creatures here. However, none of these factors can overcome the fact that there's just no reason for anything that happens here. It just goes from one seemingly unconnected sequence to another that all supposedly feature his deteriorating mental state yet nothing is really done about making sure it all relates to anything. The fact that he's insane and supposedly living a different person's life is no excuse for why nothing here makes sense, why it goes from him in the asylum to suddenly now a husband and living with the wife despite being two different people as none of this is explained. The chance to explain it all never comes as to why they believe he's the dead person and is able to suddenly become a different person as the flimsy nature it occurs here is begging for more of an explanation yet it never occurs. Likewise, the fact that the film is so bland and lifeless doesn't really do it many favors either, taking far too long to get the switch going and featuring way too much downtime to really be of much interest. The endless scenes of him at the book-signing, trying to appeal to his wife's good side to get her to trust him following the behavior switch and in general just going around trying to uncover his true identity make this one so dreary and dull that it sloughs along at a bland clip, and with a nearly two-hour running time it really could've been put to far better use moving the pace of this one along. These two issues here are in fact so crippling that they manage to overcome much of what good this film accomplishes.Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.

Some will not like this movie. It's allegorical in nature and requires a lot of patience. But if you're in the right frame of mind, what you end up with is a lot to chew on. My girlfriend and I had a two hour discussion on the various merits and flaws of this film. We agreed that the performances were outstanding. We thought the direction was solid as well. It kept our interest and the movie flowed in a sort of dream logic that made it a surreal experience. I've pretty much decided it's a low budget masterpiece. My girlfriend agrees, though she thinks it's flawed because of budgetary limitations. She loves the ending wherein the hero finds redemption and chooses love over madness. I just think it's a helluva interesting ride. Not sure what it means but it leaves a lot to ponder.